Barack Hussein Obama and Rashid Khalidi

Doesn't that just sound like a banner neoconservatives would loooove to wave at McCain rallies. "Look at their names! There's no way he could be pro-Israel, right?"

Wrong morons.

Anyway, this post is in regards to a previous post in which I shared my latest frustrations with the McCain camp and its newest attempts at "guilt by association", using Obama's relationship with Palestinian college professor, and alleged former PLO spokesman, Rashid Khalidi. I was engaging in my morning screening of blogs and came across an article by Jeffrey Goldberg responding to this post by Joe Klein, in which Klein also defends Obama's friendship with Khalidi by engaging in a bit of wordplay. Goldberg disagreed with Klein's assertions about "semites" and "anti-semites", but he did have the following to say specifically about Khalidi:

But about Khalidi -- he's a fierce partisan of the Palestinian cause, of course, and in my conversations with him, and in his writing, I see that his sympathies frequently cause him to distort Middle East history. But an anti-Semite? I don't think so. In fact, Rashid Khalidi is one of the rare Palestinian advocates who argues, as he has with me, that Arabs must study Jewish history, including and especially the history of Jew-hatred, in order to better understand Israel, and to reach a compromise with it.

Food for thought.

UPDATE: I just found the footage of Michael Goldfarb, a national spokesman for McCain's campaign, talking about Khalidi with Rick Sanchez of CNN. Take a look...



Let me spell out exactly what the tail end of that dialogue looked like:

SANCHEZ: Now, is the -- I need to parse this out as best I can from you, Michael. The fact that John McCain's organization gave $448,000 to this group that was founded by Mr. Khalidi, is there no reason for some to be critical of as well just as some might be critical of Barack Obama for being at a meeting with some girl read a poem for example?

GOLDFARB: Look. You are missing the point again, Rick. The point is that Barack Obama has a long track record of being around anti-Semitic and anti-Israel and anti-American rhetoric.

SANCHEZ: Can you name one other person besides Khalidi who he hangs around that is anti-Semitic?

GOLDFARB: Yes, he pals around with William Ayers.

SANCHEZ: No, no, the question I asked you is that can you name one other person who he hangs around with who is anti-Semitic? Because that is what you said.

GOLDFARB: Look, we know there are people who Barack Obama has been in hot water--

SANCHEZ: Michael, I asked you the name one person. One.

GOLDFARB: Rick --

SANCHEZ: You said he hangs around with people who are anti-Semitic. Okay. Khalidi and name other people that we all know about?

GOLDFARB: And rick, we both know who number two is.

SANCHEZ: Who? Would you tell us?

GOLDFARB: No, Rick, I think we all know who we are talking about here.

SANCHEZ: Somebody who is anti-Semitic that he hangs around with.

GOLDFARB: I think we all know who we are talking about.

SANCHEZ: Say it.

GOLDFARB: I think we all know who we're talking about, Rick.

SANCHEZ: Well, you say that his policies differ from Barack Obama and many other people, and either way, we have the leave it at that.

John McCain should worry less about Obama's association with Khalidi and more about his own association with this...unsavory character. Full post and comments here...

JT and Johnny Mac

What do they have in common? I think Justin sang it best when he crooned, "Cry me a river".

And that's what McCain and his entourage continue to beg the rest of us to do every time they try to raise another "questionable" Obama association. Granted, there are some legitimate ones, like Rev. Wright, that, if not for the racially-charged dynamic of the campaign, I'm sure the McCain camp would be complaining about from the rooftops (though Obama parried that attack deftly during the Democratic primary). Other associations, like Bill Ayers and Tony Rezko, are such old news, especially given the climate of economic discouse, that nothing short of video (not a photo - could be doctored) of Obama giving one of them a sponge bath could probably make them a central issue for independent and undecided voters.

So, for a time we thought the McCain cohort would actually start addressing issues of interest, and in a way they have by trying to paint Obama as a tax-and-spend socialist. But, with just days left until this soap opera draws to a close, the McCain-Palin ticket is back to doing what they love: hopping up and down and pointing frantically at another inconsequential Obama "association".

This time, it's Rashid Khalidi, currently a professor at Columbia, formerly a professor at UChicago, and, from 1976 to 1982, director of the official Palestinian press agency, WAFA, which was operating in exile from Beirut with the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization). Specifically, they're pissed that the LA Times, who wrote about Obama's relationship (we can call it that) with Khalidi in April of this year, isn't releasing a video believed to show Obama at a farewell dinner for Khalidi. ooooh.

I do not pretend that I have any extensive knowledge concerning the PLO, besides the fact that Arafat used to head them up, and Bush was working to try and broker peace between them and Israel (with no success). I also don't condone any violent actions they took that led them to be considered by the US as a "terrorist" group (I think this is back when you had to do more than smudge Bush's Pumas to get on that list). That being said, I think this particular attempt at guilt by association is disappointing for a slightly different reason: I don't see a problem with it.

---More after the jump---

Khalidi is a university professor with a very specific and significant set of life experiences that both the University of Chicago and Columbia University felt of such quality as to make him a professor at each of their institutions. What I think McPalin fails to understand is that it's possible for people who disagree with one another to be civil in expressing their differing points of view, and a lot of that happens in the university setting. The LA Times wrote the following of Obama's remarks to the gathering:

A special tribute came from Khalidi's friend and frequent dinner companion, the young state Sen. Barack Obama. Speaking to the crowd, Obama reminisced about meals prepared by Khalidi's wife, Mona, and conversations that had challenged his thinking. His many talks with the Khalidis, Obama said, had been "consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases. . . . It's for that reason that I'm hoping that, for many years to come, we continue that conversation -- a conversation that is necessary not just around Mona and Rashid's dinner table," but around "this entire world."

This sentiment is exactly what's wrong with Bush's approach to foreign policy, and almost everybody (including Gen. Petraeus) agrees. And, as far as I can tell from my reading on the issue, Khalidi is no longer a part or supporter of the PLO, and had even "helped facilitate negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in the early '90s" according to none other than FOX News. Frankly, I think it's good that Obama had a relationship with him - it could actually help to inform his actions as they pertain to that region of the world.

And riddle me this: when did Israel become an infallible nation state? I understand this is a very sensitive issue and don't pretend to deny the horrible acts of groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, but our seemingly blind, unflappable, whole-hearted committment to the absolute innocence of one side of this ongoing struggle seems a bit surreal, particularly around election time. It baffles me that the President is expected to be Israel's greatest ally, and somehow also make inroads for a peace agreement with Palestine. If Palestine is truly out of line to the point that we need to use military force, then let's call that spade a spade. But if the intent is to bring stability to the region, we have to be willing to try and understand both sides of this gridlock while advocating not for a country but for a state: a state of peace.

And that's the lesson McCain should take from Obama and Khalidi's "association".

Full post and comments here...