Rashid Khalidi, author of 'Resurrecting Empire' and 'Palestinian Identity', holds the Edward Said Chair in Arab Studies at Columbia University, where he heads the Middle East Institute. He has written more than eighty articles [and five books] on Middle Eastern history and politics, as well as op-ed pieces in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Los Angleles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and The Nation. He lives in New York.