Excellent, informative post by William Jacobson:

Should These Jews Also Go Back to Poland and Germany?

Helen Thomas' comments that Jews in Israel should go back to Poland and Germany perpetuated the falsehood that Israel is a European implant, which fits nicely into the narrative of the Islamist-Leftist anti-Israel coalition.

In fact, as I documented before, there was an exchange of populations at the time of and after Israel's independence, with roughly equal numbers of Jews fleeing Muslim lands to Israel as there were non-Jews fleeing what now is Israel and the West Bank.

In following up on Thomas' comments, I came upon the story of the expulsion of Jews from Iraq, which started with the Farhoud (sometimes called "Krystallnacht in Baghdad").

I never heard of the Farhud specifically, although I was aware at a more general level of the attacks on Jews in Muslim lands prior to and after the creation of the State of Israel. This post was illuminating:

Few people in Iraq know what happened in Baghdad exactly 69 years ago.

But on June 1-2, 1941, something previously unthinkable in the city occurred. Mobs attacked the capital's prosperous and influential Jewish community, killing more than 100 people and looting homes.

By the time the orgy of murder and pillaging was done, the Jewish community was so shaken that it would never recover. Within 10 years, the vast majority would leave the country, leaving behind just the handful of people who tend the capital's empty synagogue today.

The two days of terror are known in Iraq as the Farhud, the Arabic word for pillaging or looting an enemy. Yet most Iraqis know very little about the event because Iraq's history books rarely speak of them. Those writers who do mention those days simply explain the violence as the result of the Iraqi Jewish community's "Zionist activities," ithout detailing more.

But people who survived the attacks and remember the events tell another story -- like Layer Abudia, who now lives in Israel, who was a child at the time of the pogrom.

An interesting discussion of the forced expulsion of the Iraqi Jewish community, much of which ended up in Israel, is in this clip of Iraqi Author Dr. Rashid Al-Khayounfrom which appeared on Al-Arabiya TV (transcript here). A key player in the expulsion of the Jews of Iraq to British Palestine (and eventually Israel) was the Nazi-supporting Grand Mufti of Jerusalem:

Interviewer: But many of the Jews moved to Israel.

Dr. Rashid Al-Khayoun: They were coerced to move.

Interviewer: Who forced them?

Dr. Rashid Al-Khayoun: The wave of pan-Arab nationalism within Iraq.

Interviewer: So they thought that Israel would be better for them than Iraq?

Dr. Rashid Al-Khayoun: They did not go [straight] to Israel. First, they went to European countries, to Iran... They tried to find an interim region from where they could later return to Iraq. You shouldn't be surprised if I told you that the first to study [the possibility] of expelling the Jews from Iraq was the so-called Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin Al-Husseini.

Interviewer: What, Amin Al-Husseini banished the Jews of Iraq to Palestine?

Dr. Rashid Al-Khayoun: Yes, Amin Al-Husseini played a significant role, along with German Nazism, in dragging the Jews out of Iraq.

The history of the Farhoud and the expulsion of the Iraqi Jewish community contradicts the picture often portrayed in Western media of Jews being an accepted minority in Arab states.

Are the Iraqi Jews and their descendants in Israel among the Jews who should go back to where they came from?

Somehow, I think Helen Thomas and her supporters would say "yes," which tells you everything you need to know.

Why the "Helen Thomas Issue" Matters

It has long been accepted that Helen Thomas, the so-called Dean of the White House press corps, is no longer relevant as a journalist. Most of the time, she is simply ignored, with perhaps a roll of the eyes. You can almost hear most of her fellow journalists saying "oh, that's just Helen being Helen." Sort of like the crazy aunt with the 15 cats.

However, while she is mostly cast aside as a serious journalist now, she still holds court at the most senior White House correspondent. Often, especially when a Democrat is in the White House, hers is the first question allowed during Presidential press conferences.

For many years, Thomas has been quite vocal about her disdain for the State of Israel. Although born in Kentucky, her parents were Lebanese immigrants who settled in Detroit soon after her birth. Her pro-Palestinian views were never more exposed than when her false claims of one-sided Israeli aggression was answered by then-White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, thanking her for "the Hezbollah view."

So was it that much of a surprise that Thomas was caught on camera saying this?

"Tell them (Israelis) to get the hell out of Palestine. Remember, these people are occupied and it's their land. Not Germany. Not Poland."

When the questioner, who knew he's caught a live one, asked what Jews should so, Thomas didn't miss a beat, saying "They go home. Poland. Germany. And America and everywhere else."

So, why should it matter what this old, most certainly senile old biddy says?

It matters precisely because who she is and who, as a member of the White House Press Corps, is. Because of her lofty place of honor, she is someone who is supposedly a person of virtue and honor. Journalists are to recognized for their devotion to the truth. And yet, everything Thomas said here is ignorant and false, not to mention deeply anti-Semitic.

The fact is, had she said this and instead of talking about the Jews, said that the Blacks should go back to Africa, or that the Hispanics should go back to Mexico, what would the media do? Aside from an enormous uproar to have her fired, I could see President Obama criticizing her for her racist views. Every network on TV would attack her the same way they attacked Jimmy the Greek, or Rush Limbaugh, when he said Donovan McNabb was overrated. Even Slate Magazine, a true bastion of liberalism, came out and agreed with Limbaugh's assessment.

But Rush was torn apart in the media, fired from hos job on ESPN and it directly affected his attempt to purchase the St. Louis Rams a few years later.

But of course, when it comes to Israel and the Jews, nary a peep is heard. Certainly, conservative blogs are all over this. What's remarkable is how the Right is constantly slurred as racists, and the like, while the majority of Jews vote overwhelmingly Democrat. Yet, once again, it is only the Right that is standing up for the State of Israel.

By taking the stance that this is just Helen being Helen, the media (as well as the President, by not commenting) is being complicit in the frightening rise of acceptance of Jew-hatred. But, of course, this is nothing new from the Obama White House. Since taking office, the President has cast Israel as the reason for the Middle East troubles. His slobbering over the Iranians and Syrians, his outrageous condemnation of Israel building in its' capitol and she shameful treatment of Prime Minister Netanyahu have given anti-Semites reason to increase their vilification of Israel and the Jews. There is a reason why only 6% of the Israelis approve of the American President. They remember when he said "“I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.”

The point is, 75 years after the Holocaust, anti-Semitism is becoming the norm again. As Islam infiltrates more and more countries, they bring with them a revisionist history of the world. When you add this to the dark anti-Semitism of old Europe, you end up with the seeds for another genocide. IF we allow crazy old Helen a continued platform to spread her vile falsehoods and anti-Semitic rants, we are equally as guilty as if we said them ourselves.

Thomas did attempt an apology of sorts. But if taken at her word, she has to be lying. You can not say "I believe such and such" one day and then say "that isn't what I believe" the next. One of those comments must be a lie. As a member of the free press, that alone should disqualify her from her job.

But the blatant racism of her comments, along with her long history of hostility and ignorant statements about Israel, should immediately cause her dismissal. She is an embarrassment to her employers, her industry and to her country. It's time she be treated as such.