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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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A little more on the Palin-Meridor meeting

By Eric Fingerhut · October 27, 2008

Sarah Palin and Israeli Ambassador to the United States Sallai Meridor talked about the U.S.-Israel relationship and the challenges both countries face, including the Iranian nuclear threat, in their meeting Monday morning at a Leesburg, Va. hotel.

An embassy official said the ambassador had requested the opportunity to meet Palin and Monday was the first time it could be scheduled. Meridor was also planning to speak with Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden later on Monday by telephone.

“I look forward to hearing about your work with the Jewish Agency and all the plans that we have,” Palin told Meridor in a brief photo opportunity before the meeting. “We’ll be working together.”

Palin was apparently referring to Meridor’s six-year chairmanship of the Jewish Agency for Israel. That clears up some confusion from an early report on the meeting, which had Palin saying only “We look forward ... to working with your Jewish agency.”

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McCain’s Jewish tele-town hall

By Eric Fingerhut · October 17, 2008

John McCain will be spending Sunday morning with Jewish leaders. After an introduction from Joe Lieberman, the Republican presidential nominee will hold a “tele-town hall” with representatives of groups such as Chabad-Lubavitch, Agudath Israel, the Orthodox Union, Young Israel and rabbis of various denominations, according to a campaign press release. McCain will discuss Israel, national security and the economy, and he’ll take questions. Here’s the full release:

MEDIA ADVISORY
John McCain to Host Tele-Town Hall With Jewish Leaders Nationwide

ARLINGTON, VA – McCain-Palin 2008 announced today that John McCain will host a tele-town hall with Jewish leaders from across the country at 10:30 a.m. EDT on Sunday, October 19th. These leaders include rabbis and lay leaders from around the country, with representation from groups like Chabad-Lubavitch, Agudath Israel, Orthodox Union, Young Israel, in addition to Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Rabbis.

Senator Joe Lieberman will participate and introduce Senator McCain on the call.

Also participating will be Jewish leaders representing groups under the umbrella of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations. The call will allow Senator McCain to have a dialogue with Jewish leaders and discuss issues critical to the Jewish community such as Israel, national security and the economy. In traditional town-hall fashion, there will be a question-and-answer session with Senator McCain.

This call is a follow-up from our national call with Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbis from 47 different states which took place at the end of August.

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Political tidbits: Good news for Jewish Dems in House, Obama gets serious about Fla.

By Eric Fingerhut · October 17, 2008

• The chances for re-election of two Jewish members of Congress have been upgraded by the Cook Political Report – Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) from Lean to Likely Democratic, and Rep. Paul Hodes (D-N.H.) from Likely to Solid Democratic.
• Jewish Democratic challenger Ethan Berkowitz almost triples the fundraising totals of incumbent Republican Rep. Don Young in the race for Alaska’s congressional seat, according to the Hill.
  
• Meanwhile, another Jewish Democratic challenger, Josh Segall, had his chances upgraded by CQ from Safe Republican to Republican Favored in his race against incumbent Republican Rep. Mike Rogers in Alabama’s Third District.
• The Los Angeles Times reports Barack Obama’s campaign has sent its number two Jewish outreach official (Eric Lynn) to Florida for the rest of the campaign.
  
• In an article about the Jewish vote, Brad Greenberg of the Los Angeles Jewish Journal notes that Sarah Palin received a surprising endorsement recently –from the president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization of Woman.
• For lots of other women, though, Palin strikes a “raw nerve” and made them more active in the Obama campaign, reports the Forward.
• Florida state Rep. Nan Rich says she’s found similar feelings among her fellow Jewish women, in the Chicago Tribune’s political blog.
• Brett Lieberman in the Forward talks to Cleveland-area Jews about the presidential race.
• Joe Lieberman on the Republican Jewish Coalition advertisements: “I don’t like negative campaigning, but it’s a fact of life,” reports the Cleveland Jewish News.
• What do Sheldon Adelson, David Axelrod, Barbra Streisand and Dennis Prager have in common? They’re all on Bradley Burston and J.J. Goldberg’s list of “36 Jews who have shaped the 2008 U.S. election,” in Haaretz.
  
• Frequent AIPAC critic Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), heavily favored to win re-election, has hired an Israeli staffer to work on foreign policy issues in his congressional office. Moran’s spokesman tells the Washington Jewish Week: “I don’t see any reason this would be seen as ironic.”
• Details on the making of a pro-Obama video by an Orthodox Jewish woman upset at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s ads, from the Washington Jewish Week.
• Rabbi Levi Brackman, in Ynet, believes Obama’s tax plan makes the “most moral, religious and economic sense.”
  
• The Jewish Star, an Long Island Orthodox newspaper, endorses John McCain.
• The Brandeis Hoot reports on a university panel discussing blacks, Jews and Obama.

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RJC’s latest calls Obama “reckless”

By Eric Fingerhut · October 16, 2008

The newest advertisement in the Republican Jewish Coalition’s ad campaign takes on Barack Obama’s position on Jerusalem.

Headlined “Where does Barack Obama stand on Jerusalem? It depends on what day you ask him,” the advertisement states that the Democrat’s “shifting views on Jerusalem are reckless.” It points out that at his speech at the AIPAC policy conference last June, Obama stated that Jerusalem should be the undivided capital of Jerusalem, but the next day said it should be the subject of negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians.

One thing the RJC left out of the advertisement is John McCain’s position on the division of Jerusalem. In fact, it happens to be exactly the same as Obama’s: It “will be addressed in negotiations.”

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Rabbis for Obama: GOP “creeping toward hate speech,” RJC McCarthyite

By Eric Fingerhut · October 16, 2008

A pro-Obama group of rabbis says recent statements by John McCain and Sarah Palin are “creeping toward hate speech” and blasts the Republican Jewish Coalition for using McCarthyite tactics.

In a statement released Thursday, the group of 562 rabbis states that “increasingly those speaking on behalf of the McCain campaign have been demonizing Senator Obama as not being like us.” As an example, the organization notes that a sherriff recently emphasized Obama’s middle name of Hussein when warming up the crowd, and Palin’s remark that Obama has been “palling around with terrorists.”

The statement goes on to criticize the RJC for putting “forward a list of people known to be hostile to Israel” and then “dishonestly” suggesting that these people shaped Senator Obama’s views on the subject. “The RJC approach harkens back to the classic Republican red baiting tactics of Joe McCarthy and Richard Nixon from the early fifties,” stated the group. Here’s the full statement:

Rabbis for Obama Denounce the Hate Speech

The manner in which Senator McCain, Governor Palin and their supporters refer to Senator Obama is creeping toward hate speech. As leaders of the Jewish community we are well aware of the dangers of using inflammatory political language to marginalize individuals and groups. Increasingly those speaking on behalf of the McCain campaign have been demonizing Senator Obama as not being like us.
They recently used a uniformed sheriff to warm up the crowd at a rally by emphasize the senator’s middle name. At another event Senator McCain seemed shocked when one of his supporters stated that Senator Obama was an “Arab.” That false belief is the fruit of the McCain campaign’s emphasizing Senator Obama’s middle name.

Governor Palin’s assertion that Senator Obama pals around with terrorists is a false claim built on three distortions and a lie. In twenty first century America, no word is more emotionally loaded than “terrorist.” Republican operatives who managed to convince American to believe the lie that the government of Iraq was connected to Osama bin Laden, think they can now convince Americans of another big lie, that 1960’s campus radical William Ayers is connected to contemporary terrorists and that he is a close, influential friend of Senator Obama.

Anti-Obama hate speech is not limited to the official McCain Campaign. The Republican Jewish Coalition falsely labels Senator Obama as “reckless on Israel.” They know that in the Jewish community this is the moral equivalent of crying fire in a crowded theater.

The RJC put forward a list of people known to be hostile to Israel and the dishonestly suggests that these people shaped Senator Obama’s views on the subject. The RJC approach harkens back to the classic Republican red baiting tactics of Joe McCarthy and Richard Nixon from the early fifties.

562 rabbis would not endorse a candidate who is hostile to Israel. We have put our credibility as rabbis who love Israel on the line to publicly endorse Senator Obama for President because of the smears and lies coming from the other side. We have each individually devoted our lives to providing moral and spiritual leadership to the Jewish community. At this crucial moment in history, we step forward as a group to add our voices to those supporting Senator Obama. Never before in the history of the United States has a group of rabbis come together on this scale to work on behalf on a candidate for president

Jewish tradition teaches us that we should respect those with whom we disagree. Ben Azzi says, “Despise no person” We call upon the McCain campaign to return to a respectful conversation on the issues confronting our society.

Since it founding in June, by Rabbi Steven Bob and Rabbi Sam Gordon, Rabbis for Obama has grown to 562 rabbis nationwide. For additional information contact .

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No undecideds in this crowd

By Eric Fingerhut · October 16, 2008

If Wednesday night’s bipartisan debate-watching party at a Washington, D.C. synagogue can be used as a gauge, then the newspaper ads might as well stop – everyone in the Jewish community has already decided who they’re voting for next month.

When the 125 people in attendance at Washington Hebrew Congregation were asked if any of them were undecided a few minutes before the debate began, the response was dead silence. Or perhaps any undecided voters just didn’t want to be hounded all night by representatives of the National Jewish Democratic Council and Republican Jewish Coalition, who joined WHC’s 2239 young professionals group for the event.

Judging from crowd reactions, the group appeared to be at least two-thirds pro-Obama, and the food seemed to confirm that assessment – the “Obama deep-dish pizza” went more quickly than the “McCain chips and salsa.” (The beer was bipartisan.) But everyone was cordial, and Rabbi Joui Hessel’s warning to “please don’t make me wish I had a mechitza to separate certain people” was heeded.

Both sides came away pleased by what they saw, and everyone seemed amused by the frequent mentions of “Joe the Plumber.”

David Lezell, 26, of Washington, thought McCain came across as “strong.”

“It was finally nice to hear him say John McCain is not George Bush,” said Lezell. “That’s what us Republicans have been wanting to hear.” He was pleased to see McCain bring up such controversial issues as former terrorist Bill Ayers and voter registration irregularities at ACORN because “we don’t know who” Barack Obama is.

Meanwhile, Rachel Alberts, 28, of Bethesda, Md., called Wednesday “Obama’s best performance.” She also was glad McCain brought up Ayers and ACORN because it gave the Democrat “a platform” to explain his involvement. “Now we have a better idea” of the truth, she said.

One woman in attendance had already voted. Jessica Savitz of Arlington, Va., is going to be out of town on Election Day, so she voted absentee last week and wore her “I Voted” sticker to the party. An Obama supporter, she was “excited” to have just recently moved from a solidly blue state in Maryland to a purple one like Virginia. She said abortion rights was one of her most important issues – as well as her unhappiness with the last eight years of Republican rule – and said Obama “couldn’t have made a better choice” than Joe Biden for vice president.

As for Sarah Palin, “McCain could have made a better choice,” she said.

There was also one woman in attendance who has decided she isn’t voting for Obama or McCain. Lawyer Jessica Adler, 33, of Washington, was a strong backer of Hillary Clinton during the primaries and said she will write in the former first lady on Nov. 4.

“I’m making a statement,” said Adler, who said she hasn’t been inspired by Obama. But she did concede that if she was casting a ballot in a battleground state – instead of the overwhelmingly Democratic District of Columbia – she would back Obama.

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Terrorism and the ballot box

By Ron Kampeas · October 11, 2008

Way back in my AP days, just as the Afghanistan war was getting underway, I wrote about the difficulties minorities face in special forces in the U.S. military. Blacks made up 20 percent of the military but just 4 percent of special forces.

In the process, I uncovered a federally commissioned Rand Institute report, that concluded that, yes, minorities fear racism in the elite units - but added that the researchers were not qualified to assess whether there was racism.

Imagine that.

As far as I recall, the institute - an independent think tank with close government ties - charged taxpayers close to $400,000 for those insights.

I marveled then at how government is ready to pay big bucks for, well, the bleeding obvious.

Now Rand’s come out with a report that uses Israeli data to show that terrorist attacks close to an election affect the outcome of the election.

Hmmmm.

Via Andrew Sullivan, Matthew Iglesias and The Monkey Cage (whew!)

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Swing states target of Jewish outreach this weekend

By Eric Fingerhut · October 10, 2008

With less than a month to go before Election Day, Barack Obama’s campaign is sponsoring Jewish outreach events in three important swing states this weekend – and that doesn’t even include “The Great Schlep.”

At noon at a Philadelphia Jewish community center, Pa. Gov. Ed Rendell (D) and U.S. Reps. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) are among the speakers at an event billed as a discussion on “Senator Barack Obama, Israel and the 2008 election.” The event follows on the heels of a parade of Jewish surrogates who fanned out to speak all day last Sunday, including former New York Mayor Ed Koch, U.S. Reps. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) and Sander Levin (D-Mich.) and Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.)

At 4 p.m. this afternoon in Delray Beach, Fla., the campaign will be providing “Jewish outreach training” at its S. Florida headquarters. While “The Great Schlep” is an independent effort and the Obama campaign is not permitted to coordinate with its sponsor, the Jewish Council for Education and Research, South Florida campaign spokesman Bobby Gravitz said that “we are hoping folks who are travelling this weekend” and in town by this afternoon would be interested in attending. He said Florida Jewish outreach director Halie Soifer would be discussing Obama’s positions on the Middle East, and also conduct a question and answer session.

And on Sunday at 5 p.m., Obama foreign policy adviser Dennis Ross, U.S. Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) and Carl Levin, again, will be part of what the campaign is calling one of its largest Jewish outreach events of the year in Cleveland.

Recent polls have Obama competitive, and in some cases leading, McCain in all three states – which George W. Bush won in 2000 and 2004. And all three are considered to have Jewish populations large enough to possibly make a difference in an extremely close race.

But not all the Obama activity is in swing states. Koch, U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-N.J.) and former U.S. ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer will hold a town hall meeting to discuss “Why Obama is best for Israel and America” in Paramus, N.J., a state that is widely considered to be a safe blue state this year.

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Is Sarah Palin Jewish? UPDATED

By Ron Kampeas · October 8, 2008

The short answer is, probably not.

You might have seen the genealogies circulating on the net - here’s one - claiming she’s a descendant of one Schmuel Sheigam, a Lithuanian Jew.

I’ve run the info past folks at the National Archives. A search of immigration records shows no Sheigam - or Sheeran, as the Ellis Island transformation would have it, according to these accounts - arriving in 1915. (And yes, all possible spellings were run.) Sheigam doesn’t turn up, period.

There is a grain of truth in this, as there often is with urban myths: Records (ship manifests, censuses, property records etc.) show that Sheeran is indeed a common Irish American name, and one that some immigrants, evidently Jewish, adopted upon their arrival.

I asked the McCain-Palin campaign about this, they never got back to me (not that I blame them, I’d also prioritize screwy queries about ancestors low on my to-do list); but it’s worth noting that they had earlier confirmed that she had been baptized a Roman Catholic. (She is no longer a Catholic.) That would comport with Irish ancestry, the more common association for “Sheeran.”

What’s odd about this phenomenon is that I’m getting asked this by Jews, when the myth is being perpetuated by anti-Semites. ("Why do some people dislike Jews” as a hedder is what we call an obvious giveaway; more subtle is the use of the word “Jewess.")

One version of this I saw suggested that John McCain wanted his old pal and fellow U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) as his running mate, and relinquished at the last minute. Again, a grain of truth here - my own reporting confirms this. Where it gets loony is in the why: Joe, apparently, was not simply too moderate for McCain’s advisers - he was too clearly part of the Zionist conspiracy. McCain, according to this fiction, was told to go with the stealth Jew. That explanation is echoed in the above website (see under “This would explain a lot.")

None of this means the Alaska governor doesn’t have a Jewish ancestor somewhere on the tree - it’s not exactly uncommon in immigrant nations; especially in America, which has a wonderful history of welcoming all stripes of newcomer, unlike the sad sacks who run the conspiracy websites.

UPDATE: A number of readers (starting with both commenters below) have pointed out that there’s a comprehensive Sarah Palin genealogy here and that it contains nary a Chosen One. Case closed.

7 Comments | Share This | Alaska, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Uncategorized, Veepstakes