Helen Thomas, doyenne of the White House Press Corps (or “Corpse” as the O-Man would pronounce it) since…um…the dawn of the Industrial Age has been unceremoniously dumped by her employer the Hearst Organization, following her remarks, saying Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine,” suggesting they go instead to Germany, Poland and the United States. The fomer gal-pal of Oscar Wilde and rumored inspiration for his classic “The Picture of Dorian Grey” was suddenly and emphatically fired after a career that spanned the better part of a century, after espousing a decidedly non-objective point-of-view in a recent interview caught on tape.
Of interest to TTAGencia is that Thomas was the 2010 winner of the Brady Vision Award from the Brady Center To Prevent Violence. In her acceptance speech, she called the United States Supreme Court Justices “inept” and insisted that the Supremes were living on “another planet.”
Don’t feel bad for Ms. Thomas, however. She’s apparently secured a lovely gingerbread house down in Dade County, Florida, where she’ll spend her sunset years luring orphans into her home for baking parties.
"The fomer gal-pal of Oscar Wilde and rumored inspiration for his classic 'The Picture of Dorian Grey'…"
"She’s apparently secured a lovely gingerbread house… where she’ll spend her sunset years luring orphans into her home for baking parties."
Very, VERY funny (I'm wiping away tears). Thanks.
But Mike Huckabee, who has suggested that the Palestinians relocate elsewhere, continues to work for Fox.
Argh. You’re opening up a HUGE can o’ worms with that one, Donal. To get to the place where we can see that the two comments are not equivocal, we needs must set the WABAC machine for the pre-WWII landscape. Our buddies across the pond did a bang-up job, mucking about with Lawrence, in Arabia. The way they, arbitrarily and capriciously divided up territories into “countries” and turned tribes into fiefdoms/emirates was truly, colossally stupid. Don’t even get me started on that “House of Saud” thing. Setting all that aside for the nonce, it’s important to note that there was NO SUCH THING AS A “PALESTINIAN.” Nobody that lived in that neck o’ the woods, pre-Israel, self-identified as a “Palestinian.” Egyptians, Lebanese, Libyan, et cetera, but not Palestinian. They had no “national identity” as such. Just a bunch of poor, somewhat nomadic people living in a place where nobody else wanted to live. Think of it as the Middle Eastern version of the Island of Misfit Toys.
Then WWII begat the Holocaust, which begat Allied guilt, which triggered the creation of the State of Israel. Of course, now that the Jews wanted the land (which was not exactly a prime piece of real estate then) suddenly all of the Arab nations took offense.
What we have here is a failure to communicate – on a Biblical Scale. Ever since Essau got screwed out of his inheritance, the Arabs have had a burr in their saddles for the Jews. It’s the Hatfields and McCoys writ large, across eons.
Of course, if you wanna get real picky, you’d have to go back and do reparations for whatever descendants of the original natives you can find. That would pre-date the Jews AND the Arabs.
If you were doing a title search on Israel, even the best land attorneys would likely give up and go get drunk. There’s no way to accurately determine WHO should own the bloody place. Still, SOMEbody’s gotta lay claim to it.
My preference would be for everybody to just get along. Because of the Dome of the Rock vs. the Temple Smackdown (coming soon to an Armageddon near you!) that’s not likely to happen.
Realistically, somebody’s gonna “win” and somebody’s gonna go home mad. Because none of the people living there at the time the Jewish State was created were really “Palestinians,” because that particular location has virtually nothing to recommend it (no oil, no beautiful scenery, etc.), and because the world really screwed the Jews over in WWII and owed them something, I think the most logical/least objectionable thing to do on reflection, is to let them live there.
Of course, then we come to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Name me one other country in the history of the world that has fought a battle, taken territory, and NOT annexed for their own. If anything, the Israelis have been way too accommodating. And I think that if the “Palestinians” would agree to stop lobbing missiles from their back porches over to Israel, then I think Israel would let them live in peace.
End of rant. For now.
My high school roommate was a self-identified Palestinian. Even though their land had been ruled by Ottomans for over a hundred years, they still called themselves Palestinians. His said his family was very wealthy when their property was taken to create Israel. They fled to Iran, then to the US, but he always called himself a Palestinian.
As I see it, it is only acceptable to advocate relocating Palestinians because they have very little influence in America, whereas the Israelis have a great deal of influence.
BTW, why isn't this post categorized under 'Obscure Objects of Desire?'