McCain’s one last smear

WITH THE clock running out on the John McCain-Sarah Palin campaign for the White House, the Republicans launched one last desperate smear campaign.

They found another "radical" from Barack Obama's Hyde Park neighborhood in Chicago with a name that just sounds guilty: Rashid Khalidi, a Palestinian American who stands accused of being an "extremist," "a supporter of terrorism" and a spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Never mind that Khalidi wasn't a spokesperson for the PLO. Or that prominent Zionists have come to Khalidi's defense, such as the New Republic's Marty Peretz, who wrote, "I have written more appreciative words about Khalidi than Obama ever uttered. In fact, I even invited Khalidi to speak for a Jewish organization, with which I work."

Never mind that Khalidi is a longstanding advocate of the so-called two-state solution--the creation of a Palestinian state in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza--which mirrors official U.S. policy since 1993. Or that, in addition to his sterling academic reputation, Khalidi is associated with several mainstream advocacy groups--he serves, for example, on the national advisory committee of the U.S. Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East, an organization that stresses dialogue and education to achieve its goals.

Khalidi's real crime is that he has been a vocal critic of how the U.S. and Israel have used the 1993 Oslo "peace process" to force one concession after another from Palestinians, while postponing into the indefinite future what those negotiations were supposed to establish--a Palestinian state.

IN ANY case, what exactly is Obama's connection to this "nefarious" man?

In 2003, Obama attended a going-away party for Khalidi (strike one!) when he was leaving his position at the University of Chicago to teach at Columbia University. Not only was former Weather Underground leader Bill Ayers in attendance at this event (strike two!), but Republican operatives made the shocking accusation that Khalidi's daughter babysat for Obama's two daughters when they were younger (strike three!).

The McCain campaign has been hyperventilating about the refusal of the Los Angeles Times to release a videotape of the going-away party, as if this were one more example of the "liberal media" protecting its favored candidate. In fact, the newspaper didn't release the tape because its source for it stipulated that it not be released.

That didn't stop McCain from speculating, "If there was a tape of John McCain in a neo-Nazi outfit, I think the treatment of the issue would be slightly different."

So there we have it: Khalidi's support for a just settlement for Palestinians is comparable to supporting Nazis.

But as foul as this attack is, the Obama campaign has displayed remarkable spinelessness in refusing to defend Khalidi--like Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers, before him.

Instead of denouncing McCain's comparison of Khalidi with neo-Nazis, the Obama campaign did nothing more than point out that the International Republican Institute, a government foundation chaired by John McCain himself, granted more than $800,000 in funding to the Center for Palestine Research and Studies, a project founded by Khalidi.

This certainly exposes the Republicans' hypocrisy. But it does nothing to confront the racist attack on Khalidi or challenge the idea that any criticism of Israel is tantamount to "supporting terrorism."

"Both campaigns, then, are effectively buying into this myth that there are these far-left academics who are unduly influencing our policymakers and/or squandering our tax dollars," wrote foreign policy analyst Stephen Zunes. "In doing so, both McCain and Obama are thereby contributing to the growing anti-intellectualism and ongoing threats to academic freedom in this country."

McCain is hoping to sow doubt about Obama, particularly among Jewish voters. But despite the smears, the truth is that Obama has pledged to preserve unconditional U.S. support for Israel--including billions of dollars in military and economic aid--which is essential to Israel's ability to continue its six-decade occupation of Palestine.

As Zunes wrote:

The Democratic nominee has alienated key sectors of his progressive base of supporters by putting forward a whole series of statements and policy proposals regarding Israel and its neighbors, in which he largely allies himself with right-wing Republicans.

In addition to disputing the findings of human rights organizations citing Israeli violations of international humanitarian law and defending Israel's massive 2006 assault against Lebanon's civilian infrastructure, these have included: rejecting calls by human rights activists to condition military aid to Israel to an improvement in the government's human rights record; calling for an undivided Jerusalem as the capital of Israel without supporting the right of the Palestinian-populated eastern half of the city to be the capital of a Palestinian state; and making exaggerated claims about Iran's threats toward Israel while refusing to express any concerns regarding Israel's threats toward Iran.

Those who care about the Palestinians' right to self-determination should defend Khalidi--while having no illusions about what an Obama administration has in store for the Palestinian cause.