Sunday, June 6, 2010

Pressure Builds on Helen Thomas Following Anti-Semitic Remarks

I'm a little late getting to this, but incredulous in any case, and that's saying something. I used to call for Helen Thomas' retirement, but seriously, why would any news service still want her? Diane Nines, of the Nine Speakers press agency, gave Thomas the boot.

And see Ari Fleischer, at Fox News, "
Fleischer Leads Charge for White House Reporter Helen Thomas to Be Fired." And Patrick Gavin, at Politico, "THOMAS UNDER FIRE FOR ISRAEL REMARKS" (via Memeorandum):

Longtime White House correspondent Helen Thomas is coming under fire after a video circulated widely on Friday of her saying that Jews should "get the hell out of Palestine" and go back to Poland and Germany.

The Hearst newspaper columnist made the comment during an interview with RabbiLive.com's Rabbi David Nesenoff at last week's Jewish Heritage Celebration at the White House.

“Remember these people are occupied and it’s their land,” Thomas says in the video. “It’s not German and it’s not Polish.”

Asked what Jews in Israel should do, Thomas says “go home.” Asked where that home is, she replies: “Poland. Germany. And America and everywhere else.”

On a statement issued on her website Sunday, Thomas said she regretted her comments, made in late May but widely seen Friday after the Drudge Report picked them up.

The Drudge Report as of this writing shows a picture of Thomas with President Obama’s arm around her in the White House press room, and the banner headline: "WH PRESS QUEEN: JEWS GET OUT OF ISRAEL, GO BACK TO POLAND!"
Sheesh. I wish I woulda got a screencap!

And also at Politico, "
More Thomas fallout."

Plus, at Blazing Cat Fur, "
Kick Helen Thomas out of The White House Press Corp," and previously, "JDL 'Gaza Fauxtilla' Counter Protest Video Toronto June 5."

BONUS: At Astute Bloggers, "
THE NYTIMES - LIKE OBAMA - IS BLAMING ISRAEL AND SIDING WITH THE TURKS AND JIHADISTS."

5 comments:

  1. Can you imagine if Rush had said "well, we're all sick of the troubles the ghetto brings, the blacks should just go back to Africa and everything would be fine".

    She's Lebanese anyway, her parents were immigrants... might have something to do with it.

    How far is this statement of hers from a "hate crime", anyway? Seems pretty close to me

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  2. Looks to me like the burqua is starting to slip.

    Thomas, Maher, most of the administration staff.

    People are getting what they voted for.

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  3. Reganite Republican: Are you serious?

    Limousine liberals can't be convicted of "hate speech"!

    Only people with a love of freedom can do that.

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  4. Way back in the day, and trading on my Arabist credentials from my State Dept days, I was a consultant [paid] for the National Arab-American Association [NAAA] and invited Helen and her [now deceased spouse] to my house for dinner, along with a few other Arab Americans and State Dept diplomats [April Glaspie of later Iraq Amb fame was there I think]

    NAAA was almost all Christian in its membership, as was at that time most of American Arabs [now it is 50-50% Christian/Muslim, but nowhere near the numbers CAIR puts up which are at least triple the actual number of Muslims.

    Helen herself drank about six or seven glasses of Dewar's on the rocks and got very drunk. Her husband had to carry her to the car, more or less. She told my wife she was Greek Orthodox Lebanese, but "not religious at all."

    Duh, as if it doesn't show!!!

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  5. "Can you imagine if a Republican/conservative/tea partier had said/done..." is my absolute favorite comment opener from folks on the right here at American Power. You guys are so incredibly persecuted by so many aspects of American society and culture, the Jews have had it easy in comparison.

    And flawless comparison there RR: those black people knew what the score was when they volunteered to come live here and become slaves. Oh, and this liberal says hate crime laws are bullshit. Quit your whining and toughen up, ladies.

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