Dead, dead the wicked witch is dead!
Thomas grew up in Detroit, the daughter of Lebanese immigrants. Middle Eastern affairs were a strong interest and impromptu comments about Israel and the Palestinians in May 2010 were her undoing.
Asked by an interviewer from the website rabbilive.com if she had any comments about Israel, Thomas responded, "Get the hell out of Palestine." She said Jews should "go home, to Poland and Germany, America and everywhere else."
After the interview spread on the Internet, her comments were criticized by the White House, the White House Correspondents' Association, the co-author of one of her books and the agency that handled her speaking engagements, among others. Shortly after, she announced her retirement, two months short of her 90th birthday.
In a February 16 interview on “The Joy Behar Show” on CNN in 2011, Thomas told Behar that once World War II ended, the Jews “didn’t have to go anywhere really because they weren’t being persecuted anymore. But they were taking other people’s land.”
She was slammed by both sides of the political spectrum. Later that year Thomas, who was a correspondent since the presidency of John F. Kennedy, stood by her original comments and accused Jewish lobbyists and politicians of distorting her remarks.
Thomas later issued a statement: "I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon."
However, follow-up remarks about how “the Zionists” own Congress, the White House, Hollywood and Wall Street caused further uproar, and prompted the Society of Professional Journalists to drop an award named for Thomas, who was a fixture on the White House beat for decades.
Asked on Behar’s program is she considers herself anti-Semitic, Thomas, whose parents were Lebanese, said, “Hell no, I’m a Semite.” Of the Jews she said, “They’re not Semites. Most of them are from Europe.”
Asked if she regretted making the remark that ended her career in Washington, she said, “I have regrets that everybody’s misinterpreted it and distorted it,” singling out former George W. Bush White House spokesman Ari Fleischer and Anti-Defamation League National Director Abraham Foxman.
“We have organized lobbyists in favor of Israel, you can’t open your mouth,” she said. “If you say one thing about Israel, you’re off limits.”
Labels: anti-Semitism, Helen Thomas
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:11 PM
1 Comments:
Give the lady a break. She was a passionate woman with strong opinions and the Jews did take land from the Palestinians. And sometimes they were unnecessarily brutal in their treatment of them. One lady that now lives in Canada, was in labour with twins but the Israeli soldiers would not let her through a roadblock, to get to the hospital. Both babies died. That was totally unnecessary. She is a Christian and believes you should have the land but if she had been a Muslim you would have just ended up with more terrorists who hate you with all their being. Doing the right thing does not guarantee that all will go well but doing wrong is always going to cost you.
I don't agree with the lady but I can see some (only some) of her reasoning. All people need to remember that God owns the land and nobody successfully stands against him.
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