The real religious issue is finally coming out. The Republican National Committee has issued a long press release all about Obama's relationship in Chicago to Rashid Khalidi, citing a number of news articles that described or suggested Obama's sympathy to Palestinians. The stories make me very hopeful, as they remind me of Obama's progressive roots, and indicate that this story might finally hit the fan. One suggests that Obama is "anti-Zionist." Is that a crime? Can we have a conversation about this and include Jewish anti-Zionists like the charming and eloquent Anna Baltzer? How long will the media, and Obama, allow a fine scholar and temperate man, Khalidi, to be smeared? Obama apparently enjoyed his friendship with Mona Khalidi, and no wonder, she's got a big soul. She also is attacked here.
Another story says that Obama may seek a more "evenhanded" policy in the Middle East. About time this was finally debated. Howard Dean used the dreaded word "evenhanded" in 2003, and was cut off at the knees. Even the liberal Democratic Jewish community gave Dean no cover on this question (as Dan Fleshler has reported). Because there are Israel-first neocons inside the Dem Party too. Thank you RNC. Let us have this out. Let us know not just where Obama stands, but the Jewish community.
P.S. Fleshler wrote the following in the Forward three years ago. Is the crisis finally percolating up?
premise [that it is wrong to have an "evenhanded" Israel/Palestine policy] without reservation shows the anachronistic nature of our
community’s political discourse. This nasty fracas should prompt Jews
in both parties to redefine and take the sting out of words like
“evenhandedness,” “not taking sides” and all of the other euphemisms
for impartial, neutral American diplomacy. In fact, it will be in
Israel’s and America’s interests for Washington to be evenhanded, at
least sometimes, in the months ahead.
