dual loyalty

(Image via Daily Kos)

Dual loyalty (by -1200) is where a citizen is suspected of foreign loyalties. In the US it made people distrust President Kennedy as a Catholic loyal to the pope. Or President Obama as a “secret Muslim”. Even worse, it led to the Japanese American internment – and, in Nazi Germany, the Holocaust.

The US State Department gives it as an example of anti-Semitism:

“Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.”

The Bible says it goes all the way back to Ancient Egypt:

“Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people:

“‘Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.’

“Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.”

(Exodus 1:8-11)

That distrust and suspicion has been what the persecution of Jews has been built on ever since. It is beloved by fascists because they need a scapegoat.

And it is still with us:

Donald Trump, on August 20th 2019 as the US president:

“Any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat — I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.”

the next day he added:

“If you vote for a Democrat, you’re very, very disloyal to Israel and to the Jewish people.”

The ADL (Anti-Defamation League) was quick to condemn his words:

“[President Trump] made it clear he thinks Jews have a dual loyalty to Israel. This #antiSemitic trope has been used to persecute Jews for centuries & it’s unacceptable to promote it. He should apologize immediately.”

Deborah Lipstadt, author of “Antisemitism: Here and Now” (2019):

“[Trump] may not have meant it as [anti-Semitic], but this gives intense comfort and succor to white supremacists.”

Over 30% of the US, according to an ADL poll in 2015, believe that Jews “are more loyal to Israel than to America.”

Yes, this was the anti-Semitic trope Ilhan Omar was accused of last March, her words taken out of context (as usual). She said:

“I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee.”

She was talking about the hold AIPAC seems to have over many in Congress, most of them not even Jewish.

Jewish Americans are hardly the only people in the US with ties to or feelings for an ancestral homeland. That is just being American. Cuban Americans, for example, are not much different. That kind of stuff is hardly a sign that one is not a loyal American.

– Abagond, 2019.

Sources: ADL, AOL News, The Forward, State Department.

See also:

• US ethnic groups
  • The Japanese American internment
  • The perpetual foreigner stereotype
  • Wen Ho Lee
• Hitler
  • Hitler: Race and People – wherein he scapegoats the Jews
  • The Holocaust
• Ilhan Omar
  • Ilhan Omar on Palestine
• Jews
  • Ramses II
  • Spanish racial identity in 1492
  • Israel

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