I never understood why Buchanan who seems pretty sane on most things is so against Israel.
This always happens. Pat is such a good writer and thinker about most any other topic. Eventually, I am reminded that when it comes to Israel, for some reason, Pat is in lockstep with people like Jimmy Carter and now President Obama. Why, Patrick?
Maybe it’s personal. Maybe Pat lost a job opportunity or a girlfriend to a Jewish man decades ago.
When PB is right, he’s really right.
When PB is wrong, he’s really, really wrong.
Its a foreign policy doctrine thingy. Buchanan subscribes to an isolationist foreign policy. Likewise with Taki. So if you read The American Conservative or Taki's magazine you will find that viewpoint. They are Paleo-Cons or Paleo-Populists
The other sub-group of Isolationists are the libertarian minded Isolationists like Ron and Rand Paul.
The foreign policy realists, such as James Baker or Brent Scowcroft, are also often called anti-semites. Another of the realists, Henry Kissinger, because he is Jew, is called a self loathing Jew. It was a major campaign issue in 2008 when Kissinger praised Obama's campaign pledge to negotiate with Iran, or Colin Powell, another Realist, backed Obama.
James Baker committed 3 sins against the Zionists: the speech he gave to AIPAC in 1989, he organized the Madrid Conference, and he served as co-chair of the Iraq Study Group. The Iraq Study Group was influential in getting 3 NeoCons fired from the Bush administration: Doug Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, and Rumsfeld. That was made worse by the fact that George Bush first offered Rumsfeld's SecDef job to James Baker, but Baker declined so Bush gave the job to Bob Gates, another Realist, who also served on the Iraq Study Group and had also worked for Jimmy Carter, who was eventually replaced by Leon Panetta, a democrat Realist who also served on the Iraq Study Group, who was replaced by Realist Chuck Hegel, an outspoken supporter of Iraq Study Group.
A couple of other Realists who got in big trouble were John Meareshimer and Steve Walt, for publishing a book entitled "The Israeli Lobby and US Foreign Policy".
A lot of this is the NeoCon republicans wanting to dominate the GOP's foreign policy position by marginalizing the Isolationists and Realists. When Jeb Bush met with James Baker a couple of months ago the NeoCons were outraged. Jeb Bush was trying to say that the NeoCons and Realists would have equal footing in his administration.
There is a similar situation in the democrat party. The Liberal Interventionist democrats(like Shumer and Menendez) tend to be stronger supporters of Israel than the Dem Realists(like Feinstein and Nelson) and the anti war dems.
If you look at foreign policy in broad strokes, under Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and GHW Bush, the Realists were the dominant foreign policy group. Under Bill Clinton, the Liberal Interventionists rose to power and under George Bush the NeoCons rose to power. Under Obama the Realists have been dominant.
PB represents a very traditional Roman Catholic animus against Jews to the point of nearly blind rage.
There are Jews who don’t even hold it against him much, as they cynically believe many more hold his views but just keep them more private, and such cynics don’t reject working with such people where practical.
Buchanan’s type used to be much more common, and probably still is - it’s just that FR makes a strong effort to keep them off this site.
He’s an arch Catholic with Irish and German ancestry. Not a good mix in terms of being pro-Israel or philosemitic.
Wonder if Hannity will ask his “good friend” Buchanan about this.