Israel and America

I wouldn't call myself a Zionist, but I understand the impetus and support the idea of Israel. I definitely support the ideals of many of the founders (many of the kibbutzim, for instance), at least the liberal humanists that sought to create a peaceful nation, modeled on the principals of equality, respect for the minority, liberty and human rights.

Unfortunately, the latest actions by the Israeli government have belied those ideals. I don't believe that Netanyahu and the ruling party really are interested in peaceful coexistence with the people that undeniably were living on that land when Palestine became Israel. The politics of fear and cynicism have triumphed in Israel (and quite frankly in a lot of other places, perhaps most relevantly in the United States).

But I can't, for the life of me, understand why Helen Thomas, a 90-year-old venerated and respected journalist, has been repudiated and condemned in some of the most forceful language because of her stated feelings that Israelis should leave Palestine and "go home - to Germany, Poland or the United States" (that's a paraphrase). I honestly don't see the problem with this point of view, although I don't agree with it, completely.

I understand that it is politically unwise to make anti-Israel statements in the US, for various and sundry reasons, but Ms. Thomas is a journalist, not a politician. Never mind the fact that if we in America can't have a rational, open discussion of Israeli policy, not only are the Israelis doomed, we are too.