320 ADL's Foxman defends Israel's attack on the Flotilla

ADL's Foxman defends Israel's attack on the Flotilla

(1) Flotilla cf ship called "Exodus 1947" - Uri Avnery
(2) The world is angry. Why doesn't Israel care? - Daniel Kurtzer, former U.S. ambassador
(3) ADL's Foxman defends Israel's attack on the Flotilla
(4) Journalist says Israelis editing Gaza footage
(5) Autopsy shows Gaza flotilla activists were shot in head at close range
(6) 8 out of 10 Gazans depend on foreign aid to survive. Hamas offered a cease-fire
(7) The Economist lists goods Israel bans from Gaza
(8) Jews should return to Europe & US - White House Press Corps member Helen Thomas
(9) Veteran US Reporter Helen Thomas Quits Over Israel Comments
(10) Paul Findley: Helen Thomas meant that Jews should quit Occupied Territories
(11) Egypt to keep open border with impoverished Gaza

(1) Flotilla cf ship called "Exodus 1947" - Uri Avnery

From: Dr. Gunther Kümel <sapere--aude@web.de> Date: 09.06.2010 02:21 AM

Kill a Turk and Rest

Uri Avnery

Wednesday 09 June 2010

http://arabnews.com/opinion/columns/article61684.ece?comments=all

ON THE high seas, outside territorial waters, the ship was stopped by the navy. The commandos stormed it. Hundreds of people on the deck resisted, the soldiers used force. Some of the passengers were killed, scores injured. The ship was brought into harbor, the passengers were taken off by force. The world saw them walking on the quay, men and women, young and old, all of them worn out, one after another, each being marched between two soldiers…

The ship was called "Exodus 1947". It left France in the hope of breaking the British blockade, which was imposed to prevent ships loaded with Holocaust survivors from reaching the shores of Palestine. If it had been allowed to reach the country, the illegal immigrants would have come ashore and the British would have sent them to detention camps in Cyprus, as they had done before. Nobody would have taken any notice of the episode for more than two days.

But the person in charge was Ernest Bevin, a Labour Party leader, an arrogant, rude and power-loving British minister. He was not about to let a bunch of Jews dictate to him. He decided to teach them a lesson the entire world would witness. "This is a provocation!" he exclaimed, and of course he was right. The main aim was indeed to create a provocation, in order to draw the eyes of the world to the British blockade.

What followed is well known: the episode dragged on and on, one stupidity led to another, the whole world sympathized with the passengers. But the British did not give in and paid the price. A heavy price.

Many believe that the "Exodus" incident was the turning point in the struggle for the creation of the State of Israel. Britain collapsed under the weight of international condemnation and decided to give up its mandate over Palestine. There were, of course, many more weighty reasons for this decision, but the "Exodus" proved to be the straw that broke the camel's back. 

I AM not the only one who was reminded of this episode this week. Actually, it was almost impossible not to be reminded of it, especially for those of us who lived in Palestine at the time and witnessed it.

There are, of course, important differences. Then the passengers were Holocaust survivors, this time they were peace activists from all over the world. But then and now the world saw heavily armed soldiers brutally attack unarmed passengers, who resist with everything that comes to hand, sticks and bare hands. Then and now it happened on the high seas - 40 km from the shore then, 65 km now.

In retrospect, the British behavior throughout the affair seems incredibly stupid. But Bevin was no fool, and the British officers who commanded the action were not nincompoops. After all, they had just finished a World War on the winning side.

If they behaved with complete folly from beginning to end, it was the result of arrogance, insensitivity and boundless contempt for world public opinion.

Ehud Barak is the Israeli Bevin. He is not a fool, either, nor are our top brass. But they are responsible for a chain of acts of folly, the disastrous implications of which are hard to assess. Former minister and present commentator Yossi Sarid called the ministerial "committee of seven", which decides on security matters, "seven idiots" - and I must protest. It is an insult to idiots

THE PREPARATIONS for the flotilla went on for more than a year. Hundreds of e-mail messages went back and forth. I myself received many dozens. There was no secret. Everything was out in the open.

There was a lot of time for all our political and military institutions to prepare for the approach of the ships. The politician consulted. The soldiers trained. The diplomats reported. The intelligence people did their job.

Nothing helped. All the decisions were wrong from the first moment to this moment. And it's not yet the end.

The idea of a flotilla as a means to break the blockade borders on genius. It placed the Israeli government on the horns of a dilemma - the choice between several alternatives, all of them bad. Every general hopes to get his opponent into such a situation.

The alternatives were:

(a) To let the flotilla reach Gaza without hindrance. The cabinet secretary supported this option. That would have led to the end of the blockade, because after this flotilla more and larger ones would have come.

(b) To stop the ships in territorial waters, inspect their cargo and make sure they were not carrying weapons or "terrorists", then let them continue on their way. That would have aroused some vague protests in the world but upheld the principle of a blockade.

(c)  To capture them on the high seas and bring them to Ashdod, risking a face-to-face battle with activists on board.

As our governments have always done, when faced with the choice between several bad alternatives, the Netanyahu government chose the worst.

Anyone who followed the preparations as reported in the media could have foreseen that they would lead to people being killed and injured. One does not storm a Turkish ship and expect cute little girls to present one with flowers. The Turks are not known as people who give in easily.

The orders given to the forces and made public included the three fateful words: "at any cost". Every soldier knows what these three terrible words mean. Moreover, on the list of objectives, the consideration for the passengers appeared only in third place, after safeguarding the safety of the soldiers and fulfilling the task.

If Binyamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak, the Chief of Staff and the commander of the navy did not understand that this would lead to killing and wounding people, then it must be concluded - even by those who were reluctant to consider this until now  - that they are grossly incompetent. They must be told, in the immortal words of Oliver Cromwell to Parliament: "You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately... Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!"

THIS EVENT points again to one of the most serious aspects of the situation: we live in a bubble, in a kind of mental ghetto, which cuts us off and prevents us from seeing another reality, the one perceived by the rest of the world. A psychiatrist might judge this to be the symptom of a severe mental problem.

The propaganda of the government and the army tells a simple story: our heroic soldiers, determined and sensitive, the elite of the elite, descended on the ship in order "to talk" and were attacked by a wild and violent crowd. Official spokesmen repeated again and again the word "lynching".

On the first day, almost all the Israeli media accepted this. After all, it is clear that we, the Jews, are the victims. Always. That applies to Jewish soldiers, too. True, we storm a foreign ship at sea, but turn at once into victims who have no choice but to defend ourselves against violent and incited anti-Semites. ...

(2) The world is angry. Why doesn't Israel care? - Daniel Kurtzer, former U.S. ambassador

After the flotilla attack, it's time for a new, kinder Israeli narrative

 By Daniel Kurtzer

Washington Post

Sunday, June 6, 2010; B01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/04/AR2010060402010.html

Of the many confounding aspects of Monday's flotilla fiasco, one of the most curious is the monotone quality of Israel's response. Within hours of the Israeli assault on an aid ship bound for Gaza, while the dead and wounded were still being evacuated from the scene, Israel's deputy foreign minister delivered a verbal broadside that became his nation's public line: The flotilla organizers are terrorist sympathizers, they ambushed Israeli forces, and they are responsible for what followed.

Even so adept a communicator as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, in a prepared statement Wednesday that attacked Israel's critics as much as it defended Israel's actions, could manage only one sentence of regret for civilian casualties.

Why, even to its friends, has Israel sounded so shrill, even tone deaf? Where are the grief and sadness that Israelis ought to feel about a military operation gone awry? The French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy expressed anger with the tendency of some Israeli leaders to believe that "they are alone in the world and will always be blamed, and to act accordingly."

Israel's friends know that the country has a case to make. But by hunkering down in self-justification, Israel has confused that case. And now the jury of world public opinion, comprising at least as many friends as foes, has stopped listening. At the United Nations, speaker after speaker condemned Israel's action, and even the United States joined in a harsh statement of condemnation. Normally pro-Israel editorial writers added to the chorus of ostracism. ...

Daniel Kurtzer, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Egypt, is a visiting professor at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

(3) ADL's Foxman defends Israel's attack on the Flotilla

http://www.adl.org/ADL_Opinions/Israel/20100604-Op-ed+NJ+Standard.htm

The Biased Rush to Judgment in the Flotilla Affair
By Abraham H. Foxman
National Director of the Anti-Defamation League
This article originally appeared in NJ Jewish Standard on June 3, 2010

Certain events produce images and results that are difficult if not impossible to counteract even if those images and results tell a false story. Such is the case in the truly unfortunate developments surrounding the flotilla affair.

The images fostered by the activists behind the flotilla and now being repeated over and over through the international media are that the people of Gaza are being deprived of basic human needs; that Israel was again intent on preventing humanitarian aid from reaching the Palestinians; that Israel used indiscriminate force against unarmed civilians; and that this incident highlights not only Israeli aggressiveness but Israel's unwillingness to address the issue of Palestinian rights.

Exactly because of this impression, there is a mountain of so-called "evidence" against Israel. Therefore, it is even more vital to provide perspective on what happened, to set the record straight. We have no illusion that the facts will change the minds of the anti-Israel camp. Rather, we hope they have an impact on the thinking of people of good will who are overwhelmed by the media and diplomatic bombardment and the impact of words such as "humanitarian aid" and "civilian casualties."

So why is there a blockade of Gaza in the first place? Because the terrorist organization Hamas has been continually seeking to bring in more sophisticated weapons in order to renew its attacks on Israeli civilians to foster its goal, stated clearly in its charter, of eliminating the Jewish state. Until the international community takes seriously the need to stop the weapons flow to Hamas (as it has also not done with regard to Hezbollah in Lebanon), Israel has no choice but to limit the flow through blockade.

Yes, it is said, it may be legitimate to block sending arms to enemies, but that does not justify creating a humanitarian crisis among the civilian population. In fact, there is no humanitarian crisis.

This flotilla was reportedly carrying 15,000 tons of goods to Gazan residents. But Israel on a weekly basis allows 18,000 tons to enter the Strip, providing the basic necessities and more to the residents. And it should be noted that throughout the flotilla affair, before it began and while it was going on, Israel offered to have the goods removed from the ships and brought to Gaza through normal channels, including with the involvement of the United Nations and the Red Cross.

Clearly, the motivation behind the flotilla and the critiques of Israel for allegedly creating a humanitarian crisis have far more to do with legitimizing Hamas and delegitimizing Israel than assisting the population.

Still, it is argued, why did Israel have to use live fire against civilians? Here, too, reality is very different — in two ways. The folks on at least one ship, the Marmara, were hardly innocents. Some of them belonged to the organization IHH, which has been accused at different times for having ties with Al Qaeda and Hamas, including by France, Israel, and the United States. It is therefore no accident that, among the six ships in the flotilla, only the one with the IHH activists acted violently when Israel forces boarded. Knives, axes, bats, and iron bars were all brutally used against the Israelis first, endangering their lives and ultimately forcing Israel's naval operatives to turn to live fire to save their comrades' lives. It was a classic case of individuals motivated by hatred of Israel having the wherewithal to jeopardize the safety of Israelis with the undoubted belief that if things went wrong, it would be Israel that would be blamed.

Perhaps Israel should have taken all this into account, but that is a very different analysis from blaming Israel for the loss of life.

It is said that this entire episode speaks volumes about Israeli intentions toward the Palestinians. It cannot be said often enough that, in fact, Israel has made repeated offers to the Palestinians that, if accepted, could have led to an independent Palestinian state and a dramatic change in the lives of the people. Using incidents like this to "prove" that Israel doesn't want to grant Palestinians their rights may sell well around the world but has nothing to do with history or reality. It is just the latest in Palestinian efforts to isolate Israel, efforts that have hurt the Jewish state but that have caused even more damage to the Palestinians themselves.

Let's not forget that the biased rush to judgment during the second intifada resulted in the false and damaging charge that Israel committed a massacre in Jenin. It turned out to be a complete distortion, an indicator that the "big lie" technique still worked. Big lies are being trotted out again.

Finally, the true context of this story is that it is part of the latest version of the 62-year assault against Israel's very existence. The first took place during the 25 initial years of Israel's existence and it was called war —1948, 1956, 1967, 1973. The second phase was terrorism, highlighted by the suicide attacks between 2002 and 2005.

Now we are in the third phase, the growing campaign to delegitimize the Jewish state, to make it a pariah among nations and ultimately end its existence. There are many ways this is happening — through the campaign of boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against Israel and, of course, the Goldstone Report. Now add the flotilla affair to that growing list, a tragedy that didn't have to happen but is yet another example of how human life is expendable in the cause of attacking the state of Israel.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.

Israel has long seen itself as the Alamo, a fortress under siege.  ...

Daniel Kurtzer, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Egypt, is a visiting professor at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

(4) Journalist says Israelis editing Gaza footage

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/08/2921836.htm?section=world

Updated June 8, 2010 17:48:00

Journalist Paul McGeough says footage captured of the recent deadly raid on a Gaza aid flotilla has been re-edited for Israeli purposes. (AAP : Alan Porritt)

Sydney Morning Herald journalist Paul McGeough says footage captured of the recent deadly raid on a Gaza aid flotilla has been re-edited for Israeli purposes.

Mr McGeough was onboard the flotilla with another Fairfax journalist when it was raided earlier this month, killing nine pro-Palestinian activists.

He has told triple j's Hack program his equipment and footage were seized by Israeli officials before he was deported.

"The imagery that was in various cameras is now being edited and put out by the Israeli Defence Force as their account of the events on the ships," he said.

Mr McGeough says Fairfax and Australian authorities are working to have the property returned.

First posted June 8, 2010 17:25:00

(5) Autopsy shows Gaza flotilla activists were shot in head at close range

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/04/gaza-flotilla-activists-autopsy-results

Gaza flotilla activists were shot in head at close range

Exclusive: Nine Turkish men on board Mavi Marmara were shot a total of 30 times, autopsy results reveal

Robert Booth

guardian.co.uk, Friday 4 June 2010 22.00 BST

Israel was tonight under pressure to allow an independent inquiry into its assault on the Gaza aid flotilla after autopsy results on the bodies of those killed, obtained by the Guardian, revealed they were peppered with 9mm bullets, many fired at close range.

Nine Turkish men on board the Mavi Marmara were shot a total of 30 times and five were killed by gunshot wounds to the head, according to the vice-chairman of the Turkish council of forensic medicine, which carried out the autopsies for the Turkish ministry of justice today.

The results revealed that a 60-year-old man, Ibrahim Bilgen, was shot four times in the temple, chest, hip and back. A 19-year-old, named as Fulkan Dogan, who also has US citizenship, was shot five times from less that 45cm, in the face, in the back of the head, twice in the leg and once in the back. Two other men were shot four times, and five of the victims were shot either in the back of the head or in the back, said Yalcin Buyuk, vice-chairman of the council of forensic medicine.

The findings emerged as more survivors gave their accounts of the raids. Ismail Patel, the chairman of Leicester-based pro-Palestinian group Friends of al-Aqsa, who returned to Britain today, told how he witnessed some of the fatal shootings and claimed that Israel had operated a "shoot to kill policy".

He calculated that during the bloodiest part of the assault, Israeli commandos shot one person every minute. One man was fatally shot in the back of the head just two feet in front him and another was shot once between the eyes. He added that as well as the fatally wounded, 48 others were suffering from gunshot wounds and six activists remained missing, suggesting the death toll may increase.

The new information about the manner and intensity of the killings undermines Israel's insistence that its soldiers opened fire only in self defence and in response to attacks by the activists.

"Given the very disturbing evidence which contradicts the line from the Israeli media and suggests that Israelis have been very selective in the way they have addressed this, there is now an overwhelming need for an international inquiry," said Andrew Slaughter MP, a member of the all party group on Britain and Palestine.

Israel said tonight the number of bullets found in the bodies did not alter the fact that the soldiers were acting in self defence. "The only situation when a soldier shot was when it was a clearly a life-threatening situation," said a spokesman for the Israeli embassy in London. "Pulling the trigger quickly can result in a few bullets being in the same body, but does not change the fact they were in a life-threatening situation." ...

(6) 8 out of 10 Gazans depend on foreign aid to survive. Hamas offered a cease-fire

Lying About The Gaza Flotilla Disaster

 MJ Rosenberg

June 02, 2010

http://politicalcorrection.org/fpmatters/201006020003

It's been one lie after another in the US media about the Israeli attack on the Gaza-bound relief flotilla.  No matter that the Israeli media views the whole incident as a debacle for Israel, in this country the Israel-can-do-no-wrong crowd is on overdrive defending the operation.  As usual, facts don't matter to them.

Except they do.

The first thing you need to know about the Gaza flotilla disaster is that the intention of the activists on board the ships was to break the Israeli blockade.  Delivering the embargoed goods was incidental.

In other words, the activists were like the civil rights demonstrators who sat down at segregated lunch counters throughout the South and refused to leave until they were served.  Their goal was not really to get breakfast.  It was to end segregation.

That fact is so obvious that it is hard to believe that the "pro-Israel" lobby is using it as an indictment.

Of course the goal of the flotilla was to break the blockade.  Of course Martin Luther King provoked the civil authorities of the South to break segregation.  Of course the Solidarity movement used workers' rights as a pretext to break Soviet-imposed Communism.

The bottom line is that the men and women of the flotilla had every right to attempt to destroy an illegal blockade that Israel had no legal standing to impose and which was designed to inflict collective punishment on the people of Gaza. (There is no truth to the story that Israel would have delivered the goods on the ships to Gaza if asked; the Israelis never made that offer and, judging by years of precedent, would have blocked any delivery).

As for the Israeli argument that its soldiers were attacked, that is ridiculous. Israeli commandos were ordered to board a civilian ship in international waters and the government that sent them claims that the resisting passengers attacked them without provocation.  This is like a carjacker complaining to the police that the driver bashed him with a crowbar that was under the seat.  Neither carjackers nor hijackers should expect their victims to acquiesce peacefully.

Here are the facts about life in Gaza today -- facts that only can be changed by breaking the blockade.  These data come from the American Near East Relief Association (ANERA) <http://www.anera.org/>, which provides relief to Gazans to the extent permitted by the Israeli (and American) authorities.  ANERA is neither "pro-Israel" nor "pro-Palestinian."  It has no political agenda at all.  It merely determines what human needs are and tries to respond to them.

8 out of 10 Gazans depend on foreign aid to survive.

The World Food Program says Gaza requires a minimum of 400 trucks a day to meet basic nutritional needs - yet an average of just 171 trucks worth of supplies enters Gaza every week,

Clothes that were held in the port of Ashdod for over a year were released into Gaza but arrived covered with mold and mildew, unusable.

95% of Gaza's water fails World Health Organization standards leaving thousands of newborns at risk of poisoning.

Anemia for children under the age of 5 is estimated at 48%.

75 million liters of untreated sewage are pumped into the Mediterranean Sea every day - because piping and spare parts are not permitted.

During the 2009 bombing:

More than 120,000 jobs were lost as Gaza's industrial zone was destroyed... 15,000 homes and apartments were damaged or destroyed... 1/3 of all schools were destroyed.

None of these can be rebuilt, because construction supplies are kept out by the Israeli authorities.

Also, check this out from The Economist <http://www.economist.com/node/16264970>.  It is a partial list of commodities allowed into Gaza and commodities banned. 

So what is the blockade about?

It is not about stopping terrorism.  Hamas has repeatedly offered Israel an indefinite cease-fire in exchange for lifting the blockade.  And, on a half dozen occasions, Israel accepted the deal but did not live up to its side of it.  In fact, the 2009 war began after Israel ignored its commitments under the Gaza cease-fire agreement, continued the blockade, and then provoked the resumption of attacks on Sderot through a series of targeted assassinations of Palestinians (Israel claims that no cease-fire agreement curtails its right to kill any Palestinian it deems to be a terrorist).

Israel asserts that it will not accept any long-term cease-fire agreement with Hamas because Hamas does not recognize its right to exist.

But Israel does not need the permission of anyone -- let alone Hamas -- to exist.  All it needs from Hamas is an end to violence and that is precisely what Hamas is offering, in exchange for lifting the blockade.

This is not to say that Hamas need never recognize Israel.  It should.  But it is ridiculous to insist on recognition as a precondition for anything.  Recognition would be the end result of negotiations, not a precondition for it.

But that is not what Israel wants.  It wants to destroy Hamas because it is a terrorist organization.  And that makes sense until one realizes that the African National Congress, Sinn Fein, the Israeli Irgun, the Algerian FLN and a host of other resistance movements were called terrorist organizations before negotiations brought them to power.  Former Israeli Prime Ministers Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir were both unabashed terrorists prior to their entrance into respectable politics.  And so what?  If dealing with terrorists -- as Israel has repeatedly done with Hezbollah -- will help achieve a worthy goal, why not do it?  After all, if negotiations fail, one can always walk away.

But Israel will not change its self-defeating policies until we change ours.  And there is no evidence that is happening (at least, not until after the November elections, for obvious reasons).

For now, our policies are joined at the hip with Israel's.  We support the blockade of Gaza.  We oppose any efforts at reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas.  We even back Israel's opposition to the Arab Peace Initiative, which offers Israel full peace and normalization of relations with every Arab country in exchange for the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.

Enough is enough.  The Obama administration needs to join the rest of the world in demanding an end to the Gaza

blockade as a first big step toward the resumption of negotiations.

The attack on the flotilla was one of the most disastrous blunders in Israel's history.  At last, the whole world sees Israel's policy of collective punishment for what it is -- a means to perpetuate the occupation forever. Only the United States government has chosed to close its eyes.

The occupation is killing Israel.  And we are on the sidelines letting it happen.  Some ally.

(7) The Economist lists goods Israel bans from Gaza

Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip

Trade off

What goods does Israel bar from the Gaza Strip?

Jun 1st 2010

{visit the link to see the graphics}

http://www.economist.com/node/16264970

ATTENTION is again focused on Gaza after Israeli troops stormed ships that were carrying aid to the strip on May 31st, killing at least nine people. Since 2006 Israel has limited the import of various goods to the Hamas-controlled territory to a “humanitarian minimum”, though there is no official list for traders to observe. Instead, Israel makes decisions on a case-by-case basis, which has resulted in an odd assortment of prohibited items, as detailed by Gisha, an Israeli human-rights organisation. Newspapers, tea, A4 paper and chocolate are among the items that have at one point been barred. But though certain goods cannot be brought in by boat or through Israel, they do still come—often faster and cheaper, too—through the tunnels. The main impact of the blockade is on people, who have been barred from leaving, and on exports.

(8) Jews should return to Europe & US - White House Press Corps member Helen Thomas

From: ReporterNotebook <RePorterNoteBook@Gmail.com> Date: 07.06.2010 11:11 AM

Jews should leave Palestine and return to Europe, top U.S. journalist says

White House reporter Helen Thomas also slams Obama administration for not condemning 'deliberate Gaza flotilla massacre.'

By Natasha Mozgovaya

June 6, 2010

http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/jews-should-leave-palestine-and-return-to-europe-top-u-s-journalist-says-1.294284

Israeli Jews should get out of Palestine and  go back "home," to Germany and Poland, senior White House Press Corps member Helen Thomas was taped as saying earlier this week, bringing calls for her resignation by Jewish organization B'nai B'rith.

In a recently uploaded Youtube video, Thomas can be heard saying that Israel "should get the hell out of Palestine," adding that the land was Palestinian, "not German, it's not Polish."

Thomas, in response, posted the following statement on her website, saying she deeply regretted the "comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon."

When asked where then the Jews should go, the senior White House correspondent said they should "Go home…. To Poland, Germany…and America and everywhere else."

"Thomas' comments are contemptible, "B'nai B'rith International President Dennis W. Glick said in a statement, adding that Thomas's "distortion of historical reality is astonishing. Her call for Jews to return to Poland and Germany—site of the Nazi genocide, the worst genocide in modern history—is beyond offensive."

Glick added that he felt "Thomas seems to have been schooled by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a belief that Jews appeared in Israel after the Holocaust," while ignoring "historical facts that Jews have called the Land of Israel home for more than 3,000 years, long before any other group made a home in the land."

"These vile comments, unfortunately, are the culmination of Thomas' ongoing anti-Israel sentiments that she kept thinly veiled over the years," B'nai B'rith International Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin said.

"There should be no place for her in a news organization. Her comments go beyond commentary and land well in the camp that will stop at nothing to delegitimize Israel."

Last week, during a briefing with White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, Thomas' criticized the American reaction to the deadly Israeli raid of a humanitarian aid convoy, saying that "our initial reaction to this flotilla massacre, deliberate massacre, an international crime, was pitiful."

"What do you mean you regret when something should be so strongly condemned? And if any other nation in the world had done it, we would have been up in arms. What is this sacrosanct, iron-clad relationship, where a country that deliberately kills people," Thomas had said.

(9) Veteran US Reporter Helen Thomas Quits Over Israel Comments

From: IHR News <news@ihr.org> Date: 09.06.2010 08:00 AM

BBC News
Page last updated at 21:47 GMT, Monday, 7 June 2010 22:47 UK

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_and_canada/10259646.stm

Veteran US White House reporter Helen Thomas has retired after making controversial remarks about Israel. In an interview on May 27, she said that Israelis should get "the hell out of Palestine" and suggested they went to Germany, Poland or the US. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said her comments were "offensive and reprehensible". She has since apologised. Thomas, 89, was the longest-serving reporter in the White House.

(10) Paul Findley: Helen Thomas meant that Jews should quit Occupied Territories

From: Kristoffer Larsson <kristoffer.larsson@sobernet.nu> Date: 09.06.2010 04:34 PM

http://www.sj-r.com/opinions/x1332188316/Paul-Findley-Helen-Thomas-was-quoted-out-of-context

Paul Findley: Helen Thomas was quoted out of context

Posted Jun 07, 2010 @ 11:31 PM

Fearless, decent seeker-of-truth Helen Thomas, 89, the pre-eminent challenger of political power for a half-century as dean of White House correspondents, has resigned her position with Hearst Newspapers. She acted in the wake of controversy that erupted when she told reporters “Jews should get the hell out of Palestine.” While speaking plainly on behalf of the rule of law in occupied Palestine, her message was submerged when reporters gave it an anti-Semitic twist by quoting words out of context.

It is a sad finale to an unprecedented career in aggressive, constructive journalism. In her departure from the White House newsroom, America is the loser. The Washington press corps contains few with Thomas’ talent in challenging power close-up.

The fiasco started when Thomas made an extemporaneous burst of passion at a White House briefing in late May. She declared, “Jews should get the hell out of Palestine.” When asked where they should go, Thomas said they should “go home to Poland, Germany, America and everywhere else.” Her intent was unmistakable: Jews are unlawfully residing in occupied Palestine and should leave. She made no reference to Jews in pre-1967 Israel, where all Jews can lawfully reside. ...

For her edifying outburst, Helen Thomas should be congratulated, not condemned. It could prove to be one of her finest contributions in our nation’s often-faltering quest for justice.

Paul Findley resides in Jacksonville. He served 22 years as a U.S. representative from Illinois. He is the author of “A. Lincoln: The Crucible of Congress” and four books on the Arab-Israeli conflict, the latest being a memoir tentatively titled, “Taking the High Road: Confronting Bias, Bigotry, War.” It is scheduled for publication next spring by Lawrence Hill Books.

(11) Egypt to keep open border with impoverished Gaza

From: Kristoffer Larsson <kristoffer.larsson@sobernet.nu> Date: 08.06.2010 06:53 AM

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100607/ap_on_re_us/gaza_blockade

By SARAH EL DEEB, Associated Press Writer – Mon Jun 7, 6:34 pm ET

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt – After three years of cooperating in the Israeli blockade of Gaza, Egypt said Monday that it will leave its border with the Palestinian territory open indefinitely for humanitarian aid and restricted travel.

With international pressure building to ease the blockade, an Egyptian security official said sealing off Hamas-ruled Gaza has only bred more militancy.

The decision to ease the restrictions erected by Israel to isolate and punish Hamas comes a week after a deadly Israeli raid on a flotilla of activists trying to break the blockade.

The move restores a link to the outside world for at least some of Gaza's 1.5 million Palestinians. It also appeared calculated to defuse anger in the Arab and Muslim world over Egypt's role in maintaining the blockade and to show that Egypt, too, is now pressing Israel to open at least its land crossings with Gaza.

"Egypt is the one that broke the blockade," Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said. "We are not going to let the occupying power escape from its responsibilities." ...

For the time being, Egypt is only allowing a restricted group of Gazans to leave the territory, including medical patients, students attending foreign universities and those with residency abroad. In nearly a week, thousands of Gazans have left and 500 tons of medical supplies were trucked in. It has done so before, sporadically and for a period limited to two or three days.

Egypt will not transfer large cargo shipments or construction material because the border crossing is designed primarily for travelers, the security official said. One such convoy, organized by Egypt's Islamic opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, was stopped Monday before it got close to the border.

And while it eases movement at the crossing in the border town of Rafah, Egypt is intensifying its efforts to stop a thriving smuggling trade through hundreds of tunnels under the border. Those passages have been Gaza's key economic lifeline but have also been a pathway for weapons.

Egypt late last year began building an underground, metal barrier to seal the smuggling tunnels, and the security official said Egypt hoped to finish that work in the next few months.

"We have a constant security concern, because Iran has its aims. Hezbollah has its aims. Hamas has its aspirations and aims, and al-Qaida could very well be present in Sinai and Gaza," the official said. ...