Helen Thomas was Wrong, but Who's Right?

[mystieus]

Run time: 02:40 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30XNfNqY3uI   Posted on YouTube: June 08, 2010 By YouTube Member: lauraflanders Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: June 09, 2010 By DU Member: mystieus Views on DU: 1167

 
"After video hit YouTube of eighty-nine year old reporter Helen Thomas, telling an interviewer that Israelis should "get out of Palestine" and go back to Poland and Germany and other places, the white House issued an immediate condemnation. Reprehensible was their word. In the ritual flagellation that's followed, one can't help thinking that the grande dame of the White House press corps would have gotten less grief if she'd purposely cheated the financial system and took taxpayer money to recover."

[ellenfl]

1. i disagree with the premise that she was wrong.

she's entitled to her opinion, isn't she? just because it does not conform to the dictates of the jewish lobby, doesn't make her opinion wrong. looked at without calling it anti-semitic, her response is not unreasonable.

ellen fl

[underpants]

2. When a Republican makes an assinine statement 20% of the air time is taken discussing their RIGHT

to say it

not the same with Dems-they are condemned immediately

[WileEcoyote]

4. You want us to be held to a lower standard?

Lower that standard and what do you get?

Answer: Two Republican parties which is practically what we have sometimes...

[jjewell]

7. I agree. As I've said before...

I don't see Helen Thomas' comment as any different than someone saying "The Australians ought to give Australia back to the Aborigines", or "The United States ought to give America back to the Native Americans".

I may agree or disagree with the statement, but since neither Australia, America nor Israel are ever going to be returned to their original occupants anyway, this is a non-controversy in my opinion and no big deal.

I think it's a damn shame that Thomas' long career had to end because she expressed an unpopular opinion.

[Cary]

8. Except that there were Jews who lived there before any of people whom you assume to be

"aborignes." One sixth of the population of the region called "Palestine" was Jews. 76% of that region is now called "Jordan" but everyone seems to forget about that.

[jjewell]

10. Oh c'mon...

Do you actually believe that the people you're referring to are the same people Thomas was referring to? Gimme a break...

[Cary]

11. Her comment was profoundly stupid on many levels.

I give her a little bit of a break because she is 89 years old. But oh c'mon yourself. As Bill Press said this morning, not even she could defend what she said.

You can't spin this one.

[jjewell]

13. I'll accept the little "age break" but...

You "spun" off my question to quote Bill Press. Why not answer the question instead? The answer to the question IS, after all, why I titled the post "Oh c'mon..." ;-)

[Cary]

14. She didn't qualify her statement

You're asking me to make sense of something that was profoundly stupid. I'm not a mind reader or a magician, but she hasn't qualified it.

I stick by what I wrote.

[stray cat]

3. Pat Buchannon?

[Lil Missy]

5. Helen was right. n/t

[yava]

6. No Helen was wrong but...

That some Jews must go home is not wrong.
Its not those who were in Palestine/Israel since centuries. Its not those who came to the UN recognized boundaries of Israel from Poland, Germany, Tunesia etc after the establishment of the state of Israel and have long since had children born there.
Those who must go back home are those settlers in Palestinian land mostly after 1967 and mostly mostly after the fall of the Soviet Union. Those include foreign minister of Israel Mr Lieberman.

So: Russians, go home! Yes.

[Cary]

9. Who gave you the right to declare this?

What does 1967 have to do with anything?

Sounds to me like you're channeling that old "Khazars Fake Jew" anti-Semitic libel. Please tell me you're not doing that.

[SemperEadem]

16. to you, she was wrong.

others can make up their own minds as to the rightness or wrongness of what she said.

[ilaughatrightwingers]

12. Upsetting

Why are our officials more outraged at Helen's comments than the KILLING OF AN AMERICAN CITIZEN by Israel? I just don't get it.

[sabrina 1]

15. Good question!

[SemperEadem]

17. exactly... absolutely no kind of outcry over murder.

[sasquuatch55]

18. Another convenient minor distraction, blown out of proportion

for a "hey look over there" to take minds away from a more serious problem.