Josh Micah Marshall has a great post on Khalidi. Holding nothing back, not mincing words. Calling it McCarthyism and racism. Dude you make me finally proud to be an American. This is the angry tone I've been waiting for. Marshall channels Joseph B. Welch in the great Army-McCarthy hearings my mother made me watch.
There's a John Judis New Republic video at the bottom of Marshall's post. B+. Judis wears a Pendleton shirt and says that the Khalidi smear is "over the bounds," and likens it to McCarthyism. He also praises Khalidi, but faintly. I bet he's worried about what Marty Peretz will say. For instance, he starts off by talking about all the people who would disagree with Khalidi's views. Though: "I happen to have read two of his books and think very well of him." And Khalidi's for a two-state solution, and his views aren't different from a lot of leftwing Israelis. As if we dignify our discourse by relying on Israel's standards. "There's nothing that would qualify him to be smeared as a neo-Nazi," Judis says ringingly.
I don't know. Why can't you just give an Arab a big old French kiss some time?
P.S. Judis is a great man. A couple years ago he broke a seal in my own thinking when he said Of course the Jewish leadership demands "dual loyalty" of American Jews. This piece is still not up on the New Republic site. Essentially censored; though they keep saying they're working out the kinks. You can read it on the Carnegie site.
And yes, I got Josh's name wrong when I first posted this. Apologies to all and sundry..
