Can Obama Succeed Where Almontaser Failed–Mediating Jewish and Arab Communities?

I criticize the Times too much. Today it has a fabulous piece of reporting, by Andrea Elliott, on how Debbie Almontaser was forced out as principal of the Khalil Gibran school for Arabic in Brooklyn by a gang of anti-Islamic pro-Israel extremists–including the New York Sun, New York Post, and the regrettable Daniel Pipes–who characterized Almontaser as a "jihadist." The piece is important for two reasons:

–Almontaser failed in her overarching aim: to move the city forward by mediating Jewish and Arab perspectives, listening to both sides and not taking provocative stands, because she knew going in that she needed both communities if she was going to be effective. She had the support of many Jews. The failure was no fault of her own. No, she was forced out in precisely the manner that Obama’s neoconservative critics want to disqualify him now. Obama is also trying to triangulate, between the mainstream Jewish community and the antiwar (and pro-Palestinian) community. Will he be allowed to bridge this gap, to get Marty Peretz and Ali Abunimah to break bread, and move the country past this divide? Or will the rightwing press paint him as an extremist in the end?

–The great news is that this piece came out in the Times. In point of view and scope, it would seem to echo Jane Kramer’s New Yorker piece on the
campaign against Nadia Abu El-Haj at Columbia, and signal a new willingness on the
part of the mainstream press to take a stand against neocons
in their
ideological smear campaigns. The press declined to perform this role
during the David Project witchhunt at Columbia in ’05, or for that matter in the runup to the Iraq war. Now they see the Obama movement gathering on the horizon, and are growing a spine. 

12 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments