Jeff, What do you think about Helen Thomas' comments?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO:

Helen was sloppy and silly.

Jeff is brave to say what is on his mind, while so many Americans are afraid of any anti-Israel comments.

was Helen also brave to say what was on her mind?

It was sloppy. If she was tispy, it was not brave. If it was a senior moment, she was not brave. Otherwise, somewhat ballsy.

Since she apologized and retracted her remarks, it is safe to say that it was not brave.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:I think that it is also important to acknowledge that if Thomas would have said "The Palestinians should get the hell out of the West Bank and Gaza. They should go home to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, America, and everywhere else" she would still have a job. Joan Peters wrote an entire book claiming Palestinians came from neighboring countries. US and Israeli politicians fairly routinely call for resettling Palestinians in other countries. That doesn't seem to be controversial.

Oh, so what she said[i] wasn't /i] so bad afterall?

[Anonymous]

Let the elderly woman retire in peace.
It seems only too clear that it was her real opinion, unfiltered because of age.
We will probably all expose our own outrageous prejudices to the world when we reach her age.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was just listening to audio of the Israelis radioing to the ship that they were under blockade and would be boarded if they continued. The response from the peaceful activists on the ship included "go back to auchswitz" and "we represent Arabs against America - remember 9/11". What's the difference?

"Israel acknowledged Sunday that it edited recordings of what it said were anti-Semitic and anti-American radio calls by pro-Palestinian activists who tried to run the Gaza blockade and that it could not identify the origin of the broadcasts."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/06/06/gaza.flotilla.recordings/index.html

thanks for the clarification - I read the article and it says they edited out silence and what's unintelligible - and could not say which of the six ships in the flotilla it came from. Is there dour it came from the peaceful activists on the flotilla ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:I think that it is also important to acknowledge that if Thomas would have said "The Palestinians should get the hell out of the West Bank and Gaza. They should go home to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, America, and everywhere else" she would still have a job. Joan Peters wrote an entire book claiming Palestinians came from neighboring countries. US and Israeli politicians fairly routinely call for resettling Palestinians in other countries. That doesn't seem to be controversial.

Oh, so what she said[i] wasn't /i] so bad afterall?

Well, yes it wasn't so bad. (I am not Jeff)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let the elderly woman retire in peace.
It seems only too clear that it was her real opinion, unfiltered because of age.
We will probably all expose our own outrageous prejudices to the world when we reach her age.

Does her statement mean that she is prejudiced?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:I think that it is also important to acknowledge that if Thomas would have said "The Palestinians should get the hell out of the West Bank and Gaza. They should go home to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, America, and everywhere else" she would still have a job. Joan Peters wrote an entire book claiming Palestinians came from neighboring countries. US and Israeli politicians fairly routinely call for resettling Palestinians in other countries. That doesn't seem to be controversial.

Oh, so what she said[i] wasn't /i] so bad afterall?

I am not sure how you arrived at that conclusion. Can you please explain your train of thought?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:
thanks for the clarification - I read the article and it says they edited out silence and what's unintelligible - and could not say which of the six ships in the flotilla it came from. Is there dour it came from the peaceful activists on the flotilla ?

Yes, there is doubt that the broadcasts came from the peaceful activists on the flotilla. What do you think about this video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOGG_osOoVg

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let the elderly woman retire in peace.
It seems only too clear that it was her real opinion, unfiltered because of age.
We will probably all expose our own outrageous prejudices to the world when we reach her age.

You must not have parents with alzheimers. Old Age does not result in the unfiltered truth. Far from it.

[Anonymous]

She said what she felt, not a thing wrong with that. People say this stuff everyday and it is what they believe. I believe people who don't speak their minds are more of a problem than those that do. She might not have said what you wanted to hear but it was her opinoin.


She is not brave, Jeff is not brave, people who are in harms way are brave, people who run into buring buildings are brave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was just listening to audio of the Israelis radioing to the ship that they were under blockade and would be boarded if they continued. The response from the peaceful activists on the ship included "go back to auchswitz" and "we represent Arabs against America - remember 9/11". What's the difference?

"Israel acknowledged Sunday that it edited recordings of what it said were anti-Semitic and anti-American radio calls by pro-Palestinian activists who tried to run the Gaza blockade and that it could not identify the origin of the broadcasts."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/06/06/gaza.flotilla.recordings/index.html

thanks for the clarification - I read the article and it says they edited out silence and what's unintelligible - and could not say which of the six ships in the flotilla it came from. Is there dour it came from the peaceful activists on the flotilla ?

Apparently all captains in the area use the same frequency and hear each other speak. It could have come from a boat unassociated with the flotilla.

[Anonymous]

I do not support what she says but I have heard worse..Barbara Walters said on The View that she was worried Sarah Palin's religion would affect her ability to govern. That was just pffttt no one cared that she was obviously anti Christian. I actually support Isreal and think that this whole thing was made a lot bigger than need be. So what if she thinks this..this is her opinion and the opinion of a lot of people..again..not mine but I hate the whole phoniness of things. I am also bothered about all the comments about her age..so what..there are a lot of older people who are more together and inteligent than the youngster running our country.

[Anonymous]

As a Jew, and avidly pro-Israel, I could care less what Helen Thomas says. People the world over say this kind of shit all the time. However, her employer absolutely has the right to fire her or ask to resign for anything she says, assuming she doesn't have some crazy contract. If I said something like this at my employer (all Hispanics need to just go back to Mexico or whatever), I'd be rightly fired. It doesn't matter if she was the "dean" of the press corp. She said something foolish (and I imaine she believes it if she said it), and her employer has the right to let her go, regardless of what she has accomplished in her long, long life.

That being said, I do recall some episode of House where this patient was saying ridiculous things and Hugh Laurie determined he had some blood clot on his brain. Perhaps that's what is going on with all of the Hamas/terrorist sympathizers! LOL.

[Anonymous]

I originally posted this in rsponse to a thread in "Off Topic" but am copying it here because I do not actually think what she said was that bad and it speaks to this conversation as well. What she said was not hateful or anti-semetic alhtough it certainly was politically and professionally unwise. I think mostly it was a fair opinion based her long time coverage of history and politics. It may not be an opinion that I personally (or many of you it seems) share but I do think its based in fact and politics and has a certain amount of logic although she went too far by calling Germany or Poland a home for the Jews (that is rather ludicrous).

I dont really understand why her comments are being characterized as "hateful" exactly. She isnt saying anything negative about the Jewish people per se, only that Palestine was unfairly "occupied" by the Jewish State of Israel after WWII. That decision was actually made pretty much by the British if I recall my history. It is true that many Palestinian families lost their homes and businesses and family property, and there was no recourse or justice for them, when the State of Isreal was officially formed and then increased its borders over the span of several wars and skirmishes (for defensive reasons on the part of the Israelis). Its is also true that the Jewish people have been persecuted as a group around the globe for centuries. Yes, they were cordoned off and exterminated at a terrifying rate and in ghastly, inhumane ways in Poland, Germany, and many other European countries during WWII by the Nazis and their conspirators. Nothing can truly make that better in any way and certainly not by inflicting similar cruelties on another group. All of these wrongs to the Jewish people, do not make right what was done to the Palestinians: that many Palestinians were subjected to serious harm and displacement and death in the name of creating a Jewish State to assauge European and American guilt over the holocaust (guilt rightly felt).

Yes, there were Jews in Palestine before Israel was formed and that area of the world is where the Jewish faith originated and can therefore logically be seen as a "natural home" for the Jewish people. BUT the Palestinian people (Arabs and Muslims) also have a long history there and rightfully call it home. Their religion was born in that part of the world as well, and they did not deserve to be thrown out of their homes and businesses and places of worship either. I dont see how saying that the Israelis are the sole rightful owners of that land and the Palestinians ought to "get out and get over it" is any better or worse than what Helen said. And yet, THAT is exactly what many hard liners in Israel (and Zionists in America) do say and do practice. Helen's statement may have been politcally unfortunate and somewhat inaccurate but not really hateful, I dont think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Helen's statement may have been politcally unfortunate and somewhat inaccurate but not really hateful, I dont think.

ITA that it was more a political statement on her perception of Zionism than hatred of Jewish people. As a Jew, and like PP, I'm kind of used to the whole death to Israel spiel. Personally I think Israel should just get the hell out of Gaza like I think the US should end the blockade on Cuba. It ain't workin' politicially.

What strikes me as odd about Hellen Thomas is that someone of Lebanese origin, no strangers to living in a multi-religious diaspora, would say the part about Germany, Poland and the US. Huh? Perhaps she just snapped in outrage at the flotilla tragedy. Nobody wanted that to happen. (I hope.)

Part of me feels it would have been appropriate for her to speak at Whitman to explain a serious life lesson about the power of words. It seems kind of too easy to just retire and have people dismiss her as being old and cranky. She definitely has other things to say.