Rashid Khalidi and Barack Obama; Just another friend he doesn’t know

Stanley Kurtz discussed Barack Obama’s relationship with William “Bill” Ayers and everyone called him a liar. Obama himself denied over and over again that he spent any real time with this man, something we all now know was a lie. He even covered this lie with another lie, saying he thought Ayers was “rehabilitated”, but that is not what we heard during his Connie Chung interview in 1998. We also know that he was connected to ACORN through his work with Ayers on the Chicago Anneberg Challenge and the Woods Funds, but Obama once again said that this wasn’t true. Once again, another lie, even CNN is reporting this story. It also seems that another name has come up in the investigation of his past, Rashid Khalidi.

Who is Rashid Khalidi? Well according to Campus Watch, he is an anti-Israeli Palestinian extremist, preaching antisemitic hatred in his classrooms. Matter of fact, Khalidi is the one who organized Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Columbia University. For those who keep forgetting, Ahmadinejad has called for the death of Israel on numerous occasions. Now why would he want this man speaking at his university? Well because he believes what this man has to say, that the Jewish state is “cancer” on the Middle East and that it must be removed. Now where does Barack Obama come into this? Well aside from the fact that he was one of Obama’s professors at the University of Chicago, there is a deeper connection between these two which raises more questions about more questions about Barack’s judgment. Let’s go back to the Woods Fund…

Bill Ayers set up this organization to raise money for radical groups. We have heard about the Woods Fund providing hundreds of thousand for ACORN, a group which is now under investigation in more than seventeen states on a variety of charges, like voter fraud, but this wasn’t the only suspicious organization to get money. Another group that received funding was the Arab American Action Network (AAAN), which received $75,000 from 2001 to 2002. This organization, which was co-founded by Khalidi himself and directed by his wife Mona, claims to “empower Chicago-area Arab immigrants and Arab Americans through the combined strategies of community organizing, advocacy, education and social services, leadership development, and forging productive relationships with other communities”. What you don’t read on their website is that they are also known for spreading anti-Israeli hate through public events, like fund raiser dinners. Both Ayers and Obama knew this, matter of fact, they attended those events and dinners which Khalidi hosted at his own home. On top of this, Ayers is thanked personally by Khalidi in his book, Resurrecting Empire, saying “Bill was particularly generous in letting me use his family’s dinning room table to do some writing for the project”. That is not all though…

While Bill Ayers was connected to the Weathermen Underground, Khalidi was connected to the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) through WAFA, the press agency of the radical organization. In 1991, he served on the PLO “guidance committee” at the Madrid conference, along with such figures as Faisal Husseini (former head of The Orient House, the PLO’s head quarters in East Jerusalem), Hanan Ashrawi (former Palestinian activist in Lebanon) and Sari Nusseibeh (a Palestinian moderate). Khalidi was granted access to the PLO’s archives at the request of Yasser Arafat himself to help him write a book about the organization which he published in 1985. His close relationship with the PLO has made him the foremost expert on the Palestinian “liberation” movement, which is why Khalidi was hired by both the University of Chicago and Columbia to teach Middle Eastern studies. Because of this, groups like Campus Watch pay close attention to his speeches where he has condemned Israel’s actions against radical groups, while applauding the actions of suicide bombers.

Applauding suicide bombers? Yes, you heard me right, this man is a supporter of radical action against Israel, saying that any resistance to Israeli occupation is legitimate. He isn’t simply man who Barack knows through casual acquaintances, Khalidi threw him a political fund raiser in 2000. This isn’t simply more political back-scratching though, there is more to their relationship then this. In 2003, Obama threw Khalidi a farewell dinner as he was leaving the University of Chicago to take a teaching position at Columbia. This was reported by the Los Angeles Times in April of thiis year, the headline being “Allies of Palestinians see a friend in Obama”. A neighbour? Hardly, especially with the article reporting that, “A special tribute came from Khalidi’s friend and frequent dinner companion, the young state Sen. Barack Obama. Speaking to the crowd, Obama reminisced about meals prepared by Khalidi’s wife, Mona, and conversations that had challenged his thinking.” Not an adviser? Sure sounds like he was “advised” on Middle Eastern politics by this man for a few years.

This isn’t the first anti-Israeli expert he has had at his side though. Robert Malley, as I mentioned in Barack’s back-stabbing, was let go when it was revealed that he had met with groups like Hamas and the PLO on numerous occasions. What is disturbing is that the reference Khalidi made to the Palestinian issue being a “running sore” in an article he wrote for The Nation magazine, was repeated by Obama in a response in The Atlantic a few days later. One wonders if Obama also shares Khalidi’s belief that Israel is ethnically cleansing the country, not something Jewish groups in America would want to hear from a Presidential candidate. When you take into account that Reverend Jeremiah Wright spoke often of the evils of Israel, which Barack listened to for twenty years, it is downright disturbing to think that a man like this could be President.

This is just another associate that Barack Obama doesn’t want people looking into to, and it is easy to see why. What I find shocking is not only that the MSM is keeping this silent, but it is also that “The One’s” supporters are denying the truth to these claims. Sean Hannity discussed this on Hannity’s America a while back, and now McCain supporters are trying to get this information out. The problem is that many will dismiss it if it isn’t reportedly openly by CNN, ABC and CBS, three news agencies which have shown their obvious bias towards the Obama campaign. With the news about ACORN breaking, however, these media giants being forced to cover the group’s connection to “The One” himself, something the McCain campaign is now taking advantage of.

Once again, knowing what we know now, how could anyone in their right mind support Baarck Obama? The problem is that this election may be swayed by the “Kool-Aid drinkers”, the “cult of personality” which has thus far refused to believe these truths about “The One”, even saluting him with the “O” hand gesture at campaign events. To me, this is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. No matter what we do or say, nothing can prevent this tragedy from happening.

Rashid Khalidi isn’t “just a neighbour”, he is one of Barack’s close friends, he is another sign of what America under Obama will represent. Do the research and put the “Kool-Aid” down, many of you have had enough already…

UPDATE: I keep hearing all this talk about how Obama loves America and that no one should question his “patriotism”. Really? He wouldn’t wear a flag pin a few months back, and campaigners were showing love to an anti-American “hero” in their offices earlier this year. Surprising how fast this man can flip-flop isn’t it? Pathetic…

UPDATE: Bill O’Reilly’s team finally caught up with Bill Ayers to ask him a few questions. The irony? He felt threatened by their “assault” and called for police protection to escort him back to his car, the same police he and the Weathermen were out killing just a few decades ago. Pathetic who even the “mighty” depend on the protection of the system they hate so much.

UPDATE: For some reason, after writing this post so long ago, people are now paying attention to Rashid Khalidi. Gateway Pundit is writing about how the Los Angeles Times has a video of the 2003 party Obama threw Khalidi, but won’t release it, let alone acknowledge they have it. Michelle Malkin believes it is due to fears of a being attacked by Barack’s supporters, both inside and outside of the MSM, but I think it has more to do with personal bias.

UPDATE: The fight for the Khalidi tape rages on. Michelle Malkin has been following this story since it broke, and I recommend my readers to go to her website to find out what is going on. There are petitions going around demanding the Los Angeles Times release this tape so voters can judge what was said by those who attended the going away party in 2003 which Obama threw for Khalidi. It is no surprise they haven’t released it, they wouldn’t want the candidate they endorsed to have his presidential hopes jeopardized…