The Jews did not have to leave Germany and Poland following the Holocaust since they were not being persecuted anymore, former White House correspondent Helen Thomas said in an interview on Thursday, adding that the Jews had no right to take other people’s land.
Thomas, 90, stepped down from her job as a columnist for Hearst News Service in June of last year after a rabbi and independent filmmaker videotaped her outside the White House calling on Israelis to get “out of Palestine.”
She gave up her front row seat in the White House press room, where she had aimed often pointed questions at 10 presidents, going back to Eisenhower.
Speaking of the controversial comments in an interview with CNN’s Joy Behar on Thursday, Thomas said she did not regret her comments, saying that the Jews did not have to go anywhere after the Holocaust.
“There hasn’t been persecution since that, since World War II. You don’t take other people’s land,” Thomas said in reference to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.
When Behar asked Thomas if she realized that her comment regarding sending the Jews back to Poland and Germany were insensitive in view of the past the Jews share with those countries, the former correspondent said: “I also said Russia.”
“Well Russia, they had their share of anti-Semitic pogroms,” the CNN interviewer said, to which Thomas answered: “They also had 25 million who died in World War II…. More than that.”
“They didn’t have to go anywhere really, because they weren’t being persecuted anymore but they were taking other people’s land,” Thomas said, adding of the perceived insensitivity of her comments by saying: “Count how many Palestinians are in jails now, taken from their homes, a million refugees, is that sensitive?”
Responding to Behar’s question whether or not she considered herself to be anti-Semitic, Thomas said: “Hell no! I’m a Semite…of Arab background,” and saying of the Jews: “They’re not Semites. I mean, most of them are from Europe.”
Thomas also referred to the widespread uproar which her comments caused, saying she “didn’t realize it would ring that many bells, because they’ve [the Jews] been free ever since.”
When asked by Behar how would she revise her comments in view of the reactions they garnered, Thomas said: “Why did they have to go anywhere? They’re not being persecuted anywhere.”
“Why do they have to go anywhere? They aren’t being persecuted! They don’t have the right to take other people’s land. Under international law occupied land should not be annexed,” Thomas said.
The former White House correspondent did, however, say she did not accurately gauge the backlash to her comments, saying that there was a change they got “me in trouble, but everything is distorted. But I don’t care. ”
“We have organized lobbyists in favor of Israel, you can’t open your mouth. I can call the president of the United States anything in the book, but you say one thing about Israel and you’re off limits,” Thomas said.
“I have regrets that everyone misinterpreted it and distorted it, and you have the Ari Fleshcer and the Abe Foxman distorting everything, so I certainly knew that and I should of kept my mouth shut, probably.”
(Source: CNN)
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9 Responses
She, b”H, continues to turn up the fires she will eventually be cooking in, in the gehenom she is creating for herself.
She conveniently forgot about the many Jews who were killed AFTER THE WAR when they attempted to reclaim their homes, which had been seized by their neighbors during the war.
Actually, from the pure Torah point of view, she’s right. We have no right to take anyone else’s land without permission from Hashem. The very first RASHI in Bereishis makes that very clear.
We were given permission to take the land from the Canaanites, in the time of Joshua, onjly because they had passed the point of no return in their abominable immoral behavior.
The secular Government of Israel today sanctions–and even encourages–abominations. So, what right do they have to chase anyone off their land.
Practically speaking, the Jews had no choice after World War II. Nobody allowed them to escape from Europe during the war, and nobody wanted them after the war.
So, these desparate refugees from Hitler’s inferno, who had lost everything–family, home, business–went to join their brothers in Eretz Yisroel. Can you blame them?
When the Jews proclaimed their own state, they were attacked by all the surrounding Arab nations. They had no choice, but to defen themselves.
So, Helen Thomas. You may have a theoretical point in your favor. But you have ignored the practical realities of survival for broken and desparate refugees from Hitler’s genocide.
Therefore, I conclude that you are, indeed, an anti-Jewish bigot.
why are people still making this hag relevant, she should go back to her nursing home
May “Yimach Shemah” soon be “Yimach Shemah v’Zichrah.”
When one is in a hole, one should stop digging. Thomas doesn’t understand that; instead she hires heavy earth moving equipment. It is stunning that such a bigot could have lasted so long in Washington.
The title is disturbing calling her a hag is not right she has a right to her opinion even if we dont like it we shouldnt resort to name calling.
what, did she forget ITS OUR LAND!!! HASHEM GAVE IT TO US NOT THE PALEST. OR BRITISH, ARABS OR ANYONE ELSE. SORRY BUT SHE IS NUTS!!!! i really feel bad but i think she is getting alzheimers and senile and should be put in a nursing home
Mosh,
she didn’t forget it, she doesn’t know it
ditto deepthinker, my grandmother grandmother was killed a few years after the war by a pole who had even worked for her famil before the war.