Thomas, of Lebanese ancestry and almost 90, has never been shy about her anti-Israel views, for which, as far as I'm concerned, she is wrong and to which she is entitled. Then the other day, she performed a notable public service by revealing how very little she knew.
To take my cue from Cohen let's rewrite his intro paragraph:
Cohen of apparent Jewish ancestry and who-the-fuck knows what age but certainly old has never been shy to apologize for Israeli actions and other acts of racism for which, as far as I'm concerned, He is wrong and to which he is entitled. Then the other day he performed a notable public service by yet again showing how totally racist he is.
I certainly don't think that the Washington Post would allow a columnist to post an intro like that (disregarding the F-bomb) 'cause I doubt they would find it appropriate to or even relevant to discuss Cohen's supposed Jewishness, age or consistent "Anti-Palestinian" views. But hey, He's writing for the Washington post and I'm complaining on a blog. Such is life.
Here is the meat of Cohen's argument:
In the Polish city of Kielce, on July 4, 1946 -- more than a year after the end of the war -- rumors of a Jewish ritual murder triggered a pogrom in which 42 Jewish Holocaust survivors were killed. The Kielce murders were not, by any means, the sole example of why Jews could not "go home." When I visited the Polish city where my mother had been born, Ostroleka, I was told of a Jew who survived Auschwitz only to be murdered when he tried to reclaim his business. In much of Eastern Europe, Jews feared for their lives.
Sounds good until you realize that the above has shit to do with Palestinians. And the above point is what the Iranian president has been badly presenting when he discusses the subject. That Europeans committed atrocities against Jews is not for the Palestinians or any other group of people to be made to make up for. Period.
Not a single Palestinian was involved with that Polish Pogrom.
Not a single Palestinian was involved in Nazi Germany or any of the sympathetic states.
So quite honestly, if they didn't give a damn it would be well within their rights. Take that argument up with the people who actually committed the crimes.
There is a reason why out of all the "Western" people, white Americans are especially attached to Israel. Israel is a little America. America was founded in large part by persons escaping persecution in Europe. They were tired of being harassed by the Church for having the gall to interpret the Bible differently. They set sail for that rumored land over the sea where they could make a fresh start. Of course the problem was that people already lived there. Undeterred these colonists decided that the people living in the "Americas" were backward heathens who's purpose prior to their arrival was to prep the land for them. Their vision of Christianity moralized the subsequent theft of land, relocation, reservations and genocide as the white man's burden.
Today a great deal of white America sees the current republic as a testament to the rightness of such manifest destiny ideology and I believe the story of Israel stirs the same primal "patriot" emotions. Israel being founded by Europeans seeking to relieve themselves of the oppression of Christian, Anti-Semitic Europe, went and grabbed land clearly inhabited by other people. They stole their property, created reservations, broken treaties, etc. Clearly Israel is a little Jewish America. Cohen, who I will assume is an American, therefore has a double dose of this white manifest mentality and it shows.
Lastly, there is an absurdity to Cohen talking about 1946 Poland. That's like a black guy going into a Starbucks and looking for the Negro section of the store. How one whips out some 50 odd year old event as proof that European Jews ought to stay put in occupied Palestine is beyond dumb.
Let me take the time to respond to the asinine comparison made in the comments section of the offending article where some prick asked if it is not OK to tell Blacks to go back to Africa, then....
Stop.
Africans in America, recent immigrants aside, did not come here voluntarily.
We did not get a papal bull, Company Charter or UN mandate to come to America and appropriate land inhabited by other people.
So enough with the black people comparisons.
In the end Cohen's piece is irrelevant. Had Cohen simply decided to discuss past atrocities in Europe and perhaps how they may be avoided if Jews did return to such places, you know, a useful discussion, and left the attack on Helen Thomas out I wouldn't have much to say. But his opening attack on Thomas, and by extension those who agree with her reveals the piece for what it is, a propaganda piece to justify the settler state that is Israel. Besides what happened in Poland is particularly irrelevant for those Jews in Israel who came from the US. What's their excuse?