When the Palestinian Historian Walid Khalidi Met Kissinger (1961)

Henry Kissinger dressed as terrorist (1974).

Since I mentioned my meeting with Scranton, I might as well mention my encounter with the Herr Doktor. This was in 1961, at a cocktail party in the idyllic surroundings of Harvard University in Cambridge. Dr. Henry Kissinger approached me, having been told I was Palestinian. 

“You are Palestinian?” 

“Yes.” 

“What is your solution to the Palestine Problem?” he asks. 

“There are many parties in the conflict, not just the Arabs,” I say. 

“What parties?” the Doctor asks. 

“The World Zionist Organization, for example,” I say. 

“The World Zionist Organization? What is that?” the Doctor asks. 

It is now my turn to ask, “You mean you have never heard of the World Zionist Organization?” 

“Never,” he says. At this we smartly perform a duet, turn our backs to each other, and march in opposite directions. Let us hope the Doctor has done his homework since then as a good professor should. 

Walid Khalidi, "Towards and Adjustment of Political Perception in Arab Society," in The Middle East: Five Perspectives (North Dartmouth, MA: Association of Arab-American University Graduates, Inc., Information Papers no. 7 October, 1973), 15-16.