Loading ...Helen Thomas: Jews should ‘get the hell out’ of Palestine
flockwoodUPDATE: Helen Thomas announced her retirement, “effective immediately,” this morning.
I’d never heard of RabbiLive.com until he posted this video interview with White House press corps dean Helen Thomas.
On hand for a Jewish heritage celebration at 1600 Pennysylvania Avenue, Thomas told a rabbi that the Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and go home to Poland and Germany and elsewhere.
“Home”, the rabbi notes, is where six million Jews died in concentration camps. Israel is where the Prophet Isaiah proclaimed:
1For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.
2And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.
3Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.
4Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.
5For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.
6I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence,
7And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
8The LORD hath sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, Surely I will no more give thy corn to be meat for thine enemies; and the sons of the stranger shall not drink thy wine, for the which thou hast laboured:
9But they that have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the LORD; and they that have brought it together shall drink it in the courts of my holiness.
10Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people.
11Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
12And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken. [Isaiah 62]
Question of the day, how many more dayshours do you think it will be before Hearst announces that its sending Ms. Thomas into retirement?
Answer: 1 hour. I posted this at 10:03 a.m CST. At 11:03 a.m., the following paragraph moved on the wires:
HELEN THOMAS ANNNOUNCES RETIREMENT
c.2010 Hearst Newspapers
WASHINGTON — Helen Thomas announced Monday that she is retiring, effective immediately.
Her decision came after her controversial comments about Israel and the Palestinians were captured on videotape and widely disseminated on the Internet.
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 pace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon.”
Thomas will mark her 90th birthday on Aug. 4.
June 7th, 2010 at 10:26 am
Orz.
Now can you predict the outcome of the Ergun Caner flap?
June 7th, 2010 at 5:00 pm
I grew up hearing Helen Thomas from the White House Press Corps. I don’t think I ever cared much for her, but she was a staple there, I think, ever since the John Quincy Adams administration, or was it Ulysses S. Grant’s? Anyway, a long time. I think age and a touch of senility are finally catching up with her. She made some tactless remarks in an interview I saw a short while ago. I think some leeway could be granted her considering here long career, but the statement she made above belies her bias, and maybe too much of the press bias, to be ignored. They have to distance themselves from her and fast. Age has a way of loosening the tongue. Maybe all reporters should retire and head into seclusion at 70 or so so they can maintain their cover of being “unbiased.”
June 7th, 2010 at 5:35 pm
Such a shame that her long career is ended with such ugly and unjustifiable statements. Starting with JFK, Graham covered the White House for nearly half a century. Folks who can’t remember that far back should appreciate just how difficult it was for a woman to be taken seriously. As for her skills in the Press Corps it’s important to note two things: she asked tough questions that others wouldn’t, and she thoroughly grilled the Dems and Republicans alike. We need more journalists with that kind of gumption and determination. She will be missed.
June 8th, 2010 at 9:15 am
Oh, I don’t think we have any dearth of reporters willing to ask “tough” questions. If anything reporting has lost too much civility in general. I blame both liberal reporters and the conservative ones (all three of them) for this. No disrespect to Helen Thomas, she was a trail blazer in some regards and is worthy of some of her honors, but I remember my mother saying there was “something wrong” about her even back in the 70s. Needless to say I wasn’t shocked at her opinion here, just that she had the tactlessness to say it out loud. Maybe she thought her reputation would allow her to get away with it. Or she just may be getting senile. I’m trying here to make an excuse for the inexcusable, but it’s not working I guess. I hate to see anyone fall from grace, even if I don’t agree with them.
June 8th, 2010 at 11:04 am
Well, the lady was right, wasn’t she? What right do a bunch of European Jews have to that land? They took it, plain and simple, and everybody knows it.
What she said is taboo precisely because it is true.
June 8th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
Justin, that’s certainly one view of the situation, but hardly one that is any more inherently “truthful” than the idea that the state of Israel has a right to exist, too. We’re sixty years into this thing, and whatever anybody thinks about the intelligence of the plan in the first place, the Jews are NOT going to leave Israel, and the Palestinians need to understand that. To answer your legal question, though, as to what right a bunch of European Jews have to Palestine, obviously they have no inherent right to it or any other land. Any “right” comes from the fact that the Ottoman Empire, the former ruler of Palestine, backed the wrong horse in WWI, and ended up losing Palestine to the British. The British then did what they wanted to with it, with their usual incompetence in foreign affairs.
John, I, too, remember Helen Thomas for all those years, and despite her slip up yesterday, she’s still a hero of mine. I don’t agree with your mother that anything was ever wrong with Thomas; I suspect her views were a bit liberal for your family.
June 8th, 2010 at 5:28 pm
Well, Caleb, her statement here just seemed to back up what my mother thought. Telling the Jews to go back to Poland and Germany or elsewhere where they will be looked upon as “strangers” in the land and subject to persecution even though they lived there for centuries is simply insane and patently wrong. Hence my mother’s observation, though she couldn’t put a finger on it exactly at the time.
Justin: It could be argued that the land was “taken” from the Jews in the first place. Granted, centuries ago, but the Jews maintained and everyone always knew, even the Palestinians, that they never gave up claim to the land. “Next year in Jerusalem” was their motto on their holidays. I’m not saying that the Palestinians don’t have their claims to the land as well, but it is far more complicated than a simple “occupation,” and Helen Thomas knows this. For whatever reason, she chose her anger, arrogance or an unbelievable blind-spot in here psyche, over what she knows. Something just ain’t right with her, sorry to say, and I cannot excuse or even adequately explain her comment.
June 8th, 2010 at 7:01 pm
Helen Thomas got in trouble for a comment made three months ago. It was especially shocking to her colleagues because it was uncharacteristic. John, your mom’s judgment of Thomas was more than 30 years ago. Let’s not go blaming old prejudices on new events. If your mom (and you) felt uneasy about Thomas back then but can offer nothing to justify those feelings then as Caleb says there are other, more credible explanations. Even in the 1970s our American society did not look favorably on women who were bold and vocal. Many people felt annoyed or threatened by strong women, especially people who hold that traditional women’s roles are literally sacred.
It’s simply incredible that anyone can look back over the past few years ago and conclude that the national press is too forceful when questioning the President and other officials. Think back, remember. In the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks the Bush administration undertook many unprecedented and unjustifiable actions, and they positively cowed the press corps into silent obedience. Helen Thomas was nearly alone in challenging the administration about the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and we now know that her skepticism was well-founded. Even the Washington Post and New York Times were reluctant to raise meaningful objections. Back then the Bush team would not call on Helen Thomas, but they DID plant the pseudo-reporter Jeff Gannon. Shameful. You and your mom may prefer complacent correspondents but we are a better nation because of watchdogs like Helen Thomas.
June 9th, 2010 at 8:52 am
Wow, José, you really have a one-sided view. I don’t know what to say. No other president was more maligned in the press over Iraq and virtually every other issue. The man could do nothing right in the presses eyes. Sure, he was given a bit of a honeymoon shortly after 9/11—he was too popular for the press to risk touching then—but that was very short. From claims that he “stole” the election in 2000 to his handling of Hurricane Katrina (which I almost think some reporters would have said he CAUSED if they thought they could get away with it), Bush was dogged relentlessly. I even heard of one reporter, since fired, saying that she loathed even the way he talked.
To say George W. Bush was given any sort of systematic deference from the press is crap, pure and simple. Please don’t insult my intelligence (some people claim I have a little bit) by claiming the press were victims of Bush. I can’t even believe I’m arguing this.
You like Helen Thomas. Good for you. You are free to defend her as much as you want. She is obviously talented and worthy of some respect, but sometimes words can speak louder than actions. I hope it is just her age, but even if that is so, she is only revealing now what was in her heart all along. My mom is certainly not infallible, but I just thought it was interesting that she used to make those observations about Thomas so long ago. She did not say the same things about other reporters that she didn’t agree with. She might have even admired Helen in her red dress suits she always wore for Reagan a time or two. I need to call her up.
June 9th, 2010 at 8:59 am
I can’t even imagine the flack Bush would be getting right now if he were still president during this BP oil spill. I think the press would literally pee their pants in their giddiness to claim it was all caused by Bush being “in the pocket” of Big Oil. They have had to resort to turning on their God Obama for this one, which of course is unfair, but they’ve got to shout and blame someone. This is what happens when civility is lost in the name of being “tough.”
June 9th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
John, Dubyah was an idiot who had no business being president. As far as I know, no member of the legitimate press said that. Therefore, from my perspective, he got a break from the press every day he was in office. If Reagan was the Teflon president, I guess Dubyah was the Teflon II president, because nothing stuck to him even though no one liked him near as well as they did Reagan.
As far as who is to blame for what’s going on in the Gulf, it’s all of us, you and me, who drive cars. As long as we consume petroleum, they’re going to drill for it somewhere, and anywhere they drill is going to be subject to this kind of thing. Now I will agree that the Republicans have largely fallen in love with big oil because they love money above all, but the Democrats have been in the oil companies’ pockets in the past, too.
June 9th, 2010 at 5:18 pm
President Bush was indeed castigated by the press and the public during much of his second term. That doesn’t really prove anything, does it? One can make a very good case that the criticism was well deserved. (Remember those WMDs that Secretary Colin Powell described in such detail before the UN, with exact numbers and locations? The ones that Bush/Cheney used to justify the invasion of Iraq? The ones that DID NOT EXIST?)
But earlier, from 9/11 to the rush to war in Iraq and continuing through the erosion of our precious freedom in the name of national security, the press generally accepted the arguments and evidence presented by the Bush team. When the reporters did bother to challenge the administration’s assertions they were quick to back down for fear of being painted as un-American. This “short period of time”, as you call it, lasted for years. It’s an accepted matter of record, John, and I can’t believe that you are arguing the point either. Don’t take my word for it. Just ask former Bush press secretary Scott McClellan. Here is a man who was giving briefings back then, and he still likes Bush to this day. McClellan called the White House press corps “complicit enablers” who concentrated “on covering the campaign to sell the war rather than aggressively questioning the rationale for war or pursuing the truth behind it.” Even the reporters admit that they didn’t do their jobs. If you think that opposing ends of the WH press room are insulting your intelligence because they agree on this point, it might be a good time to reconsider your recollection of the events.
I’ll leave you with one more observation from the fellow at the ringside seat:
“I think we need more Helen Thomases in the press corps, both the national press corps, even in the White House press corps, as well. She is someone who is not afraid to ask the tough questions and hold people accountable for the decisions that are made.”
Former Bush press secretary Scott McClellan on “Democracy Now!”, June 11, 2008
June 9th, 2010 at 5:18 pm
At least the Republicans don’t love other people’s money, like the Democrats. It ain’t no good if you can’t take it without earning it. I agree with you about the oil issue. Why do people hate the oil companies when they are only giving us what we want? It’s like slapping the hooker after she has “serviced” you.
I’m sorry you feel that way about Dubyah. I read a book called “The Leadership Genius of George W. Bush.” It was a best seller. Again, I’m no big fan of his, but he was definitely smart enough and capable for the office. He did get re-elected, you know. Unless he was able to bribe the majority of the general population, like FDR did, he must have had some merit. I guess you’re too far into your world to take an objective stance. I suppose it is dangerous to be objective when you’re a lawyer and have to win a case for a client no matter how loathsome they may be. Gotta be tough. Label everybody. Don’t acknowledge their humanity and talents. Look for and exploit the things you can pounce on. As I always said, I think you are a damn good lawyer. I’ll be definitely calling you (if I can afford it) if I ever get arrested for slapping a whore.
June 11th, 2010 at 5:54 pm
“Gotta be tough. Label everybody. Don’t acknowledge their humanity and talents.” How does this follow: “At least the Republicans don’t love other people’s money, like the Democrats”? How can you judge Caleb for labeling people when you are guilty of labeling Democrats to make your point?
June 12th, 2010 at 7:56 pm
I would imagine any book about the leadership ability of Dubyah would at least have the virtue of being short.
June 13th, 2010 at 5:24 pm
Cheese: I see your point, but in my defense (sort of), I was merely responding in kind to Caleb’s earlier inane comment about Republicans “loving money above all.” Not very Christ-like, I know, but at least I’m not shooting people in His name.