Yes. She’s the old lady who’s been in the front row of the WH Press Room since the McKinley administration.
I was born in Jerusalem, so I suppose I should move back there, right? After all, that’s where I come from. I prefer living in Tel Aviv, but if Ms. Thomas insists, then I guess I have to move.
I’ll go pack.
Oh, and BTW, it’s nice to see so much forgiveness for ethnic cleaning here on the SDMB. Just when I think I have this place figured out, there’s always someone to take it one step further.
I still wasn’t complaining about you.
For what it’s worth - almost everyone in this thread, myself included, regards Thomas’ comments as appalling. The only question is whether Thomas is merely suffering the effects of age (this is my view) or she has always had such bizarre fringe views.
As for moving from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem - well, which has better curry?
This is what you said:
(Emphasis is mine)
I think that supports my take on it. Although I thought people were saying she also said something about the U.S.
So she starts out being asked about Israel and then the questioner switches it to Jews. While I am still not happy with the way it was expressed by Ms. Thomas, I can certainly understand that she was played and is still being played “gotcha” by the people who conflate Israel with Jews for the purpose of oppressing Palestinians.
You don’t see a problem with the equivalent “blacks ought to go back to Africa”, either?
Just checking…
hajario
And you are “everyone” in a general sense since when?
That’s a crap objection. She says “they” should get out of Palestine. Who do you think she’s talking about? How is it a gotcha if you ask someone to elaborate on their views and they insist on saying something stupid?
From what I understand, around half of the Jewish population of Israel trace their ancestry from other countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The few remaining Jews in these countries (There is still a large number of Iranian Jews) have a pretty difficult time of things, by all accounts. I’m not certain if they would have a place to go back to. I’m also sure that through intermarriage, a large number of present Israelis whose ancestors largely came from Poland or the USA can find at least one ancestor who lived in the general area of Israel/Palestine before 1948.
I always liked Helen Thomas after the Stephen Colbert White House Correspondents’ Dinner, so it does bum me out a little to see her end her career by pulling an Andrew Johnson (who was president when she still sat in the second row).
It wasn’t “everyone” in a general sense. It was “everyone in this thread” and I am one of the fewer than twelve or so people in the thread to that point.
It’s not equivalent. Most black people in this country are descended from people who were brought here forcefully and the last one of them has been dead for well over a century. Most Israelis are descended from people who emigrated voluntarily and a lot of them are still alive. Huge numbers of Russian Jews emigrate to this day.
That’s not an equivalent. The equivalent would be with saying that white people should get out of South Africa.
Israelis.
I’ve got to admit, I haven’t followed Helen Thomas’ career much. Okay, at all. I guess I’ve always just thought of her as a White House “fixture”- she’s always there, and you always call on her if only out of respect for her longevity.
But damn, what’s with the Rightie hate on her? They’re all crowing about how she finally got what was coming to her. I can’t tell who they hate more- her, ACORN, or Obama.
So you think she wants Israeli Muslims to get out of the country and go back to their homelands, such as Germany, Poland, and the U.S.?
Is she the only one in that group who is not actually a reporter anymore? She’s been a columnist (not a news reporter) for some time now. If she was the only one, then she should have excused herself long before this.
She made such a practice of challenging Ari Fleischer on Bush’s Iraq bullshit that he stopped calling on her. The rest of the press corps didn’t want to do it for fear of losing their precious White House passes, and all the glamor that goes with being in it, but she was invulnerable.