Internal affairs.

• Author: Rothchild, Matthew
• Position: Edward Said's book criticizes Yasir Arafat, includes an appreciation of former Progressive editor Edwin Knoll - Editorial

Above my computer at work, I have a book propped up for inspiration. That book is Representations of the Intellectual by Edward Said, who joins our editorial advisory board this month, along with other new members Barbara Ehrenreich, Martin Espada, Jane Slaughter, and Urvashi Vaid.

I like Said's book in part because it gives me permission to be a crank.

The intellectual, Said writes, should "be happy with the idea of unhappiness, so that dissatisfaction bordering on dyspepsia, a kind of curmudgeonly disagreeableness, can become not only a style of thought, but also a new, if temporary, habitation." Elsewhere, he adds: "Least of all should an intellectual be there to make his or her audiences feel good. . . . The whole point is to be embarrassing, contrary, even unpleasant."

There, I feel better.

I also admire Said for transcending nationalism, even the nationalism of his beloved Palestinian cause.

"It is always easy and popular for intellectuals to fall into modes of vindication and self-righteousness that blind them to the evil done in the name of their own ethnic or national community," he writes.

Said refuses to do that. He criticized Yasir Arafat's eagerness to sign the peace accords that were heavily tilted against the Palestinians. And he criticized Arafat's administration of the West Bank and Gaza, denouncing him for corruptness and for brutality, for acting as an Israeli gendarme, for selling Palestinians short.

In return, Arafat has now banned Said's writings in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.

Said is not the only victim of Arafat's repression.

Arafat has been detaining human-rights activists and critics, his police forces have tortured these political prisoners behind bars, and several have died while in custody.

You might not have heard much about this because Arafat is now an official good guy. He serves the interests of the U.S. government in the Middle East by making peace with Israel.

But you would not be surprised by Arafat's actions if you'd been reading Edward Said. In outspoken language, he's been warning of Arafat's increasing authoritarianism over the last few years. That outspokenness has now gotten Said into trouble.

And while it's a painful irony that Said is banned in his own homeland, for him it is a badge of honor.

"Never solidarity before criticism," he writes. "The personal cost be dammed."

I used to kid my predecessor, Erwin Knoll, that Bill Lueders would be his Boswell. But it's come to pass.

Bill...