1,414 words

Aside from Thomas Jefferson writing “all men are created equal” while he was a slave owner, the biggest mistake the founding fathers made was the Naturalization Act of 1790. It only limited naturalization to free white persons of good moral character. While this law appears to be extremely wise in light of the disastrous 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Immigration Act, the 1790 Act still cast too wide a net.

This has only become clear in retrospect, of course. I am not advocating retroactively stripping the citizenship of people whose Slovenian ancestors arrived in the United States in 1890, or rehash the Anglo and Irish tensions of the mid-nineteenth century. Nonetheless, citizenship should have been restricted to whites who had served in some military or government capacity during the pre-independence colonial wars or the Revolutionary War. Other qualifications could have been support for the cause of independence in any way while living in America during the Revolution, and/or serving in the Continental Congress or some other such body. This would have encompassed most white American households in 1776.

After independence, citizenship should have been passed down by descent from that original group, and documented by a list established by the US Census Bureau in 1790. Indian tribes use a method like this to determine who is a member and who isn’t. The children of European immigrants who intermarried with the original citizens would themselves have become citizens, of course. The Bible’s Book of Ezra details a method of how to arrange a blood-based citizenship policy, although Ezra’s admonitions are stricter than what I’ve suggested here.

None of the above happened, and the problem of granting citizenship to people with little to no connection to founding-stock Americans has grown to the point that it can no longer be ignored. It isn’t just “anchor babies.” Slack citizenship laws have allowed foreigners to acquire American citizenship by filling out some paperwork and then using it as a cudgel in their political disputes in far-off lands. Peter Brimelow wrote about this in his excellent book Alien Nation (1995):

. . . [T]oday American citizenship is being acquired in much the same spirit as a driver’s license. This is why you regularly read of “American citizens” being involved in peculiar political intrigues in foreign countries — of which becoming prime minister of Greece (Andreas Papandreou) and running for the presidency of Serbia (Milan Panic) are among the most respectable.

The problem with these Americans-on-paper is evident in the ongoing events of the Israel-Hamas War of 2023. The roots of this war go back to the end of the Great War. At that time, the British Empire promised Palestine to the Jews as a homeland in the Balfour Declaration. When the British Empire declined in the late 1940s, the Jews of Palestine swiftly moved to steal the land from their unarmed Arab neighbors. In Gaza, which has been Philistine (Palestinian) territory since the Late Bronze Age Collapse, Israeli Jews have besieged the region and subjected its population to continuous air and artillery strikes, among other forms of attack.

The mainstream narrative related to this current conflict falsely places the origins of this war in the most recent Iranian “hostage crisis.” This crisis is a perfect example of the problem of Americans-on-paper. In September of 2023, five “Americans” who were being held hostage by the Iranian government were released in exchange for the return of $6 billion in frozen assets. The names of three of these “Americans” are Siamak Namazi, Emad Shargi, and Morad Tahbaz. All three are of Iranian origins. The other two hostages were never named. Another Iranian hostage who disappeared more than a decade ago is Robert Levinson, a Jew.

These hostages obviously have no connection to America’s founding people other than through the legal fiction of naturalized citizenship. Nonetheless, the American government has had to suffer the humiliation of giving a large parcel of cash to an enemy nation on behalf of people whose connection to the United States doesn’t go any deeper than their passports.

What Namazi, Shargi, Tahbaz, and Levinson were doing in Iran in the first place is uncertain. They could have merely been visitors who were unjustly detained. However, it is highly likely that they were spies recruited by a country hostile to Iran, or perhaps they were working on behalf of an anti-government faction in Iran, or perhaps something else. Regardless, nothing they were doing was helping old–stock Americans.

The funds released to Iran are being blamed for the increase in weapons and armaments being sent to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Undoubtedly, Senile Joe’s catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan helped arm Hamas as well. But regardless of how these weapons got to Gaza, it is certain that Hamas had a considerable arsenal, a trained military force, and a solid command-and-control structure that allowed it to inflict a devastating attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. This attack caught the Israelis completely by surprise, and undoubtedly the prestige of the Israeli government and military will suffer.

Flim-flam citizenship is on display among the Israeli victims of the attack, as well as among the soldiers of the Israel Defense ForcesZioni. There are estimates that 30 “Americans” have been killed and that another 13 are missing. Chances are that all of these “Americans” are in fact dual-citizen Jews who have only a tenuous connection to the US. Additionally, the Israeli government is flying Israeli reservists from New York City to Israel. That so many people in America’s greatest metropolis are enlisted in the military of a foreign power should give all Americans pause.

Another American-on-paper is Shireen Abu Akleh. Shireen was a Palestinian journalist who was deliberately shot and killed by Israeli soldiers in 2022. Mourners at her funeral were then brazenly attacked by Israeli mounted police. Shireen’s treatment was absolutely unjust, although America’s political class and mainstream media said little about what happened. Meanwhile, the US government and its establishment bends over backwards in favor of those dual-citizen “Americans” who have been attacked in Israel by Hamas. The contradictions on display in this situation are so obvious that the value of American citizenship may soon be merely derive from whatever foreign lobbying group has a greater impact on Congress.

The Palestinians, for their part, understand the difference between actual Americans and Americans-on-paper, even if the US government does not. When war broke out ,a group of Christians from North Dakota were trapped in Bethlehem. The Israelis did nothing for them, but the Palestinians have been working to evacuate the group. They have not been held hostage or abused by the Palestinians in any way.

American citizenship has been too liberally applied. Presently, “Americans” who are Jews are doing battle on behalf of Israel, while “Americans” of Palestinian or other Middle Eastern ethnicities fight on the other side. The entire situation cries out for a reevaluation of America’s citizenship rules.

Postscript

In the very recent past, an attack by Hamas against Israel would have been a small raid, with few, if any, casualties. In most day-to-day activities, the Israeli military kills and injures Palestinians without much, if any, comment by the mainstream media. In the past, the whole of America’s political spectrum would have come down on the side of Israel after an attack of this nature.

The Israel-Hamas War of 2023 is different, however. The conditions which underpin Israel’s ability to dispossess the Palestinians have changed. The US President is obviously senile, so the government’s judgement will be less than ideal throughout this conflict. Joe Biden has also been unable to quell doubts about his legitimacy, and a large percentage of the American public won’t support anything he attempts to do.

Among Democrats, support for Israel has declined enormously. Republican support is high, but that is an artificial bubble. Many MAGA Republican influencers have turned against Israel, and their podcasts and articles will quickly change the public’s minds. President Trump has also come out against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Rumors swirl that a large portion of the troops in the US military are unwilling to support Israel.

Israel’s situation is extremely unstable. They are reliant upon outside donations, good will from foreign supporters such as the Christian Zionists (whom they openly despise), and a media establishment in which information can be controlled and channelized. They must also have an unarmed and demilitarized Palestinian population — one which preferably won’t exist at all for much longer. Events in Israel in the near future will likely be significant.

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