ÿþ<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1"> <title>OnlineColumnist®.com: Putin Punishes Georgia</title> <meta name="generator" content="Adobe GoLive 4"> <style type="text/css"> .style3 { height: 68px; } .MsoNormal {} h1 {margin-bottom:.0001pt; page-break-after:avoid; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; font-weight:normal; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; } .style4 { font-size: large; font-weight: bold; font-family: Arial; } .style6 { height: 69px; } h2 {margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center; page-break-after:avoid; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Arial; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; } .style7 { font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold; } </style> </head> <body bgcolor="white" vlink="black"> <center> &nbsp;<table cool width="624" height="2719" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" gridx="16" showgridx gridy="16" showgridy> <tr> <td width="133" height="118" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"> <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="110" width="62" src="images/discobolos.logo.transp.gif" border="0"></a></td> <td width="7" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="482" colspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="140" class="style6"><img height="75" width="450" src="images/banner.GIF"></td> <td width="1" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" class="style6"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="79"></td> </tr> <tr height="39"> <td width="182" height="39"></td> <td width="300" height="39" valign="top" align="left" xpos="322"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="14" width="267" src="images/divisionofNEW.GIF" border="0"></a></td> <td width="1" height="39"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="39"></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="624" colspan="6" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0" class="style3"> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="black" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="#99ffcc" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4"> <tr> <td align="center"> <div align="left"> <a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> HOME</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> &#8226; <a href="articlesindex.html">ARTICLES</a> &#8226; <a href="books.html">BOOKS</a> &#8226; <a href="teflon.html"> THE </a><a href="teflon.html">TEFLON</a><a href="teflon.html"> REPORT</a> &#8226; <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com"> REACTIONS</a> &#8226; <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">ABOUT DISCOBOLOS</a></strong></font></div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr height="2"> <td width="133" height="2"></td> <td width="489" height="2576" colspan="3" rowspan="2" align="left" xpos="133" content valign="top" csheight="2573"> <p class="style4">Helen Thomas&#39; Shameful Racism</p> <p><b><font face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica">by John M. Curtis</font></b><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b><a href="books.html"><br> </a></b></font><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b> (310) 204-8700</b></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><i>Copyright June 7, 2010<br>All Rights Reserved. </i></font>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </p> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <bAbout the Author</u> <p class="MsoNormal"> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="style7">T</span>elling Jews to  go home in a live radio interview May 27 with RabbiLive.com, 89-year-old grand dame of the White House Press Corps. Helen Thomas decided to abruptly retire June 7.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Calling her comments  offensive and  reprehensible, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs distanced himself from Thomas, despite the administration s tense relationship with Israel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Relations headed south when Vice President Joe Biden visited Israel March 9 and was blindsided by Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai s announcement to build new units in the West Bank settlement of Ramat Schlomo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Biden hoped for some concessions from Israel to jumpstart the peace process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Continued building in the West Bank is a deal-breaker for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> When the Israeli navy killed nine  peace activists violating the blockade June 1, relations hit a new low.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Helen s outrageous comments were tinged by recent events but hark back to her Lebanese roots, having little sympathy for the U.S. s No. 1 Mideast ally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Jews should  get the hell out of Palestine&quot; and  go home to Poland, Germany, America and  everywhere else, said Thomas, shocking fellow reporters, especially the White House Press Corps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Thomas covered every president since President John F. Kennedy, giving her a kind of seniority not seen by other White House correspondents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Since covering the White House in the early sixties, Helen has been critical of Israel, buying the Palestinian line that Jews occupy Arab lands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Thomas never mentions that Arabs attacked Israel in 1967, losing the Six-Day War and territories of Egypt s Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula, Jordan s West Bank and Syria s Golan Heights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>She insists the land belongs to Palestinians without any sovereignty.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Thomas bigoted remarks cost her current job as Hearst Newspapers&#39; White House bureau chief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>She was abruptly dropped by her speakers bureau  Nine Speakers, Inc. and cancelled from an upcoming graduation speech at D.C. s Walt Whitman High.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Thomas abruptly issued and apology for her public remarks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come in the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>May that day come soon, said Thomas, falling short of a full mea culpa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Saying her remarks  does not go far enough, Anti-defamation League Director Abraham Foxman called on Thomas to apologize to Jews for her hurtful comments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Spewing platitudes about Mideast peace doesn t undo her racist comments about Jews.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Telling Jews to go back to Germany, Poland and the U.S. is precisely the same hate speech of Iran s anti-Semitic President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Hosting a Holocaust deniers conference in Tehran Dec. 11, 2006, Ahmadinejad, like Thomas, told European nation s to relocate Israel to the  fatherlands from which they fled during Adolf Hitler s Nazi persecution in WW II.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Thomas wants her journalist colleagues to believe her statements were a fluke, when in fact she s been ragging on Israel for her entire career.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Telling Israeli Jews, many of whom escaped or survived Hitler s death camps in WW II, to go back to Poland, Germany and the U.S. smacks of Ahmadinejad s brand of anti-Semitism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Lauded as a respected member of the White House Press Corps. doesn t jibe with her racist remarks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Thomas remarks have nothing to do with the First Amendment.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Thomas went over the deep end, caught up in all the hubbub over Israel s recent attempts to enforce its Gaza blockade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Telling Jews to go back to  the fatherlands in Europe reveals her deep personal hatred toward Jews.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Her remarks were outrageous, offensive and inappropriate, especially since she uttered them on a day the White House had set aside to celebrate the extraordinary accomplishments of American Jews during Jewish Heritage Month, said Foxman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Though born August 4, 1920 in Winchester, Kentucky, Thomas remained true to her family s Lebanese roots.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Her pointed questions about Israel over the years relates to her sympathies toward Palestinians, agreeing with Hezbollah s and Hamas hatred toward the Jewish State.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Telling Israelis to go back to Europe or the U.S. were not out-of-character.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Considered a liberal Democrat, Thomas was alienated during former President George W. Bush s years.<![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Thomas distinguished journalistic career came crashing down after expressing publicly her anti-Semitic views.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>After breaking glass ceilings for female journalists, Thomas ends her career on a sour note.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Her shameful public remarks reveal her true feelings about Jews, with whom she s contended since starting her journalism career in 1942 after graduating Wayne State University in Detroit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>She joined United Press International in 1942 and became the first female officer in the National Press Club. Telling Jews to go back to Europe or America offended many journalists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> She should lose her job other this, said former Bush Press Secretary Ari Fleischer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>No one can say Helen Thomas hastened her early retirement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Given her advanced age, it s obvious Helen no longer has the decorum needed to acquit herself as a White House correspondent or professional journalist.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><b>John M. Curtis </b>writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He&#x2019;s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of <a href="books.html">Dodging The Bullet</a> and <a href="books.html">Operation Charisma</a>.</p> </td> <td width="1" height="2576" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="2"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2"></td> </tr> <tr height="2574"> <td width="133" height="2574" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><img height="172" width="111" src="images/johninframe3.jpg"></td> <td width="1" height="2574"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2574"></td> </tr> <tr height="1" cntrlrow> <td width="133" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="133" height="1"></td> <td width="7" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="7" height="1"></td> <td width="182" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="182" height="1"></td> <td width="300" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="300" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" width="597"> <tr> <td><font size="1" face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica"> <hr noshade size="1"> </font><a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> Homecobolos> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">©1999-2005 <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"> Discobolos Consulting Services, Inc.</a><br> (310) 204-8300<br> All Rights Reserved. </font></td> </tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>