What Are Neo-Cons Loyal To?

In a Slate column, Timothy Noah picks up on a striking 2004 conversation in which George W. Bush asks his father "What's a neocon?"

What makes the question remarkable is George W.'s complete ignorance of the political shorthand being created by people serving in his administration like Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, and Dick Cheney.

But the elder Bush's answer is equally remarkable: "Well," said the former president of the United States, "I'll give it to you in one word: Israel."

There's been some political talk about the neo-cons being more committed to the interests of Israel than the United States. Likewise, talk has circulated about the Iraq War being more about forcing the Palestinians to settle on Israel's terms than about Iraq.

But I don't think that neo-cons like Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, or Robert Kagan are any more loyal to Israel than they are to the United States. What they are loyal to is the right-wing Likud Party in Israel and Likud's determination to use maximum force to maintain Israel's domination over the Palestinians. Taking the Likud stress on never negotiating or settling on anything but Israel's terms, the neo-cons developed a vision of American policy in which the United States combined Israel's will to dominate with America's overwhelming economic and military power. The neo-con idea was to relate to the whole Arab and non-western world the same way that the Israelis treated the Palestinians--with consummate disdain.

Ultimately, the neo-cons aren't about Israel. They're about something much more dangerous and destabilizing--projecting the Likud/Israeli model for treating the Palestinians onto the whole world. They're loyal to a much expanded vision of their own domination.