Iran and American Jews: 'Divided Loyalties'?

Right-wingers get 'vicious,' 'dishonest' in bashing perceived critics
By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 2, 2008 4:00 PM CDT
Iran and American Jews: 'Divided Loyalties'?
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference 2008, Wednesday, June 4, 2008.   (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

With rhetoric on Iran escalating almost daily, Glenn Greenwald reviews recent charges that Israel's agenda is what's behind all this agitation for war. When Joe Klein argued last week in Time that some war proponents are “motivated by their allegiance to Israel,” reaction was "as vicious, furious and dishonest as it was predictable," Greenwald writes in Salon.

Greenwald sees Klein's critics as trying to have it both ways: Punish anyone who accuses Jews of having divided loyalties, but at the same time urge Jews to vote for McCain on the grounds that he'd be better for Israel than Obama. "The very same right-wing advocates who scream 'anti-semitism' at anyone, such as Klein, who raises the issue of devotion to Israel themselves constantly argue that American Jews do—and should— cast their votes in American elections based upon what is best for Israel." (More Barack Obama stories.)

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