RASHID KHALIDI
(Rashid Ismail Khalidi)
Incredibly, most of the administration’s appointees to handle the occupation after the Iraq War invasion were chosen for their ideological conformity to George W. Bush and the neoconservatives rather than their experience at anything much less governance or Arab culture. Almost none spoke Arabic, almost none had ever studied the Arab World, much less traveled in the Middle East. Strikingly, almost none even prepared themselves by studying the history, sociology or economics of the region, and few knew anything about Islamic culture.
Rashid Ismail Khalidi (Arabic: رشيد خالدي; born 1948) is a Palestinian American historian of the Middle East, the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, and director of the Middle East Institute of Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. He also is known for serving as editor of the scholarly journal Journal of Palestine Studies.
