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The Khalidi Chronicles—the McCain connection (UPDATE #2)

By Eric Fingerhut · October 29, 2008

Republican Jews, and other McCain supporters, have been paying a lot of attention to Barack Obama’s relationship with Rashid Khalidi. But John McCain has his own affiliation with the Palestinian-American academic and activist.

McCain has been chairman of the International Republican Institute since 1993, an organization which “advances freedom and democracy worldwide by developing political parties, civic institutions, open elections, good governance and the rule of law.” And in 1993, the Center for Palestine Research and Studies – an organization which Khalidi co-founded and was a member of its board of directors from 1993-1998, started conducting opinion polls in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with the help of funding from IRI.

In fact, in 1998, the IRI’s second largest grant of $448,873 went to CPRS for survey work in the West Bank, according to IRI’s Form 990. That seems remarkably similar to a Republican Jewish Coalition criticism of Obama: The Democratic presidential nominee served on the board of the Woods Fund, which provided a $40,000 grant in 2001 and a $35,000 grant the following year to the Arab American Action Network, a group co-founded by Khalidi. The organization – whose president at the time was Khalidi’s wife, Mona – “works to improve the social, economic and political conditions of Arab immigrants and Arab Americans” in the Chicago area.

What’s the difference? RJC executive director Matt Brooks argued there were a couple of them. Brooks said there was nothing wrong with serving on a board that gave a Khalidi-affiliated organization funds – the issue, he said, was the type of organization being funded. He pointed to a report that the AAAN sponsored an art exhibit at DePaul University entitled “The Subject of Palestine,” which featured works related to what Palestinians call the “Nakba” or “catastrophe” of Israel’s founding in 1948. That exhibit took place in 2005, three years after Obama left the Woods Fund board.

Brooks further emphasized that he was more concerned about the personal relationship between Obama and Khalidi, and whether Obama agreed with Khalidi’s opinions about the Middle East.

Khalidi is considered a moderate by Palestinians and many in the pro-Israel community. The L.A. Times article notes that he has called killing civilians a “war crime,” although he’s also long been critical of Israel and U.S. policy in the Middle East.

Obama and Khalidi became friendly as professors at the University of Chicago in the 1990s and neighbors in Hyde Park, and the Khalidis held a fundraiser for Obama’s unsuccessful congressional bid. Obama also attended a farewell dinner for Khalidi in Chicago in 2003, prior to his move to Columbia University, in which he said that his conversations with the Khalidis were “consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases,” according to an April Los Angeles Times article, which obtained a video of the dinner. The paper reported back in April that the dinner also included the recital of a poem accusing the Israeli government of terrorism in its treatment of Palestinians and criticizing U.S. suppport of the Jewish state.

This week, there has been renewed interest in that videotape from certain corners of the media and blogosphere – culminating in Tuesday’s demand by McCain campaign spokesman Michael Goldfarb that the L.A. Times publicly release the tape. He also charged the publication with “intentionally suppressing information.” The Times responded that it obtained the tape from a source on the condition that it not be publicly shown, and the paper “keeps its promises to sources.”

UPDATE: On Wednesday, Sarah Palin jumped into the fray over Khalidi. “It seems that there is yet another radical professor from the neighborhood who spent a lot of time with Barack Obama going back several years,” said the Republican vice presidential nominee on Wednesday at an event in Bowling Green, Ohio.

“This is important because his associate, Rashid Khalidi … in addition to being a political ally of Barack Obama, he’s a former spokesperson for the Palestinian Liberation Organization,” she said.

McCain also brought up the connection in a Miami radio interview.

Khalidi has denied being a spokesperson for the PLO. He did work for the Palestinian press agency Wafa in the 1980s and served as an adviser to the Palestinian delegation at the Madrid peace talks in 1991.

Obama has specifically addressed his relationship with Khalidi during the campaign. At an appearance at a Florida synagogue back in May, he said in response to a question: “I do know him and I have had conversations. He is not one of my advisors; he’s not one of my foreign policy people. His kids went to the Lab school where my kids go as well. He is a respected scholar, although he vehemently disagrees with a lot of Israel’s policy.”

He continued, “To pluck out one person who I know and who I’ve had a conversation with who has very different views than 900 of my friends and then to suggest that somehow that shows that maybe I’m not sufficiently pro-Israel, I think, is a very problematic stand to take…So we gotta be careful about guilt by association.”

UPDATE #2: Jake Tapper of ABC News has a statement from IRI confirming that it did provide money to CPRS, while saying it does not recall “any contact with Khalidi.

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Political tidbits: Silverman talks about the “schlep,” new ads and more

By Eric Fingerhut · October 7, 2008

• Sarah Silverman talks to the New York Times about her video for “The Great Schlep.”
  
• The National Jewish Democratic Council’s new advertisement deals with energy independence, while the Republican Jewish Coalition’s latest is about Obama’s statement that he would meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “without preconditions.”
• Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff reveals that Barack Obama’s campaign returned $33,000 to two brothers in the Gaza Strip who had bought t-shirts in bulk from the campaign’s online store. They listed their addresss as “Ga.,” which the campaign thought was Georgia.
• Time’s Joe Klein asks “where’s the outrage” from conservative Jews over Sarah Palin’s church and Sean Hannity citing a “Jew-hater” as a source.
• The Cleveland Plain-Dealer explores whether Republicans can make inroads in the Jewish vote in Ohio.
• Joe Lieberman tells Chabad of Boca Raton, and the Palm Beach Post, that it’s OK to attack Obama’s associations, but that doesn’t mean McCain is trying to avoid issues.
• Lieberman introduces Palin at a big fundraiser in Palm Beach.
• Matt Littman, at the Huffington Post, wonders how many Jews Sarah Palin has met.
  
• Those pro-Obama videos from Israelis give a false impression of his support in the Jewish state, according to Shmuel Rosner in Commentary.

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What Palin would have said today (and why Hillary backed out)

By Ami Eden · September 22, 2008

I’ve spent the past few days listening to people play the blame game about today’s Iran rally: Malcolm, Malcolm bo-balcom, banna fanna fo-Hillary, mi my mo-morman – Forman. One thing is clear: The McCain camp did intend to use the joint appearance with Hillary Clinton as a hammer with which to slam Barack Obama.

How do we know?

Because the McCain campaign is circulating the remarks that it says she would have given at the rally (they were published in Monday’s New York Sun).

Check out this passage:

Earlier this year, Senator Clinton said that “Iran is seeking nuclear weapons, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is in the forefront of that” effort. Senator Clinton argued that part of our response must include stronger sanctions, including the designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization. John McCain and I could not agree more.

Translation: Clinton gets the threat, Obama and Biden don’t.

The back story: Clinton voted for a resolution calling on the Bush administration to designate the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group. Obama and Biden voted against it.

The missing piece of information: Obama and Biden say they agree with the Bush administration’s subsequent decision to sanction the Iranian outfit, but opposed the resolution over concerns that the White House might use the measure to justify future military action against Iran without Congressional resolution.

So ... if we are to believe that these were really her intended remarks… Not only was Palin planning to use Clinton (and her platform at the Jewish community-sponsored rally) to swipe at Obama, but she was going to do so in a misleading way.

Democrats may have mishandled the situation, and may be unfairly assigning sinister motives to rally organizers, but one thing is clear: They were right to be concerned that the invitation to Palin would infuse a heavy dose of partisanship into what was supposed to be a unity rally.

UPDATED: Forgot to mention that Palin also planned to offer a strong plug for McCain’s Iraq policy:

If we retreat without leaving a stable Iraq, Iran’s nuclear ambitions will be bolstered. If Iran acquires nuclear weapons – they could share them tomorrow with the terrorists they finance, arm, and train today. Iranian nuclear weapons would set off a dangerous regional nuclear arms race that would make all of us less safe.

In general, that would be a perfectly understandable and legitimate point to make in a stump speech, but not the best talking point for a rally aimed at building a politically diverse coalition for tougher sanctions against Iran.

Here’s the full text:

I am honored to be with you and with leaders from across this great country – leaders from different faiths and political parties united in a single voice of outrage.

Tomorrow, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will come to New York – to the heart of what he calls the Great Satan – and speak freely in this, a country whose demise he has called for.

Ahmadinejad may choose his words carefully, but underneath all of the rhetoric is an agenda that threatens all who seek a safer and freer world. We gather here today to highlight the Iranian dictator’s intentions and to call for action to thwart him.

He must be stopped.

The world must awake to the threat this man poses to all of us. Ahmadinejad denies that the Holocaust ever took place. He dreams of being an agent in a “Final Solution” – the elimination of the Jewish people. He has called Israel a “stinking corpse” that is “on its way to annihilation.” Such talk cannot be dismissed as the ravings of a madman – not when Iran just this summer tested long-range Shahab-3 missiles capable of striking Tel Aviv, not when the Iranian nuclear program is nearing completion, and not when Iran sponsors terrorists that threaten and kill innocent people around the world.

The Iranian government wants nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency reports that Iran is running at least 3,800 centrifuges and that its uranium enrichment capacity is rapidly improving. According to news reports, U.S. intelligence agencies believe the Iranians may have enough nuclear material to produce a bomb within a year.

The world has condemned these activities. The United Nations Security Council has demanded that Iran suspend its illegal nuclear enrichment activities. It has levied three rounds of sanctions. How has Ahmadinejad responded? With the declaration that the “Iranian nation would not retreat one iota” from its nuclear program.

So, what should we do about this growing threat? First, we must succeed in Iraq. If we fail there, it will jeopardize the democracy the Iraqis have worked so hard to build, and empower the extremists in neighboring Iran. Iran has armed and trained terrorists who have killed our soldiers in Iraq, and it is Iran that would benefit from an American defeat in Iraq.

If we retreat without leaving a stable Iraq, Iran’s nuclear ambitions will be bolstered. If Iran acquires nuclear weapons – they could share them tomorrow with the terrorists they finance, arm, and train today. Iranian nuclear weapons would set off a dangerous regional nuclear arms race that would make all of us less safe.

But Iran is not only a regional threat; it threatens the entire world. It is the no. 1 state sponsor of terrorism. It sponsors the world’s most vicious terrorist groups, Hamas and Hezbollah. Together, Iran and its terrorists are responsible for the deaths of Americans in Lebanon in the 1980s, in Saudi Arabia in the 1990s, and in Iraq today. They have murdered Iraqis, Lebanese, Palestinians, and other Muslims who have resisted Iran’s desire to dominate the region. They have persecuted countless people simply because they are Jewish.

Iran is responsible for attacks not only on Israelis, but on Jews living as far away as Argentina. Anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial are part of Iran’s official ideology and murder is part of its official policy. Not even Iranian citizens are safe from their government’s threat to those who want to live, work, and worship in peace. Politically-motivated abductions, torture, death by stoning, flogging, and amputations are just some of its state-sanctioned punishments.

It is said that the measure of a country is the treatment of its most vulnerable citizens. By that standard, the Iranian government is both oppressive and barbaric. Under Ahmadinejad’s rule, Iranian women are some of the most vulnerable citizens.

If an Iranian woman shows too much hair in public, she risks being beaten or killed.

If she walks down a public street in clothing that violates the state dress code, she could be arrested.

But in the face of this harsh regime, the Iranian women have shown courage. Despite threats to their lives and their families, Iranian women have sought better treatment through the “One Million Signatures Campaign Demanding Changes to Discriminatory Laws.” The authorities have reacted with predictable barbarism. Last year, women’s rights activist Delaram Ali was sentenced to 20 lashes and 10 months in prison for committing the crime of “propaganda against the system.” After international protests, the judiciary reduced her sentence to “only” 10 lashes and 36 months in prison and then temporarily suspended her sentence. She still faces the threat of imprisonment.

Earlier this year, Senator Clinton said that “Iran is seeking nuclear weapons, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is in the forefront of that” effort. Senator Clinton argued that part of our response must include stronger sanctions, including the designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization. John McCain and I could not agree more.

Senator Clinton understands the nature of this threat and what we must do to confront it. This is an issue that should unite all Americans. Iran should not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. Period. And in a single voice, we must be loud enough for the whole world to hear: Stop Iran!

Only by working together, across national, religious, and political differences, can we alter this regime’s dangerous behavior. Iran has many vulnerabilities, including a regime weakened by sanctions and a population eager to embrace opportunities with the West. We must increase economic pressure to change Iran’s behavior.

Tomorrow, Ahmadinejad will come to New York. On our soil, he will exercise the right of freedom of speech – a right he denies his own people. He will share his hateful agenda with the world. Our task is to focus the world on what can be done to stop him.

We must rally the world to press for truly tough sanctions at the U.N. or with our allies if Iran’s allies continue to block action in the U.N. We must start with restrictions on Iran’s refined petroleum imports.

We must reduce our dependency on foreign oil to weaken Iran’s economic influence.

We must target the regime’s assets abroad; bank accounts, investments, and trading partners.

President Ahmadinejad should be held accountable for inciting genocide, a crime under international law.

We must sanction Iran’s Central Bank and the Revolutionary Guard Corps – which no one should doubt is a terrorist organization.

Together, we can stop Iran’s nuclear program.

Senator McCain has made a solemn commitment that I strongly endorse: Never again will we risk another Holocaust. And this is not a wish, a request, or a plea to Israel’s enemies. This is a promise that the United States and Israel will honor, against any enemy who cares to test us. It is John McCain’s promise and it is my promise.

Thank you.

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The rabbi and the pastor

By Ami Eden · September 3, 2008

Eric Fingerhut has an article up about two prayers recited at Barack Obama’s big night last week in Denver at the Democratic convention: one by Rabbi David Saperstein, the Reform movement’s man in D.C., and another by Pastor John Hunter of Florida:

Barack Obama’s big night began with a prayer from a rabbi and ended with one concluding “in Jesus’ name.” Well, sort of.

A few minutes after the Democratic nominee made his acceptance speech Aug. 28 at Denver’s Invesco Field, an evangelical Christian pastor stepped to the microphone and delivered an ecumenical benediction – until he reached the very end.

“I want to interrupt this prayer for a closing instruction,” said Joel Hunter of Northwood Church in Longwood, Fla., adding that he wanted it to be a “participatory prayer.” So Hunter asked everyone to “close this prayer in the way your faith tradition” would “usually end prayers” – he concluded with the words “in Jesus’ name.”

Such an ending by itself might be expected to draw some Jewish objections. But at least one rabbi, Jack Moline, at the convention argued that the novel conclusion was a reasonable compromise to the dilemma of how to allow evangelical Christians to stay true to their traditions in public settings while not turning off those of other faiths.

In fact, said Moline, a Conservative rabbi from Agudas Achim Congregation in Alexandria, Va., it was his idea.

Check out the full story for Saperstein’s reaction and and the skinny on his speech.

Here are the videos:

UPDATE: Tuesday night it was the GOP’s turn to have a rabbi deliver one of the prayers.

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Biden & Schumer headed to Florida

By Ami Eden · September 1, 2008

In an interview with JTA last week, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz insisted that Joe Biden would be a big asset with Jewish folks in Florida, predicting he would “come down and move around the bagel places and the condos.”

Well… it didn’t take long. Biden heads to Florida on Tuesday – we don’t see any bagel joints on the itinerary, but he’s scheduled to work the Clubhouse Party Room at the Century Village in Deerfield Beach. Later in the day, he’ll be hosting another town hall, at the Palm Beach County Convention Center.

And for a follow-up ... the Obama campaign will be sending down perhaps the Jewiest Jewish member of Congress:

Next Sunday, September 7, U.S. Senator Charles “Chuck” Schumer of New York will visit South Florida to speak with voters about Barack Obama’s vision for bringing the change we need to America. Schumer will visit the Turnberry Jewish Center in Aventura, Temple Solel in Hollywood
and Temple Beth Shalom in Century Village in Boca Raton to discuss Senator Obama’s long-standing support for Israel and other issues of interest to the Jewish community in this election.

Schumer’s scheduled visit underscores a major development: In the primary most Jewish members of Congress were backing Hillary Clinton – this time around they’ll be stumping for Obama. And that’s a good thing for the Democratic candidate, especially in parts of Florida.

How desperate is Barack Obama’s situation with elderly Jews down in the condos? Depends who you ask. Wasserman Schultz and one of South Florida’s other Jewish congressman, Robert Wexler, sounded fairly optimistic at last week’s Democratic convention. But two state lawmakers with their finger on the pulse of Jewish seniors in South Florida, Nan Rich and Steve Geller, said the situation is bad:

Florida state Sen. Nan Rich said Obama surrogates have been “shocked” by the hostility towards their candidate they have encountered at condominiums in her area.

Steve Geller, who serves as the Democratic minority leader in the Florida state Senate and represents parts of Broward County, said he was nearly chased out of the “condos” – shorthand for retirement communities – when he said he backed Obama.

“I’ve noticed almost a mob mentality,” Geller said. “I can change people’s minds in a group of five or 10. When there’s 300 people in the room, they feed off each other and don’t want really to listen to us.”

Other members of Florida’s convention delegation also expressed concern.

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A quick leftover from Denver: The Faith Caucus

By Eric Fingerhut · August 31, 2008

There was a lot of hype the week before the Democratic National Convention about its Faith Caucus – and debate over whether the intersection of religion and politics would be harmful for both (here and here). But a visit to Tuesday’s two “Faith in Action” panel discussions found a program that had similarities with the kinds of discussions that happen at conferences and think tanks throughout Washington every week. In fact, one could argue that the Faith Caucus was more of a marketing tool – and considering the publicity, an effective one – to alert voters that the Democrats care about religious voters just as much as the Republicans do.

For example, the second of two panels, “Faith in 2009,” featured Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism director Rabbi David Saperstein and John DiIulio, who was the first head of President George W. Bush’s faith-based initiative, discussing the various issues and problems, constitutional and otherwise, with providing government money to religiously-infused social service providers – and what they thought of Obama’s speech earlier this year on the matter. In the first hour, various religious leaders spoke of how their religious teachings inspire them to work on certain issues. For instance, Rabbi Jack Moline of Alexandria, Va., emphasized the importance of education, quoting the Talmud’s teaching that study is more important than action because “study leads to action.” Other speakers talked about poverty and immigration, and former U.S. Rep. Tim Roemer (D-Ind.), an opponent of abortion, urged everyone to find “common ground” on reducing the number of abortions. (Roemer’s colleague at the Chicago Theological Seminary, on the other hand, was a little off-message – using her speech more as a way to criticize Republican policies toward women than examine a particular policy issue.)

Both rabbinical participants agreed that the fact that the faith caucus happened was probably more important that anything that was said at the gathering.

“The purpose was not to generate controversy,” said Moline, but to demonstrate what people of faith “have in common” and demonstrate the “breadth of faith value concerns.”

Saperstein said the Democrats’ goal was to demonstrate their party can provide a place “just as open and friendly to those who want to bring their [religious] views” as any other party.

One rabbi who wasn’t a fan of the gathering was Rabbi Michael Lerner of the Tikkun Community. He said that instead of holding what he called a “cheerleading” session for Obama, participants should have held a discussion that allowed for a “prophetic critique” of Democratic policies – such as the value of the plan to move the “war from Iraq to Afghanistan, instead of ending the war.”

One addendum to put the entire Faith Caucus in context is necessary. The discussions were not a part of the official convention program that took place at the Pepsi Center with all delegates in attendance. It was one of the dozens of meetings that took place during the day at the Colorado Convention Center sponsored by party organizations and various interest groups. A few hundred people were present, but most delegates and other convention participants were not in attendance and many may not have known it was even occurring.

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JTA VIDEO: The final day

By Ami Eden · August 29, 2008

Eric Fingerhut attends a session on MLK, Obama and black-Jewish relations. Ron Kampeas checks out an event with Obama foreign policy advisers and then interviews a Chinese convert to Judaism running for Congress.

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Obama thrusts on Israel…

By Ron Kampeas · August 28, 2008

...saying GOP is all “tough talk” and no action.

Let’s see how the McCain campaign parries.

UPDATE: Here’s the video and text of the speech.

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Barney Smith/Smith Barney

By Ron Kampeas · August 28, 2008

What, the Obama campaign couldn’t find a Stanley Morgan?

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Another Israel (almost) reference

By Ron Kampeas · August 28, 2008

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was supposed to have joined the “we’ll do a better job securing Israel” chorus Wednesday night.

Richardson was bumped from the schedule on the night that the Democratic Party convention in Denver focused on national security and foreign policy. A line in his speech pledged that the nominee, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), “stands behind Israel with full-time diplomacy to achieve peace in the Middle East.”

He rewrote the speech for his appearance Thursday night to comport it with that evening’s theme: distinguishing Obama from his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), and despite a number of foreign policy references, the Israel line was gone.

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