In Berkeley (where else?), they held Helen Thomas Day on Sunday.
And some unconfirmed facts about the sponsor, the 'Middle East Children's Alliance' (from a friend in the area):
While
Middle East Children’s Alliance is marginal, it is Jewish led (of
course!) by one Barbara Lubin. It raises some $4 million per year to
disburse to “children’s charities” in the Middle East, meaning mostly
Gaza. None of the money goes to Middle Eastern children who happen to
be Jewish and live in the Jewish state. MECA (an apt acronym) is one of
the Bay Area’s most active anti-Israel NGOs, having served as the
fiscal sponsor for the ISM, and I believe also the JVP.
While every news source and the U.S. Justice Department
scour information resources and beg, steal and borrow to find a nuance
of a glimpse of evidence that George Zimmerman is a racist, Helen Thomas
is on video blaring and blazing words that threw her out of polite
society.
Yet upon her passing, the truth, facts, videos, quotes,
and evidence of Helen Thomas being a blatant proud anti-Semite are all
buried even before Helen is. Her original apology is sometimes included,
but without mention of her continued post apology anti-Jewish words
that have been documented. All the media are very quick to throw stones
at Rolling Stone magazine’s cover of bombing suspect Tsarnaev,
while they themselves air brush and glorify the life of a banished,
video proven, anti-Semite Helen Thomas.
Whatever
Helen Thomas may have accomplished for females in journalism and women’s
rights, she erased by denying Jewish rights and human rights. And last I
checked, women are part of humanity and they should be concerned about
her denigrating words as well. She is the antithesis of a role model. If
you are blessed to have the front row center seat, you should shine the
light on the truth, the whole truth, and not take advantage and use it
as a bully pulpit. And more recently she spouted disgusting lies about
non-existent Israeli atrocities that I wouldn’t even dignify to repeat.
The
world is a scary place and those informing us need to pay attention and
report with truth. They can start by telling the truth about one of
their own. Being a proven banished video documented anti-Semite should
not be a small footnote in someone’s obituary. It is ultimately part and
parcel of one’s legacy and it infected the world.
I
found out the news that Helen Thomas died when I received an email from
someone who wrote: “Happy now Kike?” He called me a “nasty filthy and
smelly Jew …one of the ones Hitler missed.” I assume Helen Thomas was
also his role model.
There's no peace and no justice in the release of 'Palestinian' terrorists, and there's no unbiased media when Helen Thomas is lionized.
Here's Soccer Dad's Middle East Media Sampler for Sunday, July 21.
1) No peace, No justice
A decade ago Ahmed Jubarah walked out of jail a free man. Twenty eight
years after he killed 13 people and wounded dozens more detonating an
explosive laden refrigerator on a crowded Jerusalem street, Israel
released Jubarah and others in order to restart peace talks with the
Palestinians in 2003. The New York Times reported, Palestinian Bomber, Freed After 28 Years, Talks of Peace:
"We are not murderers. We are not criminals. We are people who seek
peace and freedom," Mr. Jubarah, 68, the longest-serving Palestinian
prisoner, said. He was freed as an Israeli good-will gesture on the eve
of a summit meeting in neighboring Jordan that will include Israeli and
Palestinian leaders, as well as President Bush. ...
Israel freed nearly 100 prisoners today and has been slightly easing
punitive measures imposed on the Palestinians. The other detainees
released today were arrested in the period since the fighting began in
September 2000, and most had been held without charges, according to
Israeli officials.
Notice the way this is framed. Israeli efforts to defend its citizens is
termed "punitive" not "defensive." Worse than that Jubarah's first
mention of peace is included with a lie about his causing death and
destruction nearly thirty years earlier. Of course he was a criminal and
murderer. Denying it doesn't make him any less culpable. But to have
his use of the "peace" in this context characterized as "[t]alk[ing] of
peace" denudes the word "peace" of any meaning.
(A few weeks later, the New York Times profiled Jubarah again, with a nearly identically titled, Arab Bomber, Freed After 27 Years, Longs for Peace but Has No Regrets.
One theme that's common in both articles is a sense that the reporters
consider it more significant that Jubarah was a "prisoner," than that he
was a mass murderer.) If reporters showed an implicit, grudging respect
to Jubarah, after he died early last week, others, notably Mahmoud
Abbas, were quite explicit in their praise for the deceased terrorist.
The presidential eulogy stated: 'His pure soul passed on to the kingdom
of Heaven during these blessed days in this honored month [Ramadan]
after a journey of struggle full of exceptional giving and devoted
activity for Palestine and for the freedom and honor of our people.' The
President said in the eulogy: 'With the death of this fighter,
Palestine and its people have lost a righteous son and loyal fighter,
devoted wholeheartedly to protecting our people's rights. He dedicated
most of his life to this people's independence and paid with many years
of his life in the occupation's prisons so that the dawn of freedom will
break over the pure land of Palestine.'
Even as Secretary of State John Kerry has been working furiously to
restart the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians - in part by calling for a prisoner release - the honor accorded Ahmed Jubarah shows that prisoner releases do more to excuse terror than they do to promote peace.
Helen Thomas, whose keen curiosity, unquenchable drive and celebrated
constancy made her a trailblazing White House correspondent in a press
corps dominated by men and who was later regarded as the dean of the
White House briefing room, died on Saturday at her home in Washington.
She was 92.
The end of the obituary, however, observes:
Ms. Thomas bitterly opposed the war in Iraq and made no effort to appear
neutral at White House news conferences, where some of her questions
bordered on the prosecutorial. In “Watchdogs of Democracy?,” she wrote
that most White House and Pentagon reporters had been too willing to
accept the Bush administration’s rationale for going to war.
If Ms. Thomas harbored such strong opinions and didn't hide them, how
did she become the "dean" of White House reporters? Aren't reporters
supposed to be objective? In nearly any other milieu Helen Thomas would
have been considered an eccentric or, as James Taranto often put it, "American journalism's crazy old aunt in the attic."
That she was regarded as "dean" by many of her colleagues reflects poorly on the state of American journalism today. As Israel Matzav points out, though, the New York Times obituary of Helen Thomas, softpedals her downfall.
But 16 months later, Ms. Thomas abruptly announced her retirement from
Hearst amid an uproar over her assertion that Jews should “get the hell
out of Palestine” and go back where they belonged, perhaps Germany or
Poland. Her remarks, made almost offhandedly days earlier at a White
House event, set off a storm when a videotape was posted. In her
retirement announcement, Ms. Thomas, whose parents immigrated to the
United States from what is now Lebanon, said that she deeply regretted
her remarks and that they did not reflect her “heartfelt belief” that
peace would come to the Middle East only when all parties embraced
“mutual respect and tolerance.” “May that day come soon,” she said.
Actually there's a difference between offhand and unguarded comments.
Helen Thomas's statements were unguarded. When she was exposed for
telling Jews to get out of "Palestine" and go back to "Poland" or
"Germany." The very fact that she used the term "Palestine" instead of
"Israel" shows that this wasn't simply a careless slip of the tongue,
but the declaration of a deeply held belief.
Furthermore, as The Lid recounts,
she wasn't the least bit apologetic about her comments. Later, when she
spoke at a dinner of the Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Thomas
said:
"I paid the price for that," said Thomas, a longtime White House
correspondent. "But it was worth it, to speak the truth. The Zionists
have to understand that's their country, too. Palestinians were there
long before any European Zionists." ... "You can not say anything
(critical) about Israel in this country.
If she were really a well informed journalist who regularly perused the
opinion pages of the New York Times, she'd know that wasn't true. But
Thomas was agenda driven; not the least concerned with facts. Not
everyone put up with her shenanigans.
The late Tony Snow, who for too short a time was President George W. Bush's press secretary, once chided her for "... providing Hezbollah's view."
No doubt the media will continue to lionize Helen Thomas, but her
record is one of shameful bias not one of journalistic courage or
integrity.
Not long after the passing of veteran American journalist Helen
Thomas yesterday, aged 92, Hamas' very own "military
wing", the Izzedeene al-Qassam Brigades, posted on its website a heartfelt eulogy.
The post - highlighted by the Elder of Zion blog - was entitled: "Rest in Peace Helen Thomas. We respect you for taking a stand."
...
But the "stand" referred to by Hamas was,
perhaps unsurprisingly, nothing to do with women's emancipation.
Instead, the group - which calls for the annihilation of the Jewish
people in its charter - praised Thomas for a rather ugly tirade against
an American rabbi, filmed in 2012.
My "association" with Helen Thomas began a Friday, a
month longer than three years ago when my friend Rabbi David Nesenoff
sent me a video which contained a short explosive interview he had
conducted with Helen Thomas. There on tape the veteran White House
correspondent gave a statement that many people (including me) saw as
telling the Jews to go face another Holocaust. That was probably one of
the more pleasant things Thomas has ever said about Jews.
On the call David asked me if there was anything I could do with the
video. He had already offered it to the mainstream media and even The
Jewish Week, a weekly progressive newspaper for the Jewish community.
Taking up David's challenge, I guaranteed the video would have a half a
million hits before he turned on the computer again after the Sabbath (I
was wrong--it was over 750 thousand).
I quickly posted it on my site The Lid,
wrote it up for Big Journalism, gave it to Scott Baker (who at the time
was running Breitbart TV , and sent out tweets and emails to most of
the large sites. Before I left on a five hour car ride to my brother's
house for the weekend the video was posted on the Big sites and as a
banner Drudge headline.
By the time I arrived in Maryland the same video they had rejected a
few days earlier was dominating the headlines of the mainstream media .
The mainstream media circled the wagons to protect Helen Thomas then, and they continued to do so during the following three years. Read the whole thing.
The mainstream media continues to protect Thomas after her death. For example, this gushing praise from the New York Times omits almost entirely the circumstances of her 'retirement' from the media as if the interview that Jeff Dunetz describes above never happened (Hat Tip: Memeorandum). It merits one short paragraph buried in the middle, and goes on to excuse her as someone seeking 'mutual respect and tolerance.'
But 16 months later, Ms. Thomas abruptly announced her retirement from
Hearst amid an uproar over her assertion that Jews should “get the hell
out of Palestine” and go back where they belonged, perhaps Germany or
Poland. Her remarks, made almost offhandedly days earlier at a White
House event, set off a storm when a videotape was posted.
In her retirement announcement, Ms. Thomas, whose parents immigrated to
the United States from what is now Lebanon, said that she deeply
regretted her remarks and that they did not reflect her “heartfelt
belief” that peace would come to the Middle East only when all parties
embraced “mutual respect and tolerance.”
“May that day come soon,” she said.
Of course, they don't mention all the anti-Semitism that spewed out of Thomas' mouth once she was unconstrained, and which probably far better reflects her true feelings. That has nothing to do with 'mutual respect and tolerance.' Can you imagine the Times similarly eulogizing a reporter who had made anti-Black or anti-Muslim comments?
Perhaps we all ought to reconsider how reliable the mainstream media is. It is no longer capable of unbiased reporting (if it ever was). Not even in the US.
I can't actually listen to the music because I'm still in mourning, but I know the song anyway and I'm sure many of you do too. The People's Cube has come up with some new lyrics for Elton John's Candle in the Wind in celebration of the demise of Auntie T.
Let's go to the videotape. Lyrics here so that you can sing along (Hat Tip: Jack W).
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.”
Helen Thomas continues to shoot off her anti-Semitic mouth and the media continue to cover for her
It's been nearly two years since a disgraced Helen Thomas was forced to resign as a White House correspondent. But Yid with Lid reports that the nonagenarian Thomas continues to spout anti-Semitic diatribes, as both the diatribes and the circumstances of her firing are covered up by the mainstream media.
If you want more proof of Helen Thomas' hatred, then examine what she has said since her "resignation."
Just six months after her firing retirement Thomas was at it again (again it was captured on video and again the story was broken on The Lid and Big Journalism. Ironically a speech at a Arab anti-bias conference Thomas was asked about her statements on that video.
"I paid the price for that," said Thomas, a longtime White House correspondent. "But it was worth it, to speak the truth. The Zionists have to understand that's their country, too. Palestinians were there long before any European Zionists."
Alluding to the anti-Semitic claim that Jews control the media, Thomas said:
"You can not say anything (critical) about Israel in this country.
That was the nicest thing Thomas said all night. In her speech about discrimination against Arabs she launched into an anti-Semitic tirade about how those rich Jews control America (video embedded below).
In a speech that drew a standing ovation, Thomas claimed:
the whole question of money involved in politics." "We are owned by propagandists against the Arabs. There's no question about that. Congress, the White House, and Hollywood, Wall Street, are owned by the Zionists. No question in my opinion. They put their money where there mouth is…We're being pushed into a wrong direction in every way.
Remember what I said before about examining peoples words? When she said that Palestinians were there long before any European Zionists, Thomas was was simply being historically inaccurate and biased against Israel. But when she said the media Congress, the White House, and Hollywood, Wall Street are owned by Zionists. Thomas was using traditional anti-Semitic libels straight out of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. There is the distinction Michael Mine suggested was non existent.
It seems, however, that there is in fact someone who sees [Helen] Thomas and her comments in a more positive light. On Sunday, dozens of diplomats and journalists assembled in Washington for an event in her honor. The man responsible for organizing the event was none other than the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization General Mission to the U.S., Maen Areikat. Representatives of the PLO in Washington released a statement claiming that the text of the prize was written to “recognize Thomas’ long career in the field of journalism, during which she defended the Palestinian position every step of the way.”
"[D]efended the Palestinian position every step of the way?" That doesn't sound like "journalism," but advocacy.
It appears that the PA has confirmed the late Tony Snow's rebuke to Thomas:
HELEN THOMAS: The United States is not that helpless. It could have stopped the bombardment of Lebanon. We have that much control with the Israelis. MR. SNOW: I don't think so, Helen. HELEN THOMAS: We have gone for collective punishment against all of Lebanon and Palestine. TONY SNOW: What's interesting, Helen -- HELEN THOMAS: And this is what's happening, and that's the perception of the United States. TONY SNOW: Well, thank you for the Hezbollah view, but I would encourage you --
According to the Barak Ravid report the reception honoring Thomas included "journalists." Interesting. Did it bother them that they were giving tribute to someone who was being honored for crossing the line into advocacy? Did it bother them that the organization honoring "press freedom" is hypocritically cracking down on the press? (h/t Challah Hu Akbar) As Mahmoud Dweik writes:
The Palestinian Authority government of Salam Fayyad, announcing this week the launching of the 2012 Award for Press Freedom, invited Palestinian journalists to submit their candidacy for the prestigious award, the first if its kind in the Palestinian territories. The award is intended to encourage freedom of media and speech in the Palestinian territories, where local journalists have long been facing a campaign of intimidation and harassment by the two Palestinian governments in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Ironically, the news about the launching of the new award coincided with the arrest of Youssef Shayeb, a Palestinian journalist from Ramallah, on charges of "slander and defamation."
"Go back to Auschwitz," say the Turkish "humanitarians." Go back to Poland, says Helen Thomas. Beinart claims to be pro-Israel, and we don't doubt his sincerity. But his determined denial of the nature of Israel's enemies leads us to doubt his grip on reality.
I think it's a lot more difficult to be charitable towards Beinart these days.
2) People love it when you lose. They love dirty laundry
As some ignore the lack of press freedom in the Palestinian Authority, others are exaggerating it in Israel. As one Justin Martin writes at the Columbia Journalism Review:
By far the country that jails the most journalists per capita is Eritrea; Israel is a distant second. The CPJ report was quick to list Iran as the world’s premier jailor of journalists, and the Islamic Republic is up there, but clearly Eritrea and Israel also need to do some explaining. Israel jails more journalists than either the Palestinian Authority (zero) or militant group Hamas (three), both of which it criticizes for human rights miscarriages.
Given that CJR is a trade publication for the world of journalism, one would assume that articles published there were held to some standard of objectivity and accuracy. In this case that is not true. Elder of Ziyon points out that the statistics Martin relies on are meaningless.
This item came to the attention of many people because it was tweeted by the incoming Israel correspondent of the New York Times, Jodi Rudoren.
. @GileadIni Really not. Was trying to make a lite point off a tidbit. Its Twitter, not a dissertation. Others' analyses also intrstng
Really, that's a lame defense
She could just as well have tweeted, "What to Iran and Turkey have in common?" instead. After all, a few months ago a newspaper reported that according to journalists group in Turkey, 97 journalists were behind bars. That shows (along with the assertion that no journalists were jailed by the PA) that not only were the statistics used faulty, but the raw data was highly inaccurate. By the way the paper that reported on the plight of the Turkish journalists was the New York Times, Rudoren's paper.
There are now 97 members of the news media in jail in Turkey, including journalists, publishers and distributors, according to the Turkish Journalists’ Union, a figure that rights groups say exceeds the number detained in China. The government denies the figure and insists that with the exception of four cases, those arrested have all been charged with activities other than reporting.
I wouldn't accuse Rudoren of malice here, she really tries to highlight some positive news about Israel. But she was careless with her tweet about jailed journalists. Given the acknowledged limitations of Twitter, she should be aware that her tweets can be understood as judgments if she's not careful.
Thomas, 91, who was forced into retirement two years ago after making controversial remarks about Jews and Israel, was recognized for her journalism career and commitment to the Palestinian cause. Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Executive Committee of the PLO, presented Thomas with the award on behalf of Abbas, who is also head of the PLO.
According to the Washington PLO office’s statement, Thomas was recognized for “all of her actions supporting Palestine in the West.” Ambassadors, journalists, human rights activists and American Arab leaders were among those who attended the ceremony at the home of Maen Rashid Ereikat, president of the Commission General of the PLO in Washington.
Considered the dean of the White House press corps, Thomas became embroiled in controversy when she said in a 2010 interview with the blog RabbiLive.com that Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine. Go home, Poland, Germany and America and everywhere else.”
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.
Helen Thomas and Hanan Ashrawi on stage together? Enough to drive a Democrat wild....
Society of Professional Journalists wants to rehabilitate Helen Thomas
In case you're wondering why the mainstream media is so anti-Israel, this ought to give you a hint. The Society of Professional Journalists is trying to rehabilitate Helen Thomas, arguing that she was subjected to 'unfair interview tactics' in May and ignoring her second anti-Semitic outburst in December.
But what's stunning about this article is that I bet you thought that the reason that the Society stopped giving the Helen Thomas award for lifetime achievement was because it felt that an anti-Semitic reporter didn't deserve to have an award named for her. No, that wasn't it.
Then came Thomas' remarks in December at a conference of Arab journalists. She said that "Congress, the White House, and Hollywood are owned by Zionists. No question."
"That did it," Wolper relates. "The SPJ executive committee in January voted 6 to 1 to retire the award, and the full board of directors went along, 14 to 7."
Incredibly, though, the SPJ leadership wasn't upset at Thomas' anti-Semitism. As Wolper explains: "The rationale was stunning: There was a fear that future recipients would have to answer questions about Helen Thomas instead of talking about their lifelong accomplishments."
Read the whole thing. And you were wondering about the origins of the New York Times op-ed page?
Remember how Helen Thomas was going to speak at that anti-AIPAC conference next month? No more... (Hat Tip: Dan F).
Helen Thomas, who caused controversy when she called on Jews in Israel to “go back to Europe” last year, reportedly declined to take part in the Move Over AIPAC when it became clear that “several members of the coalition and our grassroots community” involved in the conference were opposed to her attendance.
Thomas was quoted by organizers as thanking Move Over AIPAC for inviting her, saying she hoped the conference’s purpose of countering Israel’s perceived influence in Washington will succeed.
“I am delighted that people are coming together for this gathering and I want to make sure that the focus stays on AIPAC and U.S. policy, not me,” she was quoted saying by the anti-Israel lobby group.
...
Move Over AIPAC has been endorsed by the likes of political scientists Stephen Walt and John Meirsheimer, who wrote a book criticizing the Israeli lobby in Washington, and Jewish Voice for Peace, a leftist Jewish organization involved in attempts to break the blockade on Gaza, according to its Website.
At the time of print several messages and phone calls to Walt, Meirsheimer and JVP went unanswered.
Medea Benjamin, a spokesperson for the event, elaborated on differences of opinion among participants regarding Thomas and her reputation.
“Some within the coalition think that the remarks were anti-Semitic and condemned what she said,” Benjamin said. “Others thought that it was a slip of the tongue and that her extended comments afterwards were a good explanation. Personally, I’ve been an admirer of her for years and her protest of the Iraq war.”
Asked if inviting a speaker who in the past made inflammatory comments about Jews proved the point of the gathering’s critics that it was pushing an anti-Semitic agenda under the guise of an anti-Israeli lobby event, Benjamin responded in the negative.
“The conference is really to talk about –and many of us are Jews- is to work for a policy where Israel and Palestine can live together in peace and get a process started,” Benjamin, who is Jewish, said. “My values are Jewish and I believe in Compassion for all and AIPAC does not represent my Jewish values. Helen Thomas is one of 30 people who have been invited and we are a community of people who cherish Jewish values.”
Bottom line: Helen Thomas is too toxic even for the Walt-Mearsheimer-Code Pink-Jewish Voice for Peace crowd. It's been less than a year. My how the mighty have fallen.
Obama's favorite journalist to speak at anti-Netanyahu rallies next month
President Obama's favorite journalist will be the featured speaker at rallies in Washington next month that will protest Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's presence at the AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) convention. AIPAC is the largest pro-Israel lobby in the United States and its convention is attended by dozens of Representatives and Senators.
A series of protests against Israeli policy and its support by AIPAC are planned in May to coincide with the AIPAC conference in the U.S. capital and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech there. The protests, under the heading "Move over AIPAC," will include demonstrations opposite the building where Netanyahu will speak and Congress, and a series of lectures and meetings with critics of Israel, including veteran journalist Helen Thomas who lost her place in the White House press room after saying Jews should leave Palestine and go back to Poland, Germany and the United States. Thomas will give the keynote address at the Move Over AIPAC conference, and will receive an award from the women's pacifist organization Code Pink, one of the hundred left-wing American organizations behind the conference.
I can't think of any more appropriate speaker. I wonder if Obama will stop by himself to see her.
I sure hope that anyone buying April's Playboy Magazine isn't buying it just for the articles. That's because the April interview is with none other than Helen Thomas.
"I knew exactly what I was doing – I was going for broke. I had reached the point of no return. You finally get fed up…I finally wanted to speak the truth," explains former dean of the White House Press Corps Helen Thomas when asked about her now infamous May 27, 2010 comments on Israel in Playboy's April Interview (issue on newsstands and online at www.playboydigital.com Friday, March 18). The outspoken journalist sparked controversy when a rabbi and blogger asked her for remarks on Israel and she responded "Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine," adding that the Jews "can go home" to "Poland, Germany and America and everywhere else." Shortly thereafter her comments went viral and Thomas abruptly resigned from her post at Hearst Newspapers on June 7, 2010.
The 90-year-old veteran reporter sat down with Playboy Contributing Editor David Hochman for her first in-depth interview following her contentious remarks. Not only did she share her thoughts on Israel and Palestine, she also discussed her sentiments towards Jews, her supposed retirement, President Obama, Congress's anti-Arab agenda and her obituary. Following are selected quotes from the interview:
On the aftermath of her May 27 remarks about Israel: "I went into self-imposed house arrest for two weeks…Every columnist and commentator jumped on me immediately as anti-Semitic. Nobody asked me to explain myself. Nobody said, 'What did you really mean?'"
On the situation in Palestine: "Everybody knows my feelings that the Palestinians have been shortchanged in every way. Sure, the Israelis have a right to exist – but where they were born, not to come and take someone else's home. I've had it up to here with the violations against the Palestinians…[The Palestinians] are incarcerated and living in an open prison. I say to the Israelis, 'Get out of people's homes!' It's unacceptable to have soldiers knocking on a door at three in the morning and saying, 'This is my home.' And forcing people out of homes they've lived in for centuries? What is this? How can anybody accept it? I mean, Jewish-only roads? [She later corrected herself to say Israeli-only roads.] Would anyone tolerate something like that in America? White-only roads?"
On Palestinian violence against the Israelis: "Of course I don't condone any violence against anyone. But who wouldn't fight for their country? What would any American do if their land was being taken? Remember Pearl Harbor. The Palestinian violence is to protect what little remains of Palestine. The suicide bombers act out of despair and desperation. Three generations of Palestinians have been forced out of their homes – by Israelis – and into refugee camps." to On American support of Israel: "We keep giving Israel everything. Our government bribes the Israelis by saying, 'Please come to the [negotiating] table and we'll give you this and we'll give you that'…Why do you have to bribe people to do the right thing? I don't want my government bribing anybody. I want them demanding. Stop all this aid to Israel when they're killing people!...Why do they send my American tax dollars to perpetuate it?"
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
