John McCain and his surrogates have attempted to paint Sen. Barack Obama as holding anti-Israel views because of his relationship with Palestinian-American Professor Rashid Kahlidi. They claim that Kahlidi holds a “very hostile view of Israel” and has “a connection to the PLO.”
The “public record” shows that Khalidi is a well-respected, mainstream scholar of Middle Eastern studies.
The inaccuracy of the McCain camps characterization of Khalidi as being "hostle to Israel" and a supporter of the PLO, is the fact that while McCain served as chairman of the board for the International Republican Institute he distributed several grants to the Palestinian research center co-founded by Khalidi, the Center for Palestine Research and Studies, totaling $448,873.
"This, of course, just goes to show how absurd it is to suggest that Khalidi is some sort of radical polemicist. The guy is such a credentialed and respected scholar that even right-leaning organizations have funded his work, simply because it's good work. They may not agree with his personal conclusions, but Khalidi's scholarship gets taken seriously." Noted Ezra Klein of the American Prospect
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