I have documented how Glenn Greenwald peddles the most rank of dual loyalty charges against American Jewish supporters of Israel, by using the phrase “Israel-Firsters.”
Now Greenwald is at it again, suggesting that soon-to-be Majority Leader Eric Cantor has pledged allegiance to Israel.
Greenwald’s blog post is titled Eric Cantor’s Pledge of Allegiance, and like many of the left-wing bloggers, Greenwald all but calls Cantor a traitor based upon the following two sentences in a statement released by Cantor regarding Cantor’s meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
Eric stressed that the new Republican majority will serve as a check on the Administration and what has been, up until this point, one party rule in Washington. He made clear that the Republican majority understands the special relationship between Israel and the United States, and that the security of each nation is reliant upon the other.
There is nothing in these two sentences — which are a summary of discussions not a transcript – to suggest as Greenwald and others have claimed, that Cantor “vowed that he and his GOP colleagues would protect and defend Israeli interests against his own Government.”
Cantor’s office denies such a connection: “The claim [that Cantor promised to side with Israel against Obama] simply isn’t in there.”
Any fair reading of these sentences would treat these sentences, and the rest of the summary statement, as a catalog of topics discussed. So Cantor said that the GOP would serve as a check on Obama; there is nothing remarkable about that, it is the GOP position. Cantor also stated that the GOP understands the special relationship with Israel; again nothing new there.
From these two independent sentences, Greenwald draws fabulous conclusions which he then uses for his usual Israel bashing. Others have gone even further, with Adam Serwer (linked by Greenwald in an update) claiming that Cantor is guilty of a felony
Greenwald, by insinuating that Cantor is not loyal to the U.S. and has pledged allegiance to Israel, lowers himself once again to that putrid place occupied by the worst elements in our society and in history.
Update: A blogger at Crooks and Liars will not be outdone, referring to the “un-American hubris of this Republican peacock.” And Prairie Weather blog accuses Cantor of treason. The Booman Tribune goes the treason route too, and gets the award for sleaziest piece of drek analogy:
It’s not like I’m asking what would have happened if Joachim von Ribbentrop had sat down in Sam Rayburn’s office in 1939 and received assurances that Rayburn and the Dems could be counted on to support Germany and block anything Roosevelt did to try to force concessions. Because, in a case like that (which did not happen) we know what we would call it. We know what Eric Cantor would call it.
And not surprisingly, Think Progress (which is linked by almost all the left-wing bloggers posting on this topic) falsely characterizes Cantor’s statement as follows:
Cantor’s office stated that the presumptive Majority Leader would fight the Obama administration on behalf of Israel.
And, thanks to Gabriel Malor at Ace of Spades HQ both for the link and for pointing out this hilarious incident in 2006 in which Greenwald was caught by Ace and Patterico posting positive comments about himself using fictitious usernames.
Update 11-20-2010 – My response to Glenn Greenwald’s response, Glenn Greenwald Plays Victim.
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Related Posts:
Flummoxed Again By “The Enemy of My Enemy…”
Greenwald Agonistes
Useful Idiots Condemn Israel
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Comments
This whole thing disgusts me. Israel is, has been, and will always be our ally. That this administration doesn't seem to "get" that is a travesty and a national embarrassment. This accusation of . . . what? treason? is inexcusable on so many levels.
Isn't the purpose of three separate branches of government to provide a check and balance on each? God knows this WH needs to be checked. Often.
Sickening. Eric Cantor, who I am proud to claim as a Virginia representative, is one of the most honorable men in Congress. Greenwald seems to be making a libelous accusation; Cantor, like most Republicans, rises above the attack. But, Alinsky tactics strike again! Leftists need to be held accountable for their libel – freedom of speech is protected, as long as it does not slander or libel another. (Yeah, I'm not holding my breath.)
"I have documented how Glenn Greenwald peddles the most rank of dual loyalty charges against American Jewish supporters of Israel, by using the phrase "Israel-Firsters."
Now Greenwald is at it again, suggesting that soon-to-be Majority Leader Eric Cantor has pledged allegiance to Israel."
So I gather that Glenn Greenwald is a Queer For Palestine self hating communist gay Palestine Firster. Who knew?
A Yid dollar is an amazing thing. It has a magical power so out of proportion to its nominal worth that it is infinitely corrupting, influential and mesmerizing not at all like an Arab/Muslim petrol dollar that even in their trillions simply have no effect at all whatsoever on the non-Muslim world.
Heh … I've long called those who blame America and Israel first for most or all that's wrong in the world, "Firsters." Great minds think alike.
The problem with Greenwald and other liberals is that since classic liberalism by definition is intellectual inconsistency — taking what one has earned, being it wealth, political power, knowledge, what have you, and giving it to those least deserving of it — all liberals have blind spots where their intellectual arguments fail and their default bigotry and hatred kick in.
For Rachel Maddow, a Rhodes Scholar and doctor of philosophy who holds her "news show" to a higher standard, it's the tens of millions of average Tea Party Americans out there she can't possibly begin to understand, let alone connect with. For Keith Olbermann, scion of MSNBC and not an "entertainer" by his own standards, it's his jealousy any of the far more successful personalities on Fox News. Ed Schultz, who rails against "Republican thugs" all day, is crushed under the knowledge that he is nothing more than a brutish water carrier for the President he cannot respect. For Andrew Sullivan, terribly cultured Brit, it's Sarah Palin and her all-American family he can never have, and for Glenn Greenwald, the disillusioned man who studies secular law, it's clearly his problems with Israel and those who have faith he has clearly lost.
All liberalism is? Classic projection of a liberal's faults onto those they despise the most.
Greenwald is no different. You name the liberal, you can tell their own faults through those they chastise most.
I assume Greenwald et al. were as sickened by the actual findings that the late Sen. Teddy Kennedy and other Democrats proposed quid pro quos with the KGB and Soviet leadership to deal with President Reagan during the early 1980s? I mean, that potential act of treason was supported by internal KGB documents found only after the USSR fell, whereas Cantor's statement requires considerable extrapolation to suggest any anti-government/treasonous intent.
Even though the story regarding Kennedy and the KGB broke early last year, I shockingly did not find a mention in Salon's/Greenwald's archives. Maybe someone should alert him as to this omission. I'm sure he'll honestly update and prepare his outraged outrage at that act of anti-governmentalism as well. Right?
(crickets)
I have news for those lefty antisemites, the majority of people that voted against the dems this past election day, did so because of how Obama treated Israel. They know that Israel is in the forefront of the war against Islamic fascism and yes it is a war. That the likes of Greenwald and friends reboot age old antisemitsm just shows that his idol is Goebbels not anyone on American idol.
I also have news for these creeps that when thinking of voting for anyone but a dem you bet one of the issues on our mind is that the Republican House would be a stop-gap against Obama's destruction of Israel, besides the need to stop Obama's destruction of the United States.(BTW these lowlifes tried to do this to Dennis Ross early on in the Obama administration when he didn't tow the antisemitic Obama line. Sadly it seems that Ross has fallen in lock step. Seems that power is more important than self-respect in the end, at least for him.)
I wonder what these libs would have thought about a senator collaborating with the Soviets to get a shot at running for president. Would that be "treason" too?
It looks like all of you commenters are all in for Israel voiding an agreement that it was a party to.
Last I checked, Israel doesn't run our foreign policy. The world doesn't revolve around Israel, much less a small minority in one country.
However, that seems to be what Eric Cantor seems to think. If you all agree with him, fine. But just put yourselves in a similar position.
Would any of you agree to give up your homes based upon a biblical reason? Would you let religious precedence over-rule your legal claim to land?
You all would be screaming at the top of your lungs.
Last I checked, Israel doesn't run our foreign policy. The world doesn't revolve around Israel, much less a small minority in one country.
I bet if I said "Michilines" was doing the usual anti-Semite talking points, it would start babbling that some of its best friends are Jewish.
michilines said… are you packing your bags because you are on some Indian's land or is your problem not land taking per se but who takes the land? By the way you don't seem to have a problem with Arabs occupying other people's lands.
That's funny, I don't remember the Dreyfuss affair or the Holocaust in the bible.
Cantor should be facing an investigation for this.
Anti-semitism? What else would you expect from Matthew Hale's lawyer?
libhom
maybe you should know a little more American history, since the 3 branches of government were set up to be CHECKS on each other. It is the duty of Congress to "check" the Executive.
Yawn. Conservatives who berate "political correctness" scream "ANTI-SEMITE" at anyone who think that funneling billions upon billions to a rich first world country is a good use our tax dollars.
Yawn. Because funneling billions upon billions to third-world "countries" full of people who hate us (like the so-called Palestine) is a much better use of our tax dollars.
If these people actually knew what treason was and cared, we'd have fewer of them in Congress and with access to the internet.
"Cantor’s office stated that the presumptive Majority Leader would fight the Obama administration on behalf of Israel."
It's obvious that Cantor's office didn't say that, and nor did they say they would fight Obama on behalf of the American people. I wish they would.
I don't understand why you didn't mention that Greenwald relied prominently on what Ron Kampeas wrote (11/11) at JTA. Those who relied on Greenwald therefore were also relying in part–knowingly or unknowingly–on Kampeas, were they not?
I'm confused.
Not by Greenwald and others being stupid (that's par for the course).
I want to know what they think is "treason[ous]" about it, even if the untenable parsing and claims about Cantor's words were accurate.
The Constitution (which defines the crime of Treason) defines it as "levying War against [the United States], or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort".
Now, I realize the Greenwalds of the world dislike Israel, a lot, reflexively and emotionally.
But that doesn't make Israel an Enemy of the United States (especially in this context, where Enemy can really only mean a belligerent party). Hell, even if we granted them, arguendo, that Israel's interests are contrary to what some sober impartial analysis held to be in the best interests of the United States.
Opposing the President isn't treason. Not even when he's a Democrat.
Acting against America's interests isn't treason, either – and if it is, well, I bet we can find a lot of people who think things Greenwald supports are "against America's interests"…
You're losing. More and more Americans, Jews and non-Jews alike, are tired of having their country led around by the nose by Israel and its right-wing friends here in the US. You can try to claim that Greenwald misread Cantor, but he didn't. It's obvious that Cantor intends to subvert the Obama adminstration's feeble attempts to control Israel's land grabs (which contribute to the terrorism faced by the US). As Israel lurches farther and farther to the right, as its war crimes become more blatant (including the murder of an American citizen–not since the USS Liberty, etc.), Americans will become more angry and less tolerant Israel's hold on US foreign policy and pursestrings.
Complain as much as you like, but you're losing. And unless Israel stops its illegal expansion and war crimes, you and Israel will lose the US. It's inevitable.
Hate to break it to you, Willie:
Your cowardly–though all too predictable– attempts to smear people as anti-semites in order to stifle any criticism of those individuals who clearly are placing the interests of a foreign government ahead of our own no longer hold water.
Kindly spare us your sanctimonious garbage about "putrid places." Judging by your knee-jerk defense of Cantor's reprehensible position, you're throwing stones in a *particularly* putrid glass house.
Quite the little echo chamber you have going here. Hilarious.