What if I were to say that I was a Jew who had served on the U.S. Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East with Rashid Khalidi? Would my Jewishness have been tainted? Would I be endorsing the bombing of my fellow Jews, innocent civilians, pregnant women, simply by sharing the company of this professor who is of Palestinian heritage and speaks out for some of the causes of the Palestinian people?
Would I be a traitor to Israel for speaking with this man?
Would I be an enemy of America?
Would his views become my views?
Would listening to him make me culpable in the deaths of people in my homeland?
In not rejecting persons who expressed views disagreeing with the policies of the Israeli government, would the Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East be acting as a haven for terrorist sympathizers?
Would I, myself, then become a terrorist sympathizer?
What then, if I supported Obama? Would that change anything? Everything?
My view is that people who fear Obama fear him first and then seek a reason.
So the search goes on.
