We now turn from sexual politics to politics. After Saddam Hussein's forces invaded Kuwait in August 1990, the United States began working with U.N. coalition forces to reverse that act, whether through diplomacy and economic sanctions or, more likely, through arms. During the buildup of troops in Saudi Arabia, President George H. W. Bush enjoyed broad support from neoconservatives, needless to say, and from moderates across the spectrum. Surprisingly, he also at first enjoyed support from the Left – partly because he was working with the U.N. and partly because Saddam's claims to be another Castro or Mao fighting the capitalist West were plainly risible.

What about the paleoconservatives? Wanting to focus the debate on America's need for oil from the Middle East, William Buckley proposed “a 15-year treaty with Saudi Arabia” by which we would “guarantee [their] sovereignty” against the depredations of Saddam and they would “guarantee to sell us (and other signatories) oil at the price of oil in Galveston, Texas.” What, though, about America's interest in “the defense of Israel,” a country of which Saddam was a ferocious enemy? Did that question, Buckley wondered, portend “a genuine and long-term split within the conservative movement, separating neo-isolationists from internationalists?”

It did. From the Far Right, Patrick Buchanan, equating neoconservatives with Jews, was (as we have seen) denouncing their foreign policy agenda as less pro-America than pro-Israel. Podhoretz's response was quick, cogent, and defiant.