Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Freedom of expression?

At the end of May, longtime White House correspondent and columnist Helen Thomas was dropped by her speakers’ agency on this past Sunday and subsequently retired at the age of 89. In a video clip filmed on May 27 during a Jewish Heritage Celebration at the White House, Rabbi David F. Nesenoff, asked Ms. Thomas, “Any comments on Israel? We’re asking everybody today.” She quickly remarked, “Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine.” When the interviewer asked, “Where should they go?,” she asserted that they “go home” to Poland, Germany, the United States “and everywhere else.”
Helen Thomas just stated, what many around the world feel about Israel and its illegal as well as immoral position against the Palestinians. Her remarks were neither racist, bigoted nor anti-Semitic, they were crude, but factual, which says a whole lot about freedom of expression in the United States and a subject like Israel which is forbidden domain. The difference between China , Iran, North Korea and the USA is that she may not get imprisoned! This is another situation where the tail (Israel) wags the dog (our Country.) Let's hope Helen Thomas' legacy will be to become the lone courageous journalist who began chipping away at the biggest political taboo of all!

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