This is a photograph of Tzvi Mark (right), formerly of Maryland, who made aliyah to Israel yesterday. He’s standing with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said that the Jews will only be safe from persecution when exile ends and we’re "ingathered" in Israel. I don’t know, Bibi, I feel safer here.Also there was a lot of religious hoohah at that ceremony. That makes my guard hairs go up.
Haaretz reports– "From West Point to the IDF"– the statement at this press conference (at about minute 7 in the video) that Tzvi Mark had been a cadet at West Point till he decided to go to Israel and join its elite forces "One of the new soldiers left his studies at the West Point Military Academy in the United States after realizing he should be serving in the Israeli army instead of the American armed forces."
There’s a lot of effort involved in getting a kid into West Point, and a lot of our government money spent training someone to go off and serve, say in Afghanistan. What does Mark’s decision say about the dual loyalty issue in American Jewish life? Theodor Herzl’s big problem, when he was founding the political Zionist movement in the 1890s, was that established European Jews felt that Zionism would create suspicions of their "patriotism." They had a point.
Update: West Point public relations says that Mark was in the class of 2012, but left the Academy in May after one year.
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when i think west point i think of cia training grounds, noreiga and wonderful characters like that who have come out of west point..
i meant school of the americas.. my mistake..
request for information:
1. In the Sharansky/Jews leaving USSR era, was one of the issues that of the remuneration of the Soviet taxpayer of the cost of education that Jewish emigrants received? Was that issue resolved in a way that provided justice to Russian citizens?
2. In, “They Knew they were Right,” Jacob Heilbrunn explained that one of the critical issues motivated the first generation neocons was their inability to gain admission to elite universities in the US; they were “stuck” in state schools.
On the other hand, they were able to attend state schools and had enough leisure time, apparently, to spend ruminating over their victimhood. They used the taxpayers’ resources to become educated, then turned that education back against the American taxpayers who provided it for them. How are those neocons any different from Mr. Tzvi Mark?
The Zionist goal is to put all the world’s Jews into one basket and drop the basket into the middle of a snakepit, then poking the snakes until they strike.
This is no formula for safety.
hmmm — is that a Befesh B’Nefesh banner in the background of the photo?
America pays to educate a kid who goes to fight for another nation, whose emigration is sponsored by an organization that funds activities that are a slap in the face of the requests of the nation that provides funding for the military that the new settler will fight for.
Well put. That sums it up better than I could.
While I agree with you that Mr. Mark’s emigration draws the reality of dual loyalty into focus, I respect that he is honorable enough to follow up on his decision to serve Israel, by actually going to Israel to serve. However it may reflect on the larger American Jewish community, I see it as a personal choice and I don’t have a problem it.
Who I find contemptible are the Paul Wolfowitz types who decide to serve Israel, and then stay in America to climb their way into the highest levels of our political and security communities to serve Israel at our expense, e.g. the Iraq war. I also include AIPAC and JINSA types, e.g. Jane Harman, who lobby, breaking with impunity any laws that get in their way, for American domestic and foreign policies that they know damn well are bad for America and good, as they see it, for Israel.
Dual loyalty. Yes, it’s been here for awhile. Let’s just go back a few yearsn we are still very very much living with: http://www.counterpunch.org/christison09062004.html
Sounds like the old 2 & screw in ROTC. But he’s only choosing a different uniform. Every academy cadet and every boot camp grunt is preparing to fight wars for Israel.
“Every academy cadet and every boot camp grunt is preparing to fight wars for Israel.”
Well, in my military experience I would rephrase what you said–every military person is prepared to fight wherever the commanding officers tell them to. There is a distinction there with what you said.
Ah, I also have military experience, and I am also a lawyer, and I say what you miss
is the practical, that is, yes it’s true the cadet and grunt will fight and die as commanded, and the political reality has been, and is they will die for Israel.
I have always been led to believe that when entering the service academies, one signs a contract of enlistment in the armed forces.
This contract normally entails an agreement to serve in the US military for 4 years after graduation.
Now, while I have no doubt that there are more than a few who “wash out” in their first year or so, and who by mutual agreement are excused from their service obligation, I wonder what specifically was this young man’s escape from his contract?
Was he washed out due to some political beliefs, i.e., was there some mutual recognition that he was not fit to serve as an officer in the US military?
Or did he just renege on his obligation and flee to Israel? If that were true–and I have no idea if it is–he would be subject to court-martial if he ever returned to the US.
To speculate further, perhaps an influential politician was able to finagle a release from his military service contract.
testing. Is this accepting posts now.
syvanen, yes I see your post, but you may not be able to see mine. Mine have been sitting since a little before 11:00AM this morning “awaiting moderation” under the Russian Vote post…lol
Who knows how long my comment will “await moderation” under the “Clinton Minces Words” top post at this time. Perhaps it is because I implied that the judge who ruled in favor of the “Sephardic community” organization, that accepted an Ottoman deed of ownership that was previously rejected, might have been schmeared…
To me, Tzvi is more of a traitor than anything else. And a quitter to boot. He ups and leaves his country to fight for a taliban-like military in Israel (given what most “elite” units are engaged in) without a thought for the people who made the recommendations to get him into West Point (one has too get at least two recommendations to get in – and they have to be convincing). Does it mean he has been lying to his officers and classmates all this time about where his patriotism lies – or did he just had a conversion following enticements from this organization? I do wonder BTW how much he got in promises and cash from nefesh b’nefesh (isn’t that the T-shirt he is wearing?).
Anyways, I don’t see any dual loyalty here, just a single loyalty – and it’s not to the US. Since ours and israel’s interests are fast diverging, this may well mean that Tzvi will find himself fighting against the US one way or another in due course (I really believe that we are headed towards a major conflict with Israel). In the meantime he can train target shooting at palestinians.
A midshipman or cadet at one of the service academies may drop out during the first two years with no obligation. (In time of draft the status of the dropout becomes 1A). One who drops out during the third or fourth year incurs an obligation to serve in an enlisted status for a period of time equal to that spent at the academy. After graduation the commitment is for five years plus whatever time is spent in post graduate studies.
This fellow was free to go, but I hope he drops out of the IDF as well.
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