Congressman Thaddeus McCotter, a Michigan Republican and a sharp guy, addressed the Heritage Foundation last week and said there has to be a political solution in Iraq–Shi’ites and Sunnis both have to feel that they have a stake. Democracy is "transactional," he said. His own Irish-Catholic ancestors had to "assimilate" in the U.S. of the late 1800s by getting something for their participation. Assimilation was achieved via the big urban political machines, which were dominated by the Irish. So they came to feel that they were stakeholders–"people who have a vested interest in the future."
As they began to think of themselves as Americans, they became "loyal" to the U.S., McCotter said. He wants Mexican-Americans to assimilate, too. And Iraqi Shi’ites also have to assimilate, and stop thinking that their interests lie with Iran.
I pricked up my ears, of course, because of my interest in Jewish assimilation. Zionism has always been an anti-assimilationist movement, and today Zionism continues to conflict with American-Jewish assimilation. Jews think of themselves as belonging to a nation that defies conventional borders, according to the political philosopher Michael Walzer, who said some months back that Jews don’t feel completely at home in the U.S., and are connected to Israel.
So assimilation is a good word for Mexicans, Irish-Catholics, and Shi’ites, but a bad word for Jews (notwithstanding their political clout). One reason I’m a Jewish assimilationist is that the current definition of Jewish identity that crosses borders between the U.S. and Israel is distorting American foreign policy. Walzer says that we’re anomalous, and the world should accept that. I don’t agree. We must give up this "law of return" nonsense and learn to be citizens of the country we’re in…
