By Katie Halper - June 15, 2010, 4:10PM
More people seemed more upset over Helen Thomas's gaffe than they were over the killing of 9 people on board a Flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza. While Thomas's of-the-cuff comments were insensitive, they were not a call for Jews to "go back to Auschwitz" as some have suggested. Comments like Helen's, which call on a people to leave Israel and go back to where they come from, are made all the time by people who never apologize. If only Helen had called for the Palestinians, not the Jews, to get the hell out of Israel, if only her bias had been pro-Zionist, like most everyone else's in the mainstream media, not anti-Zionist, her comments would have been ignored or lauded. Those shouting the loudest for Helen's head are people who have little to no moral authority, having lied and/or displayed bigotry on several occasions without apologizing, being asked to apologize or being dropped by their speakers' bureau. Many of those who shamed and banished Thomas should hang their heads in shame, and promptly retire themselves from the stage of American politics and media.
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It really is disgraceful when someone can be hounded out of their life's work like that. The reaction was ridiculous, and I think it was deliberately blown up and exaggerated.
ReplyDeleteI would like to know though, just which Israeli Jews Helen thinks should go back to Poland and Germany. The Jews pre-1947 and/or post-1947?
<span>"I would like to know though, just which Israeli Jews Helen thinks should go back to Poland and Germany. The Jews pre-1947 and/or post-1947?"</span>
ReplyDeleteI can't speak for her but I doubt she was referring to those who were living in Palestine and were called Palestinian Jews or Jews of Palestine prior to the creation of the Israeli state. They were part of the country and no one was asking them to leave..It's the uninterrupted, massive arrival of European Jews and Zionists with the clear intention to build a state who created the problem.
<span><span>"I would like to know though, just which Israeli Jews Helen thinks should go back to Poland and Germany. The Jews pre-1947 and/or post-1947?"</span>
ReplyDeleteI can't speak for her but I doubt she was referring to those who were living in Palestine and were called Palestinian Jews or Jews of Palestine prior to the creation of the Israeli state. They were part of the country and no one was asking them to leave..It's the uninterrupted, massive arrival of European Jews and Zionists with the clear intention to build a state who created the problem.</span>
<span>I would like to thank and congratulate Helen Thomas for bringing to the forefront the root cause of the Palestinian tragedy! However, I wish that somebody could have warned Helen not to apologize to organized Zionism. The vicious attacks against Helen only increased as a result. If Helen had only stood by her mostly accurate comments, there is no way such a popular American coud have received so much negative media attention.</span>
ReplyDelete<span><span>I think what they did to Thomas says more and reveals more about them than any other actions they could undertake. What comes to fore here and what's going to stick in the mind of the "average Joe" is that bad mouthing Israel can get you in deep troubleand can cost you your job. While that may scare him, he's not going to like it (Israel becoming a taboo) a single bit. People are getting a better understanding of how this works and they're going to wonder why. That's a good thing.</span></span>
ReplyDelete<span><span>However, I wish that somebody could have warned Helen not to apologize to organized Zionism. The vicious attacks against Helen only increased as a result.</span></span>
ReplyDeleteI agree.
<span>While there's a lot of litigious stuff surrounding the aid flotilla being mentioned here, it occurs to me that the German government might consider a legal approach.
ReplyDeleteThose who have conflated Modern Germany with Auschwitz might be considered as having slandered the German people. An apology might be sought.
I believe one (Israeli?) journalist interpreted Ms. Thomas's advice of a return to Germany as "a return to the holocaust".
Is there a German Anti-Defamation League?</span>