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Rashid Khalidi: outspoken Palestinian advocate for the elimination of Israel supplies infectious metaphors to his buddy Obama
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| By Israel Insider staff May 20, 2008 |
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When he termed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a "constant sore" last week, Sen. Barack Obama appeared to be echoing the comments days before of his friend Rashid Khalidi, a Palestinian professor who actively advocates the elimination of Israel. In an interview with the Atlantic published earlier this month, Obama was asked whether he thinks Israel is a "drag on America's reputation overseas." Obama replied: "No, no, no. But what I think is that this constant wound, that this constant sore, does infect all of our foreign policy."
Obama's description of Israel as an infectious sore drew criticism, but no one could explain where this unusual phrasing may have originated. Until now.
World Net Daily yesterday uncovered the fact that Obama's remarks came just five days after The Nation magazine published an opinion piece by Khalidi, titled "Palestine: Liberation Deferred," in which the Palestinian activist opened by calling the "Palestinian question" a "running sore." In the first paragraph of his op-ed, he wrote: "The 'Palestine Question' has been with us for sixty years. During this time it has become a running sore, its solution appearing ever more distant."
Khalidi's solution is the dissolution of Israel. He laments the Palestinian Authority's stated acceptance of a Palestinian state "only" in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and eastern sections of Jerusalem. He argues Israel should be dissolved and replaced with a binational system of government. Khalidi has previously called Israel an "apartheid system in creation" and a destructive "racist" state. He has supported Palestinian terror, calling suicide bombings response to "Israeli aggression."
Khalidi's ties to Obama were first exposed by WND in February. "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." WND broke the story an Arab group run by Khalidi's wife, Mona, received crucial funding from the Woods Fund, a Chicago nonprofit, while Obama served on the board of the Fund. Obama was a director of the Woods Fund board from 1999 to Dec. 11, 2002, according to the Fund's website, and was compensated $6,000 per year for his services in 1999 and 2000. Obama served alongside William C. Ayers, a member of the Weathermen terrorist group which sought to overthrow of the U.S. government and took responsibility for bombing the U.S. Capitol in 1971.
Obama's campaign did not immediately reply to telephone and e-mail inquiries from WND asking if his interview with the Atlantic borrowed any phraseology from Khalidi. But the re-appearance of the "sore" in Obama's mouth days after it issued from his Palestinian friend suggests that the anti-Israel contagion, like herpes, persists and spreads in ways that the Presidential candidate apparently cannot successfully suppress however much it might be in his interest to do so. |
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