Hearst reporter Helen Thomas, who resigned after spewing something about how the Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and go back to Germany or Poland, shouldn’t face a public punditry flogging in isolation! On C-SPAN at least one of her defenders dialed in to remark how Thomas’ remarks were “spot on:” The Germans wanted to get rid of the Jews because they were giving everybody STDs and whores and The Homosexuality.
The caller was allowed to … continue.
[via]
Robby
Helen Thomas was right ….. What she said was not anti Jew , it was anti imperialistic. Zoinism is the issue, which forces the palestian people out of there homeland. All she was saying was that they should give the palestian people their land back! Was that really that bad?
Tony
No Robby, she didn’t say anthing about Zionism. She said that “they should get the hell out of Palestine.” She was giggling as she said it. She obviously thought she was being clever and cute. When asked where the Israeli Jews should go, she said Poland, Germany. After being asked again, she tossed American in there too, as a place to return the Jews to. She picked Poland as the place of repatriation, then Germany knowing that to three religious Jews, that would evoke genocide and death camps. She was not making any complex foreign policy argument. She was Jew-baiting.
Cam
@Robby:
The native Americans will be so happy to hear that you will be signing over your house to them! how kind of you!!
ossurworld
Helen Thomas is an example of staying longer than you are welcome.
Baxter
In Helen Thomas’s defense, she’s like 1,000 years old and probably had no idea where she was or what she was doing.
Bill
Oy vey.
James_From_The_Great_City_of_Cambridge
@Tony: Isn’t she herself Jewish? And shouldn’t they get the hell out of Palestine or at least stop treating the Palestinians the way the Nazi’s treated them?? Why are you not allowed to criticize the absolutely brutal, concentration camp-type activities the Israeli government engages in towards the Palestinians without being called an anti-semite? Because the Jews suffered horribly, absolutely horribly, they’re allowed to turn around and engage in the same behavior that almost caused their race to be wiped out?? (Towards people who are no different than them, by the way. The only difference between the Palestinians and the Israeli’s is religion and power; they are in effect the same people which makes all this brutality that much more awful!)
Cam
@James_From_The_Great_City_of_Cambridge: Said….
No. 7 · James_From_The_Great_City_of_Cambridge
@Tony: Isn’t she herself Jewish? And shouldn’t they get the hell out of Palestine or at least stop treating the Palestinians the way the Nazi’s treated them??
_____________
No James, she is Lebanese. Additionally, and ugh, I can’t believe we have to discuss this on Queerty. But Nobody seems to be pointing out that Egypt is involved in the Blockade as well, walling off Gaza from it’s territory and not permitting any people through, additionally human Rights Watch has reported for years that Jordon is stripping citizenship away from people with PAlestinian Backgrounds over there to prevent them from increasing their numbers in that country. Helen Thomas is like many of the old politicians who used to be able to say things like this all the time, in that they just don’t realize the effects of Youtube.
B
No. 2 · Tony wrote, “No Robby, she didn’t say anthing about Zionism. She said that ‘they should get the hell out of Palestine,'” and “She picked Poland as the place of repatriation, then Germany knowing that to three religious Jews, that would evoke genocide and death camps.”
She first said they should get out of Palestine, saying they [Israelis] would be no more welcome as an occupier than Germany or Poland would be. It is possible, due to her age, that when asked, “where should they go”, she had trouble retrieving an answer so the last two countries she mentioned popped into her head and out of her mouth. I hope what she said was a slip of the tongue – she should have said that they should go back to Israel (a statement that would anger some Israelis and please others as not all agree on the best strategy regarding the settlements.)
If anyone wants to really understand the problem with the settlements, look at the following map: http://www.btselem.org/Download/Settlements_Map_Eng.jpg , which color codes the West Bank to show the status of various areas and who controls what.
If you include the settlements, you’d almost think the de facto border between the Israelis and the Palestinians is a first cut at a new space-filling curve such as those discovered by the mathematicians David Hilbert and Giuseppe Peano. It’s a border that is difficult to protect and shaped to maximize conflict, the sort of thing that no one in his right mind would plan.
Kevin
I’ve got no horse in the race, so to say, but it really pisses me off when people say that Israel should give its land “back” to the Palestinians, as if the Jewish people don’t have at least as strong a historical case for the land as the Palestinians. As if the Jews weren’t living there for thousands of years before the Arabs overran the area. The historical claim cuts both ways, people. Besides which, Israel was founded in 1948, as in 62 long years ago. Even if that act was somehow unjust to the non-Jewish locals of the area, the vast majority of the people alive at the time are dead now. Those Palestinians holding on to deeds for property in Israel more likely than not inherited them from their grandparents or great-grandparents. I feel bad for them, sure, and some restitution is owed, but seriously, give it up.
I think the larger point is that land is a valuable commodity. We shouldn’t be surprised when it is fought over. And likewise we shouldn’t be surprised when the winners in those struggles keep and utilize their prize. The Arabs certainly weren’t shy about claiming land by the sword, so I don’t see it as particularly unjust when they lose land that way, either. More practically, the Palestinians themselves would be much better off if they would just give up on the whole endeavor and find themselves a new home. If only, when the British divided it’s Palestinian mandate, they had created an area specifically for Arab Muslims… oh wait, they did. Jordan.
Bill Perdue
It’s not really possible to be overly harsh describing the 60 year crime spree of the zionist colonial administration against Palestinians and others. Their idea of peace is a piece of Egypt, a slice of Turkey, a bite of Lebanon, a piece of Jordan and a piece of slice of Syria and swallowing Palestine whole.
As for Helen Thomas, I hope she takes heart from the words of fellow anti-racist and anti-zionist Desmond Tutu, who says; “People are scared in this country (the US), to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is powerful – very powerful. Well, so what?
“The apartheid government was very powerful, but today it no longer exists.
“Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pinochet, Milosevic, and Idi Amin were all powerful, but in the end they bit the dust…”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1957644.stm
7
Hmm. I don’t know, I’ve always thought along similar lines as Helen Thomas – though maybe no so bluntly. We’re not talking about religious whatever or cultural mandate blah. At the end of the war, suddenly, all the Palestinians were forced to share a state they had had dominion over for hundreds of years, and then, when they became (understandably) upset about this, the Allied Powers stepped in to beat the shit out of them, and are still backing the Israelis in their containment of Palestinians. I’m not sure if Israel was supposed to be a permanent settlement or not, but the system as it is cannot continue.
Someone keeps bungling the Gaza issue, whether on purpose or because of too much instability already ingrained into the minds of the people. I don’t think there really is a quick and easy fix for this, especially when, apparently, redrawing boundary lines doesn’t appease anyone because Israel/Jerusalem is such sacred territory.
However, the immediate thing to do would be to warn Israel against getting cocky. A Lebanese terrorist cell bombs Israel, and Israel responds with missiles straight into the heart of the country? Raiding an activist flotilla and killing NINE people? Fighting terrorism with terrorism? Their over-confidence is hurting more than helping. I’m not saying we cut assistance to Israel altogether, but just let them know that if they start a war all on their own, we may not be there to help them out (I think there’s an agreement that says we do have to do that, but that’ just a matter of passing legislation through a Republican Congress).
I’m sorry if what I say is completely ridiculous, I’m just saying what I think based on what I see.
Tom in Lazybrook
Did Helen Thomas say that about Gays? No. Has she exhibited anti-Gay statements before?
This headline appears to be attempting to tie Helen Thomas to some crank caller’s comment. Ms. Thomas’ comment was bad enough on its face. I think your post was biased and stilted. Unless you can find some evidence of anti-Gay behavior or statements by Thomas (you might have something – please provide it if you’ve got it).
Israel is NOT perfect on Gay rights. Shinui Israel is wonderful. Tel Aviv is great. Gay people are beaten on the streets of Jerusalem. By Jews. Has there ever been a Gay protest in J’salem that hasn’t been physically attacked by thugs (not Arabs)? I’m not aware of one. The current Israeli government has ties to some Jewish groups that talk a very hateful line about Jews (Shas).
Just because Israel’s neighbors are worse, doesn’t give Israel a free pass to misbehave without criticism. Thomas crossed the line. But Bibi’s government and the hard right in Israel cross the line too.
Tom in Lazybrook
Oops I meant to say..
The current Israeli government has ties to some Jewish groups that talk a very hateful line about Gays (Shas)
edgyguy1426
I don’t know why an aid ship was doing cruising into a known blockade anyway. That’s why it’s called a blockade. If they want to get humanitarian aid ,find some way to get it in, maybe thru Egypt, because they certainly have no trouble tunneling guns thru there.
And giving land back? Only to be attacked from it? Ooops tried that. What impetus does that give Israel to give more land back?
You’re right, 7, the Israelis are overly cocky and I don’t support the invasion into Lebanon, but what to do with Hamas? As long as they take a position not uncommon with Iran that Israel must be destroyed, the Israel knee jerk offensive actions I can understand.
Kevin
@7: I think it’s inaccurate to say that Palestinians had “dominion” over that area for any considerable amount of time. Prior to the foundation of Jordan, the entire area was a British mandate; prior to that, owned by the Ottoman Turks, and prior to that (we’re now into the 16th Century) the Egyptian Mamelukes. It’s fair to say that the last time there was local Arab rule in that area was just after the destruction of the Crusader States. Let’s not forget that Jewish immigration to Palestine started in the late 1800’s and was both legal and encouraged under Ottoman rule. It wasn’t so much that the Palestinians were told to accept Jewish rule after the war, but that they had to be accommodating to the Jews who already lived there. And that reasonable request was what got them so upset. To be fair, the locals were being manipulated (and eventually aided, to little avail) by their fellow Arab neighbors.
At the end of the day, every damn border in the world was drawn with oppression, imperialism, and conflict. Attempting to re-write history on the basis of “how things would have worked out if life were fair” is foolhardy and useless. Demographics shift, people move, wars are fought, the illusory lines on the ground are re-drawn, and life moves on. At about the same time that Israel was being founded, the Nationalists were getting kicked out of China and re-establishing themselves on Taiwan. They have since gotten over their loss and have built a modern, wealthy, successful state. They’ve even forged a national identity totally separate from China. It’s time the Palestinians gave that a go.
Pip
@Queerty C-SPAN is like the mother ship for crazy people. I don’t think this caller was necessarily homophobic anyway—I think he was just trying to explain an aspect of Nazi Germany. But even if he is/was, this is really par for the course. There’s bigoted call ins all the time. CSPAN is a public service, so they let anyone who gets on the air say their piece.
Brutus
@James_From_The_Great_City_of_Cambridge: While I fully agree with your sentiment, I’d like to point something out. You said: “The only difference between the Palestinians and the Israeli’s is religion and power; they are in effect the same people which makes all this brutality that much more awful!”
That suggests that if they weren’t “in effect the same people,” the brutality would be somewhat more acceptable.
I don’t buy that.
Robert
This headline by Queerty is a little suspect. It is a clear attempt at trying to link people who support basic dignity for Palestinians with anti-gay. At least you guys are more subtle than the Advocate.
Robert
@Kevin: I’m sorry, but when you complain about “re-writing history” while you do it yourself it makes you look a little foolish. Even though there was no country called “Palestine” (something no one asserts), the area had been referred to as “Palestine” for centuries. At least you didn’t repeat the lie that the Arab population in the area was due to recent immigration, because there was a distinct culture there.
And yes, the local Arab population did have problems accommodating the new Jewish immigrants, and I fully agree with their reasons and it had nothing to do with anti-Semitism. Many in the early Zionist movement made it quite clear that their intentions was to form a state in the British Mandate of Palestine with either a Jewish majority (which would be only possible by the forced expulsion of the indigenous population) [they picked this one] or to set up an apartheid state where the minority systematically oppresses the majority (what happens in the occupied territories) [this is what they are doing now]. It is understandable why there may have been a little Arab resentment.
edgyguy1426
@Pip: You don’t think that caller was homophobic??? He was definitely linking the jews with disease and homosexuality. If that isn’t a case for severe homophobia I don’t know what is.
Kevin
@Robert: The fact that the term Palestine has been used for quite some time doesn’t really justify much of anything. The area historically considered Palestine includes Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority at a minimum, as well as portions of surrounding countries depending on quite when you draw the line for “history.” By any historical definition, there is already a “Palestinian” state (Jordan), and it is hardly Israel’s fault that this state has little interest in granting citizenship to the many refugees settled there.
I’m not going to debate the political views of the founders of the Zionist movement. I don’t doubt that some, many, or whatever vague term one might choose, supported some sort of oppressive regime. We’re talking about the late 1800’s here; the idea of national self-determination hadn’t yet been put forward. More to the point, though, do you see the Palestinians, had they won in ’48, treating the Jewish minority any better than the Palestinians are treated now? Yes, the Jews were more recent immigrants, but they were there just as legally and had just the same rights to citizenship. It would have been nice if the Jews and Palestinians had chosen a Lebanon-style power-sharing agreement, but they didn’t. Both sides resented the other and wanted complete political power to themselves. Both opted to settle the matter militarily, the die was cast, and the Jews won.
Scott Rose
Ever wonder why you never hear about the human rights of Jews in Jordan? (I get to the human rights of gays in Jordan below).
It’s because when 75% of the British Mandate of Palestine became Jordan, and 25% Israel, Jordan expelled all the Jews (and confiscated their property and life savings and never gave them back). Israel by contrast welcomed the Arabs in its territory to participate fully in the democracy; there are Arab members of the Knesset.
In Israel today, out gay Arabs live unbothered.
How are gays faring in Jordan?
In 2008, Saad Manasir, Governor of Amman, pledged to continue with the crackdown until, “we eradicate any trace of male homosexuals in the society.” Vigilante honor killings are relatively common. Several articles of the penal code provide lesser penalities for a man killing his wife or kin than for engaging in “illicit” sexual relations. No civil rights legislation exists to protect people from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. There are no known government-recognized LGBT community or human rights organizations, and no Jordanian political parties have expressed any support for LGBT legislation.
And Jordan is considered “liberal and modern” compared to Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian government of the West Bank (where there’s no such thing as “out,” because “out” means “honor killed.”
Just so we’re clear on what Helen Thomas would have happen to gay Arabs who today in Israel live out and proud and are not jailed or killed for it.
Rashid
@Cam: Sweetheart. The USA wasn’t founded in 1948 amidst an air of Middle Eastern disunity, thanks to Britain who grabbed a pen and drew borders to establish individual countries out of worn out Ottoman occupied territories. No my dear, that is Israel.
Rashid
@James_From_The_Great_City_of_Cambridge: Arabs are Semites because they speak a Semitic language. Jews are Semites because they speak a Semitic language. Therefore calling Palestinians or Arabs anti-semitic is pathetic. For what it’s worth, Israelis (not necessarily the majority) have a reasonable amount of contempt for Palestinians. When were they last called anti-semitic?
D'oh, The Magnificent
Irony: Israel lobbied Germany in the last decade to tighten its immigration laws regarding Jewish immigrants moving to Germany. Why? For the first time, since the birth of the modern state of Israel, more Jewish immigrants were moving to Germany than Israel. Israel sought to block this trend. Until I read this, I didn’t realize how deep this ran.
The irony is that what she was saying while offensive to the American media landscape is not something that’s all that controversial in Europe, and, indeed, seems to reflect a trend that Israel is trying to block- that Israel is not the only place Jewish people can feel safe anymore. That they don’t need to be pushing out Palestenians who are out numbering the Jewish people moving in because of birth rate diferentials. They also responding apparently with more stridden doctrinal religion (theocracy) as supported- wait for it… by American evangelicals who believe that the Jewish people will be on their side and Muslim on the side of the anti Christ when the second coming of Christ happens (I wish I were making this shit up).
I compare what Israel is doing there to what Glenn Beck suggested with the changing demographics of America when he said whites should have more babies. All of this “outrage” is covering up some really ugly shit that has nothing to do with Judiasm (since many are moving places that they now feel are more safe) or terrorism (which is a problem that needs to be addressed rather than used for political exploitation by the far right of Israel).
Robert, NYC
To digress, straight Jews in Israel can’t even have a civil marriage in their own country, it has to have a religious component or else you have to leave and go elsewhere. So much for a secular democracy, as bad as DOMA in the U.S.
Cam
No. 24 · Rashid
@Cam: Sweetheart. The USA wasn’t founded in 1948 amidst an air of Middle Eastern disunity, thanks to Britain who grabbed a pen and drew borders to establish individual countries out of worn out Ottoman occupied territories. No my dear, that is Israel.
___________________________-
Sorry Rashid, but all you’re taking about is timing. At what point, if you think that Isreal should get out, does it become ok to live on land that used to belong to somebody else? Jordon controled the west bank before Isreal, Egypt controlled Gaza. The U.S. is on land once controlled by Native Americans. If you think Isreal should leave then why would you not think the US should give it’s land back and we should all pick a country and go back? At what point does it become ok in your mind. Or is it only not ok because it’s Isreal?
Sorry, but we’re talking about one area, where it’s legal to be gay, where gay marriges performed in other countries are accepted and gays can adopt, and another area where being gay is illegal, where violence against women and honor killings are accepted and gays are arrested and tortoured. I’ll feel sympathy for Palestine when I can walk down the street holding a man’s hand and not get thrown in jail and tortoured or where a woman can decide to marry somebody her family doesn’t approve of and not get killed by them with the govt.’s tacit approval.
Back to the topic at hand, If Helen Thomas really believes what she said, then she needs to find a local Native American tribal govt. in her state and sign over her house to them.
D'oh, The Magnificent
@Cam: Your argument is mostly fake not because of what Rashid describes, but because of what I describe. Its easier to argue over what should have been in 1948 than it is to defend what’s happening now or the realities of Jewish people not returning to Israel anymore, but instead choosing other countries.
Your arguments over gay marriage is completely irrelevant to the debate. You are essentially arguing that a rain storm in Mexico solves a drought issue in the mid West of the United states. it doesn’t work that way. The fact that South Africa was nice to whites, doesn’t justify apartheid against blacks. Likewise, the fact that Israel has, in your mind, a better policy on gay marriage, doesn’t justify what else Israel maybe doing. That’s just a sleight of hand magic trick.
And, as for Helen, I already rebutted your statement through looking at the true complexity of the issue- that Israel, is not really trying to protect Jews from European oppression (which is the genesis of the claimed offense) any more since many Jewish immigrants are choosing the country that was the cause of the Holocaust over Israel. In other words, the debate is rigged to tug at the heart strings as you formulate it, but it does not represent political reality for Jewish people today. it certainly doesn’t justify the behavior of the Israeli government toward the Palestinians. Indeed, it certainly doesn’t explain why the same Israeli government would be trying to block Jewish people from moving to Germany over Israel. The later point demonstrates how much of sham this entire fake discussion is by you and other Israeli supporters. Can you explain why Israeli would be trying to block Germany from allowing Jewish immigrants into Germany? I know you can’t, but I thought I’d give you a chance to provide some kind of reasoning that does not amount to trying to keep up a public image of Israel as the only choice for Jewish people.
edgyguy1426
Obviously Thomas’s opinion was colored by her Lebanese background. Ok, I understand that. But her statement boiled down to a ‘they should go back where thay came from’ arguement which has been used here against african americans for decades. What about all the Israelis that are native Israelis? Do they throw a dart at a map and pick a country?
Jaroslaw
I’m not apparently nearly as good a historian and some posters here. But I do think that when a country wins a war, that kind of ends the discussion, until the next war. If I’m mistaken, let me know, but Israel (right or wrong) is the only place I’ve heard of that is continuously being asked to give in, give back etc. And I thought they won the war.
And I can read a map. Israel is such a tiny place. Is there a reason all the oil rich neighbors with much more land mass can’t take in their Arab brethren? As distasteful as it is to give up ones’ homeland, this quarrel has been brewing for 62 years with no end in sight. There HAS to be another solution. And I didn’t the PLO organization under Arafat reject solution after solution? He as much as anyone kept the camps open.
D'oh, The Magnificent
@edgyguy1426: Don’t even try to compare African Americans to the hot mess that is Israel. African Americans were forced here against their will. Israel was forced upon the locals against their will. The comparator is African Americans and the local people that Israel pushed aside.
Mike
This entire discussion clearly demonstrates why religion is for the insane.
B
No. 30 · edgyguy1426 wrote, “Obviously Thomas’s opinion was colored by her Lebanese background.” … or she just misspoke as I pointed out in No. 9 as a possibility, but in any case, here is a funny video of what I had in mind, where someone gets in trouble for repeating a word he heard earlier: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpx6XnankZ8 (The “Bridge of Death” scene from “Monte Python and the Holy Grail”).
Unfortunately, what it will take to end the conflict won’t be available for some time if ever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eun7SmpNr1I (OK – couldn’t resist – 1950s special effects are so cheesy that they look funny today).
Bill Perdue
The Palestinian homeland is Palestine. zionist colonists have no country. All they have is a bunker mentality and brute force. That’s what the South Africans had until they began to take the ANC anthem ‘Bring Me My Machine Gun’ seriously and turned white as sheets.
The zionist colonists are temporary interlopers there, propped up artificially by the US. The situation will only be solved by a unitary, secular, socialist Palestinian state. The colonialists can adjust like the European colonialists did in South Africa or await their fate, which if they fight to the bitter end will probably closely resemble the fate of French colonists in Algeria and the Americans in Vietnam.
Palestinians will take their country back. The longer zionists keep up their murder rampage the harsher the settlement will be.
Many zionist colonists may not want to leave. They may want to adapt. That’d both be easier and lead to a more vibrant society. What they cannot do is impose their rogue killer regime on the Palestinians indefinitely.
Dmitriy
@James_From_The_Great_City_of_Cambridge:
Engage in the behavior?
As an arab she should shut the fuck up
since arabs dispossessed more jews than israel dispossessed palestinians….
second: if there is really a genocide of palestinians going on: why is it that in 1948 there were about a million and now close to 5 million?
yeah clearly israel is systematically wiping them out….
do you know why the IDF does things like bulldoze the homes of families of suicide bombers?
so that they know that ISRAELI life is precious and that there will be a price to pay for their so called “freedom fighting”
Dmitriy
@D’oh, The Magnificent:
oh yes how dare Jews want to live in a state where they aren’t a minority there have just been so many of those states in history…
I know dead jews r no biggie, right?
Dmitriy
@Kevin:
Actually notice how the arabs rejected the 1948 partition of Israel and Palestine and did so several more times…..in the form of declaring WAR
Queer Supremacist
@Mike: Not all religions. Just Christianity and Islam.
Pro-Palestinian=Pro-Nazi
Gay + Pro-Palestinian=Modern-day Ernst Rohm
Queer Supremacist
I can’t wait for that ugly old camel fucker to die. This kike faggot will gladly piss on her grave.
It’s time for the Israelis to go nuclear on the Nazislamic dictatorships and on the Vatican, whose predecessors helped Hitler with the Holocaust, and which is now run by an unrepentant ex-Nazi who calls himself pope while his cardinals rape little boys and blame us gays for it. And that breeder Obama better not stand in their way.
Nuke all anti-gay dictatorships. Nuke “Palestine”, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Yemen, the UAE, and every last one of those racist, anti-semitic, homophobic misogynistic hell holes. Then we’ll have world peace.
Queer Supremacist
The stealth Nazis in this thread are the reason Israel needs to exist as a Jewish state. And frankly, as far as the Abrahamic faiths go, Judaism is the least worst towards us.
Christians only support Israel so they can kick the Jews out of America, and when they get their gay hate on they claim they’re not so bad because they’re not the ones with bombs strapped to their chests, like the Muslims are. I say a plague on BOTH their houses.
James_From_The_Great_City_of_Cambridge
Jason = Queer Supremacist. He has so many aliases all over Queerty why won’t they do something about it? Jesus! (Don’t bother denying it; you told me you’re Jewish in a different thread and your tone now is the same as it was when you spew your anti-black bile! You need some serious help; who has this kind of time, doing this in thread after thread hour after hour day after day??)
Bill Perdue
The only anti-semites here are zionists. Palestinians are semites.
Palestine for the Palestinians
Helen Thomas is a hero for telling the truth. And so is Desmond Tutu, who says: “People are scared in this country (the US), to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is powerful – very powerful. Well, so what?
“The apartheid government was very powerful, but today it no longer exists.
“Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pinochet, Milosevic, and Idi Amin were all powerful, but in the end they bit the dust…”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1957644.stm
Apparently Helen Thomas’ ‘hate crime, in the eyes of those who routinely ignore the crimes of the IDF thugs was to suggest emigration to Germany. However, Jewish emigrants from the CIS, the former USSR, are flooding into Germany, wary of getting caught in a deathtrap in zionist occupied Palestine.
The zionists are not happy about it.
From EJP, the European Jewish Press:
“Since the fall of the Berlin wall, about 200,000 immigrants from the former Soviet Union have come to Germany as contingency refugees, those who could prove Jewish ancestry and therefore gained a status that almost guaranteed a visa to Germany… An Interior Ministry source confirmed the accepted belief that Germany has become the country with the fastest growth rate of a Jewish population since 1990.
“Jews from the former Soviet Union have only two places where they can go to relatively easily. That is Israel or Germany…” http://www.ejpress.org/article/in_depth/1969
From the New York Times
“This change ( a German tightening of immigration laws for Jews) was welcomed by Israel, which has complained for years that Germany’s encouragement of Jewish immigration had the effect of discouraging former Soviet Jews from going to Israel itself. Indeed, last year for the first time, more former Soviet Jews, many of them no doubt attracted by Germany’s generous social services network, settled in this country than in Israel.
“It shouldn’t come as a surprise that at the end of the day Israel would like to see the Jews immigrate to Israel, not to Germany,” Shimon Stein, Israel’s ambassador to Germany, said in an interview.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/world/europe/20iht-rhine.html
Helen Thomas has 200,000 very relieved Jewish accomplices in her ‘hate crime.’
Scott Rose
One sort of presumes that people commenting here are gay, or at the very least, would be sympathetic to gay rights issues.
It is simply unbelievable and totally unacceptable that any gay person would speak in favor of Hamas against Israel.
In Tel Aviv today, out gay Arabs live their lives freely and openly.
In Gaza, there’s no such thing as “out,” because “out” there equates to “honor killed.” There’s no chance of that changing any time soon, either, because as per the religious laws enforced in Gaza, it is illegal for a Muslim to convert to another religion or to renounce religion.
Hamas has the announced intention of establishing an Islamic republic in the territory now Israel. A consequence of Jewish Israelis “getting the hell out of” what Helen Thomas calls “Palestine,” then would be that the out gay Arabs in Israel would suddenly find themselves subject to “honor killing.”
Get a grip!
Bill Perdue
“In Tel Aviv today, out gay Arabs live their lives freely and openly.”
Thats a lie.
From the Jewish Forward
Because they are so vulnerable to blackmail, it is assumed by the families and neighbors of gay Palestinian men — sometimes correctly — that they have been blackmailed into becoming informers, either for Israeli intelligence or for opposition Palestinian factions. So when they meet a violent end, the motivation of the killers is not entirely clear.
From Kathleen Peratis, a trustee of Human Rights Watch.
When gay Palestinian men run for their lives into Israel, they do not seek — and they cannot get — “asylum,” which is a special status under international law available to those who can establish a “well founded fear of persecution” in the country of their nationality or “place of habitual residence.” Israel has never granted asylum to Palestinians, gay or not
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Jerusalem advises any Palestinian seeking asylum in Israel that he or she is ineligible to apply.”
The zionist colonial administration in occupied Palestine periodically engages in ethnic cleansing on a large scale.
However the deaths from zionist ethnic cleansing are nothing compared to the deaths the zionists cause day in and day out by their apartheid policies and denial of food, healthcare and shelter to Palestinians. It’s an example of slow, relentless, remorseless ethnic cleansing by starvation. It’s exactly the same tactic the Nazis used on ghettos and Russian and Polish citizens until they began the mass murders.
The approach of GLBT communities to the fight of the Palestinians should be full support. And a warning to the zionists – when push comes to shove the only thing the US and the English are interested in is oil. They are there for the oil and have no other loyalties. We should explain to the zionist colonists that their days as a power in the region are numbered. They can make their peace with a democratic, secular and hopefully socialist Palestine or await their fate.
The zionists only permit about a third of the food and other supplies need to sustain Palestinians in Gaza.
Robert, NYC
And lets not forget that it was a Jewish Israeli fanatic who bombed and killed people at the gay center several months ago. So Israel has just as much homophobia as anywhere else. The orthodox sect are the most vocally anti-gay of all.
Bill Perdue you’re so right. The real anti-semites are the zionists who don’t want anyone but Jews living in Israel. Zionism = racism.
Dmitriy
@Robert, NYC:
yeah clearly since 20% of israelis are arabs and 4 percent are armenian, circassian,…
they clearly don’t want arabs living there…
PS: the “racist zionist” country that allows arabs to have voting rights, become supreme court justices and be parliament members affords fags like you and more than the palestinians…
in fact your lucky if the palestinians afford you more than breathing room in a jail cell or worse…
Dmitriy
@Robert, NYC:
@Bill Perdue:
colonialist?
over have of israelis were expelled from the arab world….
gotta love the self hating commie fag bill perdue…
you would enjoy so many rights among your arab friends wouldn’t you?
Bill Perdue
@Dmitriy: typical zionist piglet
Dmitriy
I’d rather be a zionist piglet than stoned by palestinians
Scott Rose
Bill Perdue, excuse me but you are a major, major asshole.
It absolutely is not “a lie” that out gay Arab people live open lives in Israel.
There are many out gay Arab citizens of Israel. You are arguing, however, as though there were no gay Arab citizens of Israel at all.
To make reference to people from Gaza and/or the West Bank that may be seeking refuge in Israel, and whether they receive it, is to miss the whole point.
The whole point is that the civil laws of Israel protect the human rights of Israel’s gay citizens whether those citizens are Jewish, Arab or Chinese.
In Gaza and the Arab West Bank, gay people do not have those protections.
I don’t know why you are so emotionally caught up in propagandizing against Israel, to such an extent that you present obstructionist arguments involving the human rights of gay people in the Middle East. This is Queerty, for homos, so naturally, gay rights are of paramount interest to us. You are, effectively, arguing a position that would, carried out in policy in the real world, lead to gay people being stripped of their human rights. Who but a total asshole would make such an argument?
Bill Perdue
@Scott Rose: Your zionist lies and half truths in support of the zionist bunkerstadt, a parasitic colony that practices ethnic cleansing, apartheid policies of starvation and denial of housing and medical care against palestinians won’t do you or the colonial bunkerstadt any good at all.
People know that the zionist colony is as toxic and brutal as the old South African government was and that the zionist colonialists will have to adapt the same way their South African racist counterparts did.
Palestine is going to be free, secular and unitary and if the zionists don’t give up and adapt they have some very rough times ahead for them.
Palestine for the Palestinians.
Dmitriy
@Bill Perdue:
Clearly Bill Palestine was empty till the Arabs invaded it:
the 3500 years of jewish history and presence means nothing
nor the fact that genetic evidence proves that most jews are semites….
but of course a two state solution is a problem for you bill, you’d rather have your socialist paradise and be imprisoned…
after all socialist states have such great histories with respect to gay rights
Bill Perdue
@Dmitriy: whoever’s paying you to propagandize for zionism and other forms of racism is wating their money.
Bill Perdue
@Bill Perdue: wasting
Jesse Helms
@Bill Perdue: I fear Dmitryi failed World History 101. When one spills cola all over one’s textbook, the acid ruins the print. Perhaps this scenario befell Dmitryi?