Why didn’t Dershowitz give up his American citizenship?

Tell me if I’m wrong, but Dershowitz seems to get defensive on the dual-loyalty front at the beginning of this conversation with Eliot Spitzer on CNN. He confirms the rumor that Netanyahu “urged” him to be Israel’s UN ambassador, and says he “would have loved to do it” (and namedrops that it would have put him in the company of Einstein as an American proxy for Israel), but says he had to turn Netanyahu down because it would have raised dual loyalty issues, if the American interest and the Israeli interest conflicted.

A little too emphatically, he says: “Reluctantly I had to turn it down, because as an American I couldn’t be perceived, because it isn’t true, as having dual loyalty.”

I find the spiel amusing for a couple reasons. First, it would be nice to know if Dershowitz has ever seen the two countries’ interests diverging in the last 50 years. I bet not. So where’s the conflict? Then, too, Dersh points out that Michael Oren gave up his American citizenship to become Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. If he’d love to be Israel’s ambassador to the U.N., and was only afraid of the dual loyalty charge, why did Dershowitz turn Netanyahu down? Why didn’t he do like Oren and give up his U.S. citizenship?

I think the answer is twofold: Dershowitz likes being American, wouldn’t want to live in Israel, like so much of the rest of the Israel lobby; and secondly, he feels he’s more effective as Israel’s ambassador sans portfolio.

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