[THS] Gilad Atzmon: The Helen Thomas Resolution

[The Harder Stuff in news and commentary]

"It is an obvious fact that the Israelis do not belong to the region. The Jewish claim for Zion i.e. Palestine is beyond pathetic. It is in fact as ridiculous as a bunch of Italian settlers invading London's Piccadilly Circus claiming their right to return to a land once occupied by their Roman forefathers. Obviously Italians would not get away with it, Zionists, on the other hand, have managed to fool the nations for more than a while."


The Helen Thomas' Resolution
by Gilad Atzmon

http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/the-hel ... try7979179

http://www.gilad.co.uk.  (Gilad Atzmon is a Jewish Israeli writer and jazz musician
living in London. He is the author of several books. His latest CD is In Loving Memory
of America.)

Those who are engaged in the Palestinian solidarity discourse are familiar with two
visions of conflict resolution: the `Two State Solution' and the `One State Solution'.
This week we have learned about a third possible resolution that seems to me the
most reasonable and ethical considering the circumstances. Helen Thomas, the 89
years old doyenne of the White House press corps, sketched it in one sentence.
When asked by a Rabbi holding a camera: "where should Israelis go", she said Jews
should "get the hell out of Palestine". When the Rabbi challenged her, she made it
plainly clear: "they should go home to Poland, Germany, America and elsewhere"

Thomas was quick to be reminded who runs Capitol Hill. A global war was declared
against her. She had to resign and to apologise. However, her brief yet transparently
clear solution is sound and should be elaborated upon.

It is an obvious fact that the Israelis do not belong to the region. The Jewish claim for
Zion i.e. Palestine is beyond pathetic. It is in fact as ridiculous as a bunch of Italian
settlers invading London's Piccadilly Circus claiming their right to return to a land
once occupied by their Roman forefathers. Obviously Italians would not g et away
with it, Zionists, on the other hand, have managed to fool the nations for more than
a while.

Unlike our Western politicians and Media, Helen Thomas was not impressed by the
Zionist argument. Let's try to understand what she is saying. She suggests primarily
that Jews don't belong to Palestine and Palestine certainly doesn't belong to the Jews.
She also argues that the home for Jews is somewhere else. Thomas suggested for
instance that Jews should go to Germany. Surely this is not such a rude idea
considering the love Germany pours on Israel. We shouldn't also forget that the
Israeli nuclear submarines that have been on their way to the Gulf (according to The
Times), were given to Israel by Germany as a `present' at the time that Israel
flattened Lebanon (2006). If Angela Merkel is sincere, she should welcome the
Israelis to return to her country and save the world from another world conflict.

As it happens, most Western leaders support the Two State Solution, they believe
that such a solution is fair and ethical. I wonder what is so ethical about it, the Two
State Solution doesn't address the Palestinian Cause. It largely ignores the Palestinian
Right of Return to their land, homes, villages, fields and orchards. It accepts the
outrageous circumstances in which millions of Palestinian refugees will be left
dispossessed forever.

Most humanists seem to support the One State Solution, they are convinced that
such a solution is fair and ethical. Again, I am rather perplexed here. As much as we
accept that sharing the land is reasonable and ethical, it is completely foreign to
Jewish ideology and Zionism in particular. Early Zionist immigrants were more than
welcome to share the land with the Palestinian indigenous population. But they had a
completely different plan in mind, they wanted a `Jews only State'. They eventually
ethnically cleansed the Palestinians (1948), Those who managed to cling to the land
were eventually locked behind walls and barbed wire. The One State Solution
dismisses the Jewish ideology. As much as I myself tend to support the One State
Solution, I am fully aware of the fact that such a solution may become possible only
when the Israeli Jewish population gives up its supremacist ideology. Needless to say
that when this happens, the Jews in Palestine would become Palestinian Jews:
ordinary people of Jewish ethnic origin who happen to live on Palestinian land.

Those who are repulsed by Helen Thomas' resolution, blame her for being
discriminatory towards Jews. The truth of the matter is that Thomas' suggestion is
not at all different or more discriminatory than the notorious Two State Solution.
While Thomas suggests that millions of Jews would peacefully go back to their true
home, the Two State Resolution suggests that millions of Palestinian refugees would
be left with no home whatsoever. Clearly, the Israeli State mentions again and again
that it would never allow Palestinian refugees to return to their land.

Considering the latest Israeli barbarian military operations, bearing in mind the
disastrous starvation in Gaza, learning about the serious threat to world peace
imposed by repeated nuclear threats made by Israel against its neighboring States
and Iran in particular, we should move the discourse one step further. We better look
at the Helen Thomas' solution.

Seemingly, the Rabbi who assaulted Helen Thomas, is not impressed by Thomas'
solution. He was concerned about six million Jews who perished in Europe. Someone
should remind the Rabbi that the European Judeocide has nothing to do with
Palestine or the Palestinians. However, his own behaviour towards Thomas together
with the Israeli repellent murderous behaviour in the high seas, in Palestine, and the
Jewish lobbies around the world, all contribute together to a necessary revision of the
notion of `Jewish suffering' in history. At the end of the day, our vision of the past is
constantly shaped by our present understandings.

Like the rest of humanity, Old Helen Thomas is tired of Jewish power and Israeli
barbarism, she touched the nerve exactly where it hurts by saying the plain truth.
"Get the hell out of Palestine". Truth, it seems, echoes ethics and reason.


for more information about Gilad Atzmon: http://www.gilad.co.uk/about/