Release the Video!

"McCain Attacks Los Angeles Times Over Its Refusal to Release ’03 Obama Video"
By Richard Perez-Pena
A26

According to The NYTimes, Rashid Khalidi is a Palestinian rights advocate, but Perez-Pena does not explain what a Palestinian rights' advocate does. To restate the questions raised in Friday's October 31 blog on Khalidi, "Does a defender of Palestinian rights support pushing the Lebanese government to offer citizenship to Palestinians living in that country's refugee camps? Or does he defend a Palestinian's right to leave refugee camps in PA-controlled areas? Generally, no."

Throughout the article, the reporter is careful to describe Khalidi as a critic of Israel not as someone who is anti-Israel. Yet, what is clear from reports on the Khalidi farewell dinner, the video of which the LA Times won't release, is that Israel defamation was rife. Again, the event was for Khalidi, so one would think that the views expressed there would reflect his own.

Summarizing Khalidi's biography, Perez-Pena reports that Khalidi "advised a Palestinian delegation at a 1991 peace conference" but doesn't mention that he worked with and perhaps for the PLO in Beirut in the late seventies and early eighties, even though the NY Times quoted Khalidi in that capacity at the time.

What is unclear is why, if Khalidi is as righteous and unblemished as Perez-Penna characterizes him, the LA Times and the Obama proto-administration will not simply release the tape.

Until it is released, the distinction that Perez-Pena draws between Mr. Khalidi, the Palestinian rights advocate, and the anti-Israel attendees of his farewell dinner will appear false.