Obama's Anti-Semitic Friends

UPDATE: In the midst of all this controversy, Rev. Wright invited to speak by the NAACP. They must really like the guy and his racist, anti-American remarks. Gateway Pundit.
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Barack Obama's anti-Semitic friends and questionable remarks. Some of this has been circulating for a while. What Schlussel says may be a bit overblown, but if it's true that Obama high-level staffers are Nation of Islam members that is a problem for him. Schlussel also mentions some speculation on Tony Rezko. [Very powerful video below on an LA event.]

Today the LA Times has a story on Obama's friend and fellow professor Rashid Khalidi, the PLO operative and U of Chicago professor before he headed off to Columbia:

CHICAGO -- It was a celebration of Palestinian culture -- a night of music, dancing and a dash of politics. Local Arab Americans were bidding farewell to Rashid Khalidi, an internationally known scholar, critic of Israel and advocate for Palestinian rights, who was leaving town for a job in New York.

A special tribute came from Khalidi's friend and frequent dinner companion, the young state Sen. Barack Obama. Speaking to the crowd, Obama reminisced about meals prepared by Khalidi's wife, Mona, and conversations that had challenged his thinking.

His many talks with the Khalidis, 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."

Some more MSM vetting of Obama, the LA Times picks up this connection:

In 2000, the Khalidis 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 served on the fund's board of directors.

And this concern from the Jewish community:

One Jewish leader said he viewed Obama's outreach to Palestinian activists, such as Said, in the light of his relationship to Wright.

"In the context of spending 20 years in a church where now it is clear the anti-Israel rhetoric was there, was repeated, . . . that's what makes his presence at an Arab American event with a Said a greater concern," said Abraham H. Foxman, national director for the Anti-Defamation League.

Related at HotAir, Obama: Elie Weisel is a piker and Media misses the anti-Semitism in Los Angeles rally for MLK--here's the Rev. Lee, NOT Obama's pastor, the keynote speaker, according to Daphna Ziman the Jewish recipient (and Clinton supporter) of an award (for helping children) that day:

Ziman’s email states “[Lee] started talking about the African American children who are suffering because of the Jews that have featured them as rapists and murderers. He spoke of a Jewish Rabbi, and then corrected himself to say ‘What other kind of Rabbis are there, but Jews.’ He told how this Rabbi came to him to say that he would like to bring the AA [African-American] community and the Jewish community together. ‘NO, NO, NO!!!!’ he shouted into the crowd, ‘we are not going to come together. The Jews have made money on us in the music business and we are the entertainers, and they are economically enslaving us.’”

He continued as to how now the salvation has come and the gates have open for African Americans to come together behind Barack Obama, because now is the time to show them.(meaning the jews).

Scott, at Powerline takes this very seriously, and states how "unequal to the task Obama's comments on Reverend Wright and his ilk have been."

I would add Obama is not alone in this but he exemplifies this deplorable undercurrent in the Democrat party--it's mainstream there.

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin. My related earlier post here:

What does it say about Barack Obama when he sought out the support of the three most notorious politicized liberal preachers in Chicago?

Also, Obama's college trip to Pakistan--Jake Tapper, ABC wonders why he had never mentioned this before. Presumably he talked about it at this fundraiser--where he was among friends. Perhaps he thought they would keep it to themselves. And Steven Stark, RCP, Obama no longer America's anointed savior. The Republican Jewish Coalition calls for Obama to reject former President Jimmy Carter as superdelegate, given his upcoming visit to Hamas. Video of interview with Daphna Ziman: