In Defense of Helen Thomas

[mudwhistle]

In Defense of Helen Thomas - on apologizing to apologists

By Paul Jay

Helen Thomas was the dean of the White House Press corp. She has a fifty-year history of tough-minded journalism and is one of the very, very few journalists in the mainstream press who has had the guts to question US policy towards Israel. On Monday she was pressured into resigning, "effective immediately".

On Friday she was asked by a guy who stuck a video camera in her face, for any comments on Israel and she said, "Tell them to get the get the hell out of Palestine. Remember, these people [the Palestinians] are occupied and it's their land. It's not Germany, it's not Poland." She was asked where they should go and she answered, "They should go home, to Poland, Germany and America". The video has been making its way around the Internet.

This was said days after the Israeli attack on the aid flotilla that killed at least nine activists as their boat sailed in international waters.

She later apologized in a short statement on her website ""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."

Her apology was not enough to stop calls for her head from those who have wanted to shut Thomas up for years.



Whole article...

First of all the only attack that took place was the attack on the Israeli solders that Fast-roped onto the deck of that ship and got the crap beat out of them by steel bar welding thugs. They were stabbed and beaten and their pistols taken away. Their aim was to force the ship into port in a peaceful manner. They had no intention on shooting anyone which is why they carried paint-ball guns. In the attempt to defend themselves they ended up shooting several of the thugs that attacked them with the pistols they had left.

Secondly....Israel belongs to Israelis and has for thousands of years. They lost most of their lands and only recently took it back in the 40s. They aren't occupiers...the Palestinians used to be brothers and neighbors of the Jews in Palestine but decided that their new religion was more important then peace and harmony.

And thirdly....Helen Thomas wants the Jews to go back to Poland and Germany where they fled the holocaust. Six million of them were put to death. Would you hang around after that? Maybe Helen needs to reread history. Most of the living Jews were born in Israel....they are home now.

 

[editec]

Mudwhistle,

Where is the Roma's nation?

Didn't they also get murdered by Hitler?

You want to give them your home?

No?

Then why expect the Palestinians to give the European Jews theirs?

The ONLY justification for the continued existence of Isreal now is that it is an accomplished fact.

And that is a good enough reason, too.

History cannot help us here to find a just solution.

The reason that it cannot, is that one cannot rectify those past injustices without creating still another vicitm class.

That's WHY Helen was wrong.

Her history was sort of right, but her solution was just silly.

 

[mudwhistle]

Mudwhistle,

Where is the Roma's nation?

Didn't they also get murdered by Hitler?

You want to give them your home?

No?

Then why expect the Palestinians to give the European Jews theirs?

The ONLY justification for the continued existence of Isreal now is that it is an accomplished fact.

And that is a good enough reason, too.

History cannot help us here to find a just solution.

The reason that it cannot, is that one cannot rectify those past injustices without creating still another vicitm class.

That's WHY Helen was wrong.

Her history was sort of right, but her solution was just silly.

It's like abortion. It is law regardless of what opponents think. Somebody is always going to try to get rid of it.

Same with the establishment of the state of Israel. People don't like it and someone will always try to get rid of it.....and the people of Israel have every right to defend themselves in whatever manner it takes.
Muslims want to destroy them by hook or by crook so Israel has the right to take extreme measures to protect themselves. Too bad if somebody doesn't like it.

 

[Sky Dancer]

Israel acts a lot more like a state than a religion. Criticizing Israel is not anti-Semitic. It is possible to oppose the ideas promulgated and put into action by the Israeli government while supporting of the "idea" of Israel.
Beau Friedlander: Is Criticizing Israel Anti-Semitic?

 

[Bfgrn]

In Defense of Helen Thomas - on apologizing to apologists

By Paul Jay

Helen Thomas was the dean of the White House Press corp. She has a fifty-year history of tough-minded journalism and is one of the very, very few journalists in the mainstream press who has had the guts to question US policy towards Israel. On Monday she was pressured into resigning, "effective immediately".

On Friday she was asked by a guy who stuck a video camera in her face, for any comments on Israel and she said, "Tell them to get the get the hell out of Palestine. Remember, these people [the Palestinians] are occupied and it's their land. It's not Germany, it's not Poland." She was asked where they should go and she answered, "They should go home, to Poland, Germany and America". The video has been making its way around the Internet.

This was said days after the Israeli attack on the aid flotilla that killed at least nine activists as their boat sailed in international waters.

She later apologized in a short statement on her website ""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."

Her apology was not enough to stop calls for her head from those who have wanted to shut Thomas up for years.



Whole article...

First of all the only attack that took place was the attack on the Israeli solders that Fast-roped onto the deck of that ship and got the crap beat out of them by steel bar welding thugs. They were stabbed and beaten and their pistols taken away. Their aim was to force the ship into port in a peaceful manner. They had no intention on shooting anyone which is why they carried paint-ball guns. In the attempt to defend themselves they ended up shooting several of the thugs that attacked them with the pistols they had left.

Secondly....Israel belongs to Israelis and has for thousands of years. They lost most of their lands and only recently took it back in the 40s. They aren't occupiers...the Palestinians used to be brothers and neighbors of the Jews in Palestine but decided that their new religion was more important then peace and harmony.

And thirdly....Helen Thomas wants the Jews to go back to Poland and Germany where they fled the holocaust. Six million of them were put to death. Would you hang around after that? Maybe Helen needs to reread history. Most of the living Jews were born in Israel....they are home now.

WHY do you right wingers always leave off the last country she said they should go back to...America?

Because it raises a doubt of her referring to the holocaust? And it destroys your hate filled narrative?

most of the Jewish refugees that came to Palestine from Europe just after the War, did so not because they "belong to the land of Israel", but due to fact that the American, Canadian and British governments wouldn't drop their anti-Jewish quotas even after the horrors of the genocide were fully exposed (let's talk about some real anti-Semites).

I don't know of any opinion polls taken at the time, but if those refugees had a real choice to go to some impoverished potentially war-filled land in the Middle East or join the Jewish community in New York, I know what I would have chosen.

The American Zionist organizations at the time did not fight for a more open immigration policy to allow Jews into America; they lobbied furiously for the Jewish refugees to go to Palestine as part of a move towards the founding of a Jewish state.

As is well known, this state was created in the process of expelling thousands of Palestinians from their lands, people who had nothing to do with the European genocide against the Jews. You cannot say the same about the Anglo-American countries that for much of the '30s were quite happy to equip Hitler with cars and machinery. Quite content to shut their mouths as Hitler began an ethnic cleansing that would end in barbaric genocide.

As far as the American Jews that went to live in Israel after 1948, it's difficult to believe they went to escape persecution, as many of the Jews from other places that went to Israel, in fact did. So, one can understand a certain specific resentment against American Jews who decided that it was ok, at someone else's expense, to work out their identity crisis and pick up some free airline tickets to boot.

 

[Barb]

In Defense of Helen Thomas - on apologizing to apologists

By Paul Jay

Helen Thomas was the dean of the White House Press corp. She has a fifty-year history of tough-minded journalism and is one of the very, very few journalists in the mainstream press who has had the guts to question US policy towards Israel. On Monday she was pressured into resigning, "effective immediately".

On Friday she was asked by a guy who stuck a video camera in her face, for any comments on Israel and she said, "Tell them to get the get the hell out of Palestine. Remember, these people [the Palestinians] are occupied and it's their land. It's not Germany, it's not Poland." She was asked where they should go and she answered, "They should go home, to Poland, Germany and America". The video has been making its way around the Internet.

This was said days after the Israeli attack on the aid flotilla that killed at least nine activists as their boat sailed in international waters.

She later apologized in a short statement on her website ""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."

Her apology was not enough to stop calls for her head from those who have wanted to shut Thomas up for years.



Whole article...

First of all the only attack that took place was the attack on the Israeli solders that Fast-roped onto the deck of that ship and got the crap beat out of them by steel bar welding thugs. They were stabbed and beaten and their pistols taken away. Their aim was to force the ship into port in a peaceful manner. They had no intention on shooting anyone which is why they carried paint-ball guns. In the attempt to defend themselves they ended up shooting several of the thugs that attacked them with the pistols they had left.

Secondly....Israel belongs to Israelis and has for thousands of years. They lost most of their lands and only recently took it back in the 40s. They aren't occupiers...the Palestinians used to be brothers and neighbors of the Jews in Palestine but decided that their new religion was more important then peace and harmony.

And thirdly....Helen Thomas wants the Jews to go back to Poland and Germany where they fled the holocaust. Six million of them were put to death. Would you hang around after that? Maybe Helen needs to reread history. Most of the living Jews were born in Israel....they are home now.

WHY do you right wingers always leave off the last country she said they should go back to...America?

Because it raises a doubt of her referring to the holocaust? And it destroys your hate filled narrative?

most of the Jewish refugees that came to Palestine from Europe just after the War, did so not because they "belong to the land of Israel", but due to fact that the American, Canadian and British governments wouldn't drop their anti-Jewish quotas even after the horrors of the genocide were fully exposed (let's talk about some real anti-Semites).

I don't know of any opinion polls taken at the time, but if those refugees had a real choice to go to some impoverished potentially war-filled land in the Middle East or join the Jewish community in New York, I know what I would have chosen.

The American Zionist organizations at the time did not fight for a more open immigration policy to allow Jews into America; they lobbied furiously for the Jewish refugees to go to Palestine as part of a move towards the founding of a Jewish state.

As is well known, this state was created in the process of expelling thousands of Palestinians from their lands, people who had nothing to do with the European genocide against the Jews. You cannot say the same about the Anglo-American countries that for much of the '30s were quite happy to equip Hitler with cars and machinery. Quite content to shut their mouths as Hitler began an ethnic cleansing that would end in barbaric genocide.

As far as the American Jews that went to live in Israel after 1948, it's difficult to believe they went to escape persecution, as many of the Jews from other places that went to Israel, in fact did. So, one can understand a certain specific resentment against American Jews who decided that it was ok, at someone else's expense, to work out their identity crisis and pick up some free airline tickets to boot.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Bfgrn again.

 

[Barb]

Mudwhistle,

Where is the Roma's nation?

Didn't they also get murdered by Hitler?

You want to give them your home?

No?

Then why expect the Palestinians to give the European Jews theirs?

The ONLY justification for the continued existence of Isreal now is that it is an accomplished fact.

And that is a good enough reason, too.

History cannot help us here to find a just solution.

The reason that it cannot, is that one cannot rectify those past injustices without creating still another vicitm class.

That's WHY Helen was wrong.

Her history was sort of right, but her solution was just silly.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to editec again.

 

[mudwhistle]

In Defense of Helen Thomas - on apologizing to apologists

By Paul Jay

Helen Thomas was the dean of the White House Press corp. She has a fifty-year history of tough-minded journalism and is one of the very, very few journalists in the mainstream press who has had the guts to question US policy towards Israel. On Monday she was pressured into resigning, "effective immediately".

On Friday she was asked by a guy who stuck a video camera in her face, for any comments on Israel and she said, "Tell them to get the get the hell out of Palestine. Remember, these people [the Palestinians] are occupied and it's their land. It's not Germany, it's not Poland." She was asked where they should go and she answered, "They should go home, to Poland, Germany and America". The video has been making its way around the Internet.

This was said days after the Israeli attack on the aid flotilla that killed at least nine activists as their boat sailed in international waters.

She later apologized in a short statement on her website ""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."

Her apology was not enough to stop calls for her head from those who have wanted to shut Thomas up for years.



Whole article...

First of all the only attack that took place was the attack on the Israeli solders that Fast-roped onto the deck of that ship and got the crap beat out of them by steel bar welding thugs. They were stabbed and beaten and their pistols taken away. Their aim was to force the ship into port in a peaceful manner. They had no intention on shooting anyone which is why they carried paint-ball guns. In the attempt to defend themselves they ended up shooting several of the thugs that attacked them with the pistols they had left.

Secondly....Israel belongs to Israelis and has for thousands of years. They lost most of their lands and only recently took it back in the 40s. They aren't occupiers...the Palestinians used to be brothers and neighbors of the Jews in Palestine but decided that their new religion was more important then peace and harmony.

And thirdly....Helen Thomas wants the Jews to go back to Poland and Germany where they fled the holocaust. Six million of them were put to death. Would you hang around after that? Maybe Helen needs to reread history. Most of the living Jews were born in Israel....they are home now.

WHY do you right wingers always leave off the last country she said they should go back to...America?

Because it raises a doubt of her referring to the holocaust? And it destroys your hate filled narrative?

most of the Jewish refugees that came to Palestine from Europe just after the War, did so not because they "belong to the land of Israel", but due to fact that the American, Canadian and British governments wouldn't drop their anti-Jewish quotas even after the horrors of the genocide were fully exposed (let's talk about some real anti-Semites).

I don't know of any opinion polls taken at the time, but if those refugees had a real choice to go to some impoverished potentially war-filled land in the Middle East or join the Jewish community in New York, I know what I would have chosen.

The American Zionist organizations at the time did not fight for a more open immigration policy to allow Jews into America; they lobbied furiously for the Jewish refugees to go to Palestine as part of a move towards the founding of a Jewish state.

As is well known, this state was created in the process of expelling thousands of Palestinians from their lands, people who had nothing to do with the European genocide against the Jews. You cannot say the same about the Anglo-American countries that for much of the '30s were quite happy to equip Hitler with cars and machinery. Quite content to shut their mouths as Hitler began an ethnic cleansing that would end in barbaric genocide.

As far as the American Jews that went to live in Israel after 1948, it's difficult to believe they went to escape persecution, as many of the Jews from other places that went to Israel, in fact did. So, one can understand a certain specific resentment against American Jews who decided that it was ok, at someone else's expense, to work out their identity crisis and pick up some free airline tickets to boot.

That's the version you were maybe taught in one of our liberal universities....but not entirely true. Many Jews returned because of a feeling of religious pride and wanting to go back to the homeland. It's like Muslims wanting to go to Mecca only on a larger scale. The move took place decades ago. Whenever you have that many people moving into a small country like Israel there is liable to be overcrowding. And...there is also liable to be injustice.....on both sides...not just on the part of Israelis. You left that part out as well.

When Helen Thomas mentioned that they return to Poland and Germany it was easy...when she mentioned America I recognize that was a separate issue and didn't comment on it. But now that I have you can't say I ignored it completely.

 

[Samson]

First of all the only attack that took place was the attack on the Israeli solders that Fast-roped onto the deck of that ship and got the crap beat out of them by steel bar welding thugs. They were stabbed and beaten and their pistols taken away. Their aim was to force the ship into port in a peaceful manner. They had no intention on shooting anyone which is why they carried paint-ball guns. In the attempt to defend themselves they ended up shooting several of the thugs that attacked them with the pistols they had left.

Secondly....Israel belongs to Israelis and has for thousands of years. They lost most of their lands and only recently took it back in the 40s. They aren't occupiers...the Palestinians used to be brothers and neighbors of the Jews in Palestine but decided that their new religion was more important then peace and harmony.

And thirdly....Helen Thomas wants the Jews to go back to Poland and Germany where they fled the holocaust. Six million of them were put to death. Would you hang around after that? Maybe Helen needs to reread history. Most of the living Jews were born in Israel....they are home now.

WHY do you right wingers always leave off the last country she said they should go back to...America?

Because it raises a doubt of her referring to the holocaust? And it destroys your hate filled narrative?

most of the Jewish refugees that came to Palestine from Europe just after the War, did so not because they "belong to the land of Israel", but due to fact that the American, Canadian and British governments wouldn't drop their anti-Jewish quotas even after the horrors of the genocide were fully exposed (let's talk about some real anti-Semites).

I don't know of any opinion polls taken at the time, but if those refugees had a real choice to go to some impoverished potentially war-filled land in the Middle East or join the Jewish community in New York, I know what I would have chosen.

The American Zionist organizations at the time did not fight for a more open immigration policy to allow Jews into America; they lobbied furiously for the Jewish refugees to go to Palestine as part of a move towards the founding of a Jewish state.

As is well known, this state was created in the process of expelling thousands of Palestinians from their lands, people who had nothing to do with the European genocide against the Jews. You cannot say the same about the Anglo-American countries that for much of the '30s were quite happy to equip Hitler with cars and machinery. Quite content to shut their mouths as Hitler began an ethnic cleansing that would end in barbaric genocide.

As far as the American Jews that went to live in Israel after 1948, it's difficult to believe they went to escape persecution, as many of the Jews from other places that went to Israel, in fact did. So, one can understand a certain specific resentment against American Jews who decided that it was ok, at someone else's expense, to work out their identity crisis and pick up some free airline tickets to boot.

That's the version you were maybe taught in one of our liberal universities....but not entirely true. Many Jews returned because of a feeling of religious pride and wanting to go back to the homeland. It's like Muslims wanting to go to Mecca only on a larger scale. The move took place decades ago. Whenever you have that many people moving into a small country like Israel there is liable to be overcrowding. And...there is also liable to be injustice.....on both sides...not just on the part of Israelis. You left that part out as well.

When Helen Thomas mentioned that they return to Poland and Germany it was easy...when she mentioned America I recognize that was a separate issue and didn't comment on it. But now that I have you can't say I ignored it completely.

Helen Thomas is a simple old woman that speakes her mind, and has been a simple old woman for the past 20 years.

While most White Houses have recognised this, the current administration seems less tolerant.......

This, not the comment itself, is what makes her timely demise most interesting.

 

[kellyjack]

At 89 yrs old she needs to quit. At that age you quit caring what you say and can't remember what you said anyway.

 

[California Girl]

WOW, you really are a scummy little slime ball...It was YOU who initiated this by sending me a neg rep on a conversation I was having with someone ELSE. I returned your intrusion...

Now that I know you will post what I say, it will give me the freedom to address your upbringing next time.

And what rep comment did I make to you? It was "Stop whining" . Yours, in response, called me a c*nt and a whore.

My upbringing? I'd have a few questions about yours, if you can't see the difference between 'stop whining' (ie no foul-mouthed offensive name calling) and yours. If I was you, I'd take a look at the T&Cs before you bring my family into your stupid fucking moronic whining.

You stuck your nose into a conversation you were no part of and instead of posting an opinion for all to see, you decided to use the cowardly act of sending a neg rep. So I returned your neg rep and called you names...Stop whining, you EARNED the comments.

If I bring up your family in a PRIVATE message, there is no way for others to know, unless you post it on the board...

You've 'stuck your nose' into conversations of mine with other people constantly.... it's a fucking messageboard you fucking moronic twit. It's not about the 'neg' - I don't give a shit about a neg rep.... it was the comment.... you fucking drooling idiot. "Stop Whining" was mine.... your's was "****" "whore"....

And.... for the record.... If you bring up my family in a private message - I will make sure the whole board knows what sort of cowardly little scumbag asshole you are. Stupid little dick.

 

[ConHog]

Damn, and I get accused of hating Sangha?

 

[mudwhistle]

WHY do you right wingers always leave off the last country she said they should go back to...America?

Because it raises a doubt of her referring to the holocaust? And it destroys your hate filled narrative?

most of the Jewish refugees that came to Palestine from Europe just after the War, did so not because they "belong to the land of Israel", but due to fact that the American, Canadian and British governments wouldn't drop their anti-Jewish quotas even after the horrors of the genocide were fully exposed (let's talk about some real anti-Semites).

I don't know of any opinion polls taken at the time, but if those refugees had a real choice to go to some impoverished potentially war-filled land in the Middle East or join the Jewish community in New York, I know what I would have chosen.

The American Zionist organizations at the time did not fight for a more open immigration policy to allow Jews into America; they lobbied furiously for the Jewish refugees to go to Palestine as part of a move towards the founding of a Jewish state.

As is well known, this state was created in the process of expelling thousands of Palestinians from their lands, people who had nothing to do with the European genocide against the Jews. You cannot say the same about the Anglo-American countries that for much of the '30s were quite happy to equip Hitler with cars and machinery. Quite content to shut their mouths as Hitler began an ethnic cleansing that would end in barbaric genocide.

As far as the American Jews that went to live in Israel after 1948, it's difficult to believe they went to escape persecution, as many of the Jews from other places that went to Israel, in fact did. So, one can understand a certain specific resentment against American Jews who decided that it was ok, at someone else's expense, to work out their identity crisis and pick up some free airline tickets to boot.

That's the version you were maybe taught in one of our liberal universities....but not entirely true. Many Jews returned because of a feeling of religious pride and wanting to go back to the homeland. It's like Muslims wanting to go to Mecca only on a larger scale. The move took place decades ago. Whenever you have that many people moving into a small country like Israel there is liable to be overcrowding. And...there is also liable to be injustice.....on both sides...not just on the part of Israelis. You left that part out as well.

When Helen Thomas mentioned that they return to Poland and Germany it was easy...when she mentioned America I recognize that was a separate issue and didn't comment on it. But now that I have you can't say I ignored it completely.

Helen Thomas is a simple old woman that speakes her mind, and has been a simple old woman for the past 20 years.

While most White Houses have recognised this, the current administration seems less tolerant.......

This, not the comment itself, is what makes her timely demise most interesting.

I think Helen Thomas is almost of the same mindset as the current administration. She still had her seat center/front until her little gaff so they had nothing to do with her demise. Her big mouth was the cause.

 

[Bfgrn]

And what rep comment did I make to you? It was "Stop whining" . Yours, in response, called me a c*nt and a whore.

My upbringing? I'd have a few questions about yours, if you can't see the difference between 'stop whining' (ie no foul-mouthed offensive name calling) and yours. If I was you, I'd take a look at the T&Cs before you bring my family into your stupid fucking moronic whining.

You stuck your nose into a conversation you were no part of and instead of posting an opinion for all to see, you decided to use the cowardly act of sending a neg rep. So I returned your neg rep and called you names...Stop whining, you EARNED the comments.

If I bring up your family in a PRIVATE message, there is no way for others to know, unless you post it on the board...

You've 'stuck your nose' into conversations of mine with other people constantly.... it's a fucking messageboard you fucking moronic twit. It's not about the 'neg' - I don't give a shit about a neg rep.... it was the comment.... you fucking drooling idiot. "Stop Whining" was mine.... your's was "****" "whore"....

And.... for the record.... If you bring up my family in a private message - I will make sure the whole board knows what sort of cowardly little scumbag asshole you are. Stupid little dick.

Yes you haughty little witch, this is a message board, and I have posted my comments on things you posted or others posted many times. But you didn't...

Instead of confronting me or my views on the board for all to see and 'debate', you remained silent and sent a neg rep. A cowardly admission that you can't debate, you can only throw stones and run away.

I have challenged you to debate ANY topic you choose many, many times...and you always make excuses or post some haughty, degrading comment that it is somehow 'below' you.

I used the words "****" and "whore" ONCE in a private message. And you used that to play the 'victim' for all to see...poor, poor Cali girl...boo hoo...Yet, YOU have now used them numerous times on the board. They now belong to you...

 

[Samson]

That's the version you were maybe taught in one of our liberal universities....but not entirely true. Many Jews returned because of a feeling of religious pride and wanting to go back to the homeland. It's like Muslims wanting to go to Mecca only on a larger scale. The move took place decades ago. Whenever you have that many people moving into a small country like Israel there is liable to be overcrowding. And...there is also liable to be injustice.....on both sides...not just on the part of Israelis. You left that part out as well.

When Helen Thomas mentioned that they return to Poland and Germany it was easy...when she mentioned America I recognize that was a separate issue and didn't comment on it. But now that I have you can't say I ignored it completely.

Helen Thomas is a simple old woman that speakes her mind, and has been a simple old woman for the past 20 years.

While most White Houses have recognised this, the current administration seems less tolerant.......

This, not the comment itself, is what makes her timely demise most interesting.

I think Helen Thomas is almost of the same mindset as the current administration. She still had her seat center/front until her little gaff so they had nothing to do with her demise. Her big mouth was the cause.

Perhaps you're mistaken about the "Mindset" of the current administration.

If they wanted her, she'd still be there.