Khalidi My Perspective

TW: My take on the Khalidi LA Times thing. One, why is it so viscerally problematic for Americans to associate with respected Arab professors unless they are completely vanilla in their backgrounds (i.e. amongst others, one could put up video after video of McCain associating with right wing dictators, Pinochet etc., responsible for the deaths of thousands but somehow we can absorb that without palpitations). Two, this is all about cultural porn. The Rev. Wright videos were classic porn, they were titillating but eventually the impact dissipated. The Republicans would love to throw some fresh porn into the MSM for the weekend. The LA Times wrote a lengthy story months ago about the substance of the tapes, this effort is all about the form.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-obamamideast10apr10,0,1780231,full.story

The Economist posts on the topic as well:
"Mr Obama seems to be admitting gently that he has "biases" towards Israel that a Palestinian critic made clear to him. Once again, we see someone able to see both sides of an issue. The 100%-pro-Israel-or-nothing usual suspects will see this as proof that Mr Obama is suspicious. But as we have often said, an understanding of Palestinian grievances—and support for an eventual founding of a Palestinian state—do more for Israel than blind support ever could. You know who else has ties to the PLO? Ask George Bush, the first president to call for a Palestinian state. Ask Yitzhak Rabin, the war hero who gave his life to an assassin's bullet for talking with the Palestinians. Ask Ehud Barak, the most decorated soldier in Israeli history, who almost reached an agreement with Yasir Arafat at Taba. A majority in Israel favours a Palestinian state. Khalidigate—or the fact that Mr McCain seems to think it would damage Mr Obama—just proves how toxic the Israel-Palestine issue is in America, like abortion, but in foreign affairs, poisoning rational discussion to death"
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2008/10/khalidigate.cfm

And this from CNN:


Joe Klein's critique of above:
"Here we have the McCain campaign's execrable Michael Goldfarb slinging around accusations of anti-semitism--a favorite pastime, as we've seen this year, among Jewish neoconservatives. I've never met Rashid Khalidi, but he is (a) Palestinian and therefore (b) a semite, so the charge of anti-semitism is fatuous. Khalidi is also a respected academic, the sort of person who is involved in foundation work that John McCain, for one, was willing to support financially. I'd say that if we have a bigot here, it's Mr. Goldfarb who, if he's intent on calling people antisemitic--or any other epithet--should be required to provide chapter and verse, which he does not do on CNN."