Monday, June 7, 2010

Helen Thomas Retires

Helen Thomas commenting that 'Israeli Jews should get the hell out of Palestine' has ended with her resignation despite a 'lukewarm apology'.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTdjZGYwMjFiZTFmZDRkZGI2ZGIzY2M3NGE3MWU1NTY=

"Hearst newspapers has just announced the retirement of Helen Thomas, effective immediately:




HELEN THOMAS ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT



WASHINGTON, June 7, 2010 – Helen Thomas announced Monday that she is retiring, effective immediately.


Her decision came after her controversial comments about Israel and the Palestinians were captured on videotape and widely disseminated on the Internet.


Thomas later issued a statement: ``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.’’


Thomas will mark her 90th birthday on Aug. 4.



The announcement coincides with a chiding release from the White House Correspondents Association, which called Thomas's statements "indefensible" and was to vote on potential disciplinary action against Thomas, a move made moot by her retirement."

2 comments:

  1. I will respond to your nonsense about the flotilla incident here:

    "Defense" is what every authoritarian system says it is doing no matter what how wrong. The nazis said they were doing things in self-defense. Regarding the blockade of Gaza itself -- about which "Dov Weisglass, an adviser to Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister [said when it was first imposed]: 'The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger'".

    If you actually look at the things what Israel keeps out of Gaza, it becomes obvious to everyone not deluded to the extreme, that this is a disater:

    http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/06/03/what_exactly_is_the_blockade_of_gaza

    but you are that deluded, or at least ethno-centircally or maybe just very tribal, who cares either way, you come to the conclusion then that response to what is obviously a humanitarian disaster put on by israel and the United States must always be tied with anti-semitism. You are blinded.

    So you do this:"You have not said anything that proved what I said wrong, still waiting for the condemnation of Egypt that should accompany such a move that if you really want to argue is not 'generally anti-Semitic' you must at least admit is 'anti-Semitic to Israeli Jews'" which is totally weird.

    Who is arguing that it is not "generally anti-semitic"? or that this is even a widely held idea among the "left"? You couldn't even prove something like at if you wanted to, all you could do was present all the evidence it wasn't true, and even then you probably would still just believe whatever you wanted to.

    is there irrational jew or israel hatred among people making policy in Egypt, sure- but that means the U.S. too is respinsbile becaus ethey exist with our assistance. As for Israel we are tottally responsible for most if not all of what they do partyly because most Jews who grow up don't question the fact that we have it pounded into our heads from the day we are born with the notion to defend Israel no matter what it does.
    I don't think you will write about it, because you also won't write about when Israel breaks up families under land it controls: the West Bank. Instead you will likely just defend that- because you don't care when there are Arabs involved? or what?

    "I

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  2. srael defending themselves is playing right in to the terrorist's hands. Israel should just roll over and die, that would show the terrorists..."

    the issue was never with Israeli's wanting to defend themselves, the Issue was always with how they choose to do it. Again every authoritarian entity says it is "defense", the nazis, the soviet,s and us still use it to do whatever we want.Yes the way Israel has defended itself has played into terrorist hands, it has made terrorism look attractive for a long time. You will tell Palestinains probbaly that they should only use non-violence for their greviences, and then turn around and excuse whatever it is that is done by Jews.
    Hamas commit's serious crimes, but Israel's are far worse- a function of it just having more power.

    "The "Useful Idiots" are the people who have deluded themselves into thinking that Muslims calling for the extinction of all Jews, who are actively trying to kill all Jews, is the innocent party."
    Useful idiots is a term used by Stalin to call soviet sympathizing journalists. Likewise it applies to people "usefully sympathetic" to any power structure, such as Israel. So even though the Hamas commit's serious crimes, Israel's are worse and one's does not excuse the other or condem everyone who lives in Gaza or within Israel. What they are doing is like holding someone personally responsible for the crimes of a family member.

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article3791655.ece

    Israel won't even accept a nucelar free zone, Much the same is true of Israel’s pretext for its latest crime: that the Freedom Flotilla was bringing materials that could be used for bunkers for rockets. Putting aside the absurdity, if Israel were interested in stopping Hamas rockets it knows exactly how to proceed: accept Hamas offers for a ceasefire.

    In June 2008, Israel and Hamas reached a cease-fire agreement. The Israeli government formally acknowledges that until Israel broke the agreeement on November 4, invading Gaza and killing half a dozen Hamas activists, Hamas did not fire a single rocket. Hamas offered to renew the ceasefire. The Israeli cabinet considered the offer and rejected it, preferring to launch its murderous and destructive Operation Cast Lead on December 27. Evidently, there is no justification for the use of force “in self-defense” unless peaceful means have been exhausted. In this case they were not even tried, although—or perhaps because—there was every reason to suppose that they would succeed. Operation Cast Lead is therefore sheer criminal aggression, with no credible pretext, and the same is true of Israel’s current resort to force.orhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/jan/12/israel




    As for the Helen Thomas condemnation fest and subsequent resignation today, the central issue and The American Prospect's Adam Serwer adeptly document -- is not the perception that she's guilty of bigotry, but the wrong kind of bigotry. Anyone who doubts that should compare the cheap, easy and self-righteous outrage orgy against the powerless, 89-year-old columnist to the total non-reaction in the face of the incessant and ongoing anti-Arab bigotry of The New Republic's Marty Peretz, or to the demands of then-House Majority Leader Dick Armey that the Palestinians leave the West Bank and go back to where they came from, and similar statements from Mike Huckabee (still gainfully employed at Fox News).

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