Solomonia: Cynthia McKinney Dons the Hijab and Goes to War Against the Traditional Enemy

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Cynthia McKinney Dons the Hijab and Goes to War Against the Traditional Enemy

With the names Obama, Clinton and McCain sucking up all the oxygen in the room, I thought it only fair to give one of the smaller parties a little attention. Let's take a look at Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney, whose campaign web site shows an endorsement from convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu Jamal, in one of her campaign appearances, as posted at the United for Peace and Justice web site. She begins by applauding the Holy Land Foundation defendants before moving on to excoriating the "traditional enemy." (My term.) From the video intro:

On 02/02/08, Cynthia McKinney, the 2008 Green Party presidential nominee, speaks at a fund raiser of the Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA).

She describes the hostile takeover of American politics by pro-Israeli groups, aided by congress on both sides of the aisle.

She details the resulting corrosion of American society, a corrosion that represents a particular threat to Muslims and their civil liberties.

Posted by Solomon at 2:05 PM on Wednesday, Feb 20, 2008 | Comments (5)
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5 Comments

#1 Phillip Alford | February 20, 2008 3:06 PM

This woman is too insane to be wasting the time to pay attention.

#2 Dinah Lord | February 20, 2008 6:51 PM

Oh. My. God.

Can't watch it all.

#3 sheik yer'mami | February 20, 2008 9:49 PM

A turd on legs.

She deserves a burka and a cage. Its a pity her ancestors were dragged out of Africa by Arab slave traders. Isn't there a right of return?

#4 Matt | February 21, 2008 12:43 AM

Cynthia Kinney is a marginal figure. We've got bigger issues to think about. I'm both a Hillary and Obama supporter, but in regards to Obama, I'm starting to get worried that, should Obama win the Democratic nomination, the Republicans will start putting out some of the following material. I'm surprised that none of this has hit the media already! What do you think?

"I used to know Obama when he was my state senator. I met him several times in different contexts, and he was often very progressive about Israel-Palestine. He attended fundraisers in the Palestinian community, one in which the keynote speaker was Edward Said. That's what really made me believe in him at first. But then it all went out the window when he started his climb up the greasy pole. I wrote about this a bit in the book [One Country, an argument for a binational state in all of former Palestine], and how disappointed I was to see him basically adopting AIPAC positions. I went to see his legislative staffer in DC a couple of weeks ago and left a signed copy of the book. I got an email, ostensibly from Obama (I am sure people write these things for him), thanking me. Basically the guy has calculated that pissing off the lobby is not the way to the top, so I will eat my shoe (like Tucker Carlson) if he ever says anything remotely useful about Palestine. He is a master triangulator." --Ali Abunimah, co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, in an email to the New York Observer, Dec. 20th 2006 (http://www.observer.com/term/29496)

"...There was absolutely nothing in Obama's speech that deviated from the hardline consensus underpinning US policy in the region. Echoing the sort of exaggeration and alarmism that got the United States into the Iraq war, he called Iran 'one of the greatest threats to the United States, to Israel, and world peace.' While advocating 'tough' diplomacy with Iran he confirmed that 'we should take no option, including military action, off the table.' He opposed a Palestinian unity government between Hamas and Fatah and insisted 'we must maintain the isolation of Hamas' until it meets the Quartet's one-sided conditions. He said Hizbullah, which represents millions of Lebanon's disenfranchised and excluded, 'threatened the fledgling movement for democracy' and blamed it for 'engulf[ing] that entire nation in violence and conflict.'
"Over the years since I first saw Obama speak I met him about half a dozen times, often at Palestinian and Arab-American community events in Chicago including a May 1998 community fundraiser at which Edward Said was the keynote speaker. In 2000, when Obama unsuccessfully ran for Congress I heard him speak at a campaign fundraiser hosted by a University of Chicago professor. On that occasion and others Obama was forthright in his criticism of US policy and his call for an even-handed approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
"The last time I spoke to Obama was in the winter of 2004 at a gathering in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. He was in the midst of a primary campaign to secure the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate seat he now occupies. But at that time polls showed him trailing.
"As he came in from the cold and took off his coat, I went up to greet him. He responded warmly, and volunteered, 'Hey, I'm sorry I haven't said more about Palestine right now, but we are in a tough primary race. I'm hoping when things calm down I can be more up front.' He referred to my activism, including columns I was contributing to the The Chicago Tribune critical of Israeli and US policy, 'Keep up the good work!'
"But Obama's gradual shift into the AIPAC camp had begun as early as 2002 as he planned his move from small time Illinois politics to the national scene. In 2003, Forward reported on how he had "been courting the pro-Israel constituency." He co-sponsored an amendment to the Illinois Pension Code allowing the state of Illinois to lend money to the Israeli government. Among his early backers was Penny Pritzker -- now his national campaign finance chair -- scion of the liberal but staunchly Zionist family that owns the Hyatt hotel chain. (The Hyatt Regency hotel on Mount Scopus was built on land forcibly expropriated from Palestinian owners after Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967). He has also appointed several prominent pro-Israel advisors...
"If disappointing, given his historically close relations to Palestinian-Americans, Obama's about-face is not surprising. He is merely doing what he thinks is necessary to get elected and he will continue doing it as long as it keeps him in power. Palestinian-Americans are in the same position as civil libertarians who watched with dismay as Obama voted to reauthorize the USA Patriot Act, or immigrant rights advocates who were horrified as he voted in favor of a Republican bill to authorize the construction of a 700-mile fence on the border with Mexico.
"Only if enough people know what Obama and his competitors stand for, and organize to compel them to pay attention to their concerns can there be any hope of altering the disastrous course of US policy in the Middle East. It is at best a very long-term project that cannot substitute for support for the growing campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions needed to hold Israel accountable for its escalating violence and solidifying apartheid." --Ali Abunimah, co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, in "How Barack Obama learned to love Israel,"
posted to The Electronic Intifada on March 4, 2007 (http://www.electronicintifada.net/v2/article6619.shtml)

http://electronicintifada.net/artman2/uploads/1/barackobama483.jpg
From left to right, Michelle Obama, then Illinois state senator Barack Obama, Columbia University Professor Edward Said and Mariam Said at a May 1998 Arab community event in Chicago at which Edward Said gave the keynote speech. (Image from archives of Ali Abunimah)

http://electronicintifada.net/artman2/uploads/1/barackobama2483.jpg
Michelle Obama and Barack Obama listen to Professor Edward Said give the keynote address at an Arab community event in Chicago, May 1998. (Photo: Ali Abunimah)

As usual, I'm willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt on this, and chalk it up to the naivete of his youth. This stuff goes dates back to so many years ago, after all, and he's clearly learned a lot since then. There's no actual evidence that Obama has stated anything personally that is worrisome. And this guy Abunimah is clearly very dishonest and has a definite agenda, namely, looking to attach famous people to his cause, whether those people really agree with him or not. Notice how often Abunimah ascribes thoughts to Obama without clear evidence. But I'm surprised that none of this has been raised publicly, not even by the Republicans. (Yet...)

"I don't know if they've been asked in a debate, but whenever they have been asked, they have all gone out of their way to express full support for what Israel is doing. Barack Obama is not distinguished from the rest of the pack, except by for how far he has moved to try to appease AIPAC and pro-Israel movements.
"I remember, Amy -- I knew Barack Obama for many years as my state senator -- when he used to attend events in the Palestinian community in Chicago all the time. I remember personally introducing him onstage in 1999, when we had a major community fundraiser for the community center in Deheisha refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. And that's just one example of how Barack Obama used to be very comfortable speaking up for and being associated with Palestinian rights and opposing the Israeli occupation. And just yesterday, he apparently sent a letter to Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador at the UN, to urge the US not to allow any resolution to pass criticizing Israel and saying how Israel was forced to impose this barbaric medieval siege on [Gaza]." --Ali Abunimah, the
co-founder of the online publication The Electronic Intifada

"My point is on how Barack’s relationship with Rashid Khalidi will likely be used to tar him as someone not willing to defend Israel. Remember, we are talking US politics and no national level politician can afford to be perceived as someone who will abandon our special relationship with Israel. Why do you think Republicans and Democrats make an annual pilgrimage to the American Israeli Political Action Committee convention in Washington? Even Obama understands this. And please, I am not saying we should have (or not have) a special relationship with Israel. I am simply pointing out the reality...
"And Khalidi has direct ties to Obama. These are not imagined. Before getting his job at Columbia University Rashid Khalidi was a Middle East professor at the University of Chicago, where he befriended none other than US presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama. In 2000 Khalidi held a successful fundraiser for Barack. I am not saying or inferring or suggesting that Obama did anything wrong in letting Khalidi hold a fund raiser. But I am willing to bet that it will become an issue in the general election. Barack also played a role in getting funding for Khalidi’s Arab American Action Network during his tenure on the board of the Woods Fund. That is another unexplored black hole." --Larry Johnson, February 19, 2008 (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1972901/posts)