If it were up to Dr. George Ayoub, the mayor of the northern Israeli Arab village of Fassouta, Barack Obama would be the next president of the United States.
While the American Jewish community is split over Obama's views on Israel, it is a little-known fact that he came here on a study tour two years ago to see the realities of the region for himself.
During a five-day visit as a member of the US Senate in January 2006, details of which were only disclosed by the mayor on Thursday, the Illinois senator who has now emerged as the Democratic front-runner in the presidential race was hosted in Fassouta by the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago.
The senator flew by helicopter to a soccer field in the Catholic village on the Lebanese border, where the federation operates a joint project with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago to provide computers to school children.
"We were very glad to see him here for about five hours," Ayoub told The Jerusalem Post by telephone on Thursday. "We didn't know that he was going to be the Democratic presidential candidate at the time, and now all of Fassouta are with him, with Barack Obama, and we hope he is going to be the next president of the
States."
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