Ari Fleischer: Fire Helen Thomas

Longtime White House scribe Helen Thomas caused more than a few eyebrows to perk up when video surfaced on Friday of her declaring that Jews should "get the hell out of Palestine" and go back to Germany and Poland.

Captured by Rabbi David Nesenoff of RabbiLive.com, the footage made the rounds on mostly conservative and neoconservative sites, with some private complaints that her comments weren't getting wider play.

Thomas on Friday apologized in a written statement, saying she deeply regretted the comments -- which were offered, ironically, during the White House's Jewish Heritage Celebration.

But even as she was trying to walk back the remarks, calls for her firing mounted. Among the more vocal was former Bush Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, who claimed to have a close relationship with Thomas when he was manning the daily briefings.

"She should lose her job over this," Fleischer said in an email. "As someone who is Jewish, and as someone who worked with her and used to like her, I find this appalling."

"She is advocating religious cleansing. How can Hearst stand by her? If a journalist, or a columnist, said the same thing about blacks or Hispanics, they would already have lost their jobs."

A longtime fixture of the White House press room, Thomas hasn't exactly hid her politics on the Middle East conflict. The day after Israeli Defense Forces stormed the flotilla, she pressed spokesman Robert Gibbs as to how the administration could stand by the blockade of Gaza and the broader treatment of Palestinians by the Israeli government. A good faction of political and foreign policy observers found the line of inquiry refreshing.

The comments that surfaced on Friday were far less filtered than the quite-pointed questions she's offered in the briefing -- enough so that they've spurred earnest conversation as to whether she should be given a pass because of the historic perch she's held as the longest serving White House correspondent or whether it's time for her to leave that perch.

Here is the clip of Thomas:

Comments

[blessedfrog]

01:04 AM on 07/22/2010

What a shame - there is no freedom of speech -

You cross the line -
the powers that be coddle their
sacred cows
and slaughter you

[JCinNM]

11:28 AM on 06/23/2010

"... advocating 'religious' cleansing..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlpmRMximW4

[newinitiation]

07:38 AM on 06/10/2010

Helen Thomas courageously told the truth.
It wouldn't matter whether you were black, white, red, green, yellow, orange or whatever, if you invade and occupy another man's country and hold them hostage in their own country, bloodthirstily murdering, starving and torturing them then you should definitely be held accountable for your despicable actions.

www.iamthewitness.com

[SCCavie93]

10:05 PM on 06/09/2010

Under what GROUNDS did "anyone" feel that Helen Thomas was no longer ENTITLED to her CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS????

[blessedfrog]

01:00 AM on 07/22/2010

exactly - but you can't buck the establishment
they'll maul you in the name of - what is it ? freedome

[joker d]

01:16 PM on 06/09/2010

The government will not listen to American people, until people will make their voices heard. Americans need to join the campaign of “divest, boycott, and sanction Israel” and stop buying products that are produced by Israel or companies that donate huge amounts to Israel, Israeli products start with the barcode numbers 729. If the students of Berkley have enough public courage to bring up discussion about necessity of American companies to divest from Israel, then the rest of the Americans should have courage to find out where their taxes are going instead of helping fellow Americans getting excellent education, good healthcare, and great jobs. It is time to wake up and notice the minority despotism in this country.

[joker d]

01:15 PM on 06/09/2010

I am surprised that Mr. Gibbs and the White House did not exclaim,” OFF WITH HER HEAD!” There is something wrong with the picture where we are quick to punish her for her own opinion (what has happened to freedom of speech?) yet we still haven’t condemned Israel for the deaths of those activists and many others. If the actions that Israel committed would have been done by a different country that our government didn’t “fancy," they would have been quick to react and speak out against it. While the rest of the world understands what Israel has done we seem to let them get away with yet another illegal act. Between 2009 & 2018, the United States is scheduled to give Israel--the largest recipient of U.S. aid-$30 billion in military aid. Israel misuses U.S. weapons in violation of U.S. law to kill and injure Palestinian civilians, destroy Palestinian civilian infrastructure, blockade the Gaza Strip, and build illegal settlements in West Bank and East Jerusalem. 2009-2018: $1,340,553,857.77 sadly that is only how much N.J. alone will be paying out of taxpayers money. In the meantime people are losing their jobs, and school funding keeps getting cut. In NJ, this money could have been spent instead to: provide 16,277 households per year with affordable housing grants, or provide 22,253 job seekers per year with green jobs training, or provide 39,637 children per year with early reading education or provide 1,085,645 people per year with primary health care.

[max08]

12:11 PM on 06/09/2010

Anyone want to watch the REAL video. The full video and what she really said?

http://pulsemedia.org/2010/06/09/longer-helen-thomas-clip-released/

[RenePA]

02:03 AM on 06/09/2010

To those who say that people who support Helen Thomas are anti-Semitic: I say you are full of bunk.

Times of religious upheaval are swiftly changing in this country, and, hopefully, around the world. Religion, and prejudices against it, is much less of a persuasion than what you assume. Instead, you see in these many thousands of posts people who are uncommitted to any religion, hold themselves up as 'spiritualists' or are admitted atheists - and innumerable realms in-between.

To label these 18 thousand posters, and counting, as 'anti-Semitic' is to proclaim YOU as the racist, the 'categorizer,' the hypocrite -- indeed, the enemy within, because your claim is false and based on emotional reaction with no proofs to support your claim.

Many of us grew up never really knowing what a Jew was other than our first encounter with Anne Frank. Our hearts went out to her, and her people. We cried. Our spirits wept.

As time has passed, we’ve learned of another reality: because of atrocious political intervention, the very people we wept over became the perpetrators of crimes against yet another people that are equally deserving of tears.

It is time to stop with the emotional reactions of children and to take action with regard to what the reality is and deal with the situation as adults.

This situation should be about real-estate and property rights, period. That means a Seller and a Buyer negotiating an agreement on the price of a piece of property.

[FallsChurchVA]

10:29 PM on 06/08/2010

I find it hypocritical of Ari Fleischer to call for Helen Thomas' resignation when he should be tried as a war criminal for his part in lieing to the World about a number issues not the least of which is the Iraq war.

[Robson]

08:56 PM on 06/08/2010

Ari Fleischer has audacity for complaining about what Helen Thomas said about Israel. Fleischer was one of a number of neocons who connived and contrived to involve the USA in Iraq using false intelligence and fabricated yellow cake info from Israel.

Helen Thomas's words hurt no one. They were opinions. His words on TV and to the press were atrocious lies that got thousands of Americans killed and wounded over lies. He and his peers should be serving time for treason at minimum.

Until the USA is run for only the benefit of Americans and not to the benefit of certain countries, members of certain lobbies and certain segments of society our nation will continue to slide downhill for most. If you examine this relationship in the loss of wealth for many and the growth in wealth of a few and growth of our massive debt there is a direct linkage.

[OBroadhurst]

04:17 PM on 06/08/2010

Ari Fleischer was the Bush Administration's Press Secretary.

No one but an unabashed white supremacist could write THAT on his resume.

[judypower]

01:44 PM on 06/08/2010

Helen Thomas has courage to say what the other journalists dare not say, just like in Bush era when the journalists walked on their knees to be the sound pieces of the Bush administration. She asked about Iraq war, just like most of the world was and is still asking. She expresses the sentiment for many who stay silent because they don't know how to and have no venue when the media is controlled by the knee-jerking so called 'non-biased' journalists, more like empty-headed journalists who voice what's politically expedient to keep their jobs. People all over the world feel the outrage over Israel's bullying act, hiding under western world's weapon sponsorship. The atrocity they are inflicting is just as bad as what they had experienced decades ago. This strategy reflects their basic belief, they'd rather be wrong and be killing others than go through the Nazi experience again. While doing it, they are repeating the act that they proclaim to loathe. It seems it's ok for them to do it because they have suffered, but it's not ok for others to do it, because alas, they have suffered. Seems they think they are the only people that have undergone atrocities in the history of humankind, and that entitles them to do whatever they want with impunity.

[Count Nomis]

01:42 PM on 06/08/2010

What is WRONG with us? When are we going to become independent of Israel?

How has such a puny, insignificant excuse of a country with an addiction for atrocities managed to hijack our foreign policy? When are we going to grow a pair? This parasite---and make no mistake of it, Israel is America's tapeworm---habitually spies on us, has killed Americans, siphons billions of dollars from us, spits in our faces, has attacked out navy (remember the USS Liberty?) and its admirers keep harping that Israel is our friend. It wouldn't last two minutes without sucking us dry.

And the worst part are all the traitors in this country that would put that country's benefit over ours; no matter what atrocities the Israelis commit, they find some justification for those atrocities---usually by blaming the victims. Or, when all else fails, they bring forth their precious Holocaust.

I'm sick of it, and I'm ashamed of it. If you have any doubts that Isael controls our country, either directly, or indirectly, I challenge you to find a magazine article, a newspaper article, a TV news item or a Hollywood film that condemns Israel, or takes a compassionate view of the Palestinian victims.

[B Kleitz]

11:03 PM on 06/08/2010

Allow me to be your first fan.
The reason our foreign policy has been hijacked is because of the fear of the Christian run government here in America that we will offend "the 'god' of Israel". It doesn't matter what all the politicians say, or what all the pundits say...this is exactly what it boils down to IN A NUTSHELL.
Saying that it is not "about religion" is like saying that the Civil War was NOT "about slavery".
We should have no foreign policy except that we will not start any fight, but we will finish it. We should not be giving BILLIONS WITH A B to ANY COUNTRY. Period.
But whadoiknow? I am just someone who studies all religion, but believes none. I would sooner believe in Extraterrestrials and Ghosts, then I would a Jesus, a "God", or any other "deity" who would play favorites among it's Creations like that.
The Christians Jews and Muslims, the Big Three as I like to call em, ARE ALL PRAYING FOR ARMEGGEDON so their "Messiah" comes back, or just comes in the cases of the Jews and Muslims. I say they are all crazy. Every single one of them. I'm sorry I know that's not PC...but I don't care. Wanting the whole world destroyed for any reason is just crazy talk. Everyone with a brain realizes this. But there aren't any of those in our government.

[DebtNavigation]

12:31 PM on 06/08/2010

Helen should go to work for Al Jazeera and wear a burkha ... make that two burkhas in case one breaks.

[menteb]

12:11 PM on 06/08/2010

What shocks me most is that Israel gets away with anything.
First of all, Israel is built on blood. Palestinians had 10 minutes to evacuate their homes back in 1948, just so that a Jewish family could move in (reminds me of what happened to those same Jews when the Nazis started their crime).

If you corner an animal it gets aggressive. The same happens with the Palestinians. Not only did Israel take their homes, land, water sources, education and healthcare, they also took their freedom. Israel created the biggest open air prison on the planet.

Another striking fact: Israel ignores every resolution not in their favor. Maybe it's time for the international community to start with a boycott, but that's impossible. Even Obama - claiming to be free of lobby pressure - is completely on Israel’s side.

I'm not an anti Semite. Far from it. Both my Jewish friends and my Arab friends agree with me.

Some books you might be interested in (if you want to see both sides of the story):

The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy by John J Mearsheimer, Stephen M Walt
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappe
The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering by Norman G. Finkelstein

All authors are Jewish, so just try to accuse them of being anti Semite.