The Passionate Attachment

America's entanglement with Israel

About

leave a comment »

In his farewell address to the people of the United States, George Washington warned that:

a passionate attachment of one Nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite Nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest, in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite Nation of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the Nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained; and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens, (who devote themselves to the favorite nation,) facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.

The aim of this political weblog is to inform about the “variety of evils” that ensue from America’s (and some other countries’) passionate attachment to Israel.

Creator and Editor

Maidhc Ó Cathail is a widely published writer and political analyst. In addition to writing a monthly column for a popular Irish language magazine, his work has been published by Antiwar.com, Arab News, Consortium News, Forward Magazine (Syria), Journal of Turkish Weekly, Khaleej Times (UAE), Ma’an News Agency (Palestine), Middle East Monitor, Palestine Chronicle, Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, RT, Tehran Times, The Nation (Pakistan), The Unz Review, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and many more. Ó Cathail is the creator and editor of The Passionate Attachment blog, which focuses primarily on the U.S.-Israeli relationship. He has been interviewed by Press TV, Sahar TV (Iran), RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta (Ireland), and Jeff Blankfort’s “Takes on the World” programme on California National Public Radio station KZYX. Follow him on and Twitter @O_Cathail.

A note on pronunciation: For those unfamiliar with the eccentricities of Irish orthography (i.e. almost everyone), my given name, Maidhc, is simply the Irish spelling of “Mike.” My surname, Ó Cathail, is pronounced something like “Oh-Caw-hill.”

Contributors

Jeff Blankfort is a Middle East analyst who has written extensively on the Israel-Palestine conflict. He is a former editor of the Middle East Labor Bulletin, a photo journalist and currently hosts a program on international affairs called “Takes on the World” for KZYX, the public radio station of Mendocino County in California.

Jeff Gates is a widely acclaimed author, attorney, investment banker, educator and consultant to government, corporate and union leaders worldwide. His latest book is Guilt By Association—How Deception and Self-Deceit Took America to War.

Philip Giraldi is the executive director of the Council for the National Interest and a recognized authority on international security and counterterrorism issues.

Stephen J. Sniegoski is the author of The Transparent Cabal: The Neoconservative Agenda, War in the Middle East, and the National Interest of Israel.

Written by Maidhc Ó Cathail

January 8, 2011 at 9:00 am

Leave a Reply