Outgoing President Joe Biden‘s Black Friday shopping stunned onlookers as he carried a book considered to be anti-Israel.
Biden was seen holding The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917-2017 by Columbia University professor emeritus Rashid Khalidi at a local bookshop.
The book harshly criticizes what it describes as the Zionist movement’s acts of ‘settler colonialism’ on behalf of Israel and has called what is happening in Palestine ‘the oppression of one people by another.’
One reviewer described it as ‘a highly partisan account from the Palestinian perspective.’
The purchase was seen as a strange one by Biden, who has for decades professed himself an ardent Zionist and who once said ‘if there were not an Israel, we’d have to invent one.’
Those who were put off by seeing the president cradling the book was the author Khalidi.
‘My reaction is that this is 4 years too late,’ he told the New York Post.
Khalidi isn’t exactly a fan of the returning president’s views on the subject either, as he’s referred to Donald Trump as a ‘mouthpiece’ for Israel.
DailyMail.com has reached out to the White House for comment.
It is unclear whether the book was purchased by Biden himself or one of his many family members who accompanied him on the trip.
Biden joined millions of Americans searching for a Black Friday deal with a shopping trip on Nantucket with first lady Jill and son Hunter.
His grandson Beau, 4, got into the act, leading his grandpa through the cobble stone streets of Nantucket by the hand.
The Biden family capped off their day of shopping at the town Christmas Tree lighting ceremony. Afterward Hunter helped his father step up onto a small platform to take a photo with the children’s choir, who entertained the crowd with traditional carols.
The 82-year-old commander-in-chief started the day by dining at The Brotherhood of Thieves restaurant during his annual wealthy Massachusetts enclave.
Meanwhile Donald Trump spent part of the day after his bash with Elon Musk, son Barron and wife Melania at the Trump International Golf Club West in Palm Beach
Biden scoured the stores, holding hands with his grandson Beau and petting a Dachshund, while pedestrians watched and shouted ‘we love you, Joe’. At one point, Biden even held the dog to pose for a photo with its owner. Hunter snapped the picture.
Hunter, who is facing sentencing next month on federal tax on and gun crimes, walked alongside his wife Melissa in jeans and a bomber jacket.
Biden responded to two questions from reporters waiting outside as he browsed holiday deals.
He said he was ‘working hard with the FBI‘ after several of president-elect’s Trump Cabinet picks and Democrats were targeted with bomb threats and swatting.
Biden also said he expects to speak to Trump again during the transition.
Jill Biden was also shopping for books, and appeared to be getting sentimental by picking up a copy of her husband’s 2021 inaugural address.
Their daughter Ashley was spotted trying on a headband as she looked for her own bargain.
The Biden family celebrated Thanksgiving the same way they have done for the last 40 years, with a vacation on Nantucket.
On Thursday he visited a firehouse, as he does every year, to deliver pumpkin pies.
He urged Trump to rethink his tariff war with Canada and Mexico, fretted about the state of the mainstream media and offered what he was thankful for
He paused to take questions from reporters to reflect on the holiday season and discuss the actions of his successor in the Oval Office.
He said he hopes Trump rethinks his plan to impose tariffs on Mexico and Canada, saying it could ‘screw up’ relationships with close allies.
‘I hope he rethinks it. I think it’s a counterproductive thing to do,’ he said.
‘We’re surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and two allies: Mexico and Canada. The last thing we need to do is begin to screw up those relationships.’
Biden said he thinks Chinese President Jinping Xi will be more measured in his response. Chinese officials have said they don’t want a trade war.
‘We have reached a relationship with a status quo regarding China,’ Biden noted. ‘We set up a hotline between President Xi and myself, as well as a military – a direct line. One thing I’m confident about Xi is he doesn’t want to make a mistake. I mean it sincerely.
Biden also said he thinks Trump will have an ‘internal reckoning’ when it comes to some of his plans as president.
‘I want to make sure this transition goes smoothly. I want to make sure it goes smoothly. All the talk about what (Trump) may do or not do – I think there may be an internal reckoning on his part .. so it remains to be seen.’
