See John Cole, "You Got Played":
Clearly, this woman is evil beyond words. The way she smiled at those Jewish kids while giving them friendly advice to enter careers in journalism so they can have fulfilling lives of learning and accomplishment when secretly, I have been assured by liberals and others, what she really wants is to transport them back to the gas ovens of the Holocaust.Nice try.
Just watch the clip. No context can save Helen Thomas from what's clearly a vicious statement against Israel and a rejection of the Jewish state's right to exist.
And c'mon. The leftist reaction is just too pat. I mean seriously, check out this Israel-basher at NewsJunkie, "Helen Thomas: No Apologies Necessary":
Helen Thomas’ statements were about policy, not people, and for that, we should not have lost her. To liken what Helen has said to racist rants inviting African-Americans to return to Africa is disingenuous at best, and more directly, a twisted misinterpretation designed only to silence opposing views to Israeli expansionism ....Well, no, Thomas wasn't making a policy statement. She was making a personal statement, the ugliness of which ended her career.And Richard Greener's got some historical revisionism at HuffPo:
Consider the conversation as if it were discussing the occupation forces in Iraq. Change Germany and Poland to the United States and the United Kingdom, or Canada. Realize that what Helen was recommending was that the occupiers return to their country of origin. Helen Thomas is making a statement against a nations foreign policy, not against individuals because of their ethnic group or race. Helen Thomas was not being anti-Semitic or racist. To disagree with Israel, or Israel’s foreign policy, does not make a person anti-Semitic.
There was a time when people could take the position that the UN, together with the US and the European Powers, had no business establishing a country called Israel, in a part of the world that was neither the US or Europe, as a Jewish State for Jews who were mainly Europeans. It wasn't a popular position to take. It wasn't a position I would take. But there was a time when expressing that point of view, right here in the United States, wouldn't cost you your job. Not even if you were an old lady.And check the long thread at Daily Kos, "Helen Thomas To Retire Immediately (Updated)." Most of the comments there defend her.
Times have changed. Helen Thomas is out of work. She's an old lady. She bad-mouthed Israel and the Jews. She's out of work.
Good thing we've got a "free" press here.
Meanwhile, Markos Moulitsas' refusal to remove this post is tantamount to an endorsement by Daily Kos, "Eulogy before the Inevitability of Self-Destruction: The Decline and Death of Israel."
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UPDATE: Kim Preistap links, "Breaking: Helen Thomas retires, effective immediately."
Maybe Ms Thomas could retire to the Strip. As best understood, the HAMAS regime agrees with her, President Ahmahdinejad and the weak risible meme of dismantling Little Satan.
ReplyDeleteShe seems quite benevolent to the young Jewish journalists, as long as they stay out of "Arab" lands. Note the grandmotherly smile at the end. It's called the banality of evil.
ReplyDeleteHow does her Arab background make it OK for Iran to become the hegemon in the region? How does she think that Palestine became occupied by Arabs? Persians and Turks aren't Arabs, nor are Pushtuns, Afghans, Indians or any of the others. The whole Middle East has been overrun by one kingdom or another since before there was history.
There is plenty of room for everybody on earth if we'd stop fighting with each other and work together, but not even Europeans have been able to pull that off. If they'd get their heads out and watch, they could learn a lot from Israel about to create prosperity even in a desert without oil.