What is reprehensible is not the suggestion that Jews living in America might have divided loyalties. That is arguably the best case scenario. What is reprehensible, and quite possibly anti-semitic, is the idea that a Jew living in America cannot possibly have divided loyalties:
Congress is rarely called upon to dispel conspiracy theories. But it needs to teach the Pentagon to separate fact from fiction, because American Jews are routinely denied security clearances based on nothing more than a fear that they are Israeli spies.
Consider Gershon Pincus, a 62-year-old dentist and lifelong New Yorker who sought a way to serve as he approached retirement. He found a position at a naval dental clinic in upstate Saratoga Springs, and started work in July 2014.
All was going well until this past September, when Pincus was informed that he wasn’t eligible for a security clearance. The rejection was accompanied by a Statement of Reasons that concluded “foreign contacts and interests may be a security concern due to divided loyalties.”
Incredibly, the totality of the concern about Pincus was his contact with his 89-year-old mother and his middle-aged brother and sister, who had moved to Israel as adults.
The charge of “divided loyalties” has a particularly repugnant resonance to American Jews. It’s usually whispered behind closed doors, and so it’s doubly disconcerting when it is the reason given for official government action.
It is perfectly reasonable to suspect a Jew with family ties to Israel of being less than entirely loyal to the United States; I have met very, very few American Jews who have declared that they would be willing to wage war against Israel on America’s behalf. Yes, Israel is a nominal ally at present, but then, America has waged war against former allies and made allies of former enemies throughout the course of its history. And Israeli forces have killed more American soldiers than most Arab or Eastern Bloc militaries.
It is known that Israel spies on the USA; indeed, Israel would be criminally remiss if it did not do so. But it is no more in the American national interest to permit Israel to spy than it is to permit China, Russia, or Germany to do so.
For most Americans, the issue isn’t whether Jews have divided loyalties or not, it is whether they have any loyalty to the USA at all, given how Jewish opinion leaders such as Spengler and the Learned Elders of Wye quite openly demonstrate that they, at least, do not.
Of course, this isn’t a matter of concern that is limited to Jews. The same problem applies to Chinese citizens resident in the USA as well as many other nations. The idea that any individual can legitimately possess dual citizenships or undivided loyalties to more than one nation is a pernicious and dyscivic notion, and I expect that as the pendulum returns to historical normality and long-suppressed nationalism rises around the world, the nonsensical concept will eventually be erased from the law.