Helen Thomas steps in it, quits
Veteran journalist Helen Thomas abruptly retired Monday after treading into some deep doo-doo with recent remarks in which she said Israelis should “get the hell out of Palestine.” Thomas, 89, a fixture in the White House briefing room for decades, apologized on her Web site on Friday but still faced fallout as the new week began. Her employer, Hearst Newspapers, announced her retirement soon after the White House called the Israel/Palestine remarks “indefensible.” Before the announcement the board of the White House Correspondents Association reportedly was considering action, and Thomas was dropped as commencement speaker at a suburban Washington high school. Thomas was a pioneer for women in journalism, working for UPI for 57 years before joining Hearst in 2000 as a columnist. During the Bush administration her liberal leanings increasingly showed in edgy questions put to the president and his representatives. National Review Online’s Jonah Goldberg writes Thomas’ comments weren’t surprising. “Can we do away with all of the shock and dismay at Thomas’ statement?” Goldberg wrote. “Everyone knows she is a nasty piece of work and has been a nasty piece of work for decades.” Nasty no more.
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No surprise. Helen Thomas is the daughter of Arab
Lebanese immigrants to the US. After WWII the US and British government did not want hundreds of thousands Jewish Holocaust survivors immigrating to the US or UK.
The Israelis forced millions of Palestinians out of
their homes with northern Palistinians forced into
Lebanese refugee camps. The presence of an Israeli state on their southern border has been a cancer to Lebanon.
Israel is a liability to the US and playing the Holocaust card is becoming tiresome. Its time for a real even handed policy beginning with stopping all US aid to Isreal until they stop building settlements on the West Bank.
So if you ask hard questions when all the others accepted the too numerous to count lies about our attacking Iraq means you are Liberal.Helen is a Joan of Ark..Israel commandos assaulted supply ships and shot a 19 yr old unarmed American once in the chest and 4 time in the head,a reporter once in the head.Helen misspoke about a crisis dear to her heart.She was also taken out of context….Nuclear Israeli cruise missiles are moving in on Iran.These fear driven Israeli leaders and media may nuke the middle east.
That cartoon seems like overkill. Is it such a big deal while BP’s disaster is devastating the Gulf Coast?
Give her a break. She was at least half right and Israel should get out of the West Bank and the Palestinians should work out a deal. Until then my view is a pox on both your houses. She was a gadfly to a lot of presidents and isn’t that what a journalist should be? I wish I had an 89-year-old granny who could upset AIPAC.