Helen Thomas Offers Some Brilliant Insights On Israel

From Fox News, June 4, 2010:

Veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas has issued an apology after saying in an interview that Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine.”

Thomas, a longtime White House correspondent who now writes a column for Hearst newspapers, made the comments May 27 after a White House Jewish heritage event.

Asked by Rabbi David Nesenoff of RabbiLive.com if she had “any comments on Israel,” Thomas replied, “Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine.”

Thomas went on to say that the Palestinian people “are occupied and it’s their land” and that Israelis should “go home” — to Poland, Germany, America “and everywhere else.”

In a written statement issued Friday, Thomas apologized, saying, “I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians.”

She said the comments “do not reflect” her “heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance.”

“May that day come soon,” she added.

OK. Commentary time: Gosh, where do I begin? Well, to start with, Helen, there is no occupation of Palestine. In fact, there is no such country as Palestine and there never has been. This land belonged to the Jews many thousands of years before you were even born. After the Romans conquered Israel and squashed a Jewish rebellion, Emperor Hadrian renamed the land Palestine. It was a Latinization of the ancient word, Philistine, the old enemy of Israel. Hadrian did this as a deliberate insult. The people we currently refer to as “Palestinians” never even called themselves by such a name until the 1960’s. It was a publicity ploy by the terrorist Yasser Arafat, who realized that he could never win a military battle with Israel and chose to wage a PR war instead.

The people in the land who now call themselves “Palestinians” are actually Arabs. Although Arabs have lived in this area for 1400 years, the Jews were there first and Arabs arrived as a result of Muslim military expansion.

Be that as it may, the Jews agreed to give the Arabs half of the land as part of a United Nations partition. The Arabs refused, calling instead for the complete annihilation of Israel. Israel was attacked by 5 invading nations who asked the “Palestinian Arabs” to join them.

Jews pleaded with Palestinian Arabs to remain in their homes. Although many of the Arabs did flee or join the invading armies, a considerable portion of Arabs remained in Israel. This interesting fact is seldom discussed. About 300,000 Arabs fled Israel and about 160,000 remained. Today Israel still contains a vital Arab population and these Arabs have more rights in Israel than any other Arab in any Arab country! In fact, shortly before Yasser Arafat’s death, when there was talk (once again) under the Bush administration, of a “separate Palestinian state” the Arab citizens in Israel were asked if they wanted to move, renouncing their Israeli citizenship, and live in the Palestine sector. Guess what they decided! Some of them probably fell on the floor laughing before saying to the Israeli government, “Oh, I’m sorry. You were serious.”

In 1948, when Israel beat the odds and defeated five invading nations, the problem of refugees came up. We always hear about the Arab refugees from Israel. But they were not the only refugees. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were kicked out of Arab lands too. All of the Jewish refugees were welcomed into Israel where as Arabs who wanted to resettle in Arab countries were (for the most part) denied admission. Jordan was an exception but even in Jordan most of the refugees were confined to camps. They lived in that condition all the way up to 1967, when Israel annexed Jordan’s West Bank. Prior to 1967 there was no significant ongoing discussion amongst the countries of the world regarding Jordan’s treatment of the “poor Palestinians.”

And so, Helen, you really should bone up on your history and your geography before making these embarrassing public comments. If you must talk about land, maybe the Grand Canyon would serve as a better subject. It may just be the only thing bigger than your mouth.

For a detailed look at the historical revision of Israel and “Palestine” see Bob’s latest book: