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Obama pal raising funds for boat to Gaza
from Haaretz more details than previous reports regarding Khalidi's involvementU.S. group raising funds for new Gaza aid ship Rashid Khalidi, a well-know critic of Israel, hopes to raise at least $370,000 in the next month. this amount won't buy a boat, it will only be enough to rent one, and not a big one either WASHINGTON - A fundraising campaign is currently underway in the United States to finance the purchase of an American ship in an effort to break the Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza Strip in the early autumn. The ship is to be named after U.S. President Barack Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope." One of the prominent figures to support the initiative is Columbia University history professor Rashid Khalidi, a well-know critic of Israel whose friendship with the American president from their days together in Chicago engendered criticism of Obama...When asked by Haaretz if he was aware of the proposed name of the ship and whether the choice of name was appropriate, Khalidi said: "I am not one of the organizers of this effort, and had no knowledge that this name had been chosen. If the name is a problem for the [Obama] administration, it can simply insist publicly that Israel lift the siege. That of course would require it to respond to the systematic mendacity of those in Congress and elsewhere who support the siege. It is shameful that the U.S. and Egyptian governments are complicit in this indefensible siege." Posted by: lord garth 2010-07-25 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=301818 |