The Real Gaffe

The best thing about Obama has always been his supporters: Bob Casey, Ben Nelson, Jim Webb, Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, Bart Stupak, Jim Jones, Dick Lugar, Chuck Hagel, Christopher Buckley, Douglas Kmiec, Donnie McClurkin, Squire Lance. But Nelson is not exactly acquitting himself well at the moment, Lugar and Hagel being in a more difficult position. And then there are these truly offensive words of General Jones:

Since there has been a lot of distortion and misrepresentation of our policy recently, let me take this opportunity to address our relationship with our ally Israel. Like any two nations, we will have disagreements, but we will always resolve them as allies. And we will never forget that since the first minutes of Israeli independence, the United States has had a special relationship with Israel. And that will not change.

Why? Because this is not a commitment of Democrats or Republicans; it is a national commitment based on shared values, deep and interwoven connections, and mutual interests.

"Always resolve them as allies"? No matter what? Britain, for example, would be wrong to expect that of America, as America, for example, would be wrong to expect it of Britain. "The first minutes of Israeli independence" seem to have lasted for 19 years, since it was not until 1967 that anyone much in America, Jew or Gentile, cared terribly about Israel, with many people distinctly suspicious of that Marxist-founded state.

"And that will not change"? What, ever? That is some commitment, indeed a thoroughly irresponsible one, to give to anywhere, never mind to a country which (unlike the Saudis, it must be said) barely invests in America, which exports little or nothing to America, which imports little or nothing from America, which sends few emigrants to America, which receives far fewer immigrants from America than one might assume (most American Jews, like most Americans in general, see America as their Promised Land), which does not even receive all that many American tourists, and which has never participated in any American war.

Like the radical feminists, like the political homosexualists, and like those who obstinately refuse to speak English, the foreign policy hawks in general and the Israel Lobby in particular lined up with the Gulf tyrants and with Hugh Hefner in support of Hillary Clinton. They should all be treated accordingly.