In a recent op-ed in the Washington Post co-authored by Arafat adviser Hussein Agha, Malley wrote: "A renewed national compact and a return of Hamas to the political fold would upset Israel's strategy of perpetuating Palestinian geographic and political division."
So, according to Obama's former adviser, it's all Israel's fault, not the fault of those who want to make sure Israel, celebrating 60 years of existence, doesn't have a 61st birthday.
Perhaps that's why Malley, whose father Simon was a personal friend of Arafat's, wrote another op-ed in the Baltimore Sun titled, "Making the Best of Hamas' Victory." After Hamas won a majority of seats in the Palestinian parliament in February 2006, Malley advocated international aid to the terrorist group's newly formed government.
Did Obama know about this before he brought Malley on board? Asked if the Obama camp knew about his contacts with Hamas, Malley said: "They know who I am, but I don't think they vet everyone in a group of informal advisers."
If Obama wants to be president, he'd better do a better job of both vetting and picking friends and associates, as well as pastors.
As we have noted, Obama also has links with Rashid Khalidi, who currently is the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University. Said, who is one of the leading anti-Israeli "intellectuals" of the 20th century and once worked with Arafat's Palestinian Liberation Organization, has branded Israel as an "apartheid system in creation."
In 2000, Khalidi and his wife held a fundraiser for Obama's unsuccessful congressional bid. The next year, a social service group whose board was headed by Mona Khalidi received a $40,000 grant from a local charity, the Woods Fund of Chicago, when Obama, along with William Ayers, served on the fund's board of directors.
Last month, the Los Angeles Times reported that Obama spoke at a going-away party in honor of Khalidi in Chicago in 2003. One speaker likened "Zionist settlers on the West Bank" to Osama bin Laden, saying both had been "blinded by ideology."
Ali Abunimah, a Palestinian activist from Chicago who helps run the Web site Electronic Intifada, says: "In 2000, when Obama unsuccessfully ran for Congress, I heard him speak at a fundraiser hosted by a University of Chicago professor." Abunimah says Obama called for a more "even-handed" — meaning less pro-Israel — policy in the Middle East.
So Obama's endorsement by Hamas is not all that surprising. The man who wants to be president has a consistent and disturbing pattern of associations with influence peddlers, racist preachers, terrorist professors and people who wouldn't mind if Israel just went away.
As John McCain says, the American people should make their judgments accordingly. |
