Of Reverse Flotillas, and Helpful Collegial Airbrushing

“We need three things to pull this part off. Money, logistical support and balls – and we’ve got the last two things covered.”

As Tim Blair writes:

The reverse flotilla is born:

Although most of the recent talk regarding flotillas has revolved around ships sailing toward Gaza, at least two plans have emerged for “reverse flotillas” – from Israel toward Turkey – to highlight what organizers have labeled the Turks’ “shameless hypocrisy” in their criticisms of the Jewish state.

The most ambitious of the two plans has been devised by members of Israel’s National Student Union, who this week announced their intention to set sail toward Turkey, in an effort to bring humanitarian aid to the “oppressed people of Turkish Kurdistan” and to members of the “Turkish Armenian minority.”

Says student union chairman Boaz Torporovsky:

We need three things to pull this part off. Money, logistical support and balls – and we’ve got the last two things covered.

Good on them. Despite her enthusiasm for Jewish travel, free-speech martyr and White House veteran Helen Thomas won’t be encouraging this voyage, having recently retired. Mark Steyn:

Helen Thomas was an unreadable and unread columnist, and the only time she generates so much traffic that it crashes the site is the announcement that her career’s self-destructed. That tells you a lot about American newspapering right there. Good thing two columnists didn’t say something dumb or the site could have been out for weeks.

But what exactly did Helen say? America’s ABC was gentle:

In the opening of ABC’s “World News,” anchor Dianne Sawyer says Helen Thomas retired because of “age and outrage.” No mention of her anti-Semitic remark.

Funny how that’s happening on both sides of the pond.

Update: Speaking of Thomas, a bunch of people who should know better what the First Amendment stands for seem to have forgotten its definition. At the Corner, Mark writes, “Helen Thomas remains free to advocate Jewish deportations to Poland all she wants. All that’s happened is that Hearst Newspapers has decided they’d rather not publish her. But there’s nothing to stop her shopping her views elsewhere. Katrina vanden Heuvel seems receptive to a pitch.”

Read the whole thing.™