PrintJuly 22, 2010
Is This Another Teachable Moment for Americans?
Friends of Barack are active in attempting to break Israel's blockade of munitions sent to Gaza.
On June 14, 2010, James Lewis penned a piece "The Gaza Flotilla Ambush: What Did the White House Know?" He wrote that "for decades the network of leftists and Islamic fascists behind the Gaza ambush has been trying to create a media extravaganza to make Israel look bad before the world."
Further evidence of the desire of these groups to provoke and initiate violence is found in a current piece by Winfield Myers entitled "Rashid Khalidi Appeals for Funds for Ship to Run Israeli Blockade of Gaza." In the past, Obama acknowledged his personal friendship with the Khalidis when he described conversations "around Mona and Rashid's dinner table." This is the same Rashid Khalidi that Obama said had "challenged his thinking" about the Middle East.
Rashid Khalidi has a long history of ties with terrorist Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization ~ the very PLO that was involved in hundreds of terrorist attacks throughout the world ~ that stole millions of dollars intended for Palestinians but which ended up in Arafat's Swiss account ~ and the very same PLO that flagrantly lied to every American leader who attempted to broker Mideast peace treaties.
In 2000 Khalidi held a fundraiser for Obama. In addition, a social service group whose board was headed by Mona Khalidi received a $40,000 grant from a local charity where Obama served on the board of directors. Khalidi was lavish in his praise of Obama in his bid for the U.S. Senate seat.
So it should come as no surprise that Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University, is back in the news. He has signed an appeal for funds to outfit a ship to be named The Audacity of Hope, after Obama's second book, which will challenge the Israeli blockade of Gaza in September or October. Falsehoods abound at the site established by Mona and Rashid Khalidi. No mention is made of the brutal attacks on Israeli commandos or the flotilla's connection with a known Turkish terrorist group.
Consequently, the jihadist organizations receive yet another mantle of respectability as a professor of an American university lends his voice to the terror incitement. In actuality he and his cohorts are acting as "decoys" as Iranian long range missiles are shipped to Syria and then to Hezb'allah. The world's attention on the flotilla diverts focus on the war preparations by Israel's avowed enemies.
As the world affirms that murderous actions by known terrorist supporters are acceptable, and that Israel should forfeit its inalienable right to defend itself, Khalidi and his ilk gain prominence and power. Let us not forget that Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers was involved in the June Free Gaza Movement flotilla. Birds of a feather do flock together. Ayers, dedicated his own manifesto published in 1974 to Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin of Robert Kennedy and Khalidi begins his own book Under Seige: PLO Decisionmaking During the 1982 War by thanking arch terrorist PLO Chairman Yassir Arafat.
Both Khalidi and Ayers have never relinquished their desire to destroy. Furthermore, Ayers shared duties with Obama on the board of the Woods Fund - that very same charity that distributed money to Khalidi. It is becoming abundantly clear that Obama sides with leftists and jihadists whose goals are antithetical to the good of America.
Do Khalidi and Ayers and the flotilla agents have the covert blessing of the executive office? Do his longtime connections and friendships reflect the 44th president's real philosophical leanings and agenda? Obama's continuing overt disdain and disregard of Israel's security requirements and his empathy for the likes of Khalidi with his "disturbing consistency as an apologist for terrorist organizations" can no longer be ignored.
Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com
