Obama and his relationship with Rashid Khalidi, like that of Ayers and others who were part of his past, have been traced back to his days in Chicago. Their history goes back many years.
Rashid Khalidi Today
Rashid Khalidi, who holds the Edward Said Chair for Middle East Studies at Columbia University, leads the Pro-Palestinian movement on the campus. He was a director of the official PLO press agency WAFA in Beirut from 1976 to 1982 at a time when the U.S. Department State Department considered the PLO a terrorist organization. He is a major supporter of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who recently spoke at at the University, with whom he agrees about the destruction of Israel. Khalidi praised the 4-year Palestinian second intifada which left hundreds of Israeli's dead.
Obama and Khalidi History
Khalidi was a Middle East professor at the University of Chicago when he first befriended Barrack Hussein Obama. Fox News reported (10/09/08) that over a period time, when Obama ran the Woods Fund, Obama approved somewhere in the neighborhood of $75,000 to Khalidi's Arab American Action Network.
During Obama's unsuccessful bid for the U.S. House of Reprentatives in 2000, Khalidi held a successful fundraising in his home for him where he met another Palestinian activist, Ali Abunimah. During a party for Khalidi, the young state senator Obama, gave a special tribute to his friend, reminissing about meals prepared by Khalidi's wife, Mona and about the conversations that had challenged his thinking.
According to the Los Angeles Times, (4/10/08), Obama said that his many talks with Khalidi had been, "consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases....It's for that reason that I'm hoping that, for many years to come, we continue that conversation---a conversation that is necessary not just around Mona and Rashid's dinner table, but around this entire world." Through these types of events, Obama was able to help build his political base in Chicago.
Obama's Disappearing Chicago Friends
John Gibson, writing for Fox News, (10/09/08) remarks about the involvement with people like Ayers and Khalidi,--- both socially and financially--- and when asked about these close associations, they suddenly become just "someone I know from the neighborhood" or someone whose kids go to my kids' school. It continues to be a pattern with names that have come up in his Chicago past, like Rezko, and other people he associated with prior to becoming a candidate for President of the United States.
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