By MARK LEVINE
“The Jews should get the hell out of Palestine.” So said
legendary White House reporter Helen Thomas, to a rabbi no less, at a
Jewish Heritage Month celebration on May 27 - even worse. There was,
needless to say, no way Thomas was going to remain in her job after that
remark.
Why did she make remarks that would so clearly bring her
illustrious career to such an ignominious end?
Maybe, at 89 years old, she just did not care anymore and let some hidden
feelings of anti-Semitism leak out. Maybe, as so often happens in this age
of constant in your face “citizen journalism,” someone with a camera
caught her off guard, asked her a leading question, and she vented
frustration at a situation she, more than perhaps anyone else in
Washington, has seen drag on and on without end. Generations of
administrations decry Israel’s intransigence - only off the record, of
course. We will never know, for rather than explaining or even justifying
her remarks, she issued a seemingly heartfelt apology and retired from
public life.
’Any comments on Israel?’
But there are two issues raised by Thomas’ remarks that are worth
considering regardless of whether she further clarifies (or perhaps
obscures) them.
One is what she actually meant when she said them. The
second, and more important issue, is what these remarks herald for the way
the American public will view Israel in the future should the situation in
Israel/Palestine continue as it has.
Thomas’ response was to a question by Rabbi David Nesenoff
about the protesters in front of the White House who were chanting against
the seizure of the Gaza aid flotilla and the killing of nine activists on
the ship by Israeli commandos.
The question was: “Any comments on Israel? We’re arresting
everyone today. Any comments...” But, before the questioner could finish,
she looked straight at the camera and said: “Tell them to get the hell out
of Palestine.”
“Ooooh,” he replied, in shock. “Any better comments on
Israel?”
It is hard to know if by “better” he meant more
favourable, or at least less hostile, or even more provocative,
guaranteeing that the video would become a youtube sensation. Thomas took
the latter path.
Laughing at his response, she continued: “Remember, these
people are occupied, and it’s their land. It’s not German, it’s not
Poland...”
“Where should they go?” Nesenoff asked.
“They should go home ... Poland, Germany ... and America.
And everywhere else.”
What did she mean?
Perhaps Thomas was thinking of the West Bank settlers when
she made her remarks. If so, she is seems to be confused about where most
Jews come from who live in the settlements, mixing together waves of
pre-second world war immigration from Central and Eastern Europe with more
recent immigration from the US.
Today, hardly any come from Germany and Poland, most of
whose Jews perished in the Holocaust. The pre-1948 Zionist immigrants from
these countries tended to stay in the primary areas of Jewish settlement,
in Tel Aviv and along the coast and central plain.
Today’s ideological settlers are most likely to come from
the US or are third or fourth generation Israelis. Other settlers consist
of more recent immigrants from around the world who have little choice but
to take advantage of the numerous government incentives for moving to the
settlements.
But what exactly did Thomas mean by “Palestine” and what
era is she talking about?
Given her mix of countries “they” should return to, it
seems more likely that, at least in that moment of unreflective - or
un-self censored-comment, she was stating a desire to see all the Jews of
Israel/Palestine “go home”.
Helen Thomas, it seems, had entered a time machine and was
adopting the rhetoric of Palestinians circa the 1960s, before the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) changed its ideology to declare
that Israelis could remain in Palestine as citizens in a unified,
democratic Palestinian state.
Home of free speech
Of course, these sentiments could not be allowed to stand.
This might be the US, the home of free speech, where The
New York Times editors see no threat to journalistic integrity in
having as their Israel bureau chief a reporter whose son serves in the
Israeli army (to his credit, The Times’ public editor did argue
against such a move, but was ignored), but should a reporter with half a
century of distinguished reporting, make one anti-Israel statement she can
no longer be considered capable of reporting honestly on any issue.
And sure enough, after profusely apologising for her
remarks and declaring her belief that “peace will come to the Middle East
only when all parties recognise the need for mutual respect and
tolerance,” Thomas retired.
The fact that the entirety of the mainstream US media has
blatantly put forward the Israeli propaganda narrative surrounding the
justifications for and legality of the commando raid on the aid flotilla
requires no soul searching.
Helen Thomas has proved that the whole world is against
Israel, even the hyper-liberal US media, so there is no point trying to
offer a more accurate account of what happened that deadly night.
Repeating story lines
Thomas might have been forced to fall on her sword, but
her words should serve as a cautionary tale.
Quite simply, people are getting tired of the occupation
and its endlessly repeating story lines.
Like a long running soap opera that has clearly run out of
steam, once reliable friends are slowly turning off the official Israeli
narrative, even in the US.
It started with General David Patraeus’ remarks that
Israeli intransigence was putting the US’ strategic position in the Muslim
world in jeopardy and costing American lives. This from a leader of an
institution, the US military, that has profited handsomely from the
regional imbroglios, arms races and wars to which the Israeli occupation
has contributed.
Next came voices from within the Jewish community, from
scholars like Peter Beinart who has recently written that the failure of
the American Jewish leadership to criticise Israel is leading younger Jews
increasingly to “check their Zionism” rather than their liberalism at the
door, and even politicians like Republican Barney Frank, who declared
after the flotilla raid that he was “embarrassed to be Jewish”.
If a congressman can declare that he is embarrassed to be
Jewish, what is to stop non-Jewish Americans from increasingly declaring
their embarrassment and even disgust with Israeli policies, and losing any
sense of nuance about this ultra-complex conflict in the process.
”Yitzhar? Beersheva? Gush Etzion? Tel Aviv? What is the
difference? Just go away, stop taking our money, and leave us alone!”
In other words, Thomas’ seeming confusion of the homelands
of most Jewish settlers in the West Bank could well be a harbinger of what
will happen in the US more broadly - as people grow weary of this
conflict, as the economy continues to remain weak, as aid to Israel in the
context of an endless ‘war on terror’ seems increasingly strange and
unjustifiable when the Israeli government routinely defies the US’ wishes.
A gift
Intended or not, Helen Thomas issued a warning to Israel
and to the American Jewish leadership. If this conflict is not resolved
fairly and comprehensively soon, more Americans - including American Jews
- will not just start thinking like her, but speaking like her.
They will not bother trying to understand why Israel is
acting as it is or what the differences are between Israel within its 1967
borders, which are recognised by most of the world, and the “Greater
Israel” that encompasses large swaths of the West Bank.
Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy put it best in a
brilliant piece of satirical commentary entitled Netanyahu was right,
arguing that: “Netanyahu said the whole world is against us. Wasn’t he
right? He also said we live under an existential threat. Isn’t it
beginning to look like that? Give it another minute and Turkey will be at
war with us too. Netanyahu said there’s no chance of reaching an agreement
with the Arabs. Wasn’t that spot on? Our prime minister, who saw danger
lurking in every alleyway and enemies waiting around every corner, who has
always taught that there is no hope, who has drummed into us that we shall
forever live by the sword (just as his father the historian taught him),
knew what he was talking about.”
Levy is spot on. The only way the occupation can continue
indefinitely and Israel can avoid the seemingly inevitable if Sisyphean
task of disentangling itself from the settlements and territorially
separating from Palestinians is for Israelis and their supporters to feel,
deep down in their core, that no matter what they do, the world will
always be against the Jews and will want to destroy Israel.
If that is the case, then there is no point risking civil
war by making incredibly painful territorial concessions that will do
little to assuage the animosity against Israel, and Jews more broadly; to
stem the belief that Jews, the world’s ultimate homeless nation, should
leave its mytho-historical and present home and return to countries like
Germany and Poland, where they were slaughtered by the millions.
Thomas’ words were an unexpected but certainly welcome
gift to the Israeli government and its supporters, at least for the
moment. Now instead of talking about the 30 plus shots fired into the
bodies of activists on the high seas, the media has to bend over backwards
to demonstrate its commitment to Israel’s narrative. Instead of demanding
better access to Gaza, it has to refute the liberal anti-Israel bias of
the media.
A warning
But her words were also an admonishment. Israel can
continue its occupation and defy world opinion because it is still
perceived as a strategic and political asset by the American establishment
and crucial political and economic constituencies.
Israeli leaders are betting that their best chance of
continuing the status quo indefinitely is for the US to remain embroiled
in so many conflicts abroad that no administration has the energy or
political capital to seriously challenge Israel’s actions even when they
contradict the assessment of generals and policy-makers about the best
interests of the US.
But if things keep going badly in the US - a double-dip
recession, weak job numbers, increasing casualties in distant
battlefields, more oil and coal mining disasters, another, this time
successful, terrorist attack (to name but a few possibilities) - Americans
are going to start looking for people to blame. And historically, we all
know who tends to get the blame when things go wrong ....
This is what Helen Thomas’ words, however intemperate and
even prejudiced, were telling us. And needless to say, this is precisely
what the leadership of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran would love to see happen
- let Israel go about the business of destroying itself while they look
on, waiting to pounce, just as Israel did to Palestinian society during
the worst years of the al-Aqsa intifada, when the pressure led to
widespread chaos and infighting among Palestinians.
The question is will Israel play according to their script
and continue to defy world public opinion, slowly alienating the
population of its only (until now) unequivocal benefactor, or will its
leaders and so-called friends change course before it is too late?