Middle East studies in the News

Obama's Good Friend Rashid Khalidi

by Rick Moran
The American Thinker
May 23, 2008

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/05/obamas_good_friend_rashid_khal.html

http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/5163

This is getting to be a disturbing pattern for Barack Obama.

A radical association from his past comes to light and he minimizes the relationship. Additional information is gathered showing him to have much more extensive contact with the radical than he originally said, thus proving the candidate to be a liar.

End result? Media silence and the story is buried.

Today's revelations come via Rezkowatch where they quote a World Net Daily story that shows Obama had a close, personal relationship with radical professor and Palestinian apologist Rashid Khalidi.

The issue came up at a recent campaign stop in Florida where a voter asked Obama about the nature of his relationship with Khalidi:

"You mentioned Rashid Khalidi, who's a professor at Columbia," Obama said. "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's 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's policy."

But then Obama pushed back, launching a broader defense of his associations, while acknowledging that some past relationships have caused people in the Jewish community concerns.

"To pluck out one person who I know and who I've 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'm not sufficiently pro-Israel, I think, is a very problematic stand to take," he said. "So we gotta be careful about guilt by association."

But just what is the nature of his association?

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's even babysat the Khalidi children.

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

When is the media going to get wise to Obama's game? Trying to square what Obama told the crowd in Florida with what was revealed by WND can't be done. The candidate is obviously trying to minimize his problematic friendship with yet another radical. And he is being allowed to do this by a press that can't be oblivious to the shocking extent of Obama's association with extremists.

Note also that Obama called Khaladi a "respected scholar" - just like William Ayers - as if this washed away a litany of other sins. Perhaps Obama believes that teachers are immune from criticism.

Ayers, Dohrn, Wright, Meeks, Khaladi - and those are just the radicals we know of. There is something about radical ideology or personalities that attracts Barack Obama. And we better find out what it is before we elect him president.Note: Articles listed under "Middle East studies in the News" provide information on current developments concerning Middle East studies on North American campuses. These reports do not necessarily reflect the views of Campus Watch and do not necessarily correspond to Campus Watch's critique.

receive the latest by email: subscribe to campus watch's free mailing list