‘Patriots’ Owner’s Wife Says Her Sons Could Fight for Israel, Not U.S.

I’ve been urged to do more newsy blog items. It’s a good idea because there’s lots of news items where there is little to add.

Here’s one: Philip Weiss calls out Myra Kraft, wife of the owner of the New England Patriots football team (‘Patriots’ Owner’s Wife Says Her Sons Could Fight for Israel, Not U.S.” (Note: This article is from 2008. Mrs. Kraft has since died.)

On her recent visit to the Jewish state, the Jerusalem Post asked Myra Kraft, a leader in American Jewish philanthropy to Israel and the wife of Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, how she would feel about one of her four sons moving to Israel and joining the army.

I would go with him. I always wanted to live here. As for joining the army, over Vietnam, I would have had an issue,
because I didn’t believe in it. The same goes for the war in Iraq. I don’t know why we’re there. I would hate to have one of my sons fighting there. Iran’s the problem, not Iraq. But, as far as fighting for Israel is concerned, there is no problem.

The JPost asked what issues she’ll take into account in the coming U.S. election:

Israel, the economy, the plans for getting out of Iraq quickly.

I find Myra Kraft’s comments both troubling and understandable. Understandable because she is the daughter of a Lithuanian Holocaust survivor who immigrated to Massachusetts. As a little girl she collected money from neighbors for  Palestine. I imagine she has never felt completely secure in the west emotionally, given her father’s experience. His family was annihilated. So she feels great loyalty to Israel. I know Zionists like this.

I’m troubled because of her indifference to the larger American scene, in which she is a player. … Mostly I’m troubled by her parochialism. She is a member of the American establishment, and she thinks always of Israel. Is this the way leaders should act?

No it isn’t, but it’s what we’ve come to expect in an age when Stanley Fischer, who held a policy making position in the Israeli government, is headed for a high-level position at the Federal Reserve.  For Myra Kraft, the Israel-Lobby promoted war with Iraq is over and should be wound up as soon as possible (leaving civil war in its wake). Now it’s on to Iran. But don’t expect her to encourage Jews to enlist in the U.S. military.

The allegiances of, say, Mexicans for their national soccer team are merely irritating. But when a minority basically runs U.S. foreign policy and is urgently pushing for yet another costly and disastrous war that has nothing to do with American interests, it’s far more than irritating. It’s treasonous.