Oh, Helen.
I haven't written a politics post in a long, long time. Mostly because it exhausts me and makes me angry, so until someone starts paying me to work in this field I've supposedly chosen, I'm out of the game and doing mommy stuff. Not to say I don't keep up with what's going on in the world; I do. But I see how Segev gets when he wakes up and immediately starts reading Glenn Greenwald and then clicks on all his links and footnotes and just gets deeper and deeper into the depths of the blogosphere, descending into a vortex of impotent rage...it's not good for his mental health. I'm trying to avoid a similar fate.
But I do have a couple of quick things to say.
It is possible to believe in Israel's right to exist but still criticize the actions of its government.
It is possible to believe that Israel has a right to defend itself but still believe that its actions towards the flotilla were heinous.
It is possible to believe that Hamas is a terrorist organization but still believe that the blockade of Gaza is unconscionable from a humanitarian standpoint.
And it is possible to believe that Helen Thomas has had an admirable career in journalism and that she should be commended for being the only person in a room full of sycophants to hold press secretary feet to the fire, and still believe that her recent words were anti-Semitic.
Let me extrapolate a bit further. I don't really have that much of a problem with her saying "Get out of Palestine." Lord knows I've heard a hundred college freshmen, usually white kids with dreads and trust funds, shout similar things on the Columbia Great Lawn. It's a particularly non-nuanced sentiment, but whatever. It's the "Go home [to] Poland, Germany, America and wherever else" part that is offensive. Really, the "go back to [fill in the blank]" construction is never not racist. And telling people to go back to countries where they were systematically murdered is really, really messed up. Also, her statement buys into the "All Jews Are Ashkenazi" stereotype that is incredibly pervasive. Fun fact: the majority of Jews in Israel are not of Eastern Europe descent. So telling Israeli's to go back to Poland is a non-sequitur. There weren't all that many Jews in Poland and Germany left to move to Israel. That was...sorta the point.
Do I think that this was an offense so egregious that it merited losing her job? *sigh* I dunno. Plenty of people in politics say racist shit all the time and don't lose their jobs. I guess that's where a lot of the more extreme criticism is coming from on the left, at least -- I've seen people say that this is a conspiracy by AIPAC and the Jews that run the media. Fuck that shit. Helen Thomas has had a long and illustrious career. She said something really stupid and racist, and she's been a thorn in the side of powerful people. So this was sorta the inevitable conclusion. An ugly way to go out, though. Especially with that screen capture on the YouTube video -- yikes! It was news to me that she is Lebanese-American; I'd always thought she was of Gorg descent.
But I do have a couple of quick things to say.
It is possible to believe in Israel's right to exist but still criticize the actions of its government.
It is possible to believe that Israel has a right to defend itself but still believe that its actions towards the flotilla were heinous.
It is possible to believe that Hamas is a terrorist organization but still believe that the blockade of Gaza is unconscionable from a humanitarian standpoint.
And it is possible to believe that Helen Thomas has had an admirable career in journalism and that she should be commended for being the only person in a room full of sycophants to hold press secretary feet to the fire, and still believe that her recent words were anti-Semitic.
Let me extrapolate a bit further. I don't really have that much of a problem with her saying "Get out of Palestine." Lord knows I've heard a hundred college freshmen, usually white kids with dreads and trust funds, shout similar things on the Columbia Great Lawn. It's a particularly non-nuanced sentiment, but whatever. It's the "Go home [to] Poland, Germany, America and wherever else" part that is offensive. Really, the "go back to [fill in the blank]" construction is never not racist. And telling people to go back to countries where they were systematically murdered is really, really messed up. Also, her statement buys into the "All Jews Are Ashkenazi" stereotype that is incredibly pervasive. Fun fact: the majority of Jews in Israel are not of Eastern Europe descent. So telling Israeli's to go back to Poland is a non-sequitur. There weren't all that many Jews in Poland and Germany left to move to Israel. That was...sorta the point.
Do I think that this was an offense so egregious that it merited losing her job? *sigh* I dunno. Plenty of people in politics say racist shit all the time and don't lose their jobs. I guess that's where a lot of the more extreme criticism is coming from on the left, at least -- I've seen people say that this is a conspiracy by AIPAC and the Jews that run the media. Fuck that shit. Helen Thomas has had a long and illustrious career. She said something really stupid and racist, and she's been a thorn in the side of powerful people. So this was sorta the inevitable conclusion. An ugly way to go out, though. Especially with that screen capture on the YouTube video -- yikes! It was news to me that she is Lebanese-American; I'd always thought she was of Gorg descent.