Why is this so hard to believe? We’ve had a blindspot in regards to Israel at least since the 1950s when the Evangelicals decided that the conversion of *ALL* Jews to Christianity (particularly to *Evangelical* christianity) was a necessary step to the Apocalypse. And we’ve been treating it as our de facto 51st state since the first Gulf War. (a.k.a. Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm.) That even someone as “liberal” as Joseph P. Kennedy III would allow his name to be used to sponsor a bill like this shows just how distorted and unrealistic our view of Israel has become over the past several decades and how pernicious that distortion and lack of realism has become in regards to making laws and setting policy — even to the point of endangering our right to free speech under the U.S. Constitution.
We need to either acknowledge that Israel, while an important ally in the Middle East, has become an obsession; and that we must cool our National ardor for it a bit so that we can regain a bit of sanity policy-wise; or we should simply take the step of admitting it — both our obsession and Israel as our 51st state — otherwise we will continue to make policies and laws that reflect the surreal relationship that currently endangers our rights.