.
PM Benjamin Netanyahu was responsible for the cabinet decision to stage a commando attack on the Gaza Aid flotilla and the death of 9 activists on the M/V Mavi Marmara in international waters.
“I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians,” the 89-year-old Thomas wrote on her website. “They do not reflect my heartfelt 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.”
Thomas continued apologizing in the Washington Post, telling its media critic, Howard Kurtz, in a Monday column: “I’m very sorry for my remarks. I think I crossed the line. I made a mistake.”
Gambling with Conflict: How Settlers and a California Casino King Control Israeli Policy
Oh, man.
Helen should resign. She’s had a good run. And, she goes out on a high note as far as I am concerned. She was pilloried by all the wrong media for all the wrong reasons.
Go here to read some facts about Israel.
Israel, Islam, Economic Imperialism, and the “Peace Party”. Business As Usual, Plan A Lite.
And here as well.
Is opposition to U.S. policies regarding Israel necessarily anti-Semitic?
The real reason that it was supported by Anglo-American oil interests after WWII, just to begin. Do you really think that it was because of Hitler’s depredations? Hell no!!!
Also…the real numbers as far as Muslims and Jews in the Middle East. Always outnumbered, always outgunned. Doomed eventually. Bet on it. It’s just a matter of when.
I suggested over four years ago that the U.S. and Israeli jews would both profit if all willing Israelis were to be resettled in the U.S. Immediately. The Muslims want’ em out? Great!!! They have alla’ that oil money. Let them buy the Israelis out. And then give the Israelis a good chunk of underdeveloped U.S. land and watch what happens. If they can make that piece of shit desert work for them, imagine what they could do with say West Virginia!!!
But NOOOOoooo!!!! The U.S. wants them right were they are now in order to keep to keep that burr rubbing up under the Islamic saddle.
Helen Thomas was a little…unrealistic…to suggest that Poland and Middle Europe in general would want them back. Wr that Jews wuld want to go back there, for that matter. Too many pogroms under the bridge for that. But In the U.S.? Where the mayor of its biggest city is Jewish and quite plainly has a good shot at the presidency if he really wants it? Where Jews have sat on the Supreme Court since 1916? Where 13 Jewish senators carry huge power? As do innumerable Jewish media and business leaders? Why would any Jew in his or her right mind want to live in a desert surrounded on all sides by a hundreds of times larger, almost totally hostile Muslim population?
Because it’s the Holy Land?
Please. Maybe the Orthodox Jews, but when I see Israelis here most of them are not walking around in medieval costumes pretending to be the chosen people. They’re out here taking care of business on all levels. Just like Finns and Russians and Cubans and Irish and Mexicans and…ahhhhh, you know…
Doing what folks do.
So why should they have to do it in Israel?
it’s beyond me.
And why should Helen Thomas undergo an almost universal media attack for speaking a plain truth?
Well…that one’s easier.
Because the forces that want Israel there for tactical and strategic reasons do not want that particular plain truth to be spoken, so they slammed all over her.
Fucking duh!!!
And Netanyahu?
He shouldn’t resign either.
Instead, he should be tried and executed for crimes against humanity.
Fat chance, of course.
If that kind of justice were to be meted out in the world, there would be so many others in line ahead of him.
Kissinger
Cheney
Bush II
Rumsfeld
Just for starters.
So…there it is.
See ya somewhere, Oui.
Maybe cleaning up the beaches.
Oil.
SUCKS!!!
AG
Please don’t make this a Muslim thing. It’s not the Muslims who want them out, it’s the people – the Muslims, the Christians, the secularists, the Mandaeans, the Zoroastrians – it’s the people. Christian Palestinians have suffered every bit as much as Muslims have at the hands of the Israelis, and they have been very much a part of the struggle, including the “terrorism” part of it. Every heard of the PFLP? Its leader, George Habash, was a Christian.
A map showing the percentage of Muslim population throughout the world. The darker blue, the higher the percentage. Very dark blue? 90-100% Muslim.
Hmmmmm….
Outnumbered and outgunned?
You betcha!!!
Surrounded, even.
You are of course correct, Hurria. It is a “people thing.” And somewhere between 90-100% of those people are at the very least from a Muslim background.
I have said this to you before and I am going to say it again. You remind me of the Zionists with your repeated, unnecessary and kneejerk protestations of Muslim “innocence.” Use the word words “Jew” or “Israel” in a negative context in the AIPAC world and you are immediately branded as a Jew-hater or at the very least a misguided, ignorant fool. I am neither a hater nor a fool, Hurria. Not when it comes to Jews and not when it comes to Muslims, either. The main thrust of the “Down with Israel” crew is Muslim in nature. Take it or leave it, I do not care.
Sure there are some Christians and others involved. Hell, there are some Jews involved as well. So what? It is primarily a “Muslim” movement just as the civil rights thing in the US was primarily a “black” movement. And why not? It is primarily Muslims who are getting their asses kicked.
So it goes.
AG
Arthur, I know very well, and up close and personal what the demographics of the region are. My point was that this is not a case of “the Muslims” versus anyone, and I do not appreciate people trying to make it into that.
It is far broader than “the Muslims want them out”, and by the way, there is also no such monolithic entity as “the Muslims” in any case. Not all Muslims think the same way, or want the same things, or want things to happen in the same way, including as pertains to Israel.
As a matter of fact, what the majority of Muslims, Christians, secularists, etc. want is a just resolution to the conflict, and the Arab League has unanimously approved just such a proposal and kept it on the table for eight years (and for eight years Israel has given it the middle finger, but that is another story).
PS Helen Thomas is, by the way, not a Muslim. Her family is Greek Orthodox Christian. Just in case there was any doubt.
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(The Hill) – The reaction of most reporters, friends and former White House officials was that while the end to Thomas’s career is sad, it is hardly surprising.
“It really is sadness. She should have retired years ago,” one longtime friend said. “But I don’t think anyone is surprised at the anti-Israeli remarks. She has never made any secret of her animus toward Israel. I just hate to see her remembered for this instead of the pioneering work she did.”
Former White House press secretary Dana Perino said: “It’s a sad but appropriate end.”
Others said they hope Thomas, who turns 90 in August, is remembered for the barriers she broke.
Cheryl Arvidson, a longtime friend and a former colleague of Thomas’s at UPI, told The Hill in an e-mail that she hopes the end of Thomas’s career does not taint a long and important legacy.
“Helen Thomas has been a strong advocate for women’s rights and a trailblazer for women all of her life,” Arvidson, now a spokeswoman for the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, said. “She broke down every barrier imaginable in Washington journalism and won every ‘first’ that existed. And more importantly, she always was there to lend a helping hand to the women who followed her. My sincere hope is that this current controversy does not detract in any way from the amazing accomplishments in her long and rich career.”
Thomas’s resignation comes after outrage spread throughout the blogosphere in reaction to a video posted to RabbiLive.com. In it, Thomas said that Jews in Israel should “get the hell out of Palestine” and “go back home to Poland, Germany, America and everywhere else.”
The comments were made during a White House event on May 27 celebrating Jewish heritage. And they came during a time of international outrage at Israel for its attack on a Turkish ship that left nine dead. Israel has rejected calls for an investigation of the incident.
Rabbi Nesenhoff @RabbiLive.com
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
I don’t condone her remarks, at old age perhaps one’s filters don’t quite work. As an European I would never disavow the established state of Israel. My criticism of Israel and its administration are the lies and the lack of a peace process which had given the Palestinians hope in the 90s. The assassination of Yitzak Rabin due to hate spewing in Israel and the take-over by Netanyahu was very frustrating. A powerful nation unwilling to extend a hand of peace as Sadat did in the 70s. The raw facts of Israel’s military superiority, the war crimes committed on both sides, the lack of any prospect to a just peace, the continuation of settlement building contrary to international law gives the Palestinian people on the West Bank and in Gaza little hope for a solution.
Thomas was born in Winchester, Kentucky. Her parents, Mary (née Rowady) and George Thomas, were Lebanese immigrants from Tripoli, Lebanon; her father’s surname had originally been “Antonious” before being anglicized to Thomas at Ellis Island. Thomas was raised as a Christian in the Greek Orthodox church. She grew up in Detroit, Michigan, and attended Wayne University (now Wayne State University), graduating with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1942.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
“The story of George Thomas typifies the story of so many Lebanese and Syrian immigrants who have become role-model Americans. Recently, people of Middle East ancestry have undergone tremendous bias in this country. This is the story of a man who is indicative of the positive elements of this fine culture. It is a tribute to all immigrants who become model Americans. I hope by repeating this story that we not only pay tribute to the wonderful Thomas family.”
Oakar read the article into the Record and the final paragraph makes me proud all over again of my parents, my upbringing and my career:
“I feel that my ethical standards for life came from my father. He gave me a strong sense of right and wrong — and all the guilt that comes with defying it. He gave me a sense of morality almost by osmosis. Every time I make a stand for integrity, I feel my father. My desire to become a better person comes from him. That’s why I’m always fighting about discrimination and civil rights and the people’s right to know. My father saw injustice around but I never heard him complain. He was not a man to upset the status quo. His children did that.”
I will always be in my parents’ debt, and yes, I’ve done what I could to upset the status quo when it needed upsetting, and yes, they will always be my role models.
From Powell’s books: Front Row at the White House: My Life and Times
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
LONDON Oct. 2, 1931 – Zionism in its spiritual sense is a lofty aspiration. By spiritual sense I mean they should want to realise the Jerusalem that is within. Zionism meaning reoccupation of Palestine has no attraction for me. I can understand the longing of a Jew to return to Palestine, and he can do so if he can without the help of bayonets, whether his own or those of Britain. In that event he would go to Palestine peacefully and in perfect friendliness with the Arabs. The real Zionism of which I have given you my meaning is the thing to strive for, long for and die for. Zion lies in one’s heart. It is the abode of God. The real Jerusalem is the spiritual Jerusalem. Thus he can realise this Zionism in any part of the world.
Mahatma Ghandi siteMr. Gandhi added that unfortunately he had not been to Palestine yet, but that he hoped to go there some day.
I should love to go, for I have read so much about the Holy Land. Anti-Semitism is really a remnant of barbarism. I have never been able to understand this antipathy to the Jews. I have read Zangwill`s Children of the Ghetto, and when I read it, I realised what unmerited persecution Jews had already gone through and I felt then as I feel now that this persecution is, if I can again say so in all humility, a reflection upon those who, in the name of Christianity, have persecuted this long-suffering race.
The remedy? My remedy is twofold. One is that those who profess to be Christians should learn the virtue of toleration and charity, and the second is for Jews to rid themselves of the causes for such reproach as may be justly laid at their door.
Gandhi, The Jews And Palestine: A Collection of Articles, Speeches, Letters and Interviews
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."YES!!!
This is classic understanding of the real meaning of great socio-religious concepts, and the Israeli perversion of such ideas is an equally classic example of the way that human beings have forever taken such concepts, turned them upside down and backwards and then violated them with whatever weapons come to hand.
As was Ghandi’s mortal fate.
So it goes.
And yet…somehow…the evolution of humanity continues.
Miracle.
Truly.
Life be praised.
AG
” One is that those who profess to be Christians should learn the virtue of toleration and charity, and the second is for Jews to rid themselves of the causes for such reproach as may be justly laid at their door.”
And pigs should fly and magic bunnies should bring presents to all children.
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Israel became an independent state in 1948, the same year the Afrikaner-based Nationalist Party institutionalized the system of apartheid in South Africa. Notwithstanding the fascist origins of the Nationalist Party and its Greyshirts, diplomatic and economic relations between the new state of Israel and South Africa were close from the outset. Nationalist Party chief Dr. Malan, a notorious anti-Semite, was the first foreign head of state to visit Israel. The Malan government allowed the South African Jewish community, numbering over 100,000, to send significant funds to Israel.
Adams points out that one consequence of the June 1967 Arab-Israeli war was the clear political convergence between Israel and South Africa. Between 1967 and South Africa’s 1975 military intervention in Angola following the collapse of Portugal’s colonial empire, close collaboration between Israel and South Africa in all areas-economic, military, “internal security,” and intelligence-flourished.
In 1968 the Israeli-South Africa Friendship League-composed of leading political and business figures-was established, a precursor to the Israeli-South Africa Trade Association. By the 1970s the results were the beginning or the expansion of trade between key Israeli and South African industries. For example, Israel exported to South Africa machinery, electronic equipment, chemical and pharmaceutical products, and textiles. Israel imported from South Africa steel, cement, timber, and sugar.
Glenn Frankel, who teaches journalism at Stanford University, was Southern Africa, Jerusalem, and London bureau chief for the Washington Post and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa by Sasha Polakow-Suransky will be published May 25 by Pantheon Books.
History is a great teacher, but sometimes it packs a nasty sense of irony. A case in point: South African Prime Minister John Vorster’s visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem in April 1976, where he laid a wreath to the victims of the German Reich he once extolled.
South Africa's prime minister John Vorster (second from right) is feted by Israel's prime minister Yitzhak Rabin (right) and Menachem Begin (left) and Moshe Dayan during his 1976 visit to Jerusalem. Photograph: Sa'ar Ya'acovIt’s bad enough that a former Nazi sympathizer was treated like an honored guest by the Jewish state. Even worse was the purpose behind Vorster’s trip to Israel: to cement the extensive military relationship between Israel and the apartheid regime, a partnership that violated international law and illicitly provided the white-minority government with the weaponry and technology to help sustain its grip on power and its oppression of the black majority over two decades.
Israel’s Own Shameful History and Apartheid
≈ Cross-posted from BooMan’s fp story — Reflecting Back ≈
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."