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Meet Obama's New Old 'Radical' Pal

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 31, 2008 9:37 AM CDT

(Newser) – Ever since an April story in the LA Times linked him with Barack Obama, friends say Rashid Khalidi has expected to be vilified along the lines of Bill Ayers. The Manhattan-born Columbia professor is an advocate for Palestinian rights and once likened Israeli policies to apartheid. This week John McCain finally brought up his ties to Obama, while GOP partisans accused him of anti-Semitism and extremism. Khalidi isn't commenting, but colleagues tell the New York Times the attacks are ridiculous.

One Rabbi who knows Khalidi called them “completely absurd, uncalled for, and malicious.” Former Jewish and Arab students alike say he was an excellent professor who allowed for divergent views. “Anyone who knows me knows the last thing I am is extreme,” Khalidi once said. He befriended Obama while teaching at the University of Chicago, though he dismissed a National Review report that he babysat Obama’s kids as nonsense.

[Images (2)]

[Quotes (3)]

In this 2003 file photo, Palestinian-American historian Rashid Khalidi speaks during a press conference at the Geneva press club in Geneva, Switzerland. (AP Photo)

Barack Obama speaks at a rally in Virginia Beach, Va., Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

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It just seems really ironic to me that Rashid would be singled out as a figure in the trumped-up controversy. In a field that is often politicized, he is respected by people on the right as well as the left. - Alan Brinkley, Columbia provost

These people will take anything out of context. Anyone who knows me knows the last thing I am is extreme. I’ve called suicide bombings a war crime. I’m a ferocious critic of Arafat. - Rashid Khalidi

It should have been like, yes, I know him, and I’d like to know more Middle East experts, because that’s an important thing when you’re making policies. - Maher Awartani, a student of Mr. Khalidi, criticizing Obama's tepid response to attacks

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