I misplaced my taperecorder after the MoveonAipac.org hoedown in D.C., I’m still looking for it but in the meantime I need to convey from my notes three things that John Mearsheimer said in his appearance at the conference.
1. Someone asked about the USS Liberty attack in 67 that killed 30-some Americans and was never investigated. Mearsheimer said, “I think about Rachel Corrie [American killed in Gaza in 2003 by Israel]…. Nothing was done about that. I think about Furkan Dogan [the American killed on the Mavi Marmara].” And Mearsheimer said that if he went to Israel and was shot and killed, nothing would be done about it. This shows “how remarkably powerful” the Israeli government is in Washington, and that’s the simple explanation for why there’s never been an investigation of the Liberty attack.
2. There was a dual loyalty question. Mearsheimer said that in America, we’re allowed to have dual loyalty. You can be a citizen of another country, fight in their army. But the real question is, what happens when the “interests of the two countries come into conflict. The question is who will you side with? For most of Israel’s supporters they will side with Israel, and they don’t view that as a conflict of interest.” On nukes, it is not in America’s interest that Israel have nuclear weapons, for instance. But the lobby invariably sides with Israel and Netanyahu not Obama. And this, he said, is a “potentially dangerous situation for reasons I don’t have to spell out to you.” Wow I love this answer. P.S. At Columbia 3 weeks back, Peter Weiss of the Center for Constitutional Rights said he had written an article for the Palestine Israel Journal calling for legal action against Israeli nukes. Have to catch up to this.
3. William Safire. Mearsheimer liked the columnist William Safire, but he always wondered why he was for a Kurdish state. Well years after Safire died, Mearsheimer figured it out. Forming a Kurdish state would involve breaking up Syria, Iraq and Iran, “Israel’s three principal adversaries.” So Mearsheimer was saying that Safire was driven by love of Israel in his policy prescriptions. Don’t you wonder about a lotta folks the same way? I do.
So do I
If William Safire supported the founding of a Kurdish state because he “was driven by love of Israel in his policy prescriptions”, that would be quite fine. He was certainly entitled to his opinions (if that was his opinion). Similarly, the writers here at Mondoweiss are certainly motivated by their very extreme opposition to Israel, and that is their journalistic right as well. However, I would guess that William Safire was probably a supporter of Kurdish statehood because he believed that the Kurdish desire for an independent state was legitimate (it’s called “the right of self-determination”). As Freud once stated, “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”.
“2. There was a dual loyalty question. Mearsheimer said that in America, we’re allowed to have dual loyalty. You can be a citizen of another country, fight in their army. But the real question is, what happens when the “interests of the two countries come into conflict. The question is who will you side with? For most of Israel’s supporters they will side with Israel, and they don’t view that as a conflict of interest”
A grey area which is mostly tiptoed around by the the both the Zionist Lobby and its US Government lackeys. Fact is that if being anywhere true to form Mad Donald and his loony Republican lackeys should be up in arms about American citizens deciding to enlist in the Zio army whilst a lot of brave young American citizens are putting America First and are facing death and serious injury on a daily basis in defending American interests in Afghanistan etc. This applies whether or not they have dual American – Israeli citizenship – again it`s all about putting your country first and if you are an American Jew born and bred in the US who opts for Israeli citizenship and on applying for that citizenship and certainly when enlisting swears an absolute oath of loyalty to Zioland you are patently not putting the US first and arguably should be stripped of US citizenship.
NB Around 8,000 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq/Afghanistan and an estimated 900,000 injured including of course life changing injuries.
What does the ordinary American think I wonder seeing their sons and daughters who have volunteered to serve their country coming home in body bags or severely injured whilst in the same area or community other young American citizens who practice Judaism opt to forego the risks of live combat zones and choose out of religious zealotry to serve in the armed forces of a foreign country. What do they think when they hear someone like Adelson lamenting the fact that he served in the US army rather than the IDF quote:
“The uniform that I wore in the military, unfortunately, was not an Israeli uniform. It was an American uniform, although my wife was in the IDF and one of my daughters was in the IDF … our two little boys, one of whom will be bar mitzvahed tomorrow, hopefully he’ll come back– his hobby is shooting – and he’ll come back and be a sniper for the IDF”
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/billionaire-gingrich-backer-adelson-regrets-he-served-us-instead-israeli-military
As I said the dual loyalty scenario is a grey area when it comes to military service but see:
https://www.quora.com/What-happens-if-an-American-joins-an-allied-countries-military
Oh and before MW`s resident Israeli Firsters jump down my throat and talk about the large number of Jews who serve in the US military forces yes I do acknowledge this to be the case as I acknowledge the fact that a large proportion of American Jews see themselves as being first and foremost loyal Americans ( that proportion worrying for AIPAC and the other Zionist lobbying groups is growing amongst young American Jews )
Having said that on a population pro rata basis the number of Jews serving in the US Armed forces appears to be markedly low:
https://www.vosizneias.com/43746/2009/11/25/new-yor,-should-more-Jews-join-the-u-s-military/
@Keith
“There are no “American” interests in Afghanistan, only the imperial interests of the transnational corporations. The birth of empire was the death of the Republic. And let us be honest, these “brave young American citizens” are imperial stormtroopers”
Sorry but I think that you are completely missing my point. I have zero illusions about the true “interests” of America and all the other powers who have and continue to take part in the “Great Game” as well as the multi nationals prodding from off stage.
My point was quite simply that whether or not you consider them to be no more nor less than “imperial stormtroopers”(slightly OTT !!) they are at least putting their own country first and not volunteering instead to be colonial stormtroopers in Zioland.