Yesterday’s LA Times had a front-page story making a point I’ve also made: supporters of Palestinian self-determination have high hopes in Obama:
Obama is a U.S. 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… And yet the warm embrace Obama gave to [Rashid] 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.
True, and important. The piece was promptly attacked by the Nation. Jon Wiener faults the LA Times for bringing up years-ago meetings with Edward Said and Rashid Khalidi and putting them on page 1. He says the story hints slyly that Obama is not pro-Israel. Ari Berman made a similar criticism in the Nation last
month when he said that reporters shouldn’t be going after Obama’s connections with Khalidi. I think these guys are afraid that Obama won’t win if this sort of story comes out. And maybe they’re right. Israel-firster Ed Lasky, for instance, is one of a pack of neocons who hammer unfairly on this issue from the right.
But Lasky has the right to know the facts, and so do I.
The LA Times should be celebrated for putting this story on page 1. It’s about time we had a conversation about Palestine in the American press. We need more
information, not less information. Think about it: we’ve spent eight years, or 20 years, not knowing what our leaders’
real agenda was re Israel/Palestine. Don’t we want to know this about Obama, McCain and Hillary?
Of course, Obama hasn’t said a word about this stuff, and we all know
why. Politics! But since when should journalists serve that aim? So what that these are ten-year-old meetings! I want newspapers to probe how Obama feels about Israel and Palestine. I want to know about his connections to Ali Abunimah and other Arabs, and to Jews as well. The LAT just put the late great Edward Said on the front page– good for them!
The louder and more prominent this conversation is, the better-informed Americans will be about issues that have enormous impact but that have been marginalized. Bring it on. I think my side will win; and that a popular acceptance of the cause of Palestinian self-determination will bring our country forward. Not for nothing is Obama a progressive.
Of course if we have that wide-open conversation and I lose, and the people decide that an Israel-right-or-wrong policy is in the American interest, that’s democracy. It’s a lot better than what we have now.
