T. Belman. A prominent Jewish journalist recently told me “Douglas Macgregor blames Israel for all of America’s problems”. This article says otherwise.
Antisemitism accusations against Dr Douglas MacGregor are deeply upsetting.
By Doron Almog, Gershon Hacohen and Efraim Inbar, JISS 19.8.20
It is upsetting to discover that former US colonel Dr. Douglas MacGregor has been accused of antisemitism. This, to prevent his appointment as US ambassador to Germany. Some American Jewish groups echoed these accusations, but they are misinformed and are being exploited for partisan political purposes. (See “Jewish groups take aim at Trump’s pick for ambassador to Germany,” The Jerusalem Post/JTA, August 8, 2020.)
We are Israelis citizens with no intention to interfere in the process of appointing a foreign ambassador. However, we are committed to the truth, and we know Col. MacGregor as a philo-Semite and a friend of the Jewish state. Each of us has professionally interacted with MacGregor, and some of us were close to him personally. There are many other Israelis in academia, the military and government who also know him as a strong pro-Israel voice.
Doug MacGregor is war veteran who led troops in battle and served his country’s military for many years with distinction. Since his retirement, MacGregor has become known as a highly esteemed military analyst and defense intellectual, as well as a prolific writer on military strategy. His advice and ideas are sought by the US armed forces and other militaries around the world. It is no surprise that he caught the attention of the White House.
In fact, one of his books on military strategy has become required reading for IDF officers. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi even invited him earlier this year to share his insights with the IDF senior command. Out of sincere friendship, MacGregor did not ask for any remuneration.
Macgregor’s first visit to Israel was in 1999, when he came on his own initiative while serving as director of the Joint Operations Center at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). During that visit he established close relations with his Israeli counterparts. Since then he has visited Israel many times, participating in academic conferences and speaking to a variety of Israeli military audiences.
He has an excellent grasp of strategic realities in the Middle East, and acute sensitivity to the security needs of Israel alongside the United States. He has toured the country with Israeli security experts, leading to an excellent chapter on the 1973 Yom Kippur War in an academic volume.
Macgregor believes that Israel must have defensible borders; that the Golan Heights is vital to Israeli security; and that President Trump’s decision to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem was long overdue. He supports direct US military intervention to assist Israel in time of need. He has warned of Iranian and Turkish hegemony and ambitions to take control of the region.
Some of Macgregor’s statements are considered controversial by American standards of political correctness, although some of them seem to have been pulled out of context. But nothing justifies the attempt to label MacGregor an antisemite or anti-Israeli.
When a friend and longtime supporter is wrongfully accused, we have a moral obligation step forward and voice our opinion in his defense.
Maj.-Gen. (res.) Doron Almog was OC IDF Southern Command, and an Israel Prize recipient. Maj.-Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen was commander of the IDF Military Colleges. Prof. Efraim Inbar is president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security.
@Specialist Michael Sorry, it appears I gave you a promotion.
@Michael I meant, “wars of independence.”The idea of “Wars of intervention” needing outside assistance is humorous, or a not so comical description of NATO, on second thought.
@Corporal Michael I thought Haiti might have been an exception but, no.
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Ha…
Haitian Revolution – Wikipedia
@Michael The American Revolution would have been defeated by the Brits without French intervention under Louis XVI.
Revolutions and wars of intervention in history have rarely succeeded without outside assistance, Lenin got help from the Kaiser, Ho Chi Minh from first FDR and then successive Soviet leaders.
We need to help Iran
@Michael I understood that just as in Donbas and Luhansk, the Russian-speaking majority was fighting for their freedom from this illegitimate patchwork state that had broken its word to respect their autonomy and close ties to Mother Russia as a condition for them joining this artificially created entity. Only Western Ukraine is actually Ukrainian. It has a different history, as well.
Hi, Sebastien.
I never made it past E-4 in the Army; and that was as a specialist, I was not a general, nor even an officer. Neither was I an expert on Middle Eastern affairs, when George HW Bush and George W Bush led us into our adventures into Iraq. It’s easy to say our leaders “screwed up”. I just thank God that at least we had leaders. If the world descends into anarchy in the coming months or years, as well it might, we will long for the days we now live in.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, I knew little about the background. In retrospect, I see that Putin and his KGB/ Oligarch crime club were very much in the wrong, as was our own Deep State and the Biden crime family. Collectively, they gave us the horrible war that we now have.
@Michael I still agree with his comments on Iraq and Crimea listed in the Wikipedia article. Those were/are my views since that time. Iraq was a terrorist haven like E. Germany was in the 70s and 80s. Our leaders screwed up the war effort and should have overthrown Saddam Hussein in 1991.
Hi, Sebastien. You said,
You might as well add that he was hawkish about invading Iraq, which many today consider to have been a bad mistake. Generals make mistakes. The whole essence of war, is that the leaders on at least one side miscalculate.
Starting in 2014, MacGregor has been a cheerleader for Putin.
He was speaking to a Serbian audience, a strange turnabout considering he was one of the key architects of the NATO invasion of Yugoslavia. Did he suffer from remorse like the first Buddhist Emperor, Asoka?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashoka
His support for Israel and his military qualifications, which are considerable, are the most important things but his past statements about “rootless cosmopolitans” in Russia are somewhat concerning. See Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Macgregor