Soccerdad has the right idea, but too narrow an angle. It’s not just the Palestinians who won’t acknowledge the Jewish history in Israel. Take a look at some of the comments from the Washington Post:
It was an idiotic comment, certainly, but an isolated one compared to the hateful crap that spews out of the Fox Network every day uncontested by mainstream journalists such as herself.
And:
I like Helen Thomas. So what if she made a frank statement. She’s made lots of frank statements before, and I love her for it.
And:
The Holocaust was a disgusting example of the ills that society and any human can unleash on others, but what of the unnamed holocaust unleashed on the Palestinians since the end of WWII? Does the suffering of one group of people justify the suffering of another group (not related to the suffering of the first group) at the hands of the formerly oppressed? Stop hiding behind the holocaust. It does not give Israelis the right to oppress the Palestinians, nor does it give Israeli sympathizers the right to blackball or muzzle those who speak out against their atrocities.
And:
I’ve been waiting for a long time for someone to have the courage to say what Helen Thomas said, for the Jews to get the Hell out of Palestine. The last time I looked, this country still had freedom of speech, or does that apply to everything except the subject of Israel/Jews? I’m sick and tired of our support of Israel. Israel is arrogant and they shove their religion down everyone’s throat. Just because their Bible says the land is theirs does not justify moving in and taking over someone else’s land, i.e., the Palestinians. I’ve got the guts to say what needs to be said — Israel, get the Hell out of Palestine.
Think those are one-offs? Nah. Here’s one that didn’t get through my comments moderation:
Thank you, Helen, for saying the truth even when no one wants to hear it. Israel is just the most recent Crusader colony of Europeans. How can so many of us fail to see the wrongness in the survivors of Hitler’s holocaust going on to commit lebensraum in someone else’s continent?
And another:
If we can question our president and our own government, why can’t we question and criticize Israel? What happened to freedom of speech?
Helen Thomas is true American and did what was right. I completely support Helen Thomas and all journalists who dare to speak out what we all fell about Israel. It might just be time for us to open up our eyes and stop US aid to Israel.
Note the theme. She was right. She’s just “criticizing” Israel. Jews don’t belong in the land of their origin. It’s the Palestinians’ land. Jews stole it. Israel is committing a “holocaust”. Where have I seen these before? Well, on all comment threads, all over the world, whenever Israel is discussed. Go take a look at the Guardian comment threads sometime for the best naked Jew-hatred this side of Stormfront. And while we’re on the subject of Stormfront, let me point out a few things. I read Stormfront’s message boards from time to time, particularly when something like this comes up. I’m familiar with their arguments, their [ahem] logic, and their resources.
I find no difference between comments like the ones above, and the typical Stormfront commenter.
When the Peter Beinarts and Leon Wieseltiers of the world tell us that we are exaggerating the threat to Jews, they are speaking from ignorance. As our current president told us not long ago: Words matter. The words against Jews have been rising exponentially since 2001. I’ve been reading them in media outlets from all over the world. I’ve documented them on my blog. Words. Matter.
So do events. The second intifada ended with the Palestinians’ utter defeat. The suicide bombings are now extremely rare. Terror attacks have dropped to their lowest levels since the invention of the suicide bomber by the Palestinians. Israel completely withdrew from Gaza. Israel completely withdrew from Lebanon. Palestinians in the West Bank have more freedom of movement and are governing themselves at the highest rate since they began the intifada.
None of that makes a difference to the commenters I quoted above. This article gives a great explanation of why Helen was fired, and what was wrong with what she said. It explains perfectly what was so awful about her words. And this commenter proves that the explanation simply doesn’t matter:
Israel DOES need to get the hell out of Palestine – and Germany hasn’t been exterminating any Jews for 65 years now, but the horrible conditions that Israel has been imposing on these people is inexcusable. Give them their land and move on in peace. The only other alternative is for Israel to declare genocide against the Palestinians, which makes THEM the Nazis.
The world does not like the Jews. It never did.
Update: This post was linked on AOL’s search. It was the second result for “What did Helen Thomas say exactly?” You would not believe the vile comments coming from AOL readers—even the ones who read the post.
But Meryl it is not JUST Thomas. Or Beinart. Or Wieseltier.
Rabbi Lerner of Tikkun is holding a memorial service for the terrorists on board the flotilla. I don’t recall he ever held a memorial for victims of 9/11, let alone the Israeli victims – both Jew and non-Jew – of the intifada. (But I might be wrong.)
Rabbit Lerner is a PROGRESSIVE Jew. So I guess THAT explains it.
It is a good thing for Israel that there are tens of millions of Christian Zionists in this country. Not to mention millions more Christian Zionists in the rest of the world.
This is the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard. Gaza is run by terrorist no different than Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. The West Bank is doing fine. If Canada was Gaza, and there were terrorists there, would the US stop a “humanitarian” ship??? Hmmm…..I think so. What is wrong with people. Why does everyone always blame the Jewish people. If that is the case, then humanity would be extinct, as most people would be dead from polio – both Salk and Sabin were Jewish. Einstein was Jewish, also. Look it up, by percentage of the world’s population the Jewish people have given more to society than any other group. The Hepatitis B vaccine was discovered by two Jewish people, Baruch Blumberg and Irving Millman, invention of chemotherapy by three Jewish people, actually too many discoveries to enumerate. So, if you get rid of all the Jewish people, there goes humanity.
Unfortunity we can NOT go back. We in America know only too whell that none of us can go back to the land of our grandparents
But America had a chance to welcome Jewish people who were escaping the Natzys but we sent the ship away and sent it to the middle east bild Isreal, a place that had people already living there….Just like we came over to this country to settle here when thier were already peopple living here. Its bound to lead to bloodshed. sad but true we americans have made a lot of awful messes.
and it can not be fixed by going in a way back machine and changing the past
“If the Palistinians lay down their weapons there will be no war. If the Israelis lay down their weapons there will be no Israel.”
That’s all you need to know to understand who is right and who is wrong in this struggle.
That theme is also an extremely Eurocentric one. It pretends that no Jews exist other than the European refugees! It not only ignores the Jews who have lived in Israel for 3,000 years, but it also ignores the Jews who had lived elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa since they were dispersed by the Babylonian and Roman invasions. “Go back to Europe”? These Jews were never from Europe. They are from Eretz Yisrael.
Here is the thing with the Palestinian Arabs. They could have had a state in 1948 but they did not want one, they wanted only to kill Jews. During the Mandate period the Jews established a shadow government, with the institutions of government ready to take over when independence came. The Arabs did no such thing. All they had was the Arab Higher Committee, a collection of the members of the effendi class terrorized into going along with Haj Amin al-Husseini in his attempt at genocide of the Jews (he was Hitler and Himmler’s good friend). The Palestinian Arabs having lost the war they started, the other Arab states came to invade Israel and kill the Jews. They lost too. When you start a genocidal war to destroy a neighboring state and exterminate its people, as the Arabs did, and lose, as the Arabs did, you may expect to lose some land. You may thank Allah, or whomever you wish, that you did not lose more. Anyone in any doubt about this matter should ask the Germans about Silesia, Pomerania, and Prussia.
The Arabs missed a great opportunity here. They might have said to themselves “We’re having a lot of trouble with this here modern world thingy. The Jews are the people who have adapted to the modern world best of everybody. Let’s let them settle in their ancestral land. All they want is this little sliver of land, about the size of New Jersey state in the USA. They can help us adapt to modernity.” Instead they screamed “Kill the Jews” and have been wallowing in political, economic, and cultural squalor, in oppressive tyrannies and basket-case economies, ever since.
Go back?
http://render64.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/where-are-the-jews-of-the-world/
There is no back to go to.
If the West Bank and Gaza are supposed to be so bad, so horrid as to invoke imagery of the Holocaust, then why are Muslims immigrating into both regions?
RHETORIC,
R
We have to distinguish between Jewish whom have the RIGHT to be in middle-east and those who came from Europe.the problem of Israel is “trying to make their religion a Nationality for their people”.Jewish like others have different nationality “from middle east,Russia , Europe , Africa, …etc”. If I am Christian Arab, it doesn’t mean I belong to USA or Britain or Europe,but to Arab country ,and if I am American Muslim it doesn’t mean I belong to Islamic country ,But USA.So any one belong to middle east regardless of his religion have the right to stay and others must leave .We listen always “Jewish belong to middle east since 3000 years ” this is TRUE they belong . but not Polish , Russian, English,American and dutch People. Jewish people lived in our region in Syria, Iraq,Yemen, Palestine, Lebanon,Saudi Arabia as brothers and cousins.
the big crime is transfer all Jewish from different countries to Palestine and deported native Arab Palestinian peoples . I don’t have a problem with Jewish but with Injustice.