(NEWS) Obama's Friend Raising Funds For New Gaza Aid Ship

"Rashid Khalidi, a well-known critic of Israel, hopes to raise at least $370,000 in the next month.

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.'

If that isn't enough to stir the ghosts of the 2008 American presidential election, one of the prominent figures to support the initiative is Columbia University history professor Rashid Khalidi, a well-known critic of Israel whose friendship with the American president from their days together in Chicago engendered criticism of Obama."