Oct 30th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Sanchez v. Goldfarb
Rick Sanchez carves a “B” in Michael Goldfarb’s face:
Couldn’t have happened to a more loathesome operative. At the same time, I have no idea why we’re conceding the premise that Rashid Khalidi is motivated by anti-Jewish racism. I suppose their might be some evidence for that, but one would think that being a Palestinian would be a perfectly sufficient reason for being a Palestinian nationalist.
72 Responses to “Sanchez v. Goldfarb”
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October 30th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Why hasn’t anyone just put together a portfolio of things Goldfarb said as a Weekly Standard blogger (or anything else he did) before he was hired by McCain and then just accused the McCain campaign of being associated with Michael Goldfarb?
October 30th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
No doubt. My favorite part was when Sanchez said “Thanks so much. We really do appreciate it. This is a good discussion. We really do appreciate you coming here to talk to us. Thank you.”
SMACKDOWN!
October 30th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
he’s not a Palestinian. he’s american and was born in new york.
October 30th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Didn’t watch it, but:
1. It’s not hard to find RK or associates saying “interesting” things.
2. What is hard is finding a videotape of BHO sitting there and listening to “interesting” things and perhaps even saying them himself. I think eventually when the bounty (bidding?) gets high enough – it’s already $175,000 I believe – the tape will magically appear.
3. Here are two 2005 university newspaper articles about controversy following RK: link, link.
October 30th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Sure, the idea that palestinian arabs are motivated by some special hatred of jews, as opposed to possessing the same objection to being colonised that algerian arabs had vis-a-vis their colonisers, is one of the bizarre features of american public life.
On a different note, do you think Goldfarb was trying to suggest someone in particular without the legal risk of naming someone in particular? I suppose a certain sort of Israel-centric wingnut might think ‘Carter’? Or was he just brazening it out when called out? I can’t even think of a plausible candidate in the first catagory, but no doubt someone downthread may have an idea.
October 30th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Otto: Pretty sure he’s following the McCain campaign dictum on not saying W-R-I-G-H-T (Nobody truer than H-O-V), don’t think there’s a credible argument that Wright is anti-semitic either, but he’s the allusion.
October 30th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
On a different note, do you think Goldfarb was trying to suggest someone in particular without the legal risk of naming someone in particular?
He just panicked and figured, well, if I refuse to answer, maybe people will think it’s a stupid question!
Most likely, you’re giving him too much credit when you suggest that he even thought it through enough to consider legal ramifications. He didn’t expect a follow up question, and he froze when he got one.
October 30th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Finally someone takes a dump on Goldfarbs face.
October 30th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
This whole campaign is causing me to doubt my impression of the GOP as a smooth political juggernaut. Are all the A and B-list operatives out in the private sector spending a few years cashing in, or are the McCain clowns really the best the Republicans have got?
October 30th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
I thought he was talking about Farrakhan…
October 30th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
It’s clearly Wright. I guess when McCain said Wright was off-limits, he meant it like in a game of “Taboo.”
What is hard is finding a videotape of BHO sitting there and listening to “interesting” things and perhaps even saying them himself. I think eventually when the bounty (bidding?) gets high enough – it’s already $175,000 I believe – the tape will magically appear.
Gee, that is hard, especially since no one who wants McCain to get elected is what you would call a big-money type. I would advise the mystery videographer to lower his price, though, because that tape is not going to be worth much six days from now.
October 30th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
I really wish Sanchez had more explicitly made of an ass of him, because the answer “I think we both know who we’re talking about” is a clueless, desperate long ball. But now Goldfarb will turn around and say he meant Wright.
Wright is at least quite anti-Israeli. I would go ahead with anti-semitic, too, though that is arguable. The point is, Wright would’ve been a good answer. It looks like Goldfarb didn’t know that, and so he should’ve been accused of the baseless fear-mongering he was engaged in.
Washerdreyer, if there is such a “dictum”, that would explain goldfarb’s bizarre non-answer, but didn’t the McCain campaign just launch a new salvo of Wright-related ads?
October 30th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Rashid Khalidi is no anti-Semite and there is not a shred of evidence to support that absurd assertion. It is unbelievable that you (Matt) are willing to believe that there is a possibility of this simply because he is Palestinian. Would you suspect that any Jew might possibly also be a bigot simply because they are Jewish? What’s more, Khalidi is a MAJOR name in academia and I’m frankly surprised that you or other people that write about the Middle East or US foreign policy in the Middle East haven’t read his work.
unbelievable.
October 30th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
That was bizarre. I think there is no doubt that he was referring to Reverand Wright. I don’t think Wright is anti-semitic, but certainly that is the impression conservatives have tried to create. And it would certainly fit with his odd smugness.
But the odd question is why he would think it was more effective to refer to him without naming him than to name him. Would Goldfarb really get in trouble by calling Wright anti-semitic? Or would he get in trouble for using his name after McCain promised not to/
October 30th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Holy Buckets, JS, chill out and read the post. M.Y. says directly “I have no idea why we’re conceding the premise that Rashid Khalidi is motivated by anti-Jewish racism.”
Unbelievable is right.
October 30th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
I have no idea who Rashidi is, and while I think it would be much better for reporters to not concede something so inflammatory, I’m sort of feeling like Sanchez doesn’t do it here.
I think it would have been much better if Sanchez had said “okay, can you name a supposed anti-semite who John McCain didn’t give half a million dollars to?” But you know, live TV.
But really when I saw it, I felt like the baselessness of this anti-semite allegation was really exposed. McCain’s team was obviously just hurling baseless allegations, and obviously this guy Rashidi had his own thing going that was whatever it was (and that McCain gave him half a million dollars for), and also it happened to not be what Obama had going, so what the heck was the point of bringing him up?
October 30th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
MoonRooster,
“I suppose their might be some evidence for that, but one would think that being a Palestinian would be a perfectly sufficient reason for being a Palestinian nationalist.”
granted, his caveat eases the blow, but why even suppose that he might he Jews when there is no evidence, or even an effort to uncover evidence, to support this assumption? Assumptions, even if based on mere speculation, aught to have some grounding on evidence or axioms — suspecting that there might be some evidence for Khalidi being an anti-Semite simply because he is Palestinian is just silly.
October 30th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
wow….what a brazen, grinning piece of shit…..
October 30th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
I agree Goldfarb was referring to Rev. Wright but was forbidden from saying it. Of course, the only reason the McCain campaign is leaving Wright out of it is because they think it would backfire. But if someone does the right thing, does it matter what reason they had? Accusing Khalidi of being a Jew-hater and slandering Obama with guilt by association are repugnant. I’m not sure how I feel though that he refused to say “Rev. Wright”.
October 30th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Look, Goldfarb was making shit up and you guys are now trying to fill in the blank that he refused to fill.
I suppose Obama’s liking for anti-Semites accounts for the rumor that Obama has asked Rahm Emmanuel to be his chief of staff.
Rahm is an American Jew whose father was in the Israeli Irgun terrorist group and Rahm himself worked in Israel as a volunteer for the Israeli army (IDF) during the Gulf War. Although my understanding is that Rahm never served in the American Army. Maybe the recruiter had a problem with Rahm’s tutu.
Goldfarb’s full of shit. If Rahm wants that chief of staff job, maybe he could show it by cutting Goldfarb’s nuts off.
October 30th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
All of McCains chickenshits are coming home to roost.
October 30th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
…. cause it’s a logical inference from an absence of knowledge. Matt doesn’t know there isn’t such evidence, so conceding it’s possibility is a reasonable conclusion without evidence. It’s a pretty basic logical thought process.
Which, of course, was never said. Sheesh, some people.
October 30th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
See http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/campaign_rdp
Although maybe Rahm is the source of the leak that Obama wants Rahm to be his Chief of Staff. And maybe Rahm put Goldfarb up to making the anti-Semitic accusation so that Obama would feel pressured to make Rahm the offer –in order to negate the accusations from Goldfarb.
Yeah, it seems outlandish. But I remember the barrage of deceitful attacks Nancy Pelosi got from the Israel Lobby when she refused to make Jane Harman Chairwoman of the House Intelligence Committee.
October 30th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
I think it’s interesting that, strictly speaking, Goldfarb is the one being anti-semitic. After all he’s indiscriminately branding Khalidi, an Arab, with a nasty and damning racial stereotype.
October 30th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
But seriously, is there some kind of bogus McCain “suspension” on using the name Jeremiah Wright? I swear I saw a new commercial yesterday…
October 30th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Goldfarb is the one being anti-semitic because he’s implying America’s 6 million Jews all think like Goldfarb.
I don’t think even Hitler threw out that kind of nasty libel.
October 30th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Is it just me or does that guy look/act like he’s about 23 years old? It makes the McCain camp look unprofessional, like they’re just throwing out College Republicans on all the networks to half-heartedly spin for McCain.
On the other side, you have Robert Gibbs, who is one of the best on-air guys I’ve seen. Unflappable and funny.
October 30th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
It’s nice to let people hang themselves, but it’s even nicer when you can execute them, which is what Sanchez should have done– “I’ll give you five seconds to name a second person, first name and last, or I’ll have to assume that you’re lying to us on behalf of Senator McCain.” And thanking him at the end was inappropriate, since you only thank people for good deeds rather than bad ones.
October 30th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
I miss SLC. He’d be in here making the most absurd accusations of anti-Semitism with no evidence whatsoever and grow increasingly unhinged as he did so.
Ah, the good old days.
October 30th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Re Freddie’s comment “I miss SLC”
———–
Shhh. Haven’t you ever gone fly fishing?
I just threw out an Adams and gave it a few twitches. I think I see a ripple down at the end of the pond.
October 30th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
But seriously, is there some kind of bogus McCain “suspension” on using the name Jeremiah Wright? I swear I saw a new commercial yesterday.
From an at least nominally independent group.
October 30th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Khalidi is a more serious scholar than any op ed writer or Washington D.C. mideast policy expert. Only in America is he considered extreme or “racist.”
October 30th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Is it just me or does that guy look/act like he’s about 23 years old?
Uh, the guy blogs for a living. (Sorry Matt.)
October 30th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Only in America is he considered extreme or “racist.”
Only in a Daniel Pipes, campus watch, world is he considered extreme or racist. Probably all of them have an LGF account.
October 30th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
I learned something from this. Bill Kristol is not the biggest d*** at the Weekly Standard.
October 30th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Jesus was kinda anti-Semitic at times; maybe that’s who he means.
October 30th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
I am counting the days when Khalidi sues the McCain campaign for character defamation. I really hope this happens.
October 30th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Sanchez did NOT concede that Khalidi was an anti semite. For some reason every blog is using the abbreviated version of the interview. Try this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5OTQUe397I
October 30th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Golda Meir said the Palestinian people don’t exist.
Ergo, Palestinian Nationalism cannot exist.
Thus, Khalidi must be motivated solely by anti-Jewish racism.
Q.E.D.
October 30th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Re Freddie
Apparently Mr. Freddie was otherwise occupied when, on the previous Khaladi, thread I stated that there was no evidence that Khaladi was connected with any terrorist organization. I also made no accusation of antisemitism against him. Clearly he is less then thrilled with the State of Israel and its’ Government but so are all other Palestinians. As far as Israel bashers go, Prof. Khaladi is certainly no worse then the likes of the blogs’ resident Bolshevik, Mr. Williams and certainly not as bad as fucktards like Mr. Hack or Mr. otto (unlike Mr. Hack, he has not, to my knowledge, called for the use of nuclear weapons against Israeli targets).
Re Don Williams
Mr. Williams is apparently unaware that Representative Emmanuel was rejected for service in the US Armed Forces because he lost a finger while a teenager. Apparently, the IDF is less choosy about their recruits.
October 30th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
This absurd restraint about Wright is really obnoxious. Goldfarb is sitting there thinking that he’s like a POW in the Hanoi Hilton giving up the opportunity to go home.
“I want to do it, but in the McCain campaign we’re all about honor! Nust…..Not…..Use…..Wright. Curse you crazy black preachaaaar!”"
October 30th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Weird, I actually like Rashid Khalidi even more now, and I still barely know who he is. If Palin runs in 2012, I think it may catipult Khalidi into the Senate.
October 30th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Palestinians are Semitic people. So, unless Khaladi is ’self-hating” he’s not anti-semitic.
October 30th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Weird, I actually like Rashid Khalidi even more now, and I still barely know who he is. If Palin runs in 2012, I think it may catipult Khalidi into the Senate.
I voted for Obama today but if he trash talks Khalidi he is just a coward and I screwed up.
Powell had more balls than Obama has shown, this sort of bullshit needs to end. I get why he probably won’t stick up for a decent Arab-American, but he needs to. WTF, he’s up about six in the polls anyway, if refusing to point out bashing on Arabs loses him something, lose those people.
October 31st, 2008 at 12:30 am
Unfortunately, and before I Google to see, I would be really, really surprised to see any Democratic politician, much less Obama, defend Professor Khalidi, instead of just dissociating himself or herself from him. The reflexive surrender to right wing hawk militarists on Israeli occupation is simply too predominant.
October 31st, 2008 at 1:05 am
the obama camp replied… its just that no media organization (except politico, i think) printed or showed the campaign’s reply.
so is this defamation of character or slander? just wondering since it’s a pretty nasty accusation and the straight talk express is chugging it all over the country.
and if the LA Times delivers the tape for $$, they’ve lost all credibility – they’re never get confidential source stories again. If the tape owner chooses to come forward or sell it for money, I guess that’s different. But still, my guess is the tape owner wouldn’t do that, since the angle they pitched it to the LA Times was positive, i.e. we love obama because he’s a friend to Palestinian.
Professors are easy targets. Why? Because they say whatever they want and write dense books that only their students and colleagues read. Easy to pick and choose since most people rarely take the time to actually listen to them or read their work. Very sad and I hope the McCarthyism angle ends soon.
October 31st, 2008 at 1:54 am
JS: “I’m frankly surprised that you or other people that write about the Middle East or US foreign policy in the Middle East haven’t read his work.”
I’m not – foreign policy is not Matt’s forte. And you will notice going WAY back in his blogging that Matt steers well clear of saying anything that might even be remotely critical of Israel, less he discover the power of AIPAC and his wannabe pundit career gets nipped in the bud. AIPAC could put him on the street selling pencils in five minutes and he knows it.
Lampwick: “Jesus was kinda anti-Semitic at times;”
No, Jesus was a fanatical Jewish nationalist, much like the Zionist freakazoids running Israel today. But I’m not sure he would like how the Zionist freaks treat the Palestinians.
SLC: “(unlike Mr. Hack, he has not, to my knowledge, called for the use of nuclear weapons against Israeli targets).”
Which, as usual, is bogus, as I have never said that. What I HAVE said is that sooner or later some terrorist will get smart and steal one of Israel’s illegal nukes and make Tel Aviv glow in the dark. Then Israel will spasm-war every Arab nation in retaliation, and in return the international community will forcibly disarm Israel and turn the whole country back over to the Palestinians. And yes, I can’t wait for that denouement primarily because it will cause SLC to have diarrhea for the rest of his life (other than out of his mouth, that is.)
SLC: “Apparently, the IDF is less choosy about their recruits.”
Which would explain why many of them are racist war criminals.
October 31st, 2008 at 2:49 am
I first met Rashid Khalidi in the 1984-85 academic year whwn I was a student at Columbia Law School. Professor Khalidi was at Columbia for several years. Then he moved to the University of Chicago. He later returned to Columbia. The late Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg was also teaching at Columbia at that time during the 1980s. Hertzberg and Khalidi were very friendly, at least during their interaction at Columbia. (I do not know if they socialized after hours.) In fact, in response to a question that I aked Professor Khalidi, he commented that he had a high regard for Hertzberg. That is interesting because the late Edward Said and Hertzberg loathed each other. (I got along with all of them.)
In 1991, Khalidi was a member of (or at leastan advisor to) the Palestinian delegation at the Madrid conference, which he attended. Then Israeli Prime Minister Shamir made it clear that Israel would only attend the conference if no members of the PLO attended. Israeli intelligence vetted the names of the Palestinian delegation. Therefore, if Khalidi was a member of the PLO, Israeli intelligence missed it.
Beyond this however, the attacks on Khalidi are dishonest. Currently, the US supports the PLO in the West Bank and Gaza against Hamas. It has since the Oslo Accords. Hence, even if he were a former or current PLO member, it is hardly outrageous.
October 31st, 2008 at 2:53 am
What you just said is pretty much the opposite of truth. Matthew Yglesias has made numerous posts critical of AIPAC, and has gotten in at least one internet slapfight with Kirchick over it.
google of matt+matthew+yglesias+AIPAC
Why would he be in the pocket of AIPAC? Is this some Jewish-overlords-controlling-our-brainwaves thing you got going on?
October 31st, 2008 at 3:11 am
Well, that’s a pretty apt summary of the clip.
Carving-a-B indeed.
October 31st, 2008 at 3:14 am
Let’s be clear; even if Khalidi was much less ‘moderate’ than he is about the Israel-Palestine conflict, or had fewer friendships around Columbia with people of different political views, none of that would be evidence of ‘anti-semitism’. For a palestinian arab to want to reverse jewish colonialism, even entirely, shows no more hatred of jews as such than a algerian arab wanting to entirely reverse french colonialism, and, not make an even more obvious point, university professors are often curmudeonly types who don’t like anyone and who are constantly pursuing private grudges and so on. If you need Bill’s statement above to convince you re. Khalidi, you’re completely missing the point.
October 31st, 2008 at 6:36 am
Have you forgotten? There are no “Palestinians.” There are no “Palestinian people.”
October 31st, 2008 at 9:03 am
Heh heh heh. What did I tell you , Freddie?
Having tired of la de da fly fishing, I left out a good ole Southern trotline overnight (illegal in all 50 states) and what do I find hooked on it this morning.
October 31st, 2008 at 9:07 am
Re Richard Steven Hack
I really must protest Mr. Hacks taking my comment about Representative Emmanuel out of context. My comment about his service in the IDF after being turned down by the US military because of his missing finger referred to the IDF being less fastidious about such physical disabilities then the US military. His accusation that the representative is a war criminal is rather rich coming from a convicted bank robber and ex-con.
October 31st, 2008 at 10:43 am
“Matt doesn’t know there isn’t such evidence, so conceding it’s possibility is a reasonable conclusion without evidence. It’s a pretty basic logical thought process.”
Crap. When you’re dealing with a (racist) smear campaign, the appropriate reaction is most certainly not to cough out lots of caviats about how, well, the smears might be true. Either stand up for Khalidi based on the presumption of innocence, or take advantage of the fact that political commentary is your job, do a little research, and stand up for him based on the fact that he’s no anti-semite.
The McCain campaign’s attacks are particularly bizarre to someone who knows anything about Khalidi, because not only is he an entirely respectable and decent person, but also he’s a political moderate. There’s a quite clear political & stylistic divide at Columbia between Said’s protege Massad, Dabashi, and others in the MEALAC department on the one hand, and Khalidi’s Middle East Institute on the other.
October 31st, 2008 at 10:46 am
To be clear, Said, Massad, Dabashi, & friends are of course no more anti-semitic than Khalidi or Obama. But in a country where anti-Zionism is taboo, they’d be easier to paint that way.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:46 am
Of course, when Richard Hack goes fishing, he just throws dynamite in the pond.
October 31st, 2008 at 4:41 pm
I’m Jewish, and here’s a few things I think after looking at the Goldfarb/Sanchez tape:
-there’s no evidence that Khalidi is anti-semetic. I think it would be natural that he would tend to side with his Palestinian brethren; that is natural. But where’s the evidence that he hates Jews?
-ditto for Wright. He apparently speaks in fiery language at times, but where’s the data that he’s a Jew hater.
-the campaign that McCain and Palin have run, on th other hand, is clearly racist. The code language that’s been used to describe Obama and his purported allies is certainly racist.
-Goldfarb is a moron. How could a national campaign put this semi-literate hack on national television?
October 31st, 2008 at 10:18 pm
MAX HATS: I didn’t say Matt has NEVER criticized Israel or AIPAC. I said he hasn’t done so for a LONG time. I cannot remember either at TPM, The Atlantic or this blog where ANY significant criticism of either has been posted. I don’t know what arguments he might have got into with Kirchick on other blogs. But you’ll look long and hard to find anything he’s said that is particularly critical of Israel itself, regardless of anything he’s said about AIPAC. My statement stands – he’s afraid of AIPAC, much more so than M.J. Rosenberg (who used to work for AIPAC until he got disgusted with them.)
SLC: Again, I didn’t refer specifically to Emmanuel as being a war criminal – although since he is known Israel front man, clearly he is. I was referring to the assholes who dropped illegal cluster munitions all over southern Lebanon in 2006, not to mention the asshats who regularly shoot and beat Palestinian children as well as bulldozing people’s homes and orchards and running over people with bulldozers and of course killing US sailors on the USS Liberty.
So screw your “protest”, SLC.
Don: Hey, SLC threw the first dynamite. I just upped the ante with a fuel air explosive. If he doesn’t watch his mouth, I’ll go nuclear on his ass “like you read about” (to quote Kevin Smith in “Live Free or Die Hard”.)
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