Helen Thomas Syndrome

In a post about Muslims at Vox Day's blog, a commenter named Carolus said:


You're forgetting about Helen Thomas, longtime leftist media propagandist, who was forced into 'retirement' for making some less-than-obsequious remark about the non-existent lobby which cannot be named. (emphasis added)


I'm giving Carolus the benefit of the doubt, and assuming that he didn't read Ms. Thomas' actual words. If he did read and comprehend her remarks, I'm not sure what other conclusion I can reach, except that -- like Helen Thomas -- he doesn't like Israeli Jews.

Here's a transcript of Thomas' controversial comments:


RABBI DAVID NESENOFF, RABBILIVE.COM: Any comments on Israel? We're asking everybody today. Any comments on Israel?

HELEN THOMAS, FMR. HEARST COLUMNIST: Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any better comments than that?

THOMAS: Remember, these people are occupied and it's their land. It's not Germany and it's not Poland.

NESENOFF: So where should they go? What should they do?

THOMAS: They go home.

NESENOFF: Where's home?

THOMAS: Poland, Germany.

NESENOFF: So you think Jews should go back to Poland and Germany?

THOMAS: And America and everywhere else.


Notice that Thomas said nothing specific about "the non-existent lobby which cannot be named" (the Israel lobby). Hers was a blanket, condemnatory statement about the Jews of Israel. Characterizing her opinion as "less-than-obsequious" allows her more credit than she deserves.

Give this some thought. She's calling for a second exodus of all the Jews of Israel, demanding that they leave the region the Romans called Palestine en masse, and return to countries where they were persecuted: shot by firing squads, locked in gas chambers, burned alive, worked to death in labor camps, robbed, starved, separated from their families against their will, and experimented upon as human guinea pigs in the most inhumane fashion imaginable. I'm referencing Poland and Germany, here.

This is not failure in expected self-abasement. This is not legitimate criticism of Jewish actions or words on a personal or national level. This is "Palestinian" propaganda. This is rejecting Israel's right of existence as the single Jewish nation on Earth. If her spoutings don't qualify as blatantly anti-Israel, then nothing does.

Now, Ms. Thomas has every right in the world to be a Jew-hating, Israel-despising, terrorist-loving bigot. And her employers had every right in the world to tell her to take her hate carnival on the road and never come back. Liberty has consequences. Abuse of liberty also has consequences.

If Al $harpton or Je$$e Jack$on declared that whites should "get the hell out of the U.S.," most of Helen Thomas' defenders wouldn't say, "Well, those are just blacks who decided to leave the plantation," or "They're just being less-than-obsequious." No, they would call it by its proper name: rank hatred of whites.

Apparently, Ms. Thomas remains unburdened by the knowledge that Jews have millennia of history in the Promised Land -- a history that was ancient before the death-worshippers who call themselves "Palestinians" existed. Apparently, she's unaware that the Jewish presence in Israel has remained continuous since Titus sacked and destroyed Jerusalem. Ignorance being bliss, she also remains clueless about the modern nation of Israel's origins -- how a historic connection to the land, years of legal proceedings, and victory through force of arms led to its creation and maintenance. Israel has a right of existence, just as the U.S.A. has a right of existence. One cannot argue with consistency and intellectual honesty against the former, without decrying the latter.

Those who hate Jews and/or Israel follow a specific pattern in their thought processes and rhetoric. Something along these lines:


1. Make extreme, hate-filled, historically-ignorant and biased comments about Jews and/or Israel.

2. Demand and expect zero criticism or consequences for said rhetoric.

3. When faced with inevitable criticism or consequences for such rhetoric, deny hating Jews and/or Israel, while insisting that legitimate criticism of Jews and/or Israel is impossible, since it entails standing outside the politically correct threshold. (Of course, those familiar with the mainstream media's portrayal of the Israeli-"Palestinian" conflict know this is hogwash).

4. The real paranoiacs reach this step: those criticizing or enacting consequences upon them are closeted Jews.


It's a nice, comfortable, conspiratorial view: express unlimited hate; when called on this behavior, dismiss critics as PC, Jews, or Jew-sycophants. As I said, a cozy paradigm for those who shun introspection.