Oy.
“I can call a president of the United States anything in the book but I can’t touch Israel, which has Jewish-only roads in the West Bank,” Thomas said.
Again: oy. In case you’re wondering, that link is to Jim Treacher’s quoting of Ed Morrissey’s not-really-gentle correction of that particular canard. Short version: she’s referring to Israeli-only roads in the West Bank (the government restricts them to cars with Israeli plates, which are available to Israeli citizens… including the non-Jewish ones, of which Israel has quite a few.
You know, in her way Helen Thomas is a shining avatar of the power of American assimilation. Nowhere else could the daughter of Middle Easterners grow up to be the sort of person who thinks that all Middle Easterners look alike to her.
Moe Lane
Actually, Helen is either making a rookie mistake, or more likely slipping into senility here. Over the last 10 years, there were indeed 8 years where you could (and many, including Helen, did), “call a president of the United States anything in the book…”.
But that isn’t true any more. Let her compare the current President to Hitler, call him a war criminal, or imply that he’s just a dunce-like puppet, being controlled by a shadowy and sinister cabal, and then she would find out who she can and cannot touch without a huge (media-led) backlash.
Helen Thomas should be eternally grateful to the Arab segment that led to groping
sessions for all U.S. fliers. It’s now possible to get another Human Being (spelled T.S.A.) to something no other in any galaxy would perpetrate. If you’re not in the mood perhaps due to a headache, fly El Al. No time limits at gate for debate.