In respect of the comment of the Washington columnist for Hearst Newspapers, Helen Thomas, that the Jews of Israel should “go home” to Germany and Poland, there are two points to be made.
The first is that these comments should come as no surprise whatsoever to anyone who has followed Ms. Thomas’s career. The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America has a page full of the relevant details; back in 2008 even the Washington Post, not known for being a knee-jerk defender of Israel, was writing of Thomas’s “stridency in criticizing Israel and defending its enemies.” President George W. Bush’s press secretary Tony Snow once described her as offering “the Hezbollah view,” and back in 1991, George H.W. Bush, also not known for being a knee-jerk defender of Israel, had to explain publicly to Ms. Thomas why Iraq was not justified in lobbing scud missiles into Israel.
The second is that, even given Ms. Thomas’s well known status as a virulent critic of Israel and as more of a speechifier than questioner at White House press conferences, President Obama has chosen to call on her at two of his six full-scale press conferences. The only ones who have gotten called on more by Mr. Obama work for either the big five television networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News Channel, and CNN) or the Associated Press or Bloomberg wire services.
At his first presidential press conference, Mr. Obama called on her as follows: “All right, Helen. This is my inaugural moment here. I’m really excited.”
Her question: “Mr. President, do you think that Pakistan are maintaining the safe havens in Afghanistan for these so-called terrorists? And also, do you know of any country in the Middle East that has nuclear weapons?”
At Mr. Obama’s most recent press conference, the president called on her again and she said, “Mr. President, when are you going to get out of Afghanistan? Why are we continuing to kill and die there? What is the real excuse? And don’t give us this Bushism, ‘if we don’t go there, they’ll all come here.’”
At a third press conference, Ms. Thomas had gotten in a question even without being formally called on. Mr. Obama responded, “Hold on a second, Helen.”
You can maybe excuse calling on her at the first press conference on the grounds that Mr. Obama or his press aides wanted to defer to her seniority, to sound a note of continuity with past presidencies, and to elevate the new president’s stature somehow by showing the public that the same woman who once hounded Reagan is now hounding him. But three questions in six press conferences for Helen Thomas? And the president pronouncing himself “really excited”?
It’s enough to make a person wonder whether either the president or some of his close advisers are sympathetic to Ms. Thomas’s views or, at least, think they deserve a more prominent place in the public eye.
Biden has the wisdom derived from having served through several decades of the Cold War. We should learn to listen more and criticize less.
That’s change we can believe in. And I hope Americans don’t buy it.
nepat:”Biden has the wisdom blah-blah-blah…” even if that was true – unlikely – you never, ever give your enemy a “get-out-jail-free” card; first rule of negotiating.
Joey Biden, who according to the Messiah himself, would be the foreign affairs heavyweight in (God help us) Obama administration, has effectively given the Iranians a free hand. There is no point for anyone, anyone, US, Europe, Russia, to negotiate anymore. The Iranians have been told, by pappy-president, that if Obama becomes a president they are home free.
What a total moron.
Umm, wisdom? No, we’ve just been treated to the textbook definition of “useful idiot”. In this case two.
A conservative non-Jewish friend of mine asked me a while back how any Jew could vote for Obama. I explained that McCain should do better than usual with the Jewish vote, maybe getting a record percentage, but that most Jews would still vote for the Democrat. He was stunned that the Jewish vote for McCain wouldn’t be closer to 100%. I’ve never been able to give him an adequate answer as to why that’s not the case.
Even non-Zionists should be alarmed at the prospect of a nuclear war.
Jerusalem POST says Biden said this three years ago.
Sometimes posters like Nepat are just parodies of themselves. I was going to observe that Biden’s comments reflect the liabilities of “experience” — but Nepat did it so much better.
Why anyone thinks Biden is, or would be, good at foreign policy is a mystery to me. Biden showed himself in this instance to be neither an analyst nor a diplomat — he’s just a rank, unreconstructed pessimist. Blurting out pessimistic predictions is the “honesty” of the incompetent. It may sometimes be useful to realists like the Israeli military, but it sure isn’t good for America.
What a stupid, stupid thing to say.
Correction-JPOST says that Army Radio said it was three years ago. They themselves have no confirmation to begin with.
Larry says,”I’ve never been able to give him an adequate answer as to why that’s not the case.”
American Jews often vote for what they percieve is in their interest(not Israel’s)and they vote their conscience. Identification with the underdog is still strong.
RCAR, it’s in no rational person’s interest to have a nuclear-armed Iran, when they have clearly and repeatedly threatened to use those weapons. Of course, the rational person category leaves out people like you and Nepat, who can root for the underdog as the missiles fly.
Biden is a hack and a tired old hack at that.
He is deemed “smart” by many even dumber Washington insiders, also party hacks, who are his colleagues and who mistakenly see logorrhea as wisdom. To resurrect an old phrase from the abysmal Carter administration, look forward to much more such “mush from the wimp.”
Biden should really be on TV, selling Chia Pets, shilling for Pay Day loans, telling you to turn in your Gold for cash or, perhaps, he should do wrestling commentary for the WWF.
the recent acts of Russia in Georgia under the cover of their nuclear umbrella is an important lesson for the power a nuclear arsenal can give an aggressive and irrational actor on the international stage. Does anyone think for a minute that Iran’s mullahs are any less aggressive than Putin et al. And as to rationality… You don’t need to use the nukes just have them. The threat of even one bomb on the oil producing states is more than enough to produce the mutual assured destruction model that IRan seeks. They don’t need a massive arsenal or long distance nukes to economically destroy the Western economies.
Larry, somes voters are “irrational”,is that news to you? By your definition,all Obama voters are either irrational or deceived. Correct? We must be in need of a strong leader who will enforce “Rationality” Right?
This is “the blueprint” nonsense we hear from T.P. Barnett.
Israel needs to come out with an UNAMBIGUOUS statement, reeking of determination, stating in no uncertain terms that Tehran’s “ruling religious council” will not be permitted to go nuke.
And a time limit must be soberly and solemnly announced.
Israel must come out with a time limit of 6 months, by which the deconstruction of Iran’s ENTIRE nuclear infrastructure has commenced, ——————————————— or Israel is going to wipe those facilities, AND THAT REGIME off the face of the earth.
Look, Nepat, during the Cold War the USSR already had nuclear weapons, which limited what we could do. If we wait until Iran has nuclear weapons, wisdom will preclude attacking them after that. To wait until we get to that point would be folly.
I don’t know how to make that any clearer.
RCAR, I wouldn’t limit myself to describing Obama voters as irrational or deceived. There are many other adjectives which apply. And, no, this is not news that some voters are irrational. However, we are at a critical juncture where Iran will or will not acquire nuclear weapons. And anyone who is indifferent to that occurrence is irrational, among other things.
Dan, You may not want what you wish for. SCENARIO/ Israel destroys Iran, then Russia destroys Israel,next America refuses to play chicken with Russia/, whatever if Israel attacks Iran, that not the final step of this process.
Larry. you’re right 100%, but 60 million voters don’t care,and that # may be low. Good luck in fixing this national irrationality.
Why Jews vote Democrat:
1. Grandma had an altar to Eleanor Rossevelt, so it’s a family tradition. It takes a major upheaval, like desegregation for Southern Democrats, to change such things, and no such upheaval has occurred.
2. Many Jews are in the “helping professions” and other occupations (law, for instance) that depend upon taxing and spending, in which the Democrats still specialize more than the Republicans.
3. The GOP still feels like the party of evangelicals and country-clubbers. These are two world from which many Jews are socially and culturally distant. To many Jews the GOP just seems alien. See the picture of Sarah Palin with a reindeer she hunted, hardly what Sadie Cohen from Great Neck sees in her daughter’s future.
There are no doubt more reasons, but these came to mind. I don’t think Israel has much to do with it one way or the other. A Democratic candidate would have to be perceived as actively hostile to Israel before driving away the majority of Jewish voters.
Biden continues to live in his dreams of idealist diplomacy. No doubt, he does so because he has Obama who shares his dreams.
The October surprise this year is that Israel will take out all of Iran’s nuclear facilities. Israel has no choice in this matter. If Obama/Biden win, Israel is on its own. The only thing that might stop Israel is that McCain/Palin are the very clear frontyrunners by October 15.
“Israel has no choice in this matter. If Obama/Biden win, Israel is on its own.”
Israel is on its own,no matter who’s in the White House. For a while,some were hoping that Bush would take care of Iran,not likely. If Israel does”what it must do”,they know that even A Republican America will not take a big hit for them any other of our “allies”.
It might be a good opportunity for both Obama and Biden to go on record with their position relative to how Israel should address the Iranian nuke situation.
“…how Israel should address the Iranian nuke situation”. I think pappy-president Biden did just that; put yourself in the shoes of Isreali leader on November 5th, should the Boob and pappy get elected (God help us). You’ve just been told the US is NOT going to do anything about nuclear-armed Iran. Nothing, not even pretend to negotiate. Indeed there is no point for Europeans to pretend to negotiate either, if the US is OK with this. You, the leader of Israel, cannot allow this, whatever the consequences, whatever the cost. And an aircraft strike by the Israeli Air Force might not do the trick, the Iranian facilities are hardened. Hmmmm, perhaps a nuclear strike on Iran would be in order?
perhaps a nuclear strike on Iran would be in order?
and we all lived happily ever after.
Biden must reconcile himself to male pattern baldness.
nepat is a paid troll for the DNC.
No $hit, my friends.
Even if Biden were right: this is not something you say in public, as a candidate. You do not concede something in exchange for nothing. You communicate to the people who need to hear it at the appropriate time.
All his vaunted experience should have taught Biden not to shoot off his mouth, but that has always been Biden´s idea of public service: the public serves to aggrandize him.
Mr. Rosner,
Are you concerned about Obama/Biden response to this report. Instead of taking a concilliatory tone and explaining that he was misunderstood, the Obama campaign blasted “partisan opponents.” I blogged that it seems odd that the campaign would take such a shot at an ally’s (anonymous) government official. Are the leak and response indicative of high level tension between Israel’s current government and the Democratic nominees?