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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