Unless you've been actively avoiding the news, you've probably heard that Helen Thomas has been forced into retirement. Having been part of the White House press corps since the days of JFK, Thomas has covered every president in many people's lifetime, myself included. Often referred to as a liberal, Thomas cut no one any slack; she was a critical of Clinton as she was of Nixon, as hard on Obama as she was on Bush. You get the feeling that she has an actual distaste for powerful people and always assumes they're lying, which is probably what made her such a great reporter. She was always looking for the flaw in the argument, no matter how popular or unpopular that argument was.
Still, it's hard to find a way to excuse this:
OK, a couple of points here. First and foremost, "Go back where you came from!" is
always a crappy argument and this instance is no exception. Yes, Israel is a European colony (before the establishment of the Israeli state, Jews made up only
one-sixth of the population of what was then called Palestine), but history shows you can't undo colonialism. Even in a colony as young as Israel. Not only was Thomas's statement offensive to many people, it was also incredibly simplistic...[
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