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Helen Thomas Retires Effective Immediately
In a press release on Hearst's website, Helen Thomas, the 89-year-old veteran White House correspondent, announced she will retire effective immediately in the wake of her comments on Israel.
Helen Thomas "Her decision came
after her controversial comments about Israel and the Palestinians were
captured on videotape and widely disseminated on the Internet."
Thomas told a rabbi at a White House event last week that Jews should "get the hell out of Palestine" and go back to Germany and Poland or the United States.
Thomas apologized for the comments, 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."At his daily briefing, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on Monday condemned the comments, calling them "offensive and reprehensible."
"She should and has apologized," Gibbs said. "Obviously, those remarks do not reflect, certainly, the opinion of most of the people here and certainly not of the administration."
"Helen Thomas' comments were indefensible and the White House Correspondents Association board firmly dissociates itself from them," the WHCA said in a statement. "Many in our profession who have known Helen for years were saddened by the comments, which were especially unfortunate in light of her role as a trail blazer on the White House beat."
The WHCA statement added that the incident "does revive the issue of whether it is appropriate for an opinion columnist to have a front row seat in the WH briefing room."
Working for United Press International, Thomas covered every president since the end of the Eisenhower years and was known for her tough questioning. She was the first woman to be an officer of the National Press Club, the first female member and president of the White House Correspondents' Assn.
Thomas will turn 90 in August.
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365 Comments so far
Show Allhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQcQdWBqt14&feature=player_embedded
I think the Jews should get the hell out of Palestine. Why would anybody need to regret a statement like that?
"And go back to Germany and Poland..."
Get real.
If Limpball said it, you'd be going ape.
During the "Marshall Plan years" the vast majority of German and Polish Jews were already dead in the camps.
But you probably thing these millions somehow arose from their graves, and went to settle in 'Palestine.'
The ignorance on display today across the internet is breathtaking.
Agreed that the Marshall Plan had nothing whatsoever to do with the handful of Jewish survivors. It was a stimulus plan for the US economy and the rebuilding of Europe in the face of Soviet influence in the east.
No, the thousands who went to settle in Palestine after the war were welcomed and "protected" by the young fighters, many of them cut in the fascist mold, who after the unilateral declaration of independence carried out ethnic cleansing of Arabs and Palestinians. The traumatized survivors of the camps who found a home in Israel were --I hate to say it after a lifetime of indoctrination-- used, in a manner of speaking, as part of the propaganda.
The deliberate policy of recruiting Jewish immigrants to retain a Jewish majority in Israel has led to the importation of crazy militants who want to purge the occupied territories, and even Israel proper, of Arabs; who bulldoze and burn olive groves and homes, who stone and shoot Palestinians, who build a land-grabbing wall, who illegally blockade and starve 1.5 million Gazans. These militants will be the ones standing in the way of a peace agreement and might in fact threaten the stability of Israel in a civil war. They're already persecuting internal critics and liberals.
The post-67 wave of settlers coupled with a very sick economy whose strength lies mainly in weapons systems and tech production, are dooming Israel from within.
The fascists are trying to divert attention from the loss of social services and jobs, by whipping up anti-Arab fervour and carrying out insane adventures in Lebanon and Gaza.
No one, I repeat, is trying to insult the memory of the victims of Naziism. But Israeli, British and French historians (Jewish, I should add) have been setting the record straight on the formation and evolution of the Israeli state.
As a little kid, my father, who was an officer in the Navy, was sent on a two year tour of duty at a Naval Air Station in Port Lyautey (Kenetra) Morocco. After being away from his family on a similarly long duty in Newfoundlands, he insisted that this time the whole family be moved to Morocco with him. His CO acceded, and they even moved our '59 Pontiac Chieftian Station Wagon over there. Transatlantic air travel was atill considered exotic in those days, so the navy sent us across the Atlantic on the SS Constitution - one of the luxury lners of the day. Nearly everyone else on the ship were well-off US Jewish families en-route to settle in Israel. They were most decidedly NOT excaping any kind of pogroms and persecution.
Thanks for the first hand info., SaboCat !
To anyone out there, I'm aware that it is called Newfoundland.
waiguoren:
You still have not explained why a Jew from Germany or a Pole from Poland has a right to be in Palestine. I don't recall the exact quote by Mahatma Gandhi but he said Palestine was as much for Palestinians as England was for the English and France for the French. Of course, Jews living in Palestine before the creation of Israel do have a right to continue living there.
No, we wouldn't.
Maybe because the millions murdered in Germany and Poland in the death camps had noting to do with Palestine.
But hey, seems to be self-righteous open season on all Jews everywhere, living and dead, today.
The millions murdered by the Nazis included over a million Red Army p.o.w.'s, who are never acknowledged in the West; Poles whose only sin was being Polish intellectuals and leaders; and over five million Jews who were not fortunate enough to make it through the selection of the most able-bodied young people to be ferreted out of Europe by the Zionist leadership to colonize Palestine.
However, the surviving Jews who returned to Poland from the camps were faced with pogroms and threats by Poles and others who resented having to give up the housing and personal effects they had appropriated. I doubt survivors could contemplate going back to Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Rumania, and other regions where the local anti-semites out-brutalized the German occupiers. This was exploited by the 1940's Zionist leadership and applauded by the US and Canada and other countries that didn't want to deal with masses of Jewish immigrants or with having to account for their own coldblooded decision to stand by while the cattle cars rolled into the camps.
On the other hand, most if not all the settlements established since the 1967 takeover are populated by volunteers who weren't fleeing for their lives: from the USA, Russia, Canada, UK, Australia, France, even India! and of course by Sephardim or Mizrahim and Ethiopians whose treatment as 2nd class citizens could be attenuated by granting them land to build extravagant, water-sucking communities and a political power base. These settlers now constitute the main threat to peace. I would happily see everyone who made aliyah after 1967 returned to their country of origin if it meant freeing Israel of the most militant and racist expansionists and enabling the establishment of two states or of a new binational state.
The anger against Isreal is a result of her arrogance and brutality.
I have read countless comments by right wing zionists urging the torpedoing of the next freedom flotilla and stating that the 9 dead got what they deserved.
Zionists continually brutalize Palestinians and then show a flippant arrogance regarding the moral issues involved. When people get angry about it, they're called anti-semites.
This strategy worked for years. Now it's backfiring, and the zionists are wimpering about open season on the jews.
But did they shed a tear for the 1500 killed in Operation Cast Lead?
A small minority of zionists seek peace. The rest are Isreali Firsters and are truly hateful and bigoted in their attitudes.
Good for Helen Thomas for "having her say." After watching and reporting on so much for so long, her own opinion came burbling to the top, and good! I want to see her on TV with her own commentary show. She knows so much about so much, we need her wise voice.
That would be great. I would like to see her have a periodic (she can be semi-retired) gig on Stephen Colbert and The Daily Show (they have more reputable news than Hearst anyway).
You will never see her there. Who runs the US media?
Very perceptive of you Sabocat.
The black-listing of Helen Thomas by those who control the media (think: Rupert Murdock and Kosher Nostra) guarantee that she will be shunned by the corporate media for decades. (Since she's 90, she's through).
Just ask Mel Gibson, what happens when you utter an off-the-cuff remark that the new Israeli Empire doesn't approve of. Or ask Dan Rather what your prospects are when you run a story exposing the AWOL desertion of Air National Guard airman GWB.
Free speech?
Not in the USSA any more. We are all slaves of the Israeli banking cartel, and all victims of Israeli dominance of media opinion.
all jmho, while I can still air it.
TJ
Good bye Helen. Thanks for all the good work over the years. If you do retire completely from journalism, then it's job well done and a well deserved rest. If you decide to take on a new job writing for someone else, we'll be the lucky ones.
Yes Helen, you should be ashamed of your comments. That is all anyone is ever ashamed of anymore, comments. Actions like putting 9mm bullets through unarmed peoples heads are certainly more appropriate and defensible than calling for peace. What a joke. I am so sick of this criminally insane, Fascist country. Fascist leaders standing up for Zionist murderers. I guess even the Nazis had thier apologists too. I would leave this Fascist police state in a minute if I had the chance.
Nice.
Decades of muck-raking and sticking the pitchfork in you know where of the system
should not be tarnished by one stupid comment.
Lets praise her life and not be to harsh to criticize this mistake, in its relation to her clear-eyed and rational analysis of power.
She will be missed in the valley of lapdog journalism for profit, which frequents the press room, with it's indeterminate condescension and misunderstanding of history.
Wasn't even a "stupid comment" really. I mean its the truth. Why shouldn't the state of Israel give all of historical Palestinian back to the rightful owners of the land and dissolve its country into one equal shared Palestine with the rest of the Palestinians.
It does makes sense, really - although it was an insensitive way to say it. But, it will never happen now, best is for a 2-state solution and to end the occupation/refugee camp.
Its an outrage that Helen Thomas - one of the few WH reporters left with a spine - has been forced into retirement for speaking her mind. Somehow I think if she had said the Palestinians need to get out of Israel - we wouldn't have this reaction.
The control that Israel has over US foreign policy - and apparently even the allowed topics of conversation in the US - is infuriating, and makes my continued support of Israel increasingly doubtful. Shame on Israel, shame on the US media, and shame on us for allowing our country to be goaded like this.
I suspect the fact that Helen Thomas is an Arab-American didn't help her in this fracas.
Helen Thomas makes one misstatement and she's gone. Rush Lintballs blathers on year after year, spewing lies and hate and he stays around. Go figure...
" The White House Monday called Thomas' remarks "offensive and reprehensible." "
The White House says Helens statements are offensive and reprehensible, but what Israel did to the people on the boat that ran the blockade is just fine with that same White House.
I personally find what bullets do to people much more offensive and reprehensible than what words do. Too bad the White House doesn't feel that way too.
I personally find what bullets do to people much more offensive and reprehensible than what words do. Too bad the White House doesn't feel that way too.
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And that's the long and the short of it. Well said, Tom.
I was thinking the same thing. They reseve vitriolic condemnatiion for just some words, either Helen's unfortunate brash ones, or Goldstones extremely well-researched and cautious ones. The latter even getting a congressional resolution condemning it.
Meanwhile, murderers of 1400 people slaughtered in their own homes in Gaza last year not only get no condemnation, but congressional resolutions of support.
The stunning hypocracy is becoming too much to take. I'm starting to show signs of heart failure, literally and figuratively.
I hope you feel better and have a good dr...
Same here SaboCat,
Some suggestions:
Go walking/jogging. It's the best way to purge the empire abuse stress out of your system.
Eat Sashimi. Americans don't die of worms from Japanese raw fish. They die first from heat attacks, and second from cancer, third from stroke.
The traditional-diet Japanese doesn't have the cardiovascular problems.
I suggest soaking you Sashimi tuna in a bowl of low-sodium soy sauce with wasabi, chased by a cold Japanese beer. With me the fish juice lubing the heart valves is instant.
Love your posts bro,
TJ
My god - of all the people to cave, HT is the one that should never have done it. They obviously gave her an untimatum: either quit or get fired - why apologize?
She should have went down in flames and stuck behind her statement.
But no - I just figured it all out - they probanly threatened to pull her pension, right?
what? no more acid test? milk and cookies to be passed around instead? is that before or after nap-time...Helen will be sorely missed from that forum, hopefully there will be others...
Sooner or later, this country is going to grow weary of the increasingly blatant veto power that the Israel lobby and its acolytes have over much our society.
Tony Vodvarka
oh that time has already come.
She had a "Mel Gibson moment" because of the disgusting feeling of powerlessness as we watch the middle east (and now the mediterranean) become a killing field for bloodthirsty Zionists. Remember - when Mad Max made his comments, Israel was in the middle of killing hundreds of Lebanese people fleeing for their lives.
What I think is more offensive than her comments (which were off-base, and for which she apologized), is our president taking the side of the executioners of 9 unarmed internationals, including an American citizen, while another american citizen lost her eye from a close-range firing of a high-velocity tear gas cannister, the second-such incident targeting an american citizen.
More on the hypocrisy about the war on Helen Thomas:
http://www.salon.com/news/israel/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2010/06/07/thomas_ethnic_cleansing
I agree with HT's original statement. She simply spoke the truth. Too bad the lapdogs of the "press" will have full sway over what is reported now. I will certainly miss her. I also agree that she should be hired by Huff Post right away.
I am not sure if what Ms. Thomas said was so wrong and so terrible. Perhaps it did not come out the way that she intended but it would appear that she was correct in pointing out that the Jews should give Palestine to the Palestinians. As what happens so often, what appears to be an incendiary comment by so many people ends up, by those who actually look at the statement more carefully, to have more than a grain of truth in it. Unfortunately, since almost all [if indeed all] of the mainstream media is pro-Israel, it is quite doubtful if Ms. Thomas's remarks will be discussed with any type of objectivity and honesty.
"The (White House Correspondents Association) statement added that the incident 'does revive the issue of whether it is appropriate for an opinion columnist to have a front row seat in the WH briefing room.'"
It's not surprising that the WHCA would make such a statement since the press feels much more comfortable in its role as stenographer and propaganda ministry to the Amerikkkan government.
It's also predictable that this organization would rise up in righteous indignation about comments that someone like Helen Thomas might make against Isreal. After all, Isreal is another torture state in the image and likeness of its benefactor, Amerikkkka.
Why? Did she violate a political correctness rule? The comments were warranted, in light of Israel's genocidal policies towards Palestinians.
What kind of twisted moralism ignores murders and assassinations, but condemns people of conscience who express outrage?
Not too many have the guts of Helen Thomas.
Helen Thomas was the only journalist amongst a group of worthless court stenographers and said what needed to be said about the Zionists.
I hardly think that Helen Thomas should be condemned for pointing out that the "troops" do not belong in Afghanistan or Iraq. Illegally occupying other countries does not make heroes out of soldiers who blindly and meekly obey the orders that they are given. Helen Thomas was pointing out an obvious truth. American soldiers do not belong in those countries and should get the hell out of there as quickly and as rapidly as possible.
What this country needs are more people like Helen Thomas, not less. Unfortunately, given the pusillanimous attitude of our less than intrepid press corps, that possibility seems highly unlikely.
Umm, perhaps you need to visit the CD archives because many of us had plenty to say about the "unqualified candidate" to whom you are referring, and we had even more to say about the extremely "unqualified candidate" you support who struggles to correctly pronounce "nuclear."
You have revealed yourself, Cretin. You tried to come off as a US soldier, but you revealed yourself to be non American. Nobody who loves this country wants to see it burn! Go back to occupied Palestine, Cretin.
Why in the world was this comment flagged?
Because ignorant visitors think that "flagging" is a good way to vent their spite and petulance towards any thought they find the least bit irritating.
This "HULK SMASH!" approach is abusive, but apparently it's all too tempting to those unable or unwilling to formulate a rational response when they feel provoked.
It's obvious that Cretin is the operative word in BabarTheCretin's name; anti-Obomber comments have flooded this site since he started running. Rightly so.
Touche!
She hardly "slammed" your troops, unless you are referring to some point she may have raised about questionable conduct in Iraq and Afghanistan, or to her opposition to the war.
She's a brave soul. At her age, she has the authority to express her views honestly. Too bad that "oracle" Dan Schorr, the other elder, keeps on making the same cretinous pablum statements over NPR on Saturday mornings, posing as analysis and opinion-- he probably doesn't have the balls to say what he really thinks, which most likely is not favourable to the Palestinians, anyway.
If "whackadoodle," Palin can garner thousands of dollars in speaking engagements, Ms Thomas should have no problem making MILLIONS.
Helen Thomas, another victim of Israel's war on Gaza ...
You think that Israel should leave Palestine, but you think it's wrong to suggest Jews go back to other parts of the world. This is a contradiction. If they're leaving Palestine, they have to go somewhere.
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I'm going to guess that Jill meant "leave" metaphorically: by ceding political control. If the Zionists voluntarily turned over political control of Palestine, that would be equivalent to *Israel* leaving Palestine.