Regarding Said's foolishness, take a look at the relevant chapters in Robert Irwin's "Dangerous Knowledge: Orientalism and its Discontents." Irwin is one of few people capable of fact-checking that book, and what he found ain't pretty.

Also, personally, I find it a little absurd when I hear things like "Only a true Oriental can accurately represent the orient" when it's coming from the mouth of the half-American son of an affluent, protestant, English-speaking family in whose household Arabic was never even spoken except to order servants around. But then, I wouldn't put it past him to give reasons why his early biography is all a Zionist fabrication.