The power of the internet is fascinating. A teenager and his father, Adam Nesenoff and Rabbi David Nesenoff, were pretty far down the media food chain, but after interviewing media icon Helen Thomas during the American Jewish Heritage Month celebration on May 27 at the White House, they became a media sensation.
They went around asking notables if they had any "comments on Israel," and as the world now knows, Helen Thomas sure did.
"Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine," the doyenne of the Washington press corps said, and laughed. "Remember, these people are occupied, and it's their land."
Nesenoff asked where she thought they should go.
"Go home," she responded.
Asked to elaborate, Thomas said, “Poland, Germany,” and after more prompting by the rabbi, added “and America, and everywhere else.”
The video was only posted on June 3, and quickly gained national attention, unleashing a flurry of demands for Thomas’ marginalization, if not dismissal.
On Monday, Thomas, 89, heeded the calls and quit. It was a rapid fall for a woman who had become a liberal icon.
Thomas, the child of Lebanese immigrants, was known to be a fierce critic of Israel, but it took a citizen journalist to initiate her fall.
You can see the video here.
Palais Talk
11 years ago
