The Obama-Khalidi Connection (updated)

Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes will discuss the close relationship between Barack Obama and Rashid Khalidi - Palestinian supporter and the professor at Columbia University - on a special broadcast of "Hannity's America" which will air tomorrow night at 9:00 PM eastern time.

Khalidi is a former professor at the University of Chicago and was a close friend of Barack Obama and his wife Michelle. At a farewell dinner for Khalidi before he took the Columbia job, Obama 's speech was filled with glowing praise for his friend, including references to the many meals they had shared. He thanked Khalidi for opening his eyes about the problems of the Palestinians.

Khalidi himself has given vocal support to suicide bombers:

Khalidi's wife Mona ran the Chicago area charity, the Arab American Action Network, that received substantial assistance from the Woods Fund, a left wing foundation that Obama and unreconstructed terrorist Bill Ayers were Board members. The AAAN was notorious for its pro-Palestianian sympathies.

Pipes should have quite a bit to say about Mr. Khalidi and Barack Obama's friendship.

Hat Tip: Ed Lasky

Update from Clarice Feldman:

The board of a nonprofit organization on which Sen. Barack Obama served as a paid director alongside a confessed domestic terrorist granted funding to a controversial Arab group that mourns the establishment of Israel as a "catastrophe" and supports intense immigration reform, including providing drivers licenses and education to illegal aliens.

The co-founder of the Arab group in question, Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi, also has held a fundraiser for Obama. Khalidi is a harsh critic of Israel, has made statements supportive of Palestinian terror and reportedly has worked on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization while it was involved in anti-Western terrorism and was labeled by the State Department as a terror group.

In 2001, the Woods Fund, a Chicago-based nonprofit that describes itself as a group helping the disadvantaged, provided a $40,000 grant to the Arab American Action Network, or AAAN, for which Khalidi's wife, Mona, serves as president. The Fund provided a second grant to the AAAN for $35,000 in 2002.

Obama was a director of the Woods Fund board from 1999 to Dec. 11, 2002, according to the Fund's website. According to tax filings, Obama received compensation of $6,000 per year for his service in 1999 and 2000.
Obama served on the Wood's Fund board 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.