The Washington Post Keeps Rockin’, Hides Helen Thomas’ Decline
In contrast, I am trying to imagine the Post’s coverage if a conservative columnist might have urged Mexicans to “get the hell out of the United States” and go home. Do we need any imagination to conjure up the Post’s response?
No. In 2006, the Post ran a Page One story about Senator George Allen, who was caught on tape in front of an audience and used a derogatory word no one had ever heard of: “Macaca.”
The Post pounced, arbitrarily deciding it was derogatory. On the Sunday after the release of the video tape, Post reporters breathlessly wrote: “Word of Sen. George Allen’s controversial comments flashed across the country last week.”
The Washington Post’s archival records show how the paper went into overdrive. The daily drumbeat of outrage from the paper’s editors is nicely chronicled.
Following the Macaca video, the Post ran no fewer than 131 articles on Allen’s slur. Thirteen of the articles slammed Allen on the front page, and 34 were in the national section or on the main editorial page.
It doomed the senator. The nation instead got Democratic Senator Jim Webb. At the same time, with 2008 then looming large, Allen’s viability as a potential GOP presidential candidate was finished, perhaps permanently.
I called the Post’s national desk on Sunday. A polite young woman named Sabrina told me that they are “short staffed on Sunday” and counseled that “I should call back on Monday.” Sabrina, who refused to give me her last name, did do a search to see if anything was being written about the Thomas controversy for Monday. She said she couldn’t find anything in their queue.
Sabrina did say she would pass on my question about Helen Thomas coverage to someone on the national desk. Nothing yet, but updates will occur if we get one. Josh Gerstein, the White House reporter for Politico, said he wasn’t surprised about the Post running silent on the Thomas story:
I tend to be taken aback by many of the Post’s editorial decisions. … This is just one in a long laundry list.
Some White House reporters are distancing themselves from her. Said White House Correspondents’ Association President Ed Chen:
She doesn’t speak for the WHCA. Her views are hers alone.
As noted earlier, Ari Fleisher called for her to be fired:
She is advocating religious cleansing. How can Hearst stand by her? If a journalist, or a columnist, said the same thing about blacks or Hispanics, they would already have lost their jobs.
Former Clinton aide Lanny Davis concurs.
Gerstein told me that the White House press corps has long known that Thomas, whose parents are Lebanese, has radical Middle East views. (She is the daughter of Lebanese parents who immigrated to the United States from Tripoli. Her father’s original name, Antonious, was changed to Thomas):
All of us who have covered the White House have known that she has a pretty weird point of view on all issues related to the Arab Israeli conflict. … Even within the set of views that are sort of mainstream, it is well beyond that.
Well outside of the White House briefing room, it’s a pretty well-kept secret. Helen Thomas is a revered liberal symbol in this town. It should come as no surprise that there is an annual Helen Thomas Award for Lifetime Achievement, issued by the Society of Professional Journalists. As the society gushes:
The Award is named after longtime White House correspondent Helen Thomas, a living icon of journalism for her dogged pursuit of the truth in a career that has spanned almost 60 years.
The Post’s “see-no-evil” style of minimal coverage of Thomas is in contrast to the last six days of wall-to wall coverage about the flotilla. The first day the Post published a story was on Tuesday, June 1. It commanded front-page declaration-of-war coverage spanning five of the six columns, and included a “news analysis” saying Israel “will complicate the Obama administration’s efforts to improve its tense relations with Jerusalem.” The lead Post editorial condemned Israel.
The second day was front-age coverage as well. The article was no better, titled “Nations decry blockade of Gaza.” The third day front-page story was filed by White House correspondent Scott Wilson — who previously filed many stories as Jerusalem bureau chief that constantly tilted against Israel. The jump page featured a large photo of a donkey standing on an Israeli flag at a protest from Karachi, Pakistan.
To its credit, there was a refreshing June 3 front-page story filed from Gaza City by Post reporter Janine Zacharia. In a bit of enterprise journalism, she actually traveled to the Palestinian city’s main stores and reported what she found:
They are stocked wall-to-wall with everything from fresh Israeli yogurts and hummus to Cocoa Puffs smuggled in from Egypt. Pharmacies look as well-supplied as a typical Rite Aid in the United States.
She even mentioned the Roots Club and Restaurant, as Roger L. Simon recently noted.
On Saturday an article by Wilson lamented about “Obama’s agenda, Israeli ambitions.” Note the passivity of Obama and the aggressiveness of Israel. Wilson decries that Israel “poses a special challenge for President Obama.” There is not too much about Obama posing challenges to Israel. Also on Saturday, the Jewish day of Sabbath, the Post decided to publish an op-ed by a Palestinian journalist softly titled “Extend a hand to Hamas.”
And there is a second op-ed that same day that slammed Israel authored by the Turkish ambassador to the United States.
The front-page Sunday Outlook section commentary added to the seething atmosphere. Its top article was titled “The world is angry. Why doesn’t Israel care?” (The online version was later changed to “After the flotilla attack, it’s time for a new, kinder Israeli narrative.”)
And when the Palestinian boat Rachel Corrie had quietly and peacefully been intercepted and brought to the Israeli port city of Ashdod, the paper tucked it away on page 12.
The media watchdog organization CAMERA has long critiqued the Post for feeding anti-Israel bias. They reported 25 major instances in 2009.
In the wake of the global anti-Semitic blasts of the past week, the Post’s continuing near-silence about the anti-Semitic views of the White House’s leading liberal columnist only aids and abets hatred and bigotry.
I for one find Thomas’ honesty about her Jew-hatred a refreshing change from the faux moralizing about Palestinian victimhood by the usual suspects. As noxious as her views are I still give her credit for integrity that most of the left lacks.
She says things that the left really believes and as a result it denies them the cover of moral preening and self-righteousness. We need to keep her around so people can understand that it isn’t love for the so-called Palestinians that motivates the left but hatred of the Jew.
The above is demented logic.
Would she also have been rooting for Goebbels to “keep on rousing the masses!”?!!?
Sick. Utterly sick.
Good that Thomas resigned.
The purpose of free speech is to let the Helen Thomases of the world to rant so they are exposed for what they are. Every time she opens her mouth she leaves less room for the krypto-nazis in the press to ply their more subtle form of Jew-hatred.
This is not a victory for freedom of speech. It’s a victory for the freedom of every American to carry a videocamera and proclaim the 21st century version of freedom of the press.
Well said.
Spoken like a true ideologue.
To paraphrase: Don’t let the door hit you when reality smacks you upside the head.
Sure, in America bigots can speak out.
But it is the power inherent in the Freedom of Speech for others to be able to tell *that* individual that they are a flaming moron.
On top of which, such *morons* have no business being given a public pedestal as that which Helen Thomas so abused for so long.
Or being so well compensated for doing so.
Man, Czar, you really have reading troubles. Read what tdiinva wrote once again, slowly and carefully.
I agree, everyone knew where she stood … But in essence saying the Jews should go back to beginning of the Holocaust, that was a bit over the top.
Her freshness date had expired.
It would be nice if more lame stream media types would be truthful as well.
I have not heard much from the Jewish commuity..
If she had said blacks to Africa, oriental to Asia, native Americans to all points beyond…etc..there would be sheer unadulterated hell to pay.
She merely tells us what liberals are thinking I suppose.
The problem for the right regarding Helen Thomas is that Thomas just expressed the wrong king of racism.
Before you try to take the mote in your brother’s eye, pluck to log out of your own. The left is the residence of active bigots and fascists, and most unfortunately, the Democratic Party has given them far too much room to act. Helen Thomas’ claim to be a Liberal makes no sense. Real liberals believe in liberty and justice for all. Helen Thomas just believes in advantage for Muslims against all. That’s a big difference in philosophy.
Look, I’m not defending Thomas. I think what she said is hideous. What I am curious about is whether Helen Thomas would have drawn the same fire if her comments were about Muslims & Palestinians?
When that idiot GOP politician in South Carolina referred to the president and a republican candidate as ‘ragheads’ the right came down on him like a ton of bricks.
Next question…
If her comments were critical of muslims and palestinians, she would have been fired immediately. If you think otherwise, you’re in denial.
Attacking a people for being that people is racist. Attacking a worldview for advocating intolerance, violence and hate is not racist. Can you see the difference?
If Miss Thomas had said the Jews must give up their hateful mores that require stoning to death homosexuals and women who consent (or not) to having sex outside marriage, prohibit holders of dissenting religious views from expressing themselves, and forbidding women to drive cars, well, I would not call her a racist.
Deluded and impervious to reality, maybe, but not racist.
So it’s the right kind of racism for the Left? Funny how that double standard works.
There’s a “right kind of racism”? You said that not me and I’m quite sure you believe it.
Another common trait among liberals, is there utter inability to read what a person wrote, instead of what they want that person to have written.
Cookie got it right….perhaps you would like to re-phrase.
Too bad you can’t find any actual evidence of racism on the right.
Instead you just keep making it up.
If want to find the real racists, scratch a liberal.
Seems that the MSM and other independent journalists such as Helen Thomas have been emboldened and encouraged by the anti-semitic and hostile attitudes reflected in the current administration’s dislike for the Israeli state and Jews in general.
It’s no longer journalistically dangerous to advocate Holocaust II.
The “old Arab” (as Ann Coulter calls her) just thought she was being “cool”, as people our age used to say.
She’s the new official Poster-girl of the Democratic Party, this is what the Democrats stand for now, anti-Americanism, racial divisiveness, & anti-Semitism. How funny is it that she is known as a ”liberal”, a ”progressive” – George Orwell couldn’t have made this up. As for the mainstream media, they’re so totally discredited only the most naive, gullible, & uninformed believes anything they say (or don’t say).
Terry,
Since we are dealing with Jew-hatred, I wanted to put this to you and to Adina K:
At some point soon, Israel is going to have take devastating measures in Lebanon and Gaza that will kill thousands of people.
It will be packaged by Euro media to deliver a level of anti-Semitic hatred so extreme that pogroms against Jews in Europe (I’m thinking Malmo, the Antwerp “ghetto” and certain neighborhoods of Paris) are inevitable.
Does Israel have any plans to defend Jews abroad?
I have family in Europe who tell me that there are a lot of former IDF in the Antwerp Hasidic community who have long acted as security. Would they be opening fire on Muslim and leftist rioters?
Is Israel prepared for the blowback from something like that — which could lead to massive, and uncontrolled anti-Jewish massacres across Europe?
Are Israeli embassies armed? It is very likely that European governments would stand by and let Israeli diplomats be killed; are they ready to defend themselves with weapons?
I remember the novel “The Masada Plan” — I doubt Israel would go that far, but is Israel ready to basically provoke a civil war in Europe to defend its embassies and European Jews?
I think Larry in the Silicon gave a good answer. A lot of French Jews have made aliyah already, others have purchased homes here in Israel (in my building, 1/2 the appartments are owned by French people). But, there is little the Israeli gov’t. can do for Jews in Europe caught up in anti-Jewish violence by Muslims. It’s not easy to make aliyah, it’s very hard to leave your home, it was very hard for me as well & I delayed it for years. I have a lot of family in France & Spain – they tell me how crappy it’s become, they feel very insecure but they are old & it’s just too difficult to move.
You’re certainly right that war is on the horizen, a large scale regional war, & anti-Jewish riots in many parts of Europe are certainly possible. It’s ironic that my family who still live in an Arab country feel more secure than those in Europe.
Thanks, Terry. It is hard to make Aliyah; it usually takes a push. In my case I am eager to return but circumstances have kept me on a shuttle for a while. I hope to be back for good within six months.
What the heck is the “Washington Post” ?
I get your sarcasm. Haha.
That aside, The Post used to be (many many years ago) a decent source of Washington and national news.
Sigh.
Now, the best that can be hoped for is that they go the way of Helen Thomas…and sooner than later.
So, given this anti-Semitic bigotry, when is Charles Krauthammer going to quit writing for these Nazi scumbags?
A public resignation and denunciation by the most influential columnist in America could devastate the Post beyond repair. Let’s hope he has the guts to do it.
Since you refer to Leftists and their political and publishing tentacles,
why target Krauthammer?
Cute – and oh so cynical! – tactic of the Left.
As *I* remember, it was Obama who was complicitly silent in this affair.
I say: TELL OBAMA: YOU QUIT FIRST.
#3 PRATRATORIAN:The problem for praetorian and other crypto stalinist,crypto anti semites,is that it is becoming increasingly apparent, that Thomas, is basically acting as Obama’s sock puppet.This sow-cum teleprompter articulates what Obama and every libtard believe: that Israel should be destroyed.What will the PRAT, and other demtards do in 2012, when Jewish money/votes either stay home,or goes to the GOP? BTW ,PRAT ,the only real racism alive and well in the USA is the reverse racism of affirmative action which liberalism has implanted,and which makes all libtards ,RACISTS!
There’s an old say that Jews live like WASPs but vote like Puerto Ricans. I don’t see that changing any time soon. Moreover, I don’t see them flocking to the party whose base believes the Jews are responsible for murdering Jesus.
What base would that be?
If it’s the one I think you’re implying, I beleive you’re as bigoted as Thomas.
Kyrie eleison.
(And smarten up too.)
Oh, please! Most of the Evangelicals recognize that Jesus was a Jew, and the prophets were Jews. For them, the Covenant with the Jews remains in force (they just have a different Covenant), and they’re more broadly supportive of Israel than the US Jewish community. Liberal Jews – whose priorities seem to be abortion rights, gay rights and welfare before Israel – seem untroubled by associating with a party that holds anti-Semites and Israel bashers under its big tent.
Have you ever told the truth?
Praetorian,
Not only is your Jew hatred on display, but your Christian bigotry and ignorance as well. You make a perfect caricature as member in good standing from the ‘progressive’ Left I meet these days. Ironic how “religion” meaningful and relevant to you when you need pander a vote, but an object of scorn any place else.
Let me state for the record so that you may read it from a WASP’s word to your eyes to clear that common and baseless misconception you hold and continually parrot. I, the WASP, hold to the belief that all men and women responsible for Christ’s death. Each and everyone of us. I’ll take my share of the blame.
Now why don’t you gird your loins and do the same?
Ohhh, bless your heart sweetie, those bats are back in your belfry aren’t they….
and they brought friends
Who is at home in Israel?
Read the scriptures. Don’t go through life an illiterate.
Yes! Where were the Jews 2010 years ago?
How about where did the Jews and the other tribes of “Istrael” go when they exited Egypt?
Then read Isaiah and learn the truth.
Is this episode surprising to anyone? The fact is, the left has to keep its true feelings hidden, and here, HT lets something slip and we find out what’s in her heart (her head has been empty for quite some time). There is more of this on the left than America realizes – it’s only occasionally that one of them lets go a Freudian slip and the true beliefs are revealed.
You just don’t understand much…it’s perfectly ok for liberals to state any sort of bigotted slurs they so desire. This permissble under the unwritten laws of journalism. If however, you are a conservative, you must be crucified before the court of public opinion. Get with the program and get over it. This will be swept under the rug until she dies.
Look for a event honoring Helen’s “years of dedication” soon, hosted by WH
If ANYONE had made a similar comment about African Americans being sent back to Africa, or Mexican Americans sent back to Mexico, the entire press corps would be up in arms condemning the person who had made the comments. And rightly so.
Why some in the press seem to want to protect Helen Thomas who has made a career out of being obnoxious and judgemental is unbelievable. Free speech is guaranteed by our constitution, but we all have to live with what we say in the public and private forum. Let her retire, she has no place in the accepted media anymore. But take away any public respect she may have enjoyed at one time. She deserves it.
The Washington press corps is not just a collection of individuals; it has its own culture and traditions – and they protect their own. Otherwise, why is Pat Buchanan still on the air? Thomas gets to ask the first question, however asinine, due to her seniority. It may be one reason Hearst keeps her around. If she was shunned by White House staffers, denied interviews, and moved to the back of the room, she’d prove less valuable.
Unfortunately, Israel Derangement Syndrome (IDS) is growing in the US, though not as advanced (yet) as in Europe.For that, we can credit the media and the campuses.
The question that Eric R. asks is very much to the point. The possibility, no, the likelihood, of something like that happen in the cities of Europe can no longer be dismissed as lunatic fantasy.
One must operate under the assumption that it will happen, and organize and prepare accordingly. And no, the authorities, even should they prove willing, will most likely be caught unprepared and overwhelmed, and cannot be relied upon.
So the question is, should they get out now? While they can? But where would they go? Certainly the US, Canada and Australia are not without risk either.
The leadership must begin to think the unthinkable.
The answer to both you and Eric is clear enough – European Jews can go to Israel if they feel threatened enough. If French Jews, living in a nation chock-full of de facto Islamic fiefdoms, still remain in France, than this says something about 1) Jewish patriotism towards ‘host’ countries, and 2) inertia. Many Jews from abroad have also had difficult experiences in Israel and/or don’t want to enter immigrant status, which is not an easy status even in Israel, even for Jewish immigrants.
Part II is that you can’t realistically expect that Bibi or the Mossad is going to swoop down and ‘evacuate’ millions of Jews from Europe. Most would have to evacuate themselves. Some have already done so.
BTW, the same scenario can play itself out in the USA one day…
France presents a special case. It is a major nuclear power, but also represents basically a potential Holocaust, with 7,000,000 Muslims massacring 500,000 Jews.
For Israel to intervene would mean its destruction. Thus, if a Shoah occurs in France, would Israel basically be forced to go to a Samson Option, thus possibly provoking a war that could end all civilization?
After all, a France that far gone would no longer be in the West. If an Israeli nuke hits Paris, and France considers all things lost, might not they (as Russia would) launch against the USA, thus starting a war that ends all civilization?
The “Samson Option” is quite easily attainable. Position a couple of nuclear-armed Dolphin class subs in the Indian Ocean. If/When the fit hits the shan just light up all the oil fields surrounding the Persian Gulf. The oil-based economies completely close down when 70% of supply is cut off in a heartbeat. Meanwhile, clouds of smoke from the unapproachable burning wells bring on “nuclear winter” (it will be months before radiation levels subside to a level safe for human exposure) and Europe and America freeze to death in the dark. Whatever happens after that is as good as making rubble bounce.
Nuclear winter was a product of Soviet era propaganda that had no scientific foundation. Even if was a possiblity it would take far more then a few nuclear weapons to accomplish it. Back that we talking about detonation multi-tens of thousands of weapons in a very short period of time.
No, the Nuclear Winter scenario was identified by US military planners as a very real outcome from a 4-7000 MT east-west exchange on major cities due to the ensuing firestorms. I find it hard to imagine that uncontrolled wellhead burnouts from 1 trillion barrel oil fields lasting a year or more will yield much difference in terms of airborne aerosols and the resultant solar blockage. And a dip of only a few degrees Kelvin coupled with no available heat or transportation (remember, there will be virtually no oil-based fuels available anywhere for several years) will be absolutely devastating for highly energy-dependent societies like Europe and America. There will be:
Essentially no food transported to major cities from the MidWest breadbasket. Hence massive starvation.
No heating oil available at any price. Hence massive exposure and hypothermia-related deaths during the extended, colder winter.
No petroleum feed-stocks available for manufacturing. Hence no medicines or medical supplies, almost zero manufactured goods available at all.
Any and all natural gas will be diverted to make up for lost oil-fired electricity generation (and will not bridge the full gap).
The 35 degrees Kelvin ambient temperature drop forecast by Carl Sagan and others need not materialize in order for millions to die agonizing deaths in the West in the aftermath.
I’m not sure how many wells nuclear weapons would lite on fire. Seems to me the concusion wave would do a pretty good job of collapsing the shafts. (They have talked about using a small nuke, buried several hundred feet under the sea floor to collapse the current Gulf leak.
Beyond that, the fires set by Saddam when withdrawing from Kuwait showed that the soot from such fires do not get high enough in the atmosphere to create the atomic winter scenario.
Collapsing a well shaft would require an underground detonation to create subsidence of the overbearing rock and soil. An air burst, OTOH, would shatter above ground infrastructure like pipelines, pumping stations, refineries, etc. Meanwhile, the heat of the fireball ignites the spilling oil.
Strategic nuke scenarios during the Cold War usually called for double strikes of urban areas. The first wave shattered natural gas lines and fuel tanks while the second ignited the resulting volatile soup creating highly destructive firestorms. The exact same strategy works out here.
BS. I am a frequent visitor to STRATCOM. There is no nuclear winter scenario. Sagan’s estimates were hysterical pro-Soviet nonsense. Google or Bing the subject and you will find it was debunked 20 years ago.
The initial airburst might be able to get some debris up to the stratosphere, however it is impossible for fires alone to get smoke higher than a couple of thousand feet. Most of the soot will fall out of the atmosphere on it’s own within a few hundred feet of the initiating fire.
As I pointed out to you earlier, we already have one example of the conflaguration you are talking about. And the disaster scenario you propose didn’t happen.
You are all missing the point. This scenario means NO MORE OIL. ANYWHERE. AT ANY PRICE. Just think of how your lifestyle is dependent on a steady, plentiful flow of black hydrocarbon and you will realize just how devastating a sudden loss of 70% of the worlds supply will be on industrialized society. Starvation and privation will suddenly be the norm for western societies used to unceasing plenty.
I admire the forthright way in which you state things. Of course it could happen. My problem is a liberal upbringing that keeps pushing me towards optimism. I try to cure this, but it’s not easy.
Yes, it could be a big mess. But I really can’t see Israel dropping the Bomb on Paris because Muslims wipe out several thousand Jews in a pogrom. At most the Jewish Agency would be mobilized to help as many French Jews come to Israel as want to.
Given also Jewish behavior in the wake of past disasters, I think we can assume that at least half of French Jews would want to stay even if such a disaster occurred.
I think you are missing the extent to which French Jews love France, American Jews love America, etc. It is one of our most endearing and naive traits.
Mr. Meislin,
The problem is they cannot all get out that fast, without the help of the host governments.
Do you think a fanatically anti-Semitic government like Belgium (where there are maybe 40,000 Jews and 600,000 Muslims) will even facilitate the escape of Jews, let alone defend them?
No. They are using their Jews as hostages to get Israel to surrender and die. Then when Israel refuses to surrender, will blame the Jews for their own deaths.
And France? How quickly could 500,000 Jews leave? Not before Israel is forced into a big Middle East war, probably in the next 2-3 months?
Oddly enough, “doyen” (as in, “doyen” of the Washington press corps) is pure Biblical Hebrew for “judge.” Same linguistic root as “Dan,” and “Daniel – God shall judge me.” Oh Helen, the irony, it burns!
Being a woman, allegedly, she is actually the doyenne.
True dat, but I didn’t want to complicate it with masc/fem forms, etc., since — properly speaking — then she’d be a dayanit, etc. Thanks for the shiur dikduk (grammar lesson), though…
Of course, to this White House, nothing that Helen Thomas said would even raise an eyebrow. It sounds like just any other day in Jeremiah Wright’s church.
Oddly enough, “doyen” (as in, ‘The doyen’ of the Washington press corps.”) is pure Biblical Hebrew for “judge.” Wonder what Helen would think of that (“Oh – cackle – the irony! It burns!”).
Are you sure it doesn’t mean “maker of the yellow star”, inscribed with the word Jude??
Nope, it’s not another “Macaca” moment.
It’s another Mecca moment.
(Translation: “Keep the money from Saudi Arabia coming, babe !”)
And:
All the Anglos, Irish, Italians, Germans, Dutch, Mexicans, BACK TO THEIR HOMES !
AND the “Indians” … BACK TO SIBERIA !
BUFFALO POWER !
I see she became too big of a liability and decided to retire. Next up, Congress.
Breaking news:
she retired.
I doubt that evil will retire, anyway.
Maybe Saint Michael Archangel can help in this second task.
It wasn’t just what she said.
It was also that twinkle of hate that roared out of her eyes when she said it!
Thomas was making a reasonable comment in the sense that the main reason the state of Israel exists is beause of the Holocaust, and its not fair to punish Arabs for the sins of certain Europeans. She was making an unreasonable comment in the sense that it is not fair to blame succeeding generations for the actions of their ancestors. Just like whites in South Africa have a right to self-determination, so do today’s Jews in Palestine have a right to a Jewish ethnostate. What they DON’T HAVE a right to do is to rule over non-Jews.
Your comment is filled with nothing but fallacious arguments. Zionism pre-dates WWII & Israel was not established ”because of the Holocaust” – there has been a continuous Jewish population in Israel for 3000 yrs. The majority of Israeli Jews are of Middle-Eastern origin, expelled by the Arabs after Israel declared independance. As for Israel ”ruling over” anyone, I bet you’re not overly concerned over the Chinese ruling over Tibet, the Turks ruling over Kurds, Russians ruling over many ethnic groups, Spain ruling over Basques & Catalans, English ruling over Welsh & Scots, French ruling over Corsica & Breton, etc. etc. etc. (do you get my point?). And, in fact, the vast majority of the Arab population in what was Mandate Palestine are themselves recent immigrants from Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, even from as far away as Morocco.
It goes even further. There are ‘Arabs’ who are descendants of Bosnian and Albanian Muslims, Greek Christians, etc. The Turks or local rulers constantly imported mostly Muslim populations to keep the land from going desolate. It never worked. Yet somehow these people are instantly Palestinian and indigenous.
Pat’s statement is very ignorant. Relatives of mine established a Jewish farm/moshava in the Galilee in the early 1880s. I have Sabra cousins who are sixth or seventh generation. Pat, by invoking the Holocaust as the ‘real reason’ for Israel’ creation, is implying Original Sin. The Israeli Left shares this habit. Once Israel is guilty of Original Sin, then critics can point the finger at her forever. And that’s the real point.
First, there have been Jews in that region since somewhere around 3000 to 5000 BC.
Second, the first zionist movement started somewhere in the middle 1800′s. 10′s of thousands of Jews moved back, during these movements.
Third, the British mandate was formed out the former Ottoman Empire after the Ottoman’s decided to join WWI on the losing side. This land was divided up into a number of regions, including lands for both Jews and the so called palestinians. (Read up on the history of Trans-Jordan.)
As to punishing the Arabs, it was the Arab states that expelled almost all of their Jewish citizens most with only the clothes on their backs. The state of Israel expelled no one. Many chose to leave at the urging of the Arab neigbors.
As to Jews ruling Arabs.
1) Ruling is an obnoxious term. Israel is a democratic society, one that gives the vote even to muslims. They “rule” no one. If you want good examples of “ruling”, go to any muslim country.
2) Do you not believe that people in a country should follow the laws of that country? Or are muslims for some reason exempt? They seem to consider themselves exempt.
The fact that Jews have been in Palestine for 3000 years is no more relevant to whether or not they “deserve” a state there than is the “fact” that “G-d” “gave” them the Land. Yezidis and Kurds have been Greater Syria, Persia, Anatolia and the Caucuses for millenia as well – but this fact is not determinative of whether or not they deserve their own ethnostates.
Israelis deserve an ethnostate for one reason only — they conquered and secured the territory. They don’t, as I said, have a right to oppress minorities living within their state. And while their record in that regard is much better than the way Arabs treat their minorities, the Isreali record is still far from the standards that Jews in America insist upon. For instance, housing discrimination in Israel is legal. It is perfectly legal for a Jew to refuse to sell his house to an Arab Israeli. And it is impossible, of course, for a Israeli Jew and an Israeli Arab to marry in Israel.
This is just in Israel proper. In the territories, Palestinians are treated much worse than Israeli Arabs, and of course they have no political or civil rights under the law of the nation that has controlled their land since 1967.
I am writing this as a supporter of ethnonationalism. I don’t want a Lebanon-style binational state in Palestine, and I don’t want to punish the descendents of the original Zionist settlers, nor the Jews that left Russia in the immediate post-Communist period. Jews deserve an ethnostate, provided they don’t seek to deny a similar privilege to other groups.
I love it when anti-semites pretend to be reasonable.
There is no oppression of minorities in Israel. As for the so called territories, those are under the control of Israel’s enemies, so your attempt to blame Israel for what is going on there is more than a little laughable.
@Pat seeing as how you have not got one fact correct in your diatribe- I suppose you are also ignorant of the fact that Arabs who sell land or homes to JEWS get assassinated by the “moderate” Fatah…would you care to tell us how many rights the stateless Arabs (who never set a foot in ISRAEL) have in nations besides Israel? how about under HAMAS? they have no passports, are prevented from jobs, kept in ghettos by the Lebanese and more yet you have no whine about persecution, preferential treatments. And what is wrong with Lebanon being the Christian/Druze state it was intended to be? It was set aside precisely for the same reasons Israel was, Islamist cannot co-exist with anyone- they dominated it by force and birth rate and killing their leaders, they have taken Lebanon from a beautiful land of success to the sewer in few short years, the cowardly Iranian sacrifices them to destroy JEWS.
There is no PALESTINE or Palestinian people, culture, country, language, there never was, it is as much fiction as Protocols of Zion, a propganda written by the same cold warriors. The only PALESTINE ever was was a JEWISH ONE. They renamed it as they wished-ISRAEL.
You are not fooling anyone with your pseudo-intellectualism or psuedo-factoids or revisionist history- your jewhate slip is still showing
Isaiah – As I said, minorities are treated better in Israel than they are treated elsewhere in the Middle East, and much better than “stateless” Arabs. I simply noted they are treated poorly in comparison with American and European standards of minority rights. Can you dispute this?
I have no problem with Lebanon being a Druze/Christian state, but that is NOT what it was set aside for. It was set up as a multi-ethnic state from the get-go. And I also tend to agree with you that Islam has a particularly difficult time coexisting with other faiths. Particularly when they reach a certain numerical proportion, somewhere in the low 40s — the exact proportion they are currently at in “Eretz Israel” which you probably think Jews ought to hold on to forever!
Mark the Great — the idea that the territories are controlled by Israel’s enemies is laughable. Hamas for instance doesn’t control Gaza, Gaza is controlled by the entity promulgating and enforcing the naval blockade. As to “anti-Semitism,” that dog don’t hunt very well anymore. I’m partially Jewish. I argue with real anti-Semites, who judge all Jews by identical and invariably negative standards, all the time. And I support an ethnonationalist state for Jews, as long as it doesn’t necessitate undemocratic rule over non-Jews, and doesn’t necessitate America to subsume its own national interest to Israeli national interest.
Drudge has the latest in big type:
The Nazi is gone. She has “retired”.
It is pretty clear that the legacy media in general (and the WaPo in particular) is flummoxed by this demarche from everyone’s favorite geriatric journalist. They really can’t write her off as a senile old coot because this raises the question of why she is still attending White House press functions in the first place. They have also invested quite a bit of emotional capital in her over the years by portraying her as the “feisty”, “fearless”, and “iconoclastic” pioneer of women-in-journalism. Moral equivalence isn’t going to work either despite the efforts of some to equate her remarks to that of statements made by supporters of Israel. In short they are stuck with her and can only try to ride it out through a decent interval until she can “retire with honor.” All of this does raise an interesting question however. How much does Ms. Thomas really represent the views of her colleagues in the White House press corps?
In this case, it’s most likely that ‘silence is complicity’, not golden……….
The internet will keep us free.
(It may well lead to data/stimulation overload, and mental masturbation paralysis, but)
/any assault on free access is an act of treason. Period.
Helen Thomas, oh dear, talk about lipstick on a pig….how’s about Obama calling for a Beer (goggles) Summit and
get to the bottom of all this anti Semitism.
I don’t understand how Helen Thomas could have been be the Dean of the White House correspondents. Her remarks showed complete ignorance about the real plans for the solution of the Jewish problem drawn up by world leaders. If she had any clue she would stop mouthing this nonsense about sending Jews back to Germany and Poland. Instead she would support the Madagascar Plan (Der Madagaskarplan) for their final relocation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar_Plan
“In diesem zweiten Weltkrieg als einem Ringen auf Leben und Tod dürfe nie vergessen werden, dass das Weltjudentum nach der Kriegserklärung des Weltzionistenkongresses und seines Führers Chaim Weizmann (in seiner Botschaft an Englands Premier Chamberlain) der unerbitterlichste Gegner des Nationalsozialismus, der Feind Nummer 1 sei. Geschäftlich suche das Judentum Europa, Europa müsse es aber schon aus Sakroegoismus ablehnen, da das Judentum rassisch härter sei. Nach Beendigung des Krieges werde er sich rigoros auf den Standtpunkt stellen, dass er Stadt für Stadt zusammenschlage, wenn nicht die Juden rauskämen und nach Madagsakar oder einem sonstigen jüdischen Nationalstaat abwanderten.” (Adolf Hitler am 24. Juli 1942, zitiert nach Dr. Henry Picker, Tischgespräche im Führerhauptquartier)
http://de.metapedia.org/wiki/Madagaskar-Plan
Good-Bye
Good Luck
GOOD RIDDENCE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Maybe Helen can now find the time to go get that house off her sister.
Regardless of what you think of HT’s politics, it is very hard to argue against the Wa Po double standard. Helen of Lebanon was a vocal anti-Semite for decades and finally expressed her views nakedly; whereas, poor George Allen made an unfortunate response to a planted heckler. The Wa Po ran more than 100 articles on the macacca commennt while burying the story on Thomas. And Helen’s bitter hatred was tolerated for decades before it became too overt.
Haha, I’ll bet she found out she was “retiring” through the press like everyone else!
If the Establishment Press reports on a story, and nobody reads it, did it really happen?
Long live the Jewish state!
What JohnBoy said.
Just on CNN:
Longtime White House correspondent Helen Thomas retiring.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs criticized Thomas, saying, “Those remarks were offensive and reprehensible. I think she should and has apologized because obviously those remarks do not reflect the — certainly the opinion of, I assume, most of the people in here and certainly not of the administration.”
I disagree. Those remarks do reflect the opinion of most of the people present and the opinion of many in the administration.
One only makes remarks like these if he/she feels that they are shared.
You are EXACTLY right.
The Post’s one sided reporting and silence as to the Israeli side of the story doesn’t merely “aid and abet hatred and bigotry”. It IS hatred and bigotry personified.
The Washington Post made hay with the “Macaca” comment; however, when you examine the voting in 2000 and 2006, one sees the following:
2000 Election: Allen/R 1,420,460 Robb/D 1,296,093
2006 Election: Allen/R 1,166,277 Webb/D 1,175,606 Others 26,102.
Webb didn’t win because of a strong Democrat turnout. Webb got fewer votes in 2006 than Robb did in 2000. The third party votes would have otherwise gone to Webb which would have added to his victory margin. Allen lost because conservatives stayed at home because they were mad at him because of his politics, not because of the “Macaca” comment that the Washington Post was hammering him about.
Vicious circle of reality since the day you were born
And we love the hot butter on what? the popcorn
Sippin on wine
and mackin
Rockin on the stage with all the hands clappin
Ride the wave of fate it don’t ride me holmes
Being very proud to be an M.C.
And to the man upstairs, well I hope that he cares
If I had a penny for my thoughts I’d be a millionaire
Amps and crossovers under my rear hood
The bass is bumpin from the back of my Fleetwood
They tell us what to do…
hell no
Shadrach Mesach Abednago
Don’t worry about ol’ Helen. She’s already got a job lined up on the op-ed page of Der Sturmer.
Another little secret the MSM keeps quiet about: the coming anti-incumbent tsunami isn’t just directed at out-of-touch politicians. The “incumbent” media is just as out-of-touch with mainstreet America, and it is getting clobbered too, but we don’t have to wait until November to hit them. They are trying desperately to protect their political favorites in the hope that their cronies in Congress will ride to the rescue with a big-media bailout, before they themselves are swept away.
That must not happen.
Wow, how to put this. I shall soon be 55 years of age. I am African-American. I am Conservatively-inclined in social/political thought. I am also a Jew in the Conservative/Masorti Movement in Judaism. I attend a Chabad synagogue and live mainly by Orthodox Jewish standards.
When I heard the audio of Ms. Thomas, my jaw dropped. I could not speak for a moment. All I could think of was “nothing is hidden now. People are allowing the real feelings to surface”. Then I reflected on how this Admin. has made these types of thoughts/speech acceptable. It only reflects the POTUS and his Admin. mindset.
There are Conservative Jews. Not every Jew is Liberal. I am a minority within a minority. Many Jews are waking up and letting go, becoming wise. My political motto is “Is it good for the Jews?” Ms. Thomas showed the world what has always been there. I have been told, a few times, in my almost 55 years to “go back to Africa” and I am of Black/ West Indian/German-Jewish/Dutch-Jewish/Native American/Canadian heritages. I never married so my last name “surprises” many people. There aren’t any “pure” Blacks in America anymore. Would my “going back to Africa” really help the ones that said it to me? Many of them were of a “liberal” bent, concerned about me to the point that they wanted to do everything for me. I could/can do for myself.
Judeophobia has reached a fever-pitch. This reminds me of the years leading up to the Shoah. I am glad that Ms. Thomas showed her hand as I have/had suspected Judeophobic feelings/thoughts to be widespread in the Press. Nothing is being hidden now. In many ways, that is good BUT be careful, after the Jews, comes the non-Jew’s time of discomfort. So while folks are salivating over the Jews being demonized, their enemies are watching and planning for them. Be careful with whom you climb into bed.
Next is Dianne rheem.
Time to expose the new Nazis
thank you for sharing your story- an honor to know you
I was wondering what Helen think about Christian in Lebanon. Does she think they should move to Rome or elsewhere like Istanbul as well or not? Does she know before Mo grabbed power in Medina, there was Jews living there. Does she know that Mo killed all the Jews men in Medina, made their women slave, and took their properties under newly created religion called Islam? Even the Fadak Garden who Mo used to live in it was stolen from Jews by force and by Mo. Who was then first and where? If Jesus was from Jerusalem so are most Jews. After all Jesus was a Jew too. Does she think most of today’s Turkey particularly Istanbul must be returned to its original owner Greeks and Turks who came from other parts of Asia she live to say China or Uzbekistan? Let us define the border based on the ancient history in that area and found out who has more right to where. Somebody must ask the witch what exactly is Lebanon that you (Helen) came from and when was created and by whom? You return this, and then ask if I want to return that, witch which starts with a “B”.
Ever heard the expression that “the drunken man will speak the sober man’s mind”? Dementia has the same affect on people. Helen Thomas has been a bad joke for decades. Now she speaks her mind. I have no evidence that she suffers from dementia, but I’m just saying.
The shameful Arab Helen Thomas’ racism & ethnic cleansing views, at at time that most Palestinian Arabs are not “natives”, they’re actually immigrants from Syria & other surrounding Arab lands. mostly their immigration occured in the years between 1880 and 1948.
Let’s remember that it was the Mufti that founded the Arab Israeli conflict in in 1929 by his genocide campaign to ´Kill all Jews,´ nothing has changed since.
The Islamic Mufti influenced Arabs’ racism by his Islamic radicalism!!!
The Arab world Keep on branding everything Israel does for defense as “racist” Because racist sepremacist (almost all of) Arabia & racist Palestine don’t even allow Jews to live in their “pure-arab” apartheid land.
And what is Arab terror on Jews all about if not raw anti-Jewish racism?
And what is the motivation behind all the bloody cruelty upon its people by Hamas / Hezbollah to cause civilians to die in order to blame Israel for it, Is it not bigotry?
Try to conduct a poll in ALL OF ARABIA about Jews…
Most Israeli Jews are “brown.” BTW! And Arabs are often treated far better than Jews, look at all court cases!
On a side note:
We should never forget what Arab Palestinian (PLO, Arafat) Muslims did to Lebanese in Damour. All the while they keep on talking about Sabra Shatilah.