Interesting list: people with dual Israeli/US citizenship
UPDATE: After being challenged by RM Rich in the comments below, I’ve not been able to find an authoritative source for the authenticity of the list. I did check Snopes.com, of course, but the list is also not listed as an urban legend. Rich says he called two of the people on the list (which two he doesn’t say), and they denied holding dual citizenship at this time. So the accuracy of the list is questionable—as evidenced by the fact that it’s been questioned. So far as the possibility: it is indeed possible (legal, allowable) for people to hold dual citizenship in the US, not only with Israel but with other countries as well. (See this page, which requires IE Tab if you’re using Firefox.) As you will see, quite a few countries allow dual national/US citizenship, though the “official U.S. policy has been to discourage the incidence of dual nationality. The Government accepts but does not recognize or approve of dual nationality. The Government accepts it: “only as the result of separate conflicting laws of other countries.” ” So the list’s interest diminishes considerably.
UPDATE 2: Jacob points out a valuable post on the general question of dual citizenship. Note question 6:
I’ve heard that the US has a special agreement with Israel permitting people to be dual US/Israeli citizens. Is this true?
No. It just happens that Israeli citizenship law does not require renunciation of one’s old citizenship in order to become a citizen of Israel.
In this regard, Israel is really treated no differently than Canada, the UK, France, or other countries which permit people to become citizens without giving up their old status.
As best I have been able to determine, the US does not have any sort of treaty facilitating dual citizenship with any other country. Dual citizenship arises, not out of explicit bilateral agreements between nations, but because each country makes its own laws respecting who is or is not its citizen, often without regard for whether a given person is considered a citizen by more than one country at once.
It is interesting to note that Israel’s “Law of Return” (under which any Jew may immigrate to and become a citizen of Israel) confers Israeli citizenship automatically, without the immigrant having to apply for it, attend any ceremony, or swear any oath of allegiance. The Israeli law may originally have been written this way to encourage American Jews to move to Israel; they could, in theory, argue that they had not explicitly requested Israeli citizenship and were thus still entitled to keep their US citizenship. (Note that Mr. Afroyim, subject of Afroyim v. Rusk, was alleged to have lost his US citizenship, not because he had become an Israeli citizen, but because he had voted in an Israeli election.)
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the US ratified a series of citizenship treaties (the “Bancroft treaties”, named after American diplomat George Bancroft). The intent of these treaties was to prevent dual citizenship by providing for automatic loss of citizenship by foreigners who obtained US citizenship, or by Americans who obtained foreign citizenship. As a result of the various Supreme Court decisions on dual citizenship, however, the Bancroft treaties became legally unenforceable, and all of them have by now been formally abrogated by the US. One of these treaties (the one with Sweden) is mentioned in the Supreme Court’s decision in Perkins v. Elg.
UPDATE 3: Glenn Greenwald has a very interesting post on the issue of divided loyalties.
From Jacob via email. List is old, so some of the positions listed have changed hands:
American / Isreali Dual Citizens in the American Government
Attorney General - Michael Mukasey
Head of Homeland Security - Michael Chertoff
Chairman Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board - Richard Perle
Deputy Defense Secretary (Former) - Paul Wolfowitz
Under Secretary of Defense - Douglas Feith
National Security Council Advisor - Elliott Abrams
Vice President Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff (Former) - “Scooter” Libby
White House Deputy Chief of Staff - Joshua Bolten
Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs - Marc Grossman
Director of Policy Planning at the State Department - Richard Haass
U.S. Trade Representative (Cabinet-level Position) - Robert Zoellick
Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board - James Schlesinger
UN Representative (Former) - John Bolton
Under Secretary for Arms Control - David Wurmser
Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board - Eliot Cohen
Senior Advisor to the President - Steve Goldsmith
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary - Christopher Gersten
Assistant Secretary of State - Lincoln Bloomfield
Deputy Assistant to the President - Jay Lefkowitz
White House Political Director - Ken Melman
National Security Study Group - Edward Luttwak
Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board - Kenneth Adelman
Defense Intelligence Agency Analyst (Former) - Lawrence (Larry) Franklin
National Security Council Advisor - Robert Satloff
President Export-Import Bank U.S. - Mel Sembler
Deputy Assistant Secretary, Administration for Children and Families - Christopher Gersten
Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Public Affairs
- Mark Weinberger
White House Speechwriter - David Frum
White House Spokesman (Former) - Ari Fleischer
Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board - Henry Kissinger
Deputy Secretary of Commerce - Samuel Bodman
Under Secretary of State for Management - Bonnie Cohen
Director of Foreign Service Institute - Ruth Davis
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