Kathleen Christison

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Kathleen Christison
Occupation	Political analyst & author

Kathleen (McGrath) Christison (born 1941) is an American political analyst and author whose primary area of focus is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She and her husband, Bill Christison, have gained recognition as vocal critics of Israel.^[1][2][3]

For sixteen years, Christison worked as a political analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).^[4][5] Between 1963 and 1972, her work concentrated on Vietnam. The last seven years before her resignation from the agency in 1979 saw her work there centered on the Middle East. Since leaving the CIA, Christison has worked as a free-lance author. Her articles have been published extensively by the Journal of Palestine Studies and Counterpunch^[6][7] as well as in the Electronic Intifada^[8] and Adbusters^[9]. She is also the author of two books: Perceptions of Palestine: Their Influence on U.S. Middle East Policy (1999 & 2001) and The Wound of Dispossession: Telling the Palestinian Story (2002).^[10][11][12]

Contents 1 Philosophical bases 2 Works 2.1 Books 2.2 Articles in the Journal of Palestine Studies 3 References

[edit] Philosophical bases

Christison has described the ideological shift she made from "Reagan Republican" to foreign-policy critic as "a slow evolution" that was facilitated by the move she and her husband made away from Washington, D.C. to New Mexico.^[1]

In her book, Perceptions of Palestine, Christison examines how perceptions, attitudes, and policies of the United States government towards the Palestinians and Israel over the last century have contributed to the irresolution of the conflict.^[13] The United States' special relationship with Israel is said by Christison to have undermined Palestinian political claims and downplayed the seriousness of their tragedy.^[13] According to the Arab Studies Quarterly, the questioning of this lack of moral equality in American responses and treatments of both Arab and Jewish tragedies is a major theme of Christison's book.^[13]

[edit] Works

[edit] Books

• Perceptions of Palestine: Their Influence on U.S. Middle East Policy (Hardcover 1999) University of California Press. ISBN 0520217179.[1] (Updated softcover version released in 2001)
• The Wound of Dispossession: Telling the Palestinian Story (2002) Sunlit Hills Press. ISBN 097125480X.[2]

[edit] Articles in the Journal of Palestine Studies

• "The American Experience: Palestinians in the US" (1989)
• "Dilemmas of Arab Christianity" (1992)
• "Macro Microcosm" (1992)
• "The City and Its People" (1993)
• "Pax Americana" (1995)
• "A Frank Examination" (1995)
• "Uneven but Invaluable" (1996)
• "US Policy and the Palestinians: Bound by a Frame of Reference" (1997)
• "US Policy Realities" (1997)
• "A Morality Tale?" (1998)
• "Selective Memory?" (1999)
• "'All Those Old Issues': George W. Bush and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict" (2004)

[edit] References