You have to feel sorry for Barack Obama. His advisers decided long ago to play it safe where the Middle East is concerned, positioning their campaign in a never-never land of rightwing Zionism so extreme that even the Likudniks were embarrassed. The reasons are obvious: the campaign is beset by rumors that Obama was a Muslim, and a secret Muslim at that. So what kind of political shorthand do you use to blot out that image in the collective American imagination, especially among Jews? You make your candidate fanatically pro-Israel, a public figure who will say anything to please the Israel Lobby, a comic-book caricature of Ariel Sharon running for office in a U.S. election.

The 1980s were a difficult time for Arab Americans. Politicians returned our contributions and rejected our endorsements, and many effectively hung "No Arab Americans allowed" signs on their campaign doors. Back then, we wrote about this situation, calling it "the politics of exclusion."