Why Helen Thomas Resigned:

Helen Thomas was the longest serving journalist in the White House Press Corp. At the ripe old age of 89 she resigned from her post, after she candidly was recorded as saying that the Jews should get the hell out Israel, and go back to Poland and Germany.

While Thomas, the daughter of Lebanese immigrants was never, or ever tried to be, seen as pro-Israel, she was always given the benefit of the doubt that her views were political by nature. That is, she opposed Israel not because it is a Jewish state, but because of the usual political arguments.

Yes the Jewish and Israeli community both here and abroad is very sensitive to criticism, but there is still a small majority which believes that criticism of Israel is not synonymous with anti-Semitism. I dealt with this very issue in a previous post “http://factoru.blogspot.com/2010/04/i-have-no-problem-with-jews-its-just.html which I hope you will read.

This despite the disappointing and confused responses by some in the Jewish community, posting on Huffington post (which relished the opportunity to publish that article) and other less significant media outlets. Please, when you are dealing with such an important issue, you have to argue coherently and effectively. Stick to the issue!

With that necessary digression aside, I accept the majority position, with the caveat that just because anti-Semitism is not inherent to criticism of Israel does not automatically mean that anti-Semitism is not often behind that criticism. Indeed many astute followers of the news have become adept at distinguishing the two.

Thomas was one of these respected journalists, and was beleived to reflect the above nuanced position -criticism without anti-Semitism.

Until.

Until she made her comments.

But even now let us not jump to conclusions.

What did she say?

Did she make a distinction between Israeli's and Jews? Did she make a distinction between Israeli's from Europe and Israeli's that lived in Israel and surrounding Arab nations in an unbroken chain for over 3,000 years? No and no. After all it was only some Jews who came from the death camps of Germany and Poland. But she said “they” should get the hell out of Palestine.

Did she differentiate between pre and post 1967 borders? Did she mean that only the West Bank and Gaza is Palestine? No, and no. If she meant to, then she should have said “let them go back to Israel proper”.

What I infer from her comments is that she

1. She denies the existence/legitimacy of the State of Israel, akin to HAMAS’s extremist position.

2. She does not distinguish between Israelis and Jews, which means that decades of her extreme criticism of Israel were inherently directed at Jews.

Does the above mean that Thomas is an anti-Semite? Certainly not the conventional type that Jews are all too familiar with, you know the Neo-Nazi or frothing at the mouth protester at an ant-Israel rally. If she is an anti-Semite, she is more like the sophisticated Mel Gibson type. You know, making movies that indirectly affirm anti-Semitic notions, or effectively hiding beliefs until that one candid moment when it all comes out.

However her resignation was justified. Not because of the insidious Israeli lobby, our oversensitive culture, or even her almost blatant anti-Semitism, but because

3. she completely lacks, or perhaps recently lost, the sensitivity that is integral to the fair, honest, and democratic exchange of ideas that the majority of Americans cherish.

and

4. she is not capable of objective reporting on Israel, and who knows what else. This is not to say that she has no right to her personal opinion, however egregious and extreme, but rather that her views compromise her ability to report to us in an as unbiased manner as possible (please see inside.ptribune.com for more on this point)

Finally, her resignation proves, that America, despite all its imperfection, is still a great and blessed country. At the end of the day that's why Helen Thomas resigned.