Jewish Voters Confront Barack Obama On His Close Association with Former PLO Operative Rashid Khalidi

Jewish voters in Miami, Florida today confronted Barack Obama on his very close friendship with Rashid Khalidi, a former PLO operative and professor at Colombia University.

Barack Obama played down his close friendship with the former PLO operative:

The Jewish voters were again doing the work of the media who refuse to ask Barack Obama about his many close associations with Jew-haters.

This is what Obama told the Jewish voters about his association with Khalidi:

"Let me respond to the question. My... uh, uh, uh, The assumption- I think the general question was that the, uh... Are there past associations of mine that would be troublesome to the Jewish community... Well, you mentioned Rashid Khalidi who's a professor at Colombia. I do know him because he taught at the University of Chicago and he is Palestinian. And, I do know him and I have had conversations. He is not one of my advisors. He is not one of my foreign policy people."

Obama did not mention that the Obama family and the Khalidi family shared many dinners together.

Obama did not mention the many talks he shared with Khalidi.
Nor, did Obama tell the Jewish voters that he gave a toast at a going away party to Rashid Khalidi when he moved from Chicago to New York to take the job at Colombia University:

Obama said, had been "consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases... It's for that reason that I'm hoping that, for many years to come, we continue that conversation -- a conversation that is necessary not just around Mona and Rashid's dinner table," but around "this entire world."

By the way, The Los Angeles Times has video of this dinner and has not released the tape.
Obama also did not mention the other anti-Semites at that dinner:

At Khalidi's 2003 farewell party, for example, a young Palestinian American recited a poem accusing the Israeli government of terrorism in its treatment of Palestinians and sharply criticizing U.S. support of Israel. If Palestinians cannot secure their own land, she said, "then you will never see a day of peace."

One speaker likened "Zionist settlers on the West Bank" to Osama bin Laden, saying both had been "blinded by ideology."

Obama also did not mention that the Khalidi's held a fundraiser for Obama's unsuccessful congressional bid in 2000.

Obama also did not mention that he helped funnel tens of thousands of dollars to Khalidi's anti-Israel Arab American Action Network.

These are a few of the things Obama forgot to mention to his Jewish audience today.