Jeff Blankfort makes an interesting point about dual loyalty accusations.
Michael Oren,
born in the US and a dual citizen, is about to become Israel's
ambassador to the US which will require him to give up his US
citizenship, the JPost reports. No problem, says Oren. Now, the question is: At what moment does a Jewish American who chooses to make aliyah
cease being a patriotic American and come out of the closet, so to
speak, as a patriotic Israeli wannabe? At what point does a Jewish American supporter of Israel become a potential
security risk if that person is employed in an agency of the US
government? To say that it is the moment the person announces his or
her decision to make aliyah to Israel or give up his American citizenship is ludicrous. The person who makes that decision could
understandably as well as logically be viewed as having been
politically compromised at some point before that and therefore it is
reasonable for US government officials, particularly in areas where
intelligence in involved, to look at Jewish American employees with a
degree of suspicion. But when they do, it elicits the
predictable accusations of anti-Semitism.
Weiss: And again, this was an objection of the Jewish anti-Zionists of the 20s and 30s. Congressmen and bankers and newspaper publishers, leaders of the Jewish community, said, If you establish a Jewish state, it will cast suspicion on Jewish loyalty here.
