Thursday, February 21,

 Italians, Israelis, etc. Where Does Allegiance of Americans With Dual Loyalties Lie?

The ANNOTICO Report

 

I was Born in America, have an Italian Passport, and having Jewish Blood, ADL Abe Foxman's comments below give me pause.

 

Foxman seems to confuse a Pride of Heritage, with Taking Actions or Positions that Favor one Nation, to the Disadvantage to the other. 

 

If  as an American I were to wish the Best for Italy, or Israel, no Harm , No Foul.

 

But if I were to Support the US to take Actions in Support of Italy or Israel, that would be Damaging to US Interests, that seems like it would be Disloyal to the US, if Not Treasonous.

 

The article had 54 comments at the time I read it. Some reassuring, some revealing, some disturbing.

1 in 3 Americans: US Jews More Loyal to Israel

The Jerusalem Post

Haviv Rettig 

February. 19, 2008

One-third of Americans believe that American Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the United States, according to figures presented to the Knesset on Tuesday by Anti-Defamation League director Abe Foxman.

"This belief is so out of sync with everything else happening in America, with the fact that there's so much acceptance of Jews in all phases of life - academia, commerce, media, politics," Foxman told The Jerusalem Post. " When Joe Lieberman ran for vice president [in 2000], there was very little talk about double loyalty." Now, "because of the phenomenon of Mearsheimer and Walt and Jimmy Carter, this whole discussion as to whether Jews are disproportionately powerful in foreign policy - the conspiracy thesis - in the mainstream," Foxman added.

Will this atmosphere "intimidate Jews from not acting out as publicly and as openly in exercise of their rights and in support of positions they believe in? Will Jews begin to feel intimidated when they speak out about Iran? That's my concern," Foxman noted. "This will not trigger anti-Semitic violence, but it is poisoning the atmosphere when it's more and more legitimate to debate the loyalty of Jews on American campuses. This is classic political anti-Semitism."

"US Jews are very uncomfortable with this [issue]," commented MK Colette Avital (Labor), a member of the Knesset Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Committee where Foxman was speaking on Tuesday. She told the Post  that the figures indicated "a failure to explain - I hate to use the word hasbara - that you can be loyal to both. In the US, people can live with several identities, such as Italian-Americans and African-Americans, and Jewish Americans should be seen in that context."

Foxman also told MKs that, despite a drop over the past 30 years in the percentage of Americans holding anti-Semitic attitudes from 30 percent to 15%, the figure still stood at 35 million adult Americans. Meanwhile, between 2005 and 2007, the number of anti-Semitic incidents in America dropped from 1,757 to some 1,350.

Foxman was quoting the ADL's 2007 "Survey of American Attitudes Towards Jews in America," which put the figure of Americans who believe Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the US at 31%, a number roughly unchanged since at least 1992.

 

The ANNOTICO Reports Can be Viewed (and are Archived) on:

Italia USA: http://www.ItaliaUSA.com [Formerly Italy at St Louis] (7 years)

Italia Mia: http://www.ItaliaMia.com (3 years)

Annotico Email: annotico@earthlink.net