So much for her “apology” (“I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians,” the 89-year-old Thomas wrote on her website. “They do not reflect my heartfelt belief that peace will come to the Middle Eastonly when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon.”
Thomas continued apologizing in the Washington Post, telling its media critic, Howard Kurtz, in a Monday column: “I’m very sorry for my remarks. I think I crossed the line. I made a mistake.”) she she got canned from the White House press corps(and her journalism and speaking jobs too). The below tell it all.
Helen Thomas is not sorry, nor were the comments that ended her career accidental.
I knew exactly what I was doing I was going for broke, she told Playboy in the magazines April interview. I had reached the point of no return. You finally get fed up I finally wanted to speak the truth.
Thomas, of course, left her perch as the dean of the White House press corps last year after telling a rabbi and blogger that Jews should get the hell out of Palestine and go home to Poland, Germany and America and everywhere else. Her family is Lebanese and she grew up in the Detroit area, home to one of the countrys densest populations of Arab Americans.
She spoke to Playboy at length about the situation in Palestine, her feelings on American support of Israel, and her take on Jews.
But her most controversial comments echoed ones shes made before about the influence of Jews in American life, which have contributed to her name being stripped from journalism awards.
“[The Jews are] using their power, and they have power in every direction, she told Playboy. Power over the White House, power over Congress Everybody is in the pocket of the Israeli lobbies, which are funded by wealthy supporters, including those from Hollywood. Same thing with the financial markets. There’s total control It isn’t the 2 percent. It’s real power when you own the White House, when you own these other places in terms of your political persuasion. Of course they have power. [To the interviewer] You don’t deny that. You’re Jewish, aren’t you?”
She also had some controversial views about memorializing the Holocaust.
“There’s nothing wrong with remembering it, but why do we have to constantly remember?” she said. “We’re not at fault. I mean, if they’re going to put a Holocaust museum in every city in Germany, that’s fine with me. But we didn’t do this to the Jews. Why do we have to keep paying the price and why do they keep oppressing the Palestinians? Do the Jews ever look at themselves? Why are they always right? Because they have been oppressed throughout history, I know. And they have this persecution. That’s true, but they shouldn’t use that to dominate.”
via Helen Thomas to Playboy: Jews ‘own the White House’ – On Media – POLITICO.com.