Helen Thomas, the longest-running White House correspondent, retired today. Taken as a sort of spectacle by many for being one of the only critically-minded reporters in press briefings — who would ask fundamentally challenging questions — she was pushed into resignation over comments she made on video.
She made the following comments.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs denounced her comments as “offensive and reprehensible.”
This is in unbelievably stark contrast to the White House’s response to Israel’s attack on the humanitarian flotilla to Gaza, which left at least 9 aid activists dead and many more injured. Gibbs said the president expressed “deep regret” at the loss of life and of those wounded, and called for further investigation. Of course, he did not indicate Israel as the doer of the regrettable actions, and made no clear reference to what specifically was regretted.
What kind of world do we live in when political leaders find strong words to condemn a journalist, but have little of substance to say about commandos leaving dead bodies and pools of blood in a massacre of unarmed people?
The hypocrisy is shocking.
And that the White House issues this condemnation after Thomas took them to task for their failure to confront Israel over the flotilla only heightens this double standard.
Finally, it is a despicable insult to journalism and basic decency that anyone would toss aside her long career of service to the country and her profession by exaggerating and scandalizing these pretty banal remarks (as shown in the video above, which are far different than the spun version being circulated on TV news) to defame Thomas. Then again, I cannot blame Zionists and their supporters for jumping on this. It is a convenient diversion from Israel’s recently revealed brutality.
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In a repressive society the most dangerous thing that anybody can do is to speak the truth.
Posted by Jamal | June 7, 2010, 10:41 pmExactly. There is nothing more "offensive and reprehensible" than the truth to our government of liars, whores and warmongers. American politicians like Dick Armey can call for the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, and psychopaths like John Bolton can call for Tehran to be nuked, but God forbid you open your mouth without a lie, a threat or praise for Israel coming out.
Our Castrato Mikado, God Emperor BlackBush Obuttboy, is just singing the tune he was chosen to sing by the people who foisted this imposter on us. Suddenly, he's found something about Palestine to be offended about. No surprise there.
Posted by Sean2009 | June 7, 2010, 11:43 pmAmerica's Top Criminal: Barack Obama or Helen Thomas?
http://charliedavis.blogspot.com/2010/06/americas…
"More than 40 Yemeni civilians, including 14 women and 21 children, were murdered in a cluster bomb attack last December personally ordered by President Barack Obama…
…Don't expect much in the way of moral outrage from the commentariat in imperial Washington, though, whose members only seem to find their capacity for self-righteous indignation when someone sufficiently powerless — like Helen Thomas — commits a "gaffe" by expressing an opinion one wouldn't find on The Washington Post editorial page (a cardinal sin). Sure, maybe a few progressive-leaning types will decry how “counterproductive” it is to drop cluster bombs on innocent men, women and children. Maybe a few will opine about how it makes the task of winning hearts and minds for the U.S. empire that much harder. But judging by Henry Kissinger's social calendar, no one in Official Washington believes complicity in the killing of innocents abroad is as risible an offense as questioning Zionism; it's certainly no reason to expel someone from polite society (much less bar them from the hors d'oeuvres), nor to be so uncouth as to call them a murderer."
Can I go an afternoon without being sick to my stomach at this government?
Posted by Sean2009 | June 7, 2010, 11:56 pmJesus Christ, are you kidding me? There were Jews in Palestine before the Holocaust. Even you know this.
Her remarks sting of ethnic cleansing. How you cannot hear this is dumbfounding.
Posted by Brad | June 8, 2010, 1:10 amEthnic cleansing? She was expressing her opinion. She is hardly a Milosevic. I've heard the same amongst Jews about Palestinians. The difference being that the Jews are ethnically cleansing Palestinians from Israel and the Occupied Territories and have been doing so for decades.
Posted by Misha | June 8, 2010, 5:59 amNo, her comments CLEARLY SUPPORT ETHNIC CLEANSING.
The fact that there are racist assholes amongst the Israeli Jews as well doesn't make her comments any better.
Posted by Joe | June 10, 2010, 10:55 amIs it anti-white for Native Americans to complain about white settlers?
It expresses a loathing for what colonialism does– it is a genocide against aboriginal civilization.
That's what settlers do– genocide, so they can replace the genocided population.
Helen Thomas expressed that. I didn't hear her say the word "Jews". She was talking about settlers from Poland, Germany, and America: all of which the U.S. counts as democracies and nice places to live.
Helen Thomas was an old establishment reporter who got a little un-establishment at the end. Her crime was occassionaly questioning the destruction of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine, at the end of a long establishment career.
She was not Kanafani. She said a few things in defense of Palestine at the end; thanks for that.
Now when the hell can we talk about boycotting Israel, instead of Helen Thomas?
Posted by Boycott Israel | June 8, 2010, 11:35 am"The hypocrisy is shocking."
The hypocrisy is invented and false. Doing so is an example of moral degeneracy, don't you agree?
Posted by Solomon2 | June 8, 2010, 3:02 pmThomas was a very good reporter and an important critic in times of group-think consensus.
But her comment wasn't very smart. No one ever told her to go back to where her parents came from, namely Tripoli, Lebanon. The debate on refugees aside, it's just not realistic to ask "people who came from Europe, the US, etc." (and it's pretty clear we're talking about Jews here) to go back there, because they are no more (and most of them have never been) part of the society there. Their immigration shouldn't have led to such a catastrophic effect on the lives and well-being of Palestinians already living in Palestine, but unfortunately it happened. A solution to the refugee problem is not going to be easy, but sending Jews back to where they belong is not a viable solution.
Posted by Salty Mac | June 8, 2010, 3:29 pmThe "catastrophic effect" was created by the Arabs trying to ethnically cleanse the Jews. The Arabs ("Palestinians") massacred the Jews of Hebron in 1929.
In the 48-49 war the Arabs succeeded to cleanse the Jews out of the west bank and east Jerusalem.
Later Arabs ethnically cleansed Jews from Arab states. The Jewish refugees from Arab states did not go to Poland.
Posted by moe | June 8, 2010, 8:52 pmthis comments proves one of two things, either your independent (as opposed to hasbara indoctrinated) interest in history is very recent, or that you deliberately try to omit some facts to fit your hasbara….
Either ways….
All what I have to say is that the war started in 1947 not in 1948, and the Zionist narrative is very clear about the role of the native Palestinians in the new colonial enterprise : None whatsoever.
So while most Palestinians found themselves refugees from the villages and cities their ancestors dwelt in, the newly created Israeli terrorist army from the Zionist terrorist organizations concentrated its efforts on destroying whatever villages the war hasn't destroyed. As for the Jews who left the Arab countries, they left it over a span of more than twenty years, most of them from countries either occupied or controlled by the creators of Israel (UK, France), and with the active efforts of the newly created terrorist Mossad, and as a matter of fact lots of them left to either Europe or the USA (yeah moe not all of them came to occupied Palestine)
Posted by han | June 8, 2010, 10:19 pm"lots of them left to either Europe or the USA"
Half the Jewish population in Israel is from Arab states. I'd say that's most of them.
Han, I wonder do you live in Arabia or the US? It sounds like you were educated in a madrassa.
Posted by moe | June 9, 2010, 9:51 amha ha ha a madrassa, is that the only word in Arabic you know?
Were you educated in a yeshiva moe? or in the Israeli terrorist army propaganda workshops?
Either way I don't care.
Judging by the quality of arguments, and the selective quotations, I do not think that your teachers were very successful in turning you into a real Hasbara agent….
How much do they pay you by the way? Or is it just for the fun of bashing the Palestinians/Arabs/Muslims/commies/who-ever-dares-to-disagree-with-Israel?
I'm sure you would be one of the people who might have gone to "enjoy" the scenes of the slaughter in Gaza last year from the nearby hills in a nice healthy family picnic (talk about teaching hate to their children/ oh and do not copy and paste this sentence to try to prove some pointless idea)
any one educated in a madrassa wouldn't talk to you about a secular state, that's why I told you several times before, get informed, It seems that your superior captains are out of ideas, well i don't blame them, they have a very difficult task of brightening the ugly face of Israel and Zionism nowadays
BTY your response, is in no cotradiction with what I said, for instance, more than half of the Jewish community in France is from North Africa.
But let me ask you this moe,
What kind of action you think Israel might do that you would be able to criticize?
Would it bother you if they accomplished the Lieberman proposition of dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza?
Let's hear some answers…..
Posted by Han | June 9, 2010, 10:19 amHan,
He did not say "dropping a nuclear bomb". That's Arab propaganda.
I criticizes Israel all the time. I just told you I want Israel to close the border to Gaza. I don't want idiot Arabs accusing Israel of "cooperating" with a Hamas state.
I would have a problem defending Israel if it was primitive, backwards, dictatorship like all Arab states.
Posted by moe | June 9, 2010, 6:42 pmYes he did moe http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeq…
it took me 2 seconds on Google to find more than ten links I just chose Google because you can't call it "Arab Propaganda", I will not even point the irony here.
"I would have a problem defending Israel if it was primitive, backwards, dictatorship like all Arab states."
There is nothing more primitive than racism you racist ("idiot Arabs").
But what could one expect from a Zionist.
Posted by Han | June 9, 2010, 9:13 pmYou prove that I was correct, he never said "dropping a nuclear bomb".
I referred to "idiots" among Arabs, not that all Arabs are idiots. I wrote " I don't want idiot Arabs accusing Israel of "cooperating" with a Hamas state. " that is why I want the border closed.
Posted by moe | June 10, 2010, 1:17 pmAre you feigning to be ignorant?
Some times I cannot believe it….
Here is what he said
"We must continue to fight Hamas just like the United States did with the Japanese in World War II,"
And you don't know how the US fought the Japanese???
Well if you don't I think that you're problem with history is much bigger than what I thought, which would explain a lot of what you have been saying…
And what would be your criterion for a "smart" and a "stupid" Arab, his love for Israel????
Posted by han | June 10, 2010, 9:59 pmhan, he meant Israel should defeat Hamas like the US defeated Japan. He knows a nuke in Gaza is too close to Israel.
Posted by moe | June 11, 2010, 5:28 amSo you really don't know that the US defeated Japan by Nuking two cities (Here google Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that should do you some reading)…
either ways, what you say condemns him more than anything else…
so his intentions of Nuking Gaza are there, it is only the technical problems that might be induced of it…
Typical Zionist…. No ethics involved, just that it might backfire..
Posted by Han | June 11, 2010, 10:20 amJust imagine what would have happened if she had said that African-Americans should go back to Africa; riots and worldwide condemnation. What other race today takes so much abuse with the rest of the world so much as shrugs. Obama's comment came three days late and was watered down "out of line". Jews have been hated wherever they have been and whatever they have done for variety of reasons. Jews in Israel are just icing on the cake, a perfect target for ongoing hatred. It really does not matter what they do, it is enough that they exist as the countless wars against them have shown. The only acceptable Jew is a submissive Jew, not the one trying to defend himself.
Posted by ArnoP | June 8, 2010, 5:06 pmThe African Americans were brought to the US as slaves over the centuries, and the US did try to send them back to Africa (haven't you heard about Liberia?) in the same way their European counterparts found lots of interests in exploiting the Jews of Europe, by embracing Zionism and sending them to colonize Palestine.
No one blames the Jews for wanting to defend themselves.
But Zionism is not self defense, its occupation and racism.
In the same time you want the Palestinians to be submissive and never raise a voice in protest, while the colonization of their land and the destruction of their culture continues.
Let me ask you this question, America have recently elected a Black president (no matter what you think about it), but do you think that Israel would ever elect a Palestinian president?
Posted by han | June 8, 2010, 7:46 pmAfrican Americans didn't come here as colonizers to sieze the land from the natives. If she had flat out called for the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, she would still be in her job. Instead, she pointed out an uncomfortable fact: the Zionists are a European people colonizing Palestine by force, and the only solution is for them to learn to live in peace with the natives or leave. Expecting the natives to roll over and die for the greater glory of Israel isn't an option. She was expressing anger at the very obvious fact the Zionists have no intention of living in peace and indeed revel in their brutality, even making videos to mock the victims that were distributed by the Israeli government. How can any civilized person not be infuriated by Israel's behavior? She was not calling for the ethnic cleansing of the Jews, and has since clarified her remarks. Israel has also clarified it's position on the folitlla massacre: "ZOMG how hilarious! Fuck you, world!"
Get over the persecution complex already.
Posted by Sean2009 | June 8, 2010, 9:11 pmBoycott Israel and end apartheid.
Apartheid is the issue here, not travel. Africans mostly entered the U.S. in chains against their will.
Zionists shot their way into power in Palestine, and cannot be compared to Africans in the U.S.
The British shot their way into India and were the subject of a "Quit India" campaign.
Yes, the Zionists should quit Palestine too. They are easy to spot, because they are shooting their way into native Palestinian villages from their tanks.
Boycott Israel.
Posted by City Council is Next | June 8, 2010, 7:24 pmWhat the fuck? Most either Jews ended up in Israel by fleeing slaughter and persecution (many of them persecuted at the hands of Muslim governments, let's not forget), or were simply BORN THERE.
I'm not a Zionist and I'm not a fan of many things about the Israeli state, but every single Jew living in the area has the right to stay there, to within the specific redrawing of political boundaries. People are just going to have to learn to live together.
Posted by Joe | June 10, 2010, 11:00 amWILL,
I was joking when I said you should defend her like you defended Jumanah Albahri.
One wants Jews in Auch… um, Poland and one wants all of them to gather in Israel.
What should the Israeli Jews from Morocco, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt etc. do? They don't like Polish food.
Posted by moe | June 8, 2010, 8:15 pmRevolutionary comment from moe,
So Zionist Jews did come from elsewhere to colonize Palestine….
Posted by han | June 8, 2010, 8:36 pmHani, It's not a crime for a Jew to leave an Arab dictatorship and GO BACK to his homeland of Israel.
Posted by moe | June 8, 2010, 8:55 pmPoland, Germany, Russia, Morocco,Libya, Irak, etc… is their Homeland, Palestine is was and will be the Palestinians homeland, and if they offer to share it with others under the above mentioned conditions, well that's pretty generous from them, much more generous than the colonial Zionists who've been usurping the name and the heritage of Palestine.
And what about those living under democracies such as the US and France, should they leave their homelands as well to please Bibi and his sidekick Avigdor "the Moldav bouncer" Lieberman?
Posted by han | June 8, 2010, 9:18 pmcheck out my comment to Salty.
Posted by moe | June 8, 2010, 9:28 pmPalestinians living in Israel have a homeland — ISRAEL.
Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza are in their homeland, too. And hopefully they will develop a sensible leadership to govern them, develop their resources, and live peacefully with their neighbors.
Arabs from Palestine, who've lived in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and other countries for generations have those countries as their homeland, too.
So what's the problem?
Posted by DSharon | June 16, 2010, 2:33 amThings they are a'changing. Ten years ago the only thing you would have heard about in the news was that an "anti-Semite" resigned for "bigoted" statements. Nowadays it's generally reported as "controversial remarks." In about 20 years she will be remembered as a visionary.
To me it's a cry in the dark, like all these years people in the MSM have actually held rational views, but have been afraid to speak out about them. I wonder how many more people there are like Helen Thomas hiding out in the MSM.
It may not matter, though because the MSM is history. I would wager kabobfest.com will be here 10 years from now before I'd place an bets on the New York Times. Get ready to face rationality Zionists. You ain't gonna like it.
Posted by Jamal | June 9, 2010, 1:26 amGreat site template
Posted by Fantasy | June 25, 2010, 4:13 pm