Israel's man in the US Senate

[IndianaGreen]

Israel's man in the US Senate

By Clayton Swisher in Americas Middle East on April 25th, 2010

From my Doha perch it's easy to avoid the whole "dual loyalty" debate currently raging in Washington. That does not mean that as a reporter I have shied away from raising it where appropriate.

But in case anyone missed it, there has been a growing argument in recent weeks among Washington policy wonks over this very issue, with scathing editorial salvos fired between the formidable Harvard Professor Stephen Walt and the pro-Israel Washington Institute's equally outspoken Robert Satloff.

Their debate centres on whether "dual loyalty" is an appropriate term to use when describing US government officials who put Israel's interests ahead of America's, even when it jeopardizes US national security.

According to Politico's Ben Smith, it seems US Senator Charles Schumer (Democrat-New York) has added more grist to the intellectual food fight.

In effect, Schumer has done to the Obama administration the equivalent of what Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, did to Joe Biden, the US vice-president, on his disastrous visit to Israel in March.

Last week, as America's top Mideast envoy (and former Democratic Senator, one might add) was on his way to Tel Aviv, Senator Schumer quite literally aired his contempt not only for Mitchell but the entire Obama Middle East policy.

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/americas/2010/04/25/israels-man-us-senate

[ensho]

1. kick

nt

[cali]

2. puke.

absolutely sickening. I deplore Schumer's position, but it's no different than that of dozens of other Senators.

Dual loyalty accusations are simply inappropriate.

[LeftishBrit]

3. Agreed.

[subsuelo]

4. Exactly how is a 'dual loyalty' accusation inappropriate? n/t

[shira]

10. It's an old antisemitic trope that started WAY before 1948

Out of all races and ethnic groups only Jews are accused of dual loyalty. Vintage antisemitism.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[azurnoir]

6. is that a homophobic remark?

certainly could be taken that way

[Jim Sagle]

7. Those are damn good cigars. Back when I used to smoke, they were my fave.

And no, it's a prosemitic remark.

[proteus_lives]

8. I used to smoke those too.

Had to give them up, too hard on the lungs.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

9. Pls explain how it could be homophobic?

Serious, I don't see it.