The McCain campaign has been throwing around so much mud and smears in recent weeks that it's easy to miss just how ugly and shameful their character assassination of Rashid Khalidi is. This is an entirely respectable, highly respected scholar. To go further into making a case for him would only be to enable and indulge McCain's sordid appeal to racism. For McCain, personally, to compare Khalidi to a neo-nazi, it's just an offense McCain should never be forgiven for. It's right down in the gutter with Joe McCarthy and the worst of the worst. Khalidi is in this new McCain set piece for one reason -- as a generic Arab, to spur the idea that Obama is foreign, friendly with terrorists and possibly Muslim.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/241253.php
[Marty Peretz writes] Excuse me. But the Jews of America have already decided—and by lopsided margins—that they want Barack Obama for president. They are convinced by his committed liberalism and by his committed Zionism.
Yes, I know that McCain and his supporters are exasperated after so many months of seeding completely insubstantial doubts about Obama and Israel only to find their candidate now being left with a nearly historic low among Jewish voters.
Their last gasp is trying to get the Los Angeles Times to release a video in its possession that ostensibly shows Obama saying kind words about Rashid Khalidi. See the excerpt below for an instance of this effort. The substance is nothing.
Wednesday's Jerusalem Post has an article about the Times' refusal to make the clip public. But the news story reports exactly what Obama did say about Khalidi, and frankly it is utter pabulum. Read for yourself.
I assume that my Zionist credentials are not in dispute. And I have written more appreciative words about Khalidi than Obama ever uttered. In fact, I even invited Khalidi to speak for a Jewish organization with which I work.
Moreover, the Israelis are trying to live cooperatively and in peace with Palestinians whose unrelenting positions make Khalidi almost appear like a Zionist.
http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_spine/archive/2008/10/30/excuse-me.aspx
Obama managed to hold onto the Jewish vote in part because of choices he made early on in the election, namely his struggle to prove himself tough on Jewish issues and to combat the viral smear campaigns with information campaigns of his own. When his Middle East policy adviser Robert Malley admitted to having met regularly with Hamas, Obama fired him from the campaign. He also distanced himself from President Carter under similar circumstances....the Republican Jewish Council (RJC), the major independent Jewish group on McCain's side, released a flurry of direct mail and TV advertisements reminding voters of Obama's ties to Reverend Jeremiah Wright and former terrorist William Ayers...And attacks that seem too partisan further alienate Jewish voters, who tend to be center-left to liberal--perhaps a reason why McCain's recent attempts to associate Obama with Palestinian-American professor Rashid Khalidi haven't stuck.
Finally, the contrast between the two vice-presidential nominees provided a major lift for Obama and may have been the central factor in turning the Jewish vote around. When Joe Biden spoke to the NJDC's annual convention in late September (after the Council initially requested Obama), he was greeted like an old friend coming home. He was affectionately introduced by Michael Adler, a former NJDC chair; the two have known each other for 30 years. In a hushed, passionate tone, Biden recalled bringing his children to visit Auschwitz, as well as his own trips to Israel. When hearing politicians speak about Israel, "Jews want to see the emotion," says Jay Footlik, who directed Jewish outreach for John Kerry. Even Benjamin Chouake, chairman of the hard-line Norpac and a member of John McCain's finance committee, concedes Joe Biden's bona fides on foreign policy. "His heart is in the right place," says Chouake.
Conversely, it would be hard to overestimate the role that Sarah Palin has played in bringing the Jewish vote solidly behind Obama. During the national honeymoon that followed her selection and convention speech, Jewish voters simply did not share the rest of the country's enthusiasm--and that was the very moment when Jewish polling numbers began to tip back in Obama's favor. According to an American Jewish Committee poll, 54 percent of Jews disapproved of her selection. As Koch told me, perhaps summarizing the Jewish community's collective response: "She scares the hell out of me."
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=4caddc86-ef98-4bf1-a4fb-bb3cbc40b9d1
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Oh, absolutely, I agree on that, I was just saying it's stupid to blame Obama of "palin' around" with terrorists and trying to "prove it" mentioning his relationship with someone McCain is even CLOSER to. If Khalidi was in fact even SUSPECTED of being a terrorist he'd be in Guantanamo by now (no regard for his right to a fair trial, habeaus corpus, etc...) sorry if my comment was a bit confusing
magiorey 3 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
Youre not Jewish. So stop pretending that you are.
ThunderAppeal 3 years ago
McCain is a hypocrite.
MountOlivet 3 years ago
truthlovver: McCains pal G. Gordon Liddy (US terrorist) has acknowledged: preparing 2 kill someone during the Ellsberg break-in "if necessary"; plotting 2 murder journalist Jack Anderson; plotting w/gangland figure" 2 murder Howard Hunt 2 stop him from cooperating w/investigators; plotting 2 firebomb the Brookings Institution; & plotting 2 kidnap "leftist guerillas" at the 1972 RNC. Just more evidence of more McCain hypocrisy.
sleonardelli 3 years ago 2
magiorey, just to be clear: The key thing (for me and many others at least) is not whether Mccain had some kind of ties to a terrorist but whether OBAMA in fact had ties to a terrorist. The point I am making is that Khalidi is not a terrorist.
truthlovver 3 years ago
The PLO PNC voted to take out of its Charter the clause rejecting Israel, & all of the Oslo accords recognize Israel. Also, Fatah was a terrorist faction W/IN the PLO.
Anyways, the pt. I made above should be heeded:
The PLO is accepted by the U.S. (including Bush admin) as the legitimate leadership of what it sees as a legitimate political movement. So Khalidi being PLO is not, by Bush et al, an illegitimate thing, REGARDLESS of Mccain donating to an organization on whose board Khalidi sat.
truthlovver 3 years ago
with all respect, no I am not missing the point. in any event, my point was intended for anticonformist, who by his/her self-description is an intelligent person active in the jewish community.
truthlovver 3 years ago
You're missing the point, the point is: the McCain campaign are the ones saying that Obama's relatiosnship with THE SAME PERSON prove he's "palin' around with terrorists" even though McCain was on BETTER terms with THE SAME PERSON!!!
magiorey 3 years ago
Here's the terrorist association that bothers me:
McCain seems to have led the charge in 1999(along with Lieberman) for arming the extremist-Moslem terrorist group the Kosovo Liberation Army. His associations with the IRI (International Rep Institute) and thus the violent revolution in Haiti, I also find repugnant.
This is real scandal of press cover-up, along with the truth of McCain's treatment of the MIA families, and investigation of what could have been the motives behind it.
givebirthathome 3 years ago 2
anticonformist, your blurb seems to miss the heart of the matter (as has MSNBC): The PLO is accepted by the U.S. (including the Bush administration) as the legitimate political leadership of what it sees as a legitimate political movement (Palestinian independence).
truthlovver 3 years ago