Anyone who follows American politics will know the name of Helen Thomas as an integral member of the Whitehouse Press Corp. Front row, first question, take no prisoners. An excellent Andrew Denton interview was aired in 2008 by the ABC, for those who came in late.
Helen Thomas never spared anyone, and conducted herself, as I saw it, with the most stringent of integrity standards, far and away more honest and open than any other journalist/commentator within the American Fourth Estate. Until yesterday. At least in the eyes of so many of her peers, and American society in general which seems so deathly afraid to criticise anything to do with the Jewish State of Israel.
There is nothing bigoted or anti-semitic in criticising Israel’s conduct on the world stage before the global community.
What Helen Thomas said, was accurate and pointed. "These people (Palestinians) are occupied" She’s dead right, despite what the global community requires of Israel, it continues to blockade Gaza and embargo much needed humanitarian aid. Effectively consigning hundreds, if not thousands, to a life of confinement and destitution. Somewhat ironic when one considers that Israel supports it’s actions by revising it’s own history.
The state of Israel is not to be commended or protected for its actions in regard to Gaza, nor it’s transgression against civil disobedience on the high seas. Let’s be perfectly clear in acknowledging that the state of Israel will do absolutely anything to protect its citizens and sanctify its borders, and that’s to be applauded. When those actions place the lives of non-state innocents at risk, depriving Palestinians of decent and fulfillable lives and engaging in violent, deliberate acts of aggression against those innocents, criticism is warranted and justly so.
I agree entirely with Helen Thomas’s comments. Israel should get the hell out of Palestine, ie; Gaza and the West Bank. There is little enough of Palestine left and actively attempting state-sponsored genocide through isolationist, aggressive policies of rejection of the rights of Palestinians to a reasonable existence in a state of their own is not only hypocritical, it’s so sadly ironic as to be permanently poisonous to any feelings of empathy toward Israel & what she stands for.