Posted October 27 2008 by Tzioni
Campaign to Get LA Times to Release Obama-Khalidi Tape
It’s no secret that certain media outlets and pundits have displayed particular political biases this election season. But as Election Day draws near, some conservative bloggers are amassing support for journalistic transparency with what could be a game-changing story.
The LA Times’s Peter Wallsten reported (based in part on information gleaned from Debbie Schlussel) in April, 2008, on a dinner hosted in 2003 in honor of Rashid Khalidi, at which current Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama gave a “special tribute” to his colleague and good friend:
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.”
For his part, Khalidi “lavished praise on Obama, telling the mostly Palestinian American crowd that the state senator deserved their help in winning a U.S. Senate seat. ‘You will not have a better senator under any circumstances,’ Khalidi said.” Indeed, the relationship was two-way:
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.
The NY Sun reported that some other controversial characters also participated in that dinner for the Khalidis:
A big farewell dinner was held in their honor by AAAN with a commemorative book filled with testimonials from their friends and political allies. These included the left wing anti-war group Not In My Name, the Electronic Intifada, and the ex-Weatherman domestic terrorists Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers. (There were also testimonials from then-state Senator Barack Obama and the mayor of Chicago.)
As Wallsten’s article describes, the other speakers at the dinner were explicitly anti-Israel. And that’s no surprise. After all, Rashid Khalidi was a spokesman for the terrorist PLO in the 1980s (at a time when the organization was already recognized as a terrorist organization by the U.S.).
The Israelis are out to “crush the P.L.O.,” said Rashid Khalidi, a director of the Palestinian press agency, Wafa. (Thomas Friedman, “ULTIMATE GOALS OF THE ATTACK ARE ASSESSED DIFFERENTLY FROM THE;TWO SIDES,” NY Times, June 9, 1982)
”If we break the cease-fire now,” argued Rashid Khalidi, a Palestinian professor at the American University of Beirut, ”it would not only play into Israel’s hands but would also divert world attention away from the popular uprising on the West Bank, which is equally important to the P.L.O.’s long-term objectives.” (Thomas Friedman, “FOR ARAFAT, SINAI PULLOUT MEANS OPPORTUNITIES AND CEASE-FIRE SPELLS TROUBLE,” NY Times, April 26, 1982) (emphasis added).
Khalidi has justified the murder of IDF soldiers:
“Killing civilians is a war crime. It’s a violation of international law. They are not soldiers. They’re civilians, they’re unarmed. The ones who are armed, the ones who are soldiers, the ones who are in occupation, that’s different. That’s resistance.” (speech to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, 2002)
and dedicated one of his books to arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat. In 2003, Khalidi went on a tirade on Al-Jazeera against the “Zionist Lobby” and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (directed by Dennis Ross):
By God, I say that the participation of the sons or daughters of the Arabs in the plans and affairs of this institute is a huge error, this Israeli institute in Washington, an institute founded by AIPAC, the Zionist lobby, and that hosts tens of Israelis every year. The presence of an Arab or two each year can’t disguise the nature of this institute as the most important center of Zionist interests in Washington for at least a decade. I very much regret the participation of Arab officials and non-officials and academics in the activities of this institute, because in fact if you look at the output of this institute, it’s directed against the Palestinians, against the Arabs, and against the Muslims in general. Its products describe the Palestinians as terrorists, and in fact its basic function is to spread lies and falsehoods about the Arab world, of course under an academic, scholarly veneer. Basically, this is the most important Zionist propaganda tool in the United States.
It’s no wonder that when directly questioned about his association with Khalidi, Obama tried to downplay his relationship to the extremist professor. Sean Hannity covered this story on his show here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK5siMmJqvY
The LA Times story figures prominently in Hannity’s story. According to that article,
“The event was videotaped, and a copy of the tape was obtained by The Times.”
So why has this tape not been released?
That’s the question being asked by conservative bloggers at LittleGreenFootballs.com, who are urging people to contact the LA Times and its advertisers to demand the release of the videotape here, here, here and here.
Does the tape really exist? If it does, publicizing it could potentially sway some Jewish and pro-Israel voters who have moved in large numbers to the Obama camp in recent weeks. On the other hand, if there was in fact no such tape, and Peter Wallsten made the whole thing up, that would reflect media bias against Obama. Exposing it as a lie would aid the Obama campaign in helping Obama distance himself a little from his association with former terrorists, a major criticism Obama faces from detractors. Either way, this tape (or non-tape, as the case may be) could have a significant impact on a very close Presidential race. The public deserves to know the truth.
So I join LittleGreenFootballs in calling for the release of the videotape. Follow the links on LGF or click here to contact the LA Times and demand to see the evidence for Wallsten’s story.
Add This Blog to Your Technorati Favorites
Jewish Blog, Jewish, Jewish Leadership, Jewish News, Jewish Values, Jewish Events
8 Comments currently posted. 
Jonathan Kamens says:
Marc Lerman says:
Wow “Tzioni” you’re really reaching for anything now. Did you hear that Obama cheated on an exam when he was in the 3rd grade? Clearly he’d sell our nuclear secrets for a chance to have a drink with the PLO then. What about the time he turned right on red when he wasn’t supposed to? I guess he’s just a reckless terrorist then.
All your posts do is express the worst of the Republicans and the conservatives. It’s not that you don’t like Obama or his policies, but you don’t even respect him as a person. You, and all of your anti-Obama conservative friends need to grow up and embrace the next President of the US. And if you don’t want to, that’s fine. Just leave your hate rhetoric out of here. You’re giving Jewneric a bad name.
SH says:
Whoa, the Obamabots hit you quick! Brown shirts out cruising I see….
I joined the campaign and have sent my mail off.
DadeMurphy says:
Tzioni/Jonathan
Can’t we just agree that your fanatical dedication to a singular line of thought toes the line between groupie and cult member. Thanks to the likes of both of you the bell curve of American political thought continues to broaden insuring the inability for either side to work together in a mutually beneficial relationship. You have both turned politics into the most expensive, time consuming sporting even on the planet.
You both should be deeply ashamed of yourselves for being so egocentric as to actually believe that there is no opinion but your own that has any validity.
It is one sided hacknied views such as yours that is (in my opinion) ruining America and reading post and comments like these only makes me weep for the future.
Zechariah Mehler says:
Damn thats pretty harsh
Jonathan Kamens says:
DadeMurphy: If you see no difference between my advocacy for Obama and Tzioni’s attacks against him, then I’m not going to waste my time trying to convince you otherwise.
All I will say is that I find your suggestion that I am “part of the problem” to be absurd.
Hameivin, yavin.
alex schindler says:
Rashid Khalidi, incidentally, was not a PLO spokesperson. that sort of word-twisting is exactly what we have come to expect from sean hannity, but Khalidi was appointed (not by the PLO) as an intermediary between Israel and the PLO.
he is also a scholar in the Edward Said chair at Columbia, not some ex-terrorist left wing fanatic. As a religious zionist, i disagree strongly with much of what he stands for and says, but he is no extremist. His views are left of center, sure, but he isn’t calling for jihad. Obama’s association with him scares me less than the fact that terrorist groups surely prefer 4 more years of Bush doctrine in order to jumpstart their recruitment, to a man willing to talk to the other side… a man who, incidentally, would challenge the mideastern myth of a racist, islamophobic (btw most middle easterners, like most old jewish neocons, think obama is a muslim. i dont get it either…) america run by zionist, blood drinking jewish bankers.
Jonathan Kamens says:
The L.A. Times ran an article today about this manufactured scandal. They pointed out that it’s absurd to suggest that they’re covering something up, since they’re the ones who broke the story in the first place and had no reason to do that if they wanted to hide it from people. They also explained that they can’t release the video because they received it from a confidential source on condition that they not release it, presumably because releasing it would allow people to identify who provided it.
In other news, The Huffington Post reported yesterday that during the 1990’s, when McCain served as chairman of the International Republican Institute, that organization gave almost $500,000 in grants to Khalidi’s Center for Palestine Research and Studies.
Interesting, hmm?
Oh, good grief.
What next, Tzioni? Are you going to jump on the bandwagon of people claiming that Obama forged his birth certificate and isn’t really an American citizen?
The Khalidi garbage is just as old, and just as tired, as the Wright garbage that a foolish Republican PAC is trying to resurrect. The vast majority of the American people have figured out that it’s garbage, figured out that it has nothing to do with Obama’s preparedness to be president, and figured out that if the best the Republicans can do, when their back is against the wall, is to try harder to smear Obama (as opposed to Obama, who has been spending his time offering real, concrete, sensible plans to the American people), then this election is clearly already over.
There is nothing in the mythical tape of the 2003 Khalidi dinner that is going to change what Obama has already said about the Khalidi smear.
Here’s my own personal take about this… What Obama has proven to the American people is that it is not only possible but preferable to do what he has called upon all of us to do — to learn to disagree without being disagreeable. Rashid Khalidi believes and espouses many things with which Barack Obama has made it absolutely, positively, unequivocally clear that he disagrees. And yet he and Khalidi have a good relationship, just as he has a good working relationship with Orthodox, pro-Israel Illinois Sen. Ira Silverstein, just as he has a good working relationship with Jewish, pro-Israel Rep. Robert Wexler, and just as he has a good working relationship with countless other ardently pro-Israel lawmakers and leaders in this country, many of whom have endorsed his bid for the presidency.
If we are ever going to make peace with the Palestinians, we are going to have to do it by talking to people like Khalidi. The fact that Khalidi respects and even has a good relationship with Obama is not something to be scared of; it is something to be excited about, because it means that maybe, just maybe, we will end up with a president in the White House who can help to bridge the gap between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
It seems to me that the 564 rabbis who have joined Rabbis for Obama, and Ira Silverstein, and Rep. Robert Wexler, and Alan Solomont, and Lester Crown, and Rabbi Yosef Blau, and Deborah Lipstadt, and Robert Bildner, and Letty Cottin Pogrebin, and Rabbi Arthur Waskow, and Ed Koch, and Amb. Kartin Indyk, and Abner Mikva, and Alan Dershowitz, and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Rep. Rahm Emanuel, and Rep. Henry Waxman, and Rep. Howard Berman, and Aaron David Miller, and Robert Reich, and David Broida, and a long list of leaders of the Pennsylvania Jewish community, and Cass Sunstein, and Amb. Daniel Kurtzer, and a long list of leaders of the Maryland Jewish community, must be onto something when they point at Obama’s clear, unwavering, unequivocal, consistent, long-standing support for Israel.
But hey, if you’d rather believe that they’re all crack-smoking, self-hating, anti-Israel morons, and that only you and your right-wing friends know the “truth” about Obama, by all means, knock yourself out. Just don’t expect it to win you any votes. Remarkably, this time around, the American people seem not to have fallen for the Republican smear game.
351 electoral votes. 96.7% chance of winning. 42% chance of an Obama landslide. 31% chance of the Democrats ending up with a 60-seat majority in the Senate. These, and not your desperate smears, are the truth. Get used to the idea of President Obama.