About a year ago Juan Cole made an unfair statement about Tzipi Livni, whereby since her father had been a terrorist in the Irgun, she had no moral standing to be requiring a cessation of Arab terror; since she's Israel's Foreign Minister, he effectively was rejecting her right to negotiate. Her father's identity was more important than her own actions, you see. At the time I responded, and he responded to me, and you can see my summary of the exchange here.
President-Elect Obama's first appointment is Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel, like Livni, has a father who was in the Irgun. While I have no doubt this will be used by the feverish antisemitic and anti American fringes whom you can see every day posting comments at the Guardian's Comment is Free section, Cole is more respectable than they. Can we expect him to relate to the issue, either to castigate Emanuel (and by implication, Obama), or by retroactively exonerating Livni?
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Rashid al-Khalidi is Obama's friend and has a well-paying post at Columbia U. The Khalidi family long were part of the Arab-Muslim upper crust in Jerusalem and indeed belonged to the governing class of the Ottoman Empire. Consider Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi. Now, my query to Juan Cole: Should Rashid be considered an imperialist because his family were favored by the Ottoman Empire with high, prestigious positions?? Moreover, Walid Khalidi worked with prestigious American and British institutions, such as American U of Beirut, Harvard, etc. If AUB is an imperialist or colonialist institution, should Walid [and Rashid too who also held a post at AUB] be considered imperialists or colonialists?
Edward Said's father was an American citizen who fought in WW One for the USA. After WW One, he "settled" in Egypt. He was not a native Egyptian nor was his family ancestry Egyptian. So he was a settler in Egypt while the country was under British hegemony.
That is he was a colonist, or maybe even a colonialist. Can anything that Said be taken as genuine, by Edward Said's own standards, since his father was a colonialist??
FROM CAROL HERMAN
Here. This will help ya out. Rahm Emanuel speaks fluent Hebrew. He was raised in Chicago. And, knows Barak Obama very, very well.
You want background?
Obama's dad's Black. And, from Kenya.
And, Rahm Emanuel grew up in an Orthodox home.
In America lots of Jewish kids grew up Kosher, etc. But they're not forced to stay stuck. In America, from the time the Puritans arrived back in the 1620's, it became obvious that the "roots" are one thing. But the kids, with all the room in which to move around, chose their own courses in life. FLEEING HOME.
Even where I live. The kids moved when they married. Picking the community "next door." And, growing it bigger; on bigger lots of ground.
As to "sins of our Fathers," it's not going to apply here as much as those stinking behaviors of the Haredi that pounced on Obama when he visited the Western Wall.
Oh, you think I beat a "single drum?" Let me repeat. Rahm Emanuel was raised in an orthodox home. And, according to Begala, he's "a cross between a hemmerhoid and a toothache."
Oh, yeah. He clowned around with Dubya. I saw this one up at Drudge. He asked Dubya if he was a "triBathalon" dude: Steam, Sauna, and Shower. Of course, I laughted. You just know that lots of Jewish kids are familiar with the "svitz" ... Where our grandpas would not go "without."
Is Obama gonna be a great president? Well, for sure, he will be better than McCain!
Gosh. McCain heard that the president was gonna bail out Wall Street; and McCain thought this was such a great idea, he dropped everything to race to the White House. Putz saw "credit" written all over this deed.
Does Livni's stock go up, now?
Don't worry. Keep waiting.
John "Juan" Cole is a self-admitted military brat whose father served in the US armed forces.
We anxiously await Professor Cole's denunciation of his father's connection with an organization that he doubtless believes committed various acts of aggression during the 1960s, not to mention war crimes.
Until I see that, I can only assume that Cole's position denouncing the crimes of others is, to use his precise spelling, h-y-p-o-c-r-i-s-y.
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