Smear campaign: Fox distorts Obama's relationship with Columbia University Professor

You may have had a chance to see a video in which Sean Hannity of Fox News tries to paint Senator Barack Obama as anti-Israel on the grounds that he knows Prof. Rashid Kahlidi, currently the Director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University.

Here are a few things that Hannity hides from us in this video:

Hannity does not tell us anything about Daniel Pipes, the man who speaks about Obama in the segment. He does not tell us that Pipes is the subject of controversy over his plans to speak at an event organized by Pastor John Hagee, who said that God sent Hitler to create the Holocaust so the Jews would have to go to Israel. Read Pipes’ statement on the Hagee issue.

He also does not tell us that Pipes has been subject to controversy due to his incendiary comments about Arab Americans. For example in his in his 2003 book “Militant Islam Reaches America,” Pipes argued that “the focus on Muslims must go well beyond the airport to touch on any and all facets of life” and in the war on terror “all Muslims, unfortunately, are suspects.”

Hannity does not tell us that the “Arab organization” that Kahlidi founded is the Arab American Action Network which was established to provide economic and social support to Arab immigrants in Chicago. He does not want us to know that the organization works with the Illinois Department of Human Services and its case managers to provide interpretation services specifically intended for Arab-Americans in Chicago who receive public benefits.

Hannity does not tell us that the Woods Foundation for which Obama was a director provided funding to the Arab American Action Network in order for it to help the struggling Arab immigrant community in Chicago, and that the Arab American Action Network is one of hundreds of organizations which the Woods Fund supports. The organizations supported are as diverse as the Chicago community and they include the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, an organization that is “dedicated to combating poverty, racism, and anti-Semitism.” If you want to read more about organizations supported by the Woods Foundation, check out its financials at http://www.woodsfund.org

Hannity does not tell us that Kahlidi and Obama were both professors at the University Of Chicago. He does not do that because he does not want us to consider that their relationship is one of former co-workers and does not involve any instance in which Obama ever endorsed or agreed with Kahlidi’s views.

Hannity does not tell us that he does not have any evidence to back up his argument that Kahlidi used to be a paid employee of the PLO when it was designated a terrorist organization. That is why he says that Kahlidi was “allegedly” a member of the PLO. As you can see from this link “Khalidi says he was never employed by the PLO; he has been a harsh critic of Palestinian suicide bombings and a longtime supporter of a two-state solution.”

In sum, since Fox News knows that if we decide based on the issues we will vote for Obama, they are trying to scare us with this smear. As Obama has suggested, this smear, like all the others, won’t work because responsible Americans won’t let it.