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Rosie O’Donnell defends Helen Thomas
It’s very sad that the amazing career of Helen Thomas came to an end this week following controversial remarks the 89-year-old Washington D.C. journalism icon made regarding Jewish people in Israel.
After a YouTube video of Helen saying Israeli’s should “get the hell out of Palestine” and suggested they go to Germany or Poland, she issued an apology saying she “deeply regretted” her comments and said: They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon.”
But it was too late to save her job.
Rosie O’Donnell has been one of the few people to speak out in defense of Helen who had covered every president dating back to the later years of the Eisenhower administration.
“Now, I think, in the year 2010, what she was saying was not, ‘Go back to the ovens,’ Rosie said this week on her radio show. “What she was saying was, the homeland was originally Palestinians’ and it’s now occupied by Israel, and Palestinians should be afforded human and civil rights.”
It’s unfortunate that Helen didn’t come up with a more diplomatic way to express her strong opinion. As a columnist for Hearst News Service, she of course has been far more opinionated publicly than she was as the longtime White House correspondent for UPI where she would expected to keep such things to herself.
I don’t agree with what Helen said or how she said it. But I still have so much respect for what this amazing woman, who turns 90 in August, has accomplished and have read two of her books: Front Row at the White House : My Life and Times Thanks for the Memories, and Mr. President : Wit and Wisdom from the Front Row at the White House.
She is a true pioneer and helped break down the gender walls among the Washington press corps. She also asked questions of our presidents that we wanted answered. I want to remember her career for that kind of persistence and remarkable drive.
Comments
(All comments are reviewed before being published, and I review submissions several times per day.)
Theodore says:
It is my opinion what Helen Thomas said about Israelis was what she truly felt all along and all the eloquent apologies she spewed afterwards can NEVER rescind her hateful comment. For a brief moment the world saw a facet of her true colors and it was abismal at best.
All those years, I respected that woman and felt sorry for her when someone said she was reminiscent of the Wicked Witch of the West. I couldn’t believe anyone could be that mean. But I get it now! Perhaps they had knowledge that we laymen didn’t know about her back then.
Good riddance! Finally, after a century, someone new will get front row center at the white house briefing room.
Juan says:
Figures it would be America’s white trash icon to defend her.
Mike says:
Good fro Rosie, while think that Ms Thomas could have said it better, this always wrong if you say Israel has issues with its neighbors is not a good policy for this country, or the world for that matter.
And, it didn’t help that the MSM let the rabbi off the hook who was behind her getting canned when he’s running around doing skits that could be considered racist by many about Hispanics, which, is why I have issues with who people pick who to go after.
felipe says:
What’s scarier? Helen’s so-called racist remarks, or the fact that she can lose her job because of them. You tell me.
opinionspeaks.wordpress.com
felipe
JJ says:
I would really like to know what the real, true story is about the creation of the country of Israel. After centuries of intermarriage and shared experiences how can one of the three or four religious groups in the region of Jerusalem believe that the Holy Land belongs only to them. It absolutely confounding to me. Is there really no way for Jerusalem to become a world city and NOT the PROPERTY of one religious group or another. I am so disappointed that Rosie O. and Helen Thomas could not gather the words and the folks that can answer what seems to me to be a very simple question. Why ! Does Jerusalem belong to ANY ONE COUNTRY??