RASHID KHALIDI LA TIMES RELEASE OBAMA TAPE

READ BELOW--
Aaron Klein, World Net Daily Jerusalem bureau chief, wrote February 24, 2008:

During documented speeches and public events, Khalidi has called Israel an apartheid system in creation and a destructive  state.

He has multiple times expressed support for Palestinian terror, calling suicide bombings response to Israeli aggression. He dedicated his 1986 book, Under Siege those who gave their lives  in defense of the cause of Palestine and independence of Lebanon. Critics assailed the book as excusing Palestinian terrorism.

Pipes should have quite a bit to say about Mr. Khalidi and Barack Obama friendship, Moran commented.

RBO has posted on the Khalidi-Obama connection several times

On February 11, 2008, in RW/RBO%u2019s first article on unrepentant domestic terrorist and Weather Underground leader Bill Ayers, and his WUO mate, Bernardine Dohrn, we wrote:

Another event occurred in February 2005 that included Ayers, Dohrn, and Obama, a fairwell dinner for Arab American Action Network (AAAN) founder Rashid Khalidi (emphasis added):

Rashid Khalidi, a Columbia professor whose recent book argues that Yasser Arafat was right to reject the best peace deal he had ever been offered, opening the way to four years of bloodshed, presented a tendentious argument for a one-state solution that strained to stay within the bounds of reasoned discourse. [...]

Khalidi%u2019s wife, Mona Khalidi (left), who also served in Beirut as chief editor of the English section of the WAFA press agency, was hired as dean of foreign students at Columbia%u2019s SIPA, working under Dean Anderson. In Chicago, the Khalidis founded the Arab American Action Network, and Mona Khalidi served as its president. A big farewell dinner was held in their honor by AAAN with a commemorative book filled with testimonials from their friends and political allies. These included the left wing anti-war group Not In My Name, the Electronic Intifada, and the ex-Weatherman domestic terrorists Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers. (There were also testimonials from then-state Senator Barack Obama and the mayor of Chicago.)

In the same article, RW/RBO added: This September 24, 2007, research paper provides more information on Obama%u2019s relationship with Khalidi. This March 8, 2007, article in The Jewish Week provides more details.

On February 22, 2008, RW/RBO wrote about a connection between convicted political fixer (and Obama%u2019s personal real estate fairy), Antoin %u201CTony%u201D Rezko (left), and Rashid Khalidi:

The University of Chicago Chronicle reported May 9, 2002, about Farouk Mustafa, Lecturer in Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, who was %u201Cawarded the first Ibn Rushd Lectureship in Modern Arabic Language.%u201D

Rashid Khalidi, Professor in Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, had flown in from France to attend the ceremony, at which he expressed appreciation for the Arab-American community effort that made the named lectureship possible.

Chief donors behind the lectureship included Talat Othman, Antoin %u201CTony%u201D Rezko, Albert Joseph and Jamal Alwattar.

Khalidi is now the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University and head of that school%u2019s Middle East Institute.

The following day, WND%u2019s Aaron Klein asked %u201CDid Sen. Barack Obama misrepresent his relationship with a pro-Palestinian activist and harsh critic of Israel who has been described as a friend of the senator?%u201D

During a campaign stop yesterday at a Boca Raton synagogue, Obama was asked about his association with Columbia University Professor Rashid Khalidi, who has made repeated statements supportive of Palestinian terror.

Obama replied: %u201CYou mentioned Rashid Khalidi, who%u2019s a professor at Columbia. I do know him because I taught at the University of Chicago. And he is Palestinian. And I do know him and I have had conversations. He is not one of my advisors; he%u2019s not one of my foreign policy people. His kids went to the Lab school where my kids go as well. He is a respected scholar, although he vehemently disagrees with a lot of Israel%u2019s policy.%u201D

Continued Obama: %u201CTo pluck out one person who I know and who I%u2019ve had a conversation with who has very different views than 900 of my friends and then to suggest that somehow that shows that maybe I%u2019m not sufficiently pro-Israel, I think, is a very problematic stand to take,%u201D he said. %u201CSo we gotta be careful about guilt by association.%u201D

%u201CBut,%u201D Klein wrote, %u201CObama%u2019s relationship with Khalidi goes beyond conversation. Khalidi%u2019s ties to Obama were first exposed by WND in February in a much-cited article.%u201D

According to a professor at the University of Chicago who said he has known Obama for 12 years, the Democratic presidential hopeful befriended Khalidi when the two worked together at the university. The professor spoke on condition of anonymity. Khalidi lectured at the University of Chicago until 2003 while Obama taught law there from 1993 until his election to the Senate in 2004.

Sources at the University told WND that Khalidi and Obama lived in nearby faculty residential zones and that the two families dined together a number of times. The sources said the Obama%u2019s even babysat the Khalidi children.

Khalidi in 2000 held what was described as a successful fundraiser for Obama%u2019s failed bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, a fact not denied by Khalidi, who spoke to WND in February.

Klein continues:

%u201CJust last week, WND noted, [Obama] termed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a %u2018constant sore%u2019 in an interview just five days after Khalidi wrote an opinion piece in The Nation magazine titled Palestine: Liberation Deferred in which the Palestinian activist opened by calling the %u2018Palestinian question%u2019 a %u2018running sore%u2019 [and suggests] Israel carried out %u2018ethnic cleansing%u2019 of Palestinians; writes Western powers backed Israel%u2019s establishment due to guilt of the Holocaust; laments the Palestinian Authority%u2019s stated acceptance of a Palestinian state %u2018only%u2019 in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and eastern sections of Jerusalem; and argues Israel should be dissolved and instead a binational cantonal system should be set up in which Jews and Arabs reside.%u201D

While speaking in a joint interview with WND and John Batchelor at WABC Radio, Khalidi was asked about his 2000 fundraiser for Obama.

%u201CI was just doing my duties as a Chicago resident to help my local politician,%u201D Khalidi stated.

Khalidi said he supports Obama for president %u201Cbecause he is the only candidate who has expressed sympathy for the Palestinian cause.%u201D

Khalidi also lauded Obama for %u201Csaying he supports talks with Iran. If the U.S. can talk with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, there is no reason it can%u2019t talk with the Iranians.%u201D

Asked about Obama%u2019s role funding the [Arab American Action Network], Khalidi claimed he had %u201Cnever heard of the Woods Fund until it popped up on a bunch of blogs a few months ago.%u201D

He terminated the call when petitioned further about his links with Obama.