by Marcia Segelstein
National Review Online’s Andrew McCarthy
has another great piece out today which would be headline-making news
in the mainstream media if it were about a Republican.
In 2003,
Obama, then an Illinois state senator, attended a party for Rashid
Khalidi. Khalidi’s friends were bidding him farewell as he left his
post as a professor at the University of Chicago to go to Columbia
University.
Khalidi was the spokesman for Yasser Arafat when he headed up the PLO, and not surprisingly, is a vocal critic of Israel.
But Obama didn’t just attend the gathering. He gave a glowing testimonial to Khalidi, as did Bill Ayers.
Here are some excerpts from a “Los Angeles Times” story back in April about the event.
“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…’
“[T]he warm embrace
Obama gave to Khalidi, and words like those at the professor’s
going-away party, have left some Palestinian American leaders believing
that Obama is more receptive to their viewpoint than he is willing to
say.”
According to this same ‘LA Times’ piece, at this event a
Palestinian American read a poem which accused the Israelis of
terrorism in their treatment of Palestinians, and criticized U.S.
support of Israel.
And then there is this line in the ‘Times’ piece:
“The event was videotaped, and a copy of the tape was obtained by The Times.”
McCarthy
rightly asks why this videotape hasn’t been released. Is it because it
might show Obama and Ayers together? Or might it be offensive to Jews
to see Obama in such a setting, where anti-Israel sentiments were
expressed?
doesn’t think it’s quite as newsworthy as Sarah Palin’s
wardrobe.
By Andrew C.
McCarthy
Let’s try a thought experiment.
Say John McCain attended a party at which known racists
and terror mongers were in attendance. Say testimonials were given,
including a glowing one by
McCain for the benefit of the guest of honor ... who happened to be a top
apologist for terrorists.
Say McCain not only gave a speech but stood by, in tacit approval and
solidarity, while other racists
and terror mongers gave speeches that reeked of hatred for an American ally
and rationalizations of terror attacks.
Now let’s say the Los
Angeles Times obtained a videotape of the party.
Question: Is there any chance —
any chance — the
Times would not release the tape and publish front-page
story after story about the gory details, with the usual accompanying chorus of
sanctimony from the oped commentariat? Is there any chance, if the
Times was the least bit reluctant about publishing (remember, we’re
pretending here), that the rest of the mainstream media (y’know, the guys who
drove Trent Lott out of his leadership position over a birthday-party toast)
would not be screaming for the release of the tape?
Do we really have to
ask?
So now, let’s leave thought experiments and return to reality: Why
is the Los Angeles Times sitting on a videotape of the 2003 farewell
bash in Chicago at which Barack Obama lavished praise on the guest of honor,
Rashid Khalidi — former mouthpiece for master terrorist Yasser Arafat?
At the time Khalidi, a PLO adviser turned University of Chicago
professor, was headed east to Columbia. There he would take over the
University’s Middle East-studies program (which he has since maintained as a
bubbling cauldron of anti-Semitism) and assume the professorship endowed in
honor of Edward Sayyid, another notorious terror apologist.
The party
featured encomiums by many of Khalidi’s allies, colleagues, and friends,
including Barack Obama, then an Illinois state senator, and Bill Ayers, the
terrorist turned education professor. It was sponsored by the Arab American
Action Network (AAAN), which had been founded by Khalidi and his wife, Mona,
formerly a top English translator for Arafat’s press agency.
Is there
just a teeny-weenie chance that this was an evening of Israel-bashing Obama
would find very difficult to explain? Could it be that the Times, a
pillar of the Obamedia, is covering for its guy?
Gateway Pundit reports
that the Times has the videotape but is suppressing it.
Back in
April, the Times published a gentle
story about the fete. Reporter
Peter Wallsten avoided, for
example, any mention of the inconvenient fact that the revelers included Ayers
and Bernadine Dohrn, Ayers’s wife and fellow Weatherman terrorist. These
self-professed revolutionary Leftists are friendly with both Obama and Khalidi —
indeed, researcher Stanley Kurtz has noted
that Ayers and Khalidi were “best friends.” (And — small world! — it
turns out that the Obamas are extremely close to the Khalidis, who have reportedly babysat
the Obama children.)
Nor did the Times report the party was
thrown by AAAN. Wallsten does tell us that the AAAN received grants from the
Leftist Woods Fund when Obama was on its board — but, besides understating the
amount (it was $75,000, not $40,000), the Times mentions neither that
Ayers was also on the Woods board at the time nor that AAAN is rabidly
anti-Israel. (Though the organization regards Israel as illegitimate and has
sought to justify Palestinian terrorism, Wallsten describes the AAAN as “a
social service group.”)
Perhaps even more inconveniently, the
Times also let slip that it had obtained a videotape of the party.
Wallsten’s story is worth excerpting at length (italics are mine):
It was a celebration of
Palestinian culture — a night of music, dancing and a dash of politics. Local
Arab Americans were bidding farewell to Rashid Khalidi, an internationally known
scholar, critic of Israel and advocate for Palestinian rights, who was leaving
town for a job in New York.
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."...
[T]he warm embrace Obama gave to Khalidi, and words like those
at the professor's going-away party, have left some Palestinian American leaders
believing that Obama is more receptive to their viewpoint than he is willing to
say.
Their belief is not drawn from Obama's speeches or campaign
literature, but from comments that some say Obama made in private and from his
association with the Palestinian American community in his hometown of Chicago,
including his presence at events where anger at Israeli and U.S. Middle East
policy was freely expressed.
At Khalidi's 2003 farewell party, for
example, a young Palestinian American recited a poem accusing the Israeli
government of terrorism in its treatment of Palestinians and sharply criticizing
U.S. support of Israel. If Palestinians cannot secure their own land, she said,
"then you will never see a day of peace."
One speaker likened "Zionist
settlers on the West Bank" to Osama bin Laden, saying both had been "blinded by
ideology."
Obama adopted a different tone in his comments and called for
finding common ground. But his presence at such events, as he worked to build a
political base in Chicago, has led some Palestinian leaders to believe that he
might deal differently with the Middle East than … his opponents for the White
House....
At Khalidi's going-away party in 2003, the scholar 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.
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