Video: McCain Campaign's Khalidi Head Fake Exposed on CNN
| Thu Oct. 30, 2008 12:34 PM PDT
The McCain campaign is pushing hard on the Rashid Khalidi story. Khalidi is a public intellectual and a professor of Arab studies at Columbia University. He has a history of critical statements about Israel and has been accused of serving as a PLO spokesman decades ago. He denies that charge.
He also happens to be a friend of Barack Obama's. They were both at a function that the LA Times has video tape of, which the McCain campaign now wants to see released. The campaign is painting Obama's ties to Khalidi as another example of Obama's "unsavory" associations.
But wait. First of all, John McCain has some awfully bad judgment if Khalidi is so objectionable. McCain served as chairman of the International Republican Institute, which provided grants worth roughly $500,000 to the Center for Palestine Research and Studies, a group Khalidi co-founded.
Second, this Khalidi business is, at its heart, a backdoor way for the McCain campaign to bring up Jeremiah Wright, which its candidate has promised he will not do. "Obama hangs out with multiple dudes who hate Israel! You know who we're talking about!" Today on CNN, a McCain spokesman tried to pull this trick and the anchor asked him to make it explicit. He refused to do so, making his ploy transparent and making himself look like an ass. I was entertained:
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Comments
No worries Mate.
Anyone who was paying attention knows that Barack swore alegiance to AIPAC just a few months back.
All Barack needs to do is run a commercial featuring his remarks before Israel's lobbiests on June 4th.
As MoJo reported Barack's words:
I will bring to the White House an unshakeable commitment to Israel's security. That starts with ensuring Israel's qualitative military advantage. ...I will ensure Israel can defend itself from any threat, from Gaza to Tehran. ...
As president I will use all elements of American power to pressure Iran. I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Everything.
That starts with aggressive, principled tough diplomacy with clear eyed understanding of our interests. We have no time to waste. ... We have tried limited, piecemeal talks, outsourced to other parties. It has not worked. It is time for the US to lead ....
I have no interest to sit down just for sake of talking. But as president I would be willing at time and place of my choosing, if and only if it advances the interests of the United States. It is time once again to make diplomacy succeed.
(Choice to Iran will be clear). If you abandon your nuclear program, your support for terrorism, and your threats to Israel, there will be economic incentives. If you refuse, we will ratchet up the pressure.
We don't think our man was lying to AIPAC about it..., Do We?
Submitted by EK Buddenhagen (not verified) on Thu Oct. 30, 2008 5:28 PM PDT.
Your post still leaves a too-negative impression of Khalidi. He has been critical, yes, but he is also extremely critical of Palestinian decisions and actions. His criticism arises from a clear-headed analysis of situations, not from bias towards one side or the other. Not only does he deny the charge of being a Palestinian spokesman, so would the Israelis. He served at a conference in Madrid as someone who advised the Palestinians, but he could not have if Israelis hadn't cleared him to participate beforehand. AND it is critical to say that Khalidi was born in the US and is a US citizen not only by birth but by loyalty. Read Juan Cole's post today at http://www.juancole.com/2008/10/mccain-racism-hypocrisy-on-khalidi.html
Look at McCain. McCain also has his Sheldon Adelson(3rd richest man in US), see the New Yorker's expose of Sheldon Adelson's life as a right-wing political wheeler-dealer and gambling tycoon. Soros is small potatoes compared to Adelson. The New Yorker describes in great detail Adelson's campaign to end Ehud Olmert's prime ministership so that he might replace him with his buddy, Bibi Netanyahu(right wing nut). Adelson doesn't merely oppose Olmert in the conventional sense that someone might oppose a sitting prime minister. He loathes him. He accuses him of being a traitor and his government as being somehow illegitimate (all these are echoes of the extremist settler movement). The following is a discussion of the full court press Adelson exerted on GEORGE BUSH to scuttle the Annapolis summit because right wingers feared it would lead to negotiating away Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem:Adelson opposed both Olmert and the peace conference, which was held in Annapolis in late November. The Zionist Organization of America, to which Adelson is a major contributor, ran a full-page ad in the Times, headlined, "SECRETARY RICE: DON'T PROMOTE A STATE FOR PALESTINIANS WHILE THEIR 10 COMMANDMENTS PROMOTE TERRORISM AND ISRAEL'S DESTRUCTION." The "10 Commandments" referred to the constitution of Fatah, Abbas's party. "Osama Bin-Laden and Hamas would be proud of Abbas' Fatah Constitution," the ad stated. I don't know about you folks, but I'm deeply frightened of a mega-billionaire who shares the political views of Daniel Pipes, David Horowitz, Charles Jacobs, Bibi Netanyahu and Natan Sharansky. There's no telling how much damage so much money can do in a political process.
ITs blatant what we need to do! We need to respond to a wise call to action and stand up. We need to remember what it means to be President of the United States. we need to remember whats at stake! There no better argument for McCain to never reach the white house than these Mad McCain videos.
http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2008/11/election-fraud-map.html
What I'm having a hard time understanding is, if it is so terrible that Obama has had some association with people who did "unsavory" things decades ago (long before Obama ever met them), why is it not a problem that Palin is actually in bed with an anti-American who just a few short years ago was advocating secession from the USA?
It looks to me that McCain is a puppet of Israel and their supporters money. This really scares me. McCain is going to get us into a war with Iran, and then the Jews throughout the world will be blamed for the depression that follows from the cut off of 30% of the world's oil.
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