Helen 1, Obama 0

(Haaretz) – On her 89th birthday, Hearst Newspapers columnist and veteran reporter Helen Thomas received a tray of cupcakes and personal congratulations from U.S. President Barack Obama in the White House briefing room.

They share a common birthday wish,"She hopes for a real healthcare reform bill." (UPI)

But it seems that the veteran reporter, who covered every U.S. president since John F. Kennedy, requires from the Obama administration more than personal attention and cupcakes. Under Obama, Thomas says, the U.S. has not done enough to advance Middle East peace.

“I don’t think they are working very hard for peace,” she told Haaretz  in an interview. “It’s quite neglected because of Afghanistan and Iraq and the healthcare. It was right to push for a total settlements freeze, and it’s wrong for President Obama to say there is no longer ban on settlements until they start negotiations – then what you get is [a] fait accompli. I don’t think Obama should have caved on that.”

She also criticizes the previous Administration’s refusal to recognize the results of elections in Gaza in which Hamas had the upper hand.

“They’ve spread the word how they wanted democracy in the Middle East – but the moment Hamas won fairly, which every international observer said, including [former U.S. President Jimmy] Carter (I know he’s not very popular in Israel, but he is an honest man) – they cut aid. How hypocritical can you get?”

And the fact that the United States considers Hamas a terrorist organization does not bother her.

“I think you can call anybody terrorist organization when they are in opposition – it’s very loosely held word,” she says.

NOBEL PRIZE

Obama, she says, has yet to earn his Nobel Prize.

“I didn’t think he deserved it yet. I think it’s something he has to work for. He has to live up to it now for sure. I think it was a message – work for peace.”

Thomas also believes that the Obama administration still has much to learn about the importance of its choices, but she denies being out to get its officials.

“My mission in life is to make them miserable? No,” she laughs. “Actually, I think they are trying hard, and I think their hearts are in the right place. But there is no such thing as an instant president, they all have to learn. And we have to learn too, over and over again.

“I think Obama’s people still don’t fully understand how important every decision is. They think they have time, but they don’t have that much time. I was in that press room all through the Vietnam War, and everything seems like déjà-vu all over again. I thought we’d learned that lesson of interventionism in places where people were determined to fight for their own country.”

DECISION AFGHANISTAN

Obama has been reconsidering the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan for more than nine months; Thomas, however, thinks there is not much about which to ponder.

“He should get out. We should get out of there. You can have blue helmets to try to stabilize the situation – and get out. It became pointless, with no purpose, no mission, it’s just to be there and to kill and be killed. I do believe that Taliban are terrible, but I don’t believe that if we don’t go there, they’ll all come here. I think that people need to overthrow their own tyrants.”