Josh Shapiro
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Josh Shapiro is the Governor of Pennsylvania. He is cited by John Kiriakou, Pennsylvania-born himself, as the principal contemporary example of the loyalty question raised by Jewish-American elected officials who have served the State of Israel directly. Shapiro spent his eighteenth year on an Israeli kibbutz and joined the Israel Defense Forces during that period.

Kiriakou's framing:

> He went and did his time on an Israeli kibbutz when he was 18 years old. And he loved Israel so much that he joined the Israeli military. Okay. Now, you're the governor of Pennsylvania and you're one of the front runners for the Democratic nomination for president. But where do your loyalties lie? You have served the Israeli government. I can't trust you to keep the United States first. In your mind, you haven't served the American government, but you've served the Israeli government. That bothers me immensely.

A categorical bar

The position is not particular to Shapiro but is stated through him as a rule. "Josh Shapiro is a veteran of the IDF ... He's an American citizen who served, but he didn't serve in the US military. He went and joined the Israeli military. So sorry, no IDF soldier is getting my vote to be president of the United States. It's outrageous." Kiriakou puts the same test in the strongest available form: even if he and Shapiro agreed on one hundred per cent of the issues, he would not vote for him, purely on the volunteering.

He treats the consequence as already settled, that Shapiro has removed himself from national politics on this ground, and would not be a factor in a future Democratic primary field.

A viewer's objection put to him, that IDF service would be one thing if Shapiro had at least protected Pennsylvanians' civil liberties, but that he threatened to send the National Guard against pro-Palestine college encampments, drew Kiriakou's agreement: "Well, that's true."

In the roll-call of Democratic silence

Shapiro also appears in Kiriakou's standing list of Democrats who said nothing while Netanyahu, in his phrase, manhandled the U.S. government, Newsom, Shapiro, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, AOC and Hakeem Jeffries in the same breath. "The Democrats are completely implicated. It's as simple as that."

The kids-for-cash pardon

Shapiro enters Kiriakou's argument about clemency from a different direction. Making the case that Trump-era pardons went to people who had never applied for them, access and airtime doing the work an application is supposed to do, Kiriakou cites the kids-for-cash judge, who had not applied, and notes that even the Governor of Pennsylvania reacted with "whoa, wait a minute, where'd this pardon come from?" His summary of the man: "literally a guy who ruins the lives of children for money." The comparison is pointed, since Kiriakou's own request was still outstanding.

See also

- AIPAC
- VA benefits for IDF service
- Kiriakou's pardon request
- MOSSAD
