Helen Thomas the pampered doyenne of the White House press corps is Kaput. Her remarks were – it goes without saying – way, way over the top. But there is some food for thought here: Did her ‘interviewer’ know her parents were Lebanese immigrants to this country? Did she know she was not just chatting (in the White House driveway) to a star-struck rabbi with a camcorder, but to a rabbi/blogger with a camcorder? There is a difference.
Lebanon has such a tortured history with Israel – the Sabra and Shatila massacres in ’82 included Lebanese civilians too, and so much more bloodshed has happened between the two countries since.
Is a rabbi/blogger with the sudden power to shatter a 50 year career morally justified in the use that power? Did he tell Helen she was cooked? Did he ask her, “what the hell did you just say?” Should he have lowered his camera, and told her what she had just given voice to and who he was, and given her the opportunity to end her own career? Did she deserve such an ignominious take-down? What would you have done with a career spanning 50 years in your hands?
Maybe it was a bridge too far, and Helen – who in recent years had become too much even for Helen – needed to go. Maybe Mr. Nesenoff, the rabbi, could have thought more about Helen’s age and irascibility and given the tape to Hearst on the QT. while insisting his copy would see the light of day if she didn’t retire. Helen’s “Go home to the Killing Fields” answer was staggeringly insensitive, and I don’t need Ari Fleischer to tell me so.
Excellent job on this, Hughbert. It proves that everything goes whether via rabbi, blogger, or punditocracy. You say it out loud you might as well be saying it on the stage of Radio City Music Hall with Rockettes in the wing.
There’s something else at work here beyond Helen Thomas’s age and serial number. She used to be a reporter and not a commentator though one who was not without opinions in her prime.
Looking at this journalistically, the best reporters can keep their personal opinions inside, where they belong, while commentators are paid to open a vein and bleed.
Had Helen Thomas remained a reporter, I would argue that whatever she said to the rabbi was a moot point–unless it was reflected in her reporting. (Which it may have been: I just don’t know.)
One other point: here we are knocking her into orbit for good, but would we be saying the same thing had she ranted about the Palestinians? Methinks not. Yes, she stepped over the line and she deserved to pay for that, but her demise raises all kinds of questions that are not near to being answered.
Best, Mike!
Yes Mike, I knew HT was a straight up reporter and that Hearst had given her an opinion column. Had she not been of doyenne status, she would have lost her front row perch. I was trying to say the rabbi had a choice, and he chose to through stones instead of engaging this formidable women. Helen’s blood was obviously up over the Gaza relief efforts and nine lives lost. What kind of a question is “What do you think about Israel, anyway? She should have said, “I like the weather” and walked on. Or maybe, “Forget it rabbi; it’s Chinatown.”
She only said what others have thought for years.
Helen went out in style. She only said what everyone already knows and doesnt have the guts to say.
Dont think it was planned?
She was already ready for retirement. She was at the top of her game and hit a grand slam!!!
Thanks Helen for standing up and telling it like it is.
Jews go home. You cant steal, rape and genocide others to get what you want (thats what whitey did to the Native American Indians by the way)
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THOMAS’ REMARKS ARE BIBLICALLY SOUND
Amid the uproar over White House reporter Helen Thomas’ remarks that the Israelis should “get the hell out of there” and return to the nations is a much obfuscated fact: In her salty way, she is only repeating how God feels about Israel’s biblically unlawful return to Palestine over the past 110 years.
The Old Testament emphasizes in dozens of the clearest passages that never will God allow an unjust rebellious nation of Jews to occupy His Holy Land.
You may ask: Wasn’t Jewish return necessary in order to provide safe haven for persecuted world Jewry? Hasn’t Israel vindicated itself by providing such refuge?
Prime Minister Netanyahu answered that recently. He said there is no place on earth as dangerous for Jews as Israel.
The Bible says the same: “There is no peace for the wicked.”
http://www.truthtellers.org/alerts/thomasremarks.htm
Helen’s parents most likely came from what was once known as the Riviera of the Middle-East: Beirut. It was supposed to be a breathtakingly beautiful city by the sea, and an amalgamation of every nationality under the sun, all living and working and trading together.
Beirut is gone. Like the Gulf is gone. But the memory of it, must gall anyone who knew it. There are no simple answers. The early Zionists had many powerful non-Jewish supporters. Lloyd George, Lord Balfour whose designs on the Middle-East (a name oddly coined by a British bureaucrat) were primarily preservation of empire, and the land route to India.
The early Zionists had a slogan to get people moving. It was, “A land without a people, a people without a land.” Unfortunately, this was not true, and the world has been paying a hard price for it since. Helen Thomas no doubt, knew this history…And the rabbi asked such a open-ended question, she exploded with the cultural rage rooted in the region. Some of her anger would be properly directed towards Britain. Palestine, after-all was their portfolio during and after the ‘Great War,’ and they felt a sympathetic people, after botched attempts to center a new Caliph in Arabia would be useful. Can’t you just hear them discussing it over Pimms?
[Dont think it was planned?] No Mr. War I don’t think it was planned. Helen liked her perch in the press room probably as much as she liked her speaking agency which dumped her.
[(that's what whitey did to the Native American Indians by the way)] Ahem, it seems to be working a bit better for whitey. Um… Whitey?
Write your own screeds, and ‘genocide’ is not a verb.
Ah Infowars, even Helen Thomas’s outburst is part of a conspiracy! Amazing!
[You may ask: Wasn't Jewish return necessary in order to provide safe haven for persecuted world Jewry? Hasn't Israel vindicated itself by providing such refuge?]
“Jewish return” implies an earlier presence Mr. War. And how, I might ask can a state which didn’t exist ‘vindicate’ itself, or provide ‘refuge?’
And no Mr. Wars, Helen was not at the ‘top of her’ game or she’d have a job today, and a speaking agent.
To quote The Bible, while leaving out post-war British ambitions is equivalent to omitting the Roman occupation of Judea (yes Judea) while speaking of Jesus.
Once again, short on info, long on war.