H
Harry Dope
Guest
Palestinians See a Friend in Obama
Los Angeles Times
It was a celebration of Palestinian culture...Local Arab Americans were
bidding farewell to Rashid Khalidi, an internationally known scholar, critic
of Israel and advocate for Palestinian rights, who was leaving town for a
job in New York. 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."...Today, five years later, Obama is a US senator
from Illinois who expresses a firmly pro-Israel view of Middle East
politics, pleasing many of the Jewish leaders and advocates for Israel whom
he is courting in his presidential campaign. The dinner conversations he had
envisioned with his Palestinian American friend have ended. He and Khalidi
have seen each other only fleetingly in recent years. And yet the warm
embrace Obama gave to Khalidi, and words like those at the professor's
going-away party, have left some Palestinian American leaders believing that
Obama is more receptive to their viewpoint than he is willing to say. Their
belief is not drawn from Obama's speeches or campaign literature, but from
comments that some say Obama made in private and from his association with
the Palestinian American community in his hometown of Chicago, including his
presence at events where anger at Israeli and US Middle East policy was
freely expressed. At Khalidi's 2003 farewell party, for example, a young
Palestinian American recited a poem accusing the Israeli government of
terrorism in its treatment of Palestinians and sharply criticizing US
support of Israel. If Palestinians cannot secure their own land, she said,
"then you will never see a day of peace." One speaker likened "Zionist
settlers on the West Bank" to Osama bin Laden, saying both had been "blinded
by ideology." Obama adopted a different tone in his comments and called for
finding common ground. But his presence at such events, as he worked to
build a political base in Chicago, has led some Palestinian leaders to
believe that he might deal differently with the Middle East than either of
his opponents for the White House.
Los Angeles Times
It was a celebration of Palestinian culture...Local Arab Americans were
bidding farewell to Rashid Khalidi, an internationally known scholar, critic
of Israel and advocate for Palestinian rights, who was leaving town for a
job in New York. 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."...Today, five years later, Obama is a US senator
from Illinois who expresses a firmly pro-Israel view of Middle East
politics, pleasing many of the Jewish leaders and advocates for Israel whom
he is courting in his presidential campaign. The dinner conversations he had
envisioned with his Palestinian American friend have ended. He and Khalidi
have seen each other only fleetingly in recent years. And yet the warm
embrace Obama gave to Khalidi, and words like those at the professor's
going-away party, have left some Palestinian American leaders believing that
Obama is more receptive to their viewpoint than he is willing to say. Their
belief is not drawn from Obama's speeches or campaign literature, but from
comments that some say Obama made in private and from his association with
the Palestinian American community in his hometown of Chicago, including his
presence at events where anger at Israeli and US Middle East policy was
freely expressed. At Khalidi's 2003 farewell party, for example, a young
Palestinian American recited a poem accusing the Israeli government of
terrorism in its treatment of Palestinians and sharply criticizing US
support of Israel. If Palestinians cannot secure their own land, she said,
"then you will never see a day of peace." One speaker likened "Zionist
settlers on the West Bank" to Osama bin Laden, saying both had been "blinded
by ideology." Obama adopted a different tone in his comments and called for
finding common ground. But his presence at such events, as he worked to
build a political base in Chicago, has led some Palestinian leaders to
believe that he might deal differently with the Middle East than either of
his opponents for the White House.
