This week long time White House "reporter" and now columnist Helen Thomas made the following anti-Semantic comments:
Q: Any comments on Israel?
Helen Thomas: "Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine. [She laughs] Remember, these people are occupied and it's their land and it's not Germany and it's not Poland."
Q: So, where should they go?
HT: "They should go home."
Q: Where's home?
HT: "Poland. Germany. And America and everywhere else".
I don't care how old she is.... she is a hateful anti-Semitic and she should be fired and no respectable newspaper should carry her column ! She is evil!
I never thought I would be quoting Clinton apologist Lanny Davis but he and I agree on this issue.
*Former Clinton attorney and White House spokesman Lanny Davis issued the following statement on White House correspondent Helen Thomas's incindiary remarks contra Israel. The statement is lightly edited for clarity:
Helen Thomas, who I used to consider a close friend and who I used to respect, has showed herself to be an anti-Semitic bigot. This is not about her criticisms of Israel. She has a right to criticize Israel and that is not the same as being an anti-Semite.
However, her statement that Jews in Israel should leave Israel and go back to Poland or Germany is an ancient and well-known anti-Semitic stereotype of the Alien Jew not belonging in the "land of Israel" — one that began 2,600 years with the first tragic and violent diaspora of the Jews at the hands of the Romans.
If she had asked all blacks to go back to Africa, what would the White House Correspondents Association position be as to whether she deserved White House press room credentials — much less a privileged honorary seat?
Does anyone doubt that my friends Ann Compton, head of the WHCA, and Joe Lockhart, who believe in the First Amendment right of free expression as much as I do, would be as tolerant and protective of Helen's privileges and honors in the White House press room as they appear to be if she had been asking Blacks to return to Africa? Or Native Americans to Asia and South America, from which they came 8,000 or more years ago? I doubt it.
Of course Helen has the right as a private citizen under the First Amendment to speak her mind, even as an anti-Jewish bigot — but not as a member, much less privileged member with a reserved seat, in the White House Press Corps.
* From National Review Online
