Helen Thomas' boss and the difference between a Zionist and a Jew
Nicholas Benton, Helen Thomas' new boss at the Falls Church (Virginia) News Press, has a classic anti-Semite's answer to charges that Thomas is an anti-Semite. Benton's editorial last week welcoming Thomas to his paper appears to gloss over the journalist's past diatribes.As if there's a difference between hatred of Jews and hatred of Israel....
In the piece, Benton fiercely condemns Thomas' initial remarks at the White House in May -- when she said that Jews should "get the hell out of Palestine" and "go home" to Poland, Germany and the United States -- but rationalized that they "reflected her personal anger arising from the news that Israeli commandos had boarded a ship on a humanitarian mission to Gaza and had killed more than a dozen volunteers." (That raid, however, took place several days after Thomas' remarks; additionally, individuals on the ship had weapons, and some admitted they were seeking a confrontation with Israel.)
Benton added that "her personal views have not tainted her highly professional work for 50 years as White House correspondent" and said that her White House comments were not directed at Jews, but at Israel.
For Paul Freedman, a 59-year-old Falls Church resident, Benton's editorial "doesn't make all that much sense given what [Thomas] said."
Portraying Zionists as nefarious power brokers, Freedman said, is still anti-Semitic.
"I feel very uncomfortable living in a city" where one's offensive behavior is rewarded with gainful employment. "It's a very small town."
Thomas, however, is unapologetic.
To those with hurt feelings, she said, "Let them be hurt. How many days are Palestinians being hurt and deprived?"
Martin Luther King, whose birthday is celebrated in the United States on Monday, wrote:
". . . You declare, my friend, that you do not hate the Jews, you are merely 'anti-Zionist.' And I say, let the truth ring forth from the high mountain tops, let it echo through the valleys of God's green earth: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews--this is God's own truth.Yes, I know that there have been questions raised about the authenticity of that letter, but the sentiments are definitely King's sentiments.
"Antisemitism, the hatred of the Jewish people, has been and remains a blot on the soul of mankind. In this we are in full agreement. So know also this: anti-Zionist is inherently antisemitic, and ever will be so.
"Why is this? You know that Zionism is nothing less than the dream and ideal of the Jewish people returning to live in their own land. The Jewish people, the Scriptures tell us, once enjoyed a flourishing Commonwealth in the Holy Land. From this they were expelled by the Roman tyrant, the same Romans who cruelly murdered Our Lord. Driven from their homeland, their nation in ashes, forced to wander the globe, the Jewish people time and again suffered the lash of whichever tyrant happened to rule over them.
"The Negro people, my friend, know what it is to suffer the torment of tyranny under rulers not of our choosing. Our brothers in Africa have begged, pleaded, requested--DEMANDED the recognition and realization of our inborn right to live in peace under our own sovereignty in our own country.
"How easy it should be, for anyone who holds dear this inalienable right of all mankind, to understand and support the right of the Jewish People to live in their ancient Land of Israel. All men of good will exult in the fulfilment of God's promise, that his People should return in joy to rebuild their plundered land.
This is Zionism, nothing more, nothing less.
"And what is anti-Zionist? It is the denial to the Jewish people of a fundamental right that we justly claim for the people of Africa and freely accord all other nations of the Globe. It is discrimination against Jews, my friend, because they are Jews. In short, it is antisemitism.
"The antisemite rejoices at any opportunity to vent his malice. The times have made it unpopular, in the West, to proclaim openly a hatred of the Jews. This being the case, the antisemite must constantly seek new forms and forums for his poison. How he must revel in the new masquerade! He does not hate the Jews, he is just 'anti-Zionist'!
"My friend, I do not accuse you of deliberate antisemitism. I know you feel, as I do, a deep love of truth and justice and a revulsion for racism, prejudice, and discrimination. But I know you have been misled--as others have been--into thinking you can be 'anti-Zionist' and yet remain true to these heartfelt principles that you and I share.
Let my words echo in the depths of your soul: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews--make no mistake about it."
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Helen Thomas, Martin Luther King, Nicholas Benton
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:30 PM
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