Business As Usual
By Mitch Berg
Just so we’re clear on things – this blog is an unabashed supporter of Israel. I say this as a firmly committed goy.
That is not to say Israel is perfect; it is to say that the Jewish State has extended itself in the interest of peace, over and over again, and gotten slapped for it by the “international community” every time.
Yoram Dori – an advisor to Shimon Peres – responds to Helen “Send ’em back to Warsaw” Thomas by noting that his parents, like so many Israelis, come to Israel from those countries for very good reason; his father and mother were the only survivors of their families from Austria and Poland, respectively. Over two out of three German Jews died during World War II; nine out of ten Polish Jews died as well.
That is why they went to Israel in the first place; because the only parts of the “international community” that didn’t let them down during the war were the parts that were actively hoping for their deaths. Just like today.
IN THE 62 years of our existence, we have had seven wars, thousands of terror attacks, buses which have exploded in streets, firing into schools, mortars fired on kindergartens. Yet you wish to exile us back to the inferno, as if nothing happened 65 years ago in Europe, as if our hands have not been stretched out for peace since the establishment of the state?
We were victorious in the wars imposed upon us by Egypt and we signed a peace agreement with it after yielding all the territory and all the oil. We signed a peace agreement with Jordan. We yielded all the territory and much water. We withdrew from Lebanon to the international border and, in return, we received Hizbullah katyushas on our citizens. We left Gaza and in return, we received massive firing on our citizens in the South. Are you aware, Ms. Thomas, that many children from Sderot and the area around Gaza wet their beds until a late age out of fear of the Hamas missiles? And it is us that you wish to exile? Why? Because you think that we are weak or because it annoys you that we are not defeated?
Lest you think Dori is a fire breathing Tea Matzo Partier…:
As someone, who throughout his adult life has been a member of the Israeli “peace camp,” notwithstanding you and your strange and angering views, my friends and I (and I hope also my government) will continue to turn over every stone and scour every corner to attain peace.
Would that it could be.
Thomas is only the most public, risible example of her kind.
Last year on Marty Owings’ “Radio Free Nation”, I got a chance to ask Representative Keith Ellison if he, in his capacity as the first Muslim in Congress and one of the most powerful people in the Islamic world, repudiated the Hamas charter, which calls for the destruction of Israel and the extinction of the Jews.
His response: “How many Palestinians do you know?”
Y’see, I was the bad guy for asking.
June 7th, 2010 at 12:41 pm
It seems that Helen Thomas’ immediate retirement has been announced today. The babbling loud mouth should have retired many, many years ago. Good riddance!!!
June 7th, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Helen Thomas was wrong, and shame on her for her statements.
Thomas was also un-invited to speak at a high school commencement.
Israel treats anyone – everyone – who is not jewish as second class citizens, not just Palestinians. I support their need to stop missile attacks, and more power to them. There are plenty of Palestinians who agree with that position, the more moderates.
Israel made a mistake in alienating Turkey. If they haven’t been successful with a eyars long blockade of Gaza, it’s time to try something else – and that something else should be as diametrically opposite from what hasn’t worked so far as possible.
We do no favors to Israel by being an uncritical supporter of them, any more than we expect or require our other allies to be uncritical supporters of US.
June 7th, 2010 at 1:05 pm
After 62 years of trying every method to destroy Israel — legal and illegal, barbaric and civilized — the 600 million Muslims in the world should “try something else – and that something else should be as diametrically opposite from what hasn’t worked so far as possible.”
June 7th, 2010 at 1:13 pm
After 62 years of trying every method to destroy Israel — legal and illegal, barbaric and civilized — the 600 million Muslims in the world should “try something else – and that something else should be as diametrically opposite from what hasn’t worked so far as possible.”
No kidding, Terry.
June 7th, 2010 at 1:15 pm
Israel treats anyone – everyone – who is not jewish as second class citizens, not just Palestinians.
Bullshit. There is a large population of Muslim Arab Israelis who have full rights including the right to vote. Compare that to Islamic states which have official Dhimmi Law codified.
Doggie, why do you hate Jews?
June 7th, 2010 at 1:23 pm
Israel made a mistake in alienating Turkey.
DG,
A little background here: I go way back with Turkey. My mom lived there for many years. I have a more than passing interest in the place. Much more.
So before I respond, I’d like to know – concisely – how it is you think Israel “alienated” Turkey. What actions did Israel take that cause this rift?
Yes, it’s a trap.
June 7th, 2010 at 1:25 pm
Israel treats anyone – everyone – who is not jewish as second class citizens, not just Palestinians.
Gosh if only dg could do a trifle of research before spewing her marked ignorance she would know that 76% of Israeli citizens are Jews another 23% are Arabs and they have Full citizenship – they get to vote and everything.
Answer Kermit DG: Why do you hate Jews?
June 7th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
Helen is under the bus. DId you feel the bump?
June 7th, 2010 at 1:47 pm
HT was an impeccably credentialed & prize-winning member of our “unbiased” press corp. After she retired from the news business she became a left wing op-ed columnist. Ditto her pals Rather & Cronkite.
If journalism is a dying profession, journalists themselves are to blame.
June 7th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
DG a few years ago the Turks stopped being a secular society. They elected an Islamist political party into power. They are now beginning to behave like other Islamic societies.
June 7th, 2010 at 2:15 pm
Helen is under the bus. DId you feel the bump?
Wasn’t sure, so I backed up til I felt it again, and then pulled ahead.
June 7th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
Funny how you far-right kooks build up Helen Thomas so you can tear her down. Dan Rather she ain’t, wingnuts.
Helen Thomas worked for UPI, for crissake, until that organization finally gave up the ghost. She was a slightly confused old lady back way back when she was covering that slightly confused old man Ronald Reagan. Her value lay in the fact that she’d occasionally ask a question that would make a president uncomfortable. And the president had to call on her cause she was a 100-year-old lady.
June 7th, 2010 at 2:21 pm
Angryclown doesn’t see what’s the big deal, jpmn. A few years ago America stopped being a secular society. And you kooks seem to think that’s a good thing.
June 7th, 2010 at 2:34 pm
Wasn’t sure, so I backed up til I felt it again, and then pulled ahead.
That explains the puddle of bile I saw on University Avenue this morning.
June 7th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
Angry Clown thinks that the US has become less secular than back when abortion was illegal, the phrase “under God” was put into the Pledge of allegiance, and the words “In God We Trust” were put on coins.
As usual, Angry Clown is an idiot.
June 7th, 2010 at 2:43 pm
Yeah, we stopped being a secular society in November of ’08 when half the country went insane and elected a false messiah.
June 7th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
This whole Helen Thomas debacle is the latest debate making me realize how ridiculous our politics have become.
Helen Thomas is obviously out of her mind. Her comments, more than being offensive, are mostly just incoherent and show absolutely no understanding of how the Jews came to modern-day Israel.
That said, any time we discuss Israel, the knee-jerk right-wing reaction seems to be that Israel is infallible, and criticism of anything they do is unacceptable. Isn’t it possible to condemn those whose goal is the destruction of Israel, while still admitting that Israel has made mistakes as well?
June 7th, 2010 at 3:01 pm
I suppose I should clarify. Thomas obviously wasn’t criticizing Israel for anything specific. I’m not really talking about her. But that’s been how the debate has shaped up over this whole flotilla episode.
I would have thought we could all agree that Thomas is crazy and move on, rather than asking each other “why do you hate Jews?”
June 7th, 2010 at 3:28 pm
What I’m wondering is, among other things, how many other antisemitic things Thomas said in private among her White House press gang colleagues, but which were brushed off.
And why I’m the only one who seems to have noticed the distinct resemblence between her face and that of Emperor Palpatine.
June 7th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
Who are you kidding, joelr? You would totally hit that.
June 7th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
Yet there is no resemblance at all between James Earl Jones and Hayden Christensen. This means, logically, Helen Thomas must be Luke Skywalker’s mother.
June 7th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
And you think Angryclown is an idiot? Compare:
http://snipurl.com/x722b
http://snipurl.com/x7243
June 7th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
Katherine Vanden Heuvel, in an NYT piece titled “Isn’t there some room for Helen Thomas?” (remarkable since Thomas’s offense was say that there was no room for Jews in Palestine) writes that Thomas “courageously questioned President Bush and other officials in his administration on war, torture and U.S. policy toward Israel”.
We now know that if Bush almost certainly did the right thing, since Helen Thomas objected to it.
June 7th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
Jeff is right! March those Jews into the sea!
June 7th, 2010 at 4:30 pm
Israel treats anyone – everyone – who is not jewish as second class citizens, not just Palestinians.
And that is why muslim palestinians have seats in the Knesset. You are an effing moron, DogPile. Ever been to Israel? Or are you too busy playing “Beat the Jew” game? http://hotair.com/archives/2010/06/06/la-quinta-america-and-%e2%80%9cbeat-the-jew%e2%80%9d/
June 7th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
And you think Angryclown is an idiot? Duh.
*You win.*
June 7th, 2010 at 6:12 pm
But Deegee was a close 2nd!!! (AssClown’s name was the tie breaker.)
June 7th, 2010 at 6:23 pm
Oh yes, JPA, that certainly proves that Palestinians are treated just like regular Israeli Jews. Wow, you’re a jackass.
June 7th, 2010 at 6:56 pm
If anyone really cares anymore, there is criticism of Israel – which us Jews are quite capable of engaging in, thank you. There is, however, the singular, obsessive, disproportionate condemnation of Israel that is the mark of the current spasm of gutter, murderous anti-Semitism.
That being said, is angryclown a real person or a bot?
June 7th, 2010 at 7:42 pm
You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, NACHMAN, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Angry Clown! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Nachman, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
June 8th, 2010 at 9:58 am
“Oh yes, JPA, that certainly proves that Palestinians are treated just like regular Israeli Jews. Wow, you’re a jackass.”
Palestinians living in Israel – you bet! Palestinians living in Gaza and in the West Bank, who live for martyrdom and whose sole stated goal in life is to exterminate every Jew on the planet are treated disproportionately well by Israel, all things considered.
Tell, me assclown, if a rat was sitting on your face munching on your nose, would you not swat it away? Nah, you would probably relocate in into your pants.
June 8th, 2010 at 11:09 am
“# Jeff Rosenberg Says:
June 7th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
This whole Helen Thomas debacle is the latest debate making me realize how ridiculous our politics have become.
Helen Thomas is obviously out of her mind. Her comments, more than being offensive, are mostly just incoherent and show absolutely no understanding of how the Jews came to modern-day Israel.
That said, any time we discuss Israel, the knee-jerk right-wing reaction seems to be that Israel is infallible, and criticism of anything they do is unacceptable. Isn’t it possible to condemn those whose goal is the destruction of Israel, while still admitting that Israel has made mistakes as well?”
Israel has made mistakes but I think you and I would differ greatly on what those mistakes were in most cases. Criticism, like Helen’s (and no she isn’t senile unless she has been senile for the past 40 years) deserves to be criticized.
Knee jerks from the left concerning Israel have become very common and very concerning in recent years.
June 15th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
Jeff Rosenberg wrote:
“That said, any time we discuss Israel, the knee-jerk right-wing reaction seems to be that Israel is infallible, and criticism of anything they do is unacceptable. Isn’t it possible to condemn those whose goal is the destruction of Israel, while still admitting that Israel has made mistakes as well?”
This is pure bullsh*t, and you know it. Israel is criticized all the time, especially by Jews. You set up a fallacy and then pretend to be “even-handed”. Your entire assertion is a failure.
You may now crawl back into your vile, stinking trench.
Thank you for your cooperation.