Dual Citizens and Security Clearance

Dual citizenship is a sensitive issue. I frankly don't believe in it at all.

But clearly, when it comes to positions requiring security clearance people with dual citizenship should be presumptively barred, with exceptions made for those with essential skills or that have proven themselves particularly trustworthy.

This applies for all nationalities including, for example, Chinese, Russian and Israeli.

Some, it seems, don't agree:

The Pentagon is citing a leak affair involving Defense Department analyst Lawrence Franklin and two pro-Israel lobbyists Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, as a basis for stripping security clearances from government contractor employees who have dual Israeli-American citizenship or family in Israel, The New York Sun reported Wednesday.

[Makes sense to me.]

...

Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, a leader of the Jewish community in Washington, told the Sun he was disturbed by the growing number of similar incidents. "People around the country are turning to us and telling us of ongoing cases where people are stripped of their livelihoods just because they're Jewish," he said.

No, Mr. Herzfeld, they are not being denied access to certain jobs because they are Jewish. They are being denied access to certain jobs because they are Israeli citizens.

You don't equate being Jewish with being an Israeli citizen, do you?

I know lots of Jewish people who would object to that characterization.


Ynet