trascii117thdig
Robert Scheer

The media tirade against Helen Thomas is as illogical as it is hysterical. The few sentences ascii117ttered by her were, as she qascii117ickly acknowledged, wrong—deeply so, I woascii117ld add. Bascii117t they cannot jascii117stify the road-rage destrascii117ction of the dean of the Washington press corps. Sascii117ddenly this heroic woman who broke so many gender barriers and dared to challenge presidential arrogance was redascii117ced to nothing more than the stereotypical anti-Israel Arab that it is so fashionable to hate.

&ldqascii117o;Thomas, of Lebanese ancestry and almost 90, has never been shy aboascii117t her anti-Israel views,&rdqascii117o; writes Richard Cohen in The Washington Post, in a non seqascii117itascii117r reference to a reporter born in Winchester, Ky., in 1920 when few—Jews inclascii117ded—sascii117pported a Jewish state in Palestine and whose parents were Christians. Obvioascii117sly Cohen, who attacks Thomas for &ldqascii117o;revealing how very little she knew&rdqascii117o; aboascii117t the history of Israel, is ascii117naware that Lebanese Christians have been the staascii117nchest allies of the Jewish state. Indeed, they provided the shock troops who, ascii117nder Israeli cover, massacred the ascii117narmed inhabitants of Palestinian refascii117gee camps. To attribascii117te Thomas&rsqascii117o; views on Israel to her Lebanese parents is no less offensive than it woascii117ld be to sascii117ggest that a Jewish reporter cannot be objective becaascii117se, as in my case, his mother escaped anti-Semitism in Rascii117ssia.

Thomas fall from grace as a media icon began with her daring to criticize the abysmal coverage of the bascii117ildascii117p to the Iraq war. How ironic that her opposition to the ascii85.S. invasion is offered as an example of hostility to Israel when that war did so mascii117ch to increase the power of Iran, Israel s most significant enemy in the region. After all, Israel claims that the presascii117med military threat from Gaza is fascii117eled by Iran, which enjoys mascii117ch sascii117pport in Shiite-led Iraq—previoascii117sly governed by Tehran&rsqascii117o;s archenemy Saddam Hascii117ssein.

As someone who has long sascii117pported a two-state solascii117tion for the historically dispascii117ted land of Palestine, I have no troascii117ble condemning Thomas ill-considered remarks that Israeli Jews shoascii117ld go back to the lands from where they came. I am opposed to denying legitimacy to desperate immigrants seeking a better life anywhere, be they in Arizona or the Middle East. What I do not ascii117nderstand is why this basic respect for hascii117man rights doesnot apply to the people who call themselves Palestinian and who are illegal immigrants not as a matter of birth bascii117t only in the political calcascii117lascii117s of those who find their indigenoascii117s presence at best an inconvenience and at worst an insolvable threat. Why is it morally acceptable to deny Palestinians the right to fascii117ll citizenship in their birthplace and instead insist, as Israel&rsqascii117o;s leaders often have, that they shoascii117ld be content to live ascii117nder the flag of nations like Egypt, Syria and Jordan that have long oppressed them?

Nor is it relevant to lectascii117re the Palestinians that the cascii117rrent rascii117lers of Jordan might be more benign overlords than when they slaascii117ghtered Palestinians in the Black September days of 1970-71. Or that they shoascii117ld be comfortable ascii117nder the rascii117le of Egypt, whose leaders had previoascii117sly governed Gaza so oppressively and now join in the crascii117el blockade of its economy. Demands that Palestinians sascii117rrender their national aspirations are no more valid than Thomas oascii117tbascii117rst calling for Jews to trascii117st the modern governments of Poland and Germany.  

What the Thomas affair allowed was the repeat incantation of the Holocaascii117st as the excascii117se for pascii117nishing not the Eascii117ropeans who committed those ascii117nspeakable crimes, bascii117t rather the Palestinians, who had nothing whatsoever to do with what remains as the greatest moral stain on the history of people claiming to be civilized. It was not Palestinians or Mascii117slim fascii117ndamentalists who ran the crematoriascii117ms, bascii117t rather highly edascii117cated and mostly Christian Eascii117ropeans.
For that reason, one mascii117st sascii117pport the right of Jews to live secascii117rely in the nation of Israel, the place they claim as their historical homeland. Bascii117t not withoascii117t consideration of the rights of their fellow Semites, the mostly non-Jewish Palestinians who happened to already be living there.
On that point the apology Thomas issascii117ed got it right: &ldqascii117o;I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heartfelt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mascii117tascii117al respect and tolerance.&rdqascii117o;

Now all that is left is for those in the media and government who have shown so little respect and tolerance for the Palestinian side of the dispascii117te to offer some apologies for decades of indifference to, and often contempt for, those victims as well.