Helen Thomas Might Deserve a Punch in the Face but Rabbi Nesenoff Should be Kicked in the Balls
10 Jun
If I was Rabbi David Nesenoff, I would crawl into a deep cave and stay there for at least a couple of months. Sorry, but there is hardly any achievement in ending someone’s career, especially if it’s the career of a 90 year old woman. Oh, and by the way, the Rabbi is a terrible comedian.
That is why Rabbi Nesenoff should be kicked in the balls.
Last night, Keith Olbermann dug up a video shot by the Rabbi, titled Holy Weather. The clip is painfully unfunny and I wouldn’t go as far as calling it racist, but it’s as insensitive as Sarah Palin in a Peta convention. The Rabbi, dressed as a Mexican Priest (?!) mumbles about immigration officers and dish washing and practically every other Latin American stereotype reference that you’re able to think of. The embarrassing skit got the Rabbi a place in Olbermann’s infamous Worst Person in the World list, and while this might be a bit too harsh, here at EM!! we do believe the Rabbi should be kicked in the balls and post it on Youtube. It’s going to be a lot funnier than Holy Weather.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that the Jews should get the hell out of Israel. God forbid. My family is back in Israel and if they follow Thomas’ advice then they’ll come and sleep at my place. And we definitely don’t want that to happen. But we do want to allow a 90 year old woman to have an opinion, even if it’s the kind that should be followed by a punch in the face.
Earlier this morning, the Rabbi said that he is daunted by all the response, positive and negative. Although it’s hard to for me to see the positive part of the story: is it the Rabbi receiving thousands of anti-Semitic and life threatening emails or Helen Thomas who turned into the most hated woman in America? This drama did not promote dialog or brought any good to either side. Thomas did a lousy job expressing her opinions, the Rabbi did a lousy job as a journalist, and we followed the blindly. There was no conversation between Nesenoff and Thomas. Each side basically “tweeted” his own mind without thinking about the consequences, forgetting the fast-media world they live in.
Thomas’ remarks where evil but Nesenoff’s video was equally filled with hatred and revenge. She wanted the Jews out of Israel and he wanted her opinions out of the White House. Now they both suffer from the same hatred they so easily sparked.
But what’s really ridicules about this entire story is that Helen Thomas was never pro-Israeli in any way. It’s shown in her work as a journalist and she never did a good job hiding it. So why the big fuss now? Did we become so dumb that we can only understand a Youtube clip that’s shot with a cell phone camera and features a sentence no longer than your typical tweet??
Besides, Helen Thomas, if you didn’t follow, is 90!! You know what happens to you when you’re 90 years old? Every night your brain melts a little and drips out of your ears. That’s a medical fact. So let’s cut her some slack. Or at least, remind her to take her medicine.
Hellen Thomass deserves to get kicked in the balls not the rabbi. All he did was show people what this rastist nasty bitch has to say! Its ok to expose anti semites. Its not ok to be one! Just because she believes that all jews should “go back to germany!” doesn’t mean she should express that. Maybe to achmedinajad!
She’s a 90 year old women! I bet she also believes that all Jews should go to Florida. That doesn’t make her an anti-Semite. Let’s not abuse the term. She didn’t say that all Jews should die. She didn’t use any racist terms. She just stated her opinion about Jews and the Israel.
Jewish people believe they have a right to live in Israel. Helen Thomas doesn’t. And she said it. I don’t agree with her, but this entire story just leads to more and more hatred, just like your comment.
WHAT are you talking about. the jews IMMIGRATING to israel should go back to where they immigrated from. its not too late. they are just doing to much damage over there. they dont get along wiht others becuse they dont assimilate and share, they steal from the natives and one other thing israel is not self sufficine, it is compeltey reliant on foreign welfare. and for Gods sake the jews live BEHIND A WALL , how fun is that. and also emabarassing. from one fence to another.
WHAT are YOU talking about?? The Jews that immigrated to Israel have no other place to go to! European countries will not recognize them any more and besides, this is their home now, after 6 million of them were murdered. It’s not going change!
And how exactly don’t the Jews share? You think Gaza has its own power plant? Do you realize what will happen to the Palestinians if Israel will cut the power? The water supply? You think Hamas will be able to provide its people with electricity???
The only reason that Israel built a wall is because they want quite! Terrorists are trying to infiltrate every day, missiles are being launched, murdering women and children. Of course they have to live behind a wall! Why? Do you have a better solution?
I mean, I was trying to promote dialog in my post, but jeez, you need a partner to have a dialog with, and I’d be happy to further discuses it with you, if you only made some sense.
Helen Thomas is right and spoke for many of us. I am a US citizen born and raised. I am not Jewish nor am I Arabic. What I see happening with the Israelis and Palestinianas is a crime. Israel is an occupying force same as the USA. I also believe the the United States should pull troops out of Iraq and Afganistan. Does that make me anti American? No. There will be no peace as long as occupiers exist. That goes for Israel and the United States. This is the basis for all the unrest in the middle East and for the increase in terrorism in the world.
With that logic the people who ended Hitler’s career deesrve a kick in the balls.
A morally repugnant post aimed at helping a person who is giving moral support to an organization who wants to finish Hitler’s job.
Hmmm… Okay. But only if they’re really NOT funny.
Thomas’ remarks were evil but Nesenoff’s video was equally filled with hatred and revenge. She wanted the Jews out of Israel and he wanted her opinions out of the White House.
Yes, somehow I believer this was a set-up. The Fourth Estate can finally be laid to rest. There will be no journalists, HAHA, and I use the term ever so loosely, in Washington DC, or any place, that will have to be reminded that many of us see the illegal occupation of palistine by the Zionists as evil incarnate. Gee, they’ll feel a whole lot better having THAT reminder gone – sure take her nameplate and shove it up Obama’s butt. The rest of you go back to sleepwalking.
We are all Palistineans now, baby.
Oh boy…. where do we begin…
Thomas’ remarks weren’t evil, they were ignorant and uneducated, and the fact that she LAUGHS after telling the jews to “get the hell out” showed a lack of understanding over how serious the situation was.
Now, if when your referring to “nesenoff’s video,” your talking about his taping of Thomas, how could THAT possibly be filled with revenge? All he does is ask questions. You could argue him choosing to distribute it was wrong, but had you actually READ the article above, you’d realize the author is criticizing Nesenoff over his video “Holy Weather,” not his taping of the senile Ms. Thomas. Swing-and-a-miss, Jungle Jane
BTW, Helen Thomas isnt suppose to have opinions in the White House! She was suppose to be a journalist, not a commenter, and the second she became a columnist rather than a reporter she should have stepped down.
And not to take a dump on the chest of your credibility, but you spell “Palestine” two different ways in your response…. and neither is spelled correctly.
Looks like we got someone to add to the list…
I’m sorry JFM…. are you comparing Helen Thomas to Hitler?? Who are you, Glenn Beck??
PERHAPS IT WOULD BE A GOOD THING TO HAVE HEARD WHAT SHE ACTUALLY SAID!!!!!!!
She said: “perhaps they should all leave PALESTINE and go back to, uh, Poland, or Germany, american or whereever they came from………….(and then she leaned into his camera with her eyes twinkling and said…”ITS OCCUPIED, you know?”
Now…if you understand the issue of Occupation and you know that it is PALESTINE that is occupied wtih about 400,000 illegal situated colonialist settlers atop Palestinian land …if you grasp that fact….then you can see what she said was merely FACT.
She Did NOT say Israel….she said PALESTINE…dig? get it? capice? comprendes? she got thrown under a bus which was obviously David Nessenorf’s “MISSION”…catch the old lady off guard !”…she was the best damn White House REPORTER (old school) ever to hold the position. The rest of the are a bunch of Stenographers. HELEN THOMAS is an honorable member of the society of journalists and respected and admired for almost 60 yrs until this goombah decided to get her entangled in an embroiglio. a distractor…. and I’d say a goombah like him who picks on old women has no balls…he’s just another bully.. he thinks he has a sense of humor.
You might have a valid point there, but I really think that when Thomas says Palestine, well, she means Israel. You know, people who don’t believe Israel has a right to exist, and I think Thomas is one, refer to Israel as Palestine. So when she’s saying that Jews should get out of Palestine, she really means Israel…
Besides, you can see how mean and narrow minded is her view when she said they should go back Germany. Jews came to Israel from all parts of the world, including Arab countries. They never came from America… They ran to Israel and America after being persecuted for years. Helen Thomas is now the persecutor…
You can certainly guess that when she said “Palestine,” she meant “Israel,” or you can take her words at face value. To me however, it’s obvious that she’s NOT referring to Israel, but to the occupied territories and settlements, where Jews from other countries–including America (your denials to the contrary)–are squatting on lands that are not a part of the recognized state of Israel. It is those men, women, and children–citizens of Poland, Germany, America, and many other countries–who should either move into Israel proper or go back to the nations and lands from which they came.
No, I’m not crazy about the way Israel came into being–any more than I am any other nation built on the land of some other indigenous people, including my own–but wars and treaties have consequences. Very few lands are today in the hands of the first people that settled them. Shit happens. Israel has as much right to exist as America, and I support the right and necessity for Israelis to defend their borders and sovereignty just as I do the right and necessity of Americans to do for the US. (Whether that means I’d support my country annexing portions of Canada and Mexico, or preventing goods and supplies from entering their ports, in effect deciding how much food and medicine they deserve to have–just in the name of American security, y’understand–is another matter.)
It used to be possible to disagree with the israeli government without being accused of hating jews. It should be that way again.
First, the percentage of American Jews living in Israel is really negligible. And second, let’s see Helen Thomas say those words to my Polish grandmother. Her entire family was murdered by Germans and Polish people. You really think she’d want to go back???
And really, if she is referring to Palestine as the occupied territories, why didn’t she just say “get the hell out of Palestine and go to Israel” ? Why she had to go as far as Germany and Poland, the place where 6 million Jews were murdered.
If she said that the settlers should leave occupied Palestine, then she’s damned right.
What moral excuse can you have for leaving Brooklyn or London and going to live in the occupied territories of Palestine, causing a family to be made homeless, and ensuring that Israeli soldiers have to act immorally and illegally to keep you safe from the justified anger of the now homeless.
If you want to go live in Israel, go live in Tel Aviv or someplace, buy or rent like everyone else does, at least you won’t be uprooting a family.
So, for those supporting Helen Thomas. Should Don Imus have kept his job after making his notorious comments regarding the Rutgers University women’s basketball team players? According to you, he was just exercising his free speech and his critics should have seen the humorous side. Alas, CBS radio cut him loose.
That the number is negligible–
(assuming that’s true… I don’t claim to know, either way, though I do know several people who went at least long enough to serve in the military, and two families who went to stay… one, as settlers on the lands I’m talking about, no less… While it’s only anecdotal, I wonder how many of us know a similar number of American Jews who also spent more than a season, there…)
–isn’t the same as saying they don’t exist (just as they do from those other countries, named and unnamed.)
Second, this isn’t the late 30′s or early 40′s, anymore… There are many jews in Poland and Germany these days who quite enjoy being there (as well as others who have, in fact, went to settle in Israel.) (And again, anecdotally, I do know of one German jew and survivor who did return to Germany of his own free will, to finish his life (and be buried) close to those members of his family who were murdered there. While I doubt it’s common, it’s not unheard of… …at least, not by me.)
While I agree that it’s not pleasant to tell anyone to “get out and go back where they came from,” it really isn’t suggesting that they go back in time and suffer the fate of those who were murdered in the Holocaust, either.
As for why she wasn’t more clear as to her meaning, I cannot say… …nor for that matter, can I guarantee that my interpretation is right or that yours is wrong… But given the totality of the facts, I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt… Whatever one thinks of the woman’s politics or history, I find it pretty unlikely that a woman who spent all those years a stone’s throw away from that many Presidents intended to say or mean that any/all Jews ought to crawl back into the Polish and German ghettos of the late 30′s… Your milage may vary…
Regarding Imus (or Helen, for that matter), I personally don’t think either of ‘em should’ve been fired, but I also think that their firings have nothing to do with free speech–which is when THE GOVERNMENT takes action (usually by law) to stop one from speaking.
What happened in both cases were *business decisions* by the folks who employed them, based on people like you and I speaking out. (…which I also fully support, by the way…) There were enough people who were offended by what they said (whether rightly or wrongly) to affect the bottom line and reputation of the companies that employed them. That’s the way the marketplace of ideas is supposed to work…
Imus was a different situation than Helen… He was ALWAYS offensive, and the businesses that put him on the air were fully aware of who he was when they hired him. To feign “outrage” that the offensive guy you hired to speak on your airwaves was actually offensive struck me as pretty stupid.
While his “Archie Bunker-style, equal opportunity” bigotry was never my cup of tea (and being a NYer, I can remember hearing the guy on local (66-WNBC-AM) radio in the early 70s, when I was 8-10 years old), it wasn’t as though Imus did anything different on that day than he had done on air for years and years, often to great acclaim. To fire him for being him seemed kinda silly, to me, and no, I didn’t think he deserved to be fired for doing the job they hired him to do. Again, YMMV…
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