Helen Thomas says Jews should get out of Palestine

Helen Thomas

The legendary Helen Thomas, who has been called everything from the Dean of The White House Press Corps, to the Queen of same, and has questioned (though some may say "bugged") American Presidents from Obama to Johnson, all but destroyed her reputation as a tough journalist as she's now seen as a bigot.

A video surfaced where Helen Thomas is asked, at of all things the White House Jewish Heritage Celebration on May 27th 2010, "any comments on Israel." Helen Thomas said "Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine. Remember, these people are occupied and it's their land. Not Germany. Not Poland."

When the questioner, who knew he's caught a live one, asked what Jews should so, Thomas didn't miss a beat, saying "They go home. Poland. Germany. And America and everywhere else." Here's the video:



That was just plain awful. As the video reminds us, 6 million Jews were killed in Germany and Poland. Plus Palestine includes Israel and the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. While it's possible Helen Thomas was talking about specific land disputes, she did not exclude Israel itself from her comments.

While Helen Thomas has apologized, saying "I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon," it's too late to curb the torrent of complaints from bloggers, some calling for Hearst Newspapers to drop her.  

Unfortunately, the matter has degenerated into a left / right issue from the rightwing-nut fringe. The normally baseless Michael Savage rightly commented on the issue, but then goes on a psychotic rant about liberal communists. Just because Thomas is liberal does not mean other liberals are at fault for her behavior. Some people, regardless of politics, can be just plain stupid.

For example, I was at a fund-raiser for an Oakland nonprofit last night, and this older white woman and I were talking about Israel and Gaza. Then, suddenly she said something about the oppressed being the oppressor and then African Americans having abusive families. At that point, I knew I was sitting next to a racist from the looney bin. And guess what? She's liberal like me.

But she's one of those Oakland older white and bigoted liberals who see African Americans as 'these poor, downtrodden people' she has to save, which is a kind of racist view in itself.  The reason is that people who think that way sometimes find it hard to deal with African Americans who are their financial and intellectual equals or beyond them.  I know that from experience.

But I digress. In having an out-of-body experience, I said that one could make statements like that about a number of people, but it doesn't make it true. I told her I've heard her comments before, and I don't believe them. Rather than get angry with her, I caused her to see that she made a mistake.

The positive aspect of such encounters is they do express a willingness to change. You have to give them that.

Some people can be just stupid, but overall they mean well. It would seem Helen Thomas fits into that category.