Thank You Letter to Helen Thomas

It may surprise you but this is a letter of thank you for the important service you rendered through your words about the Jews and their place in the world.

You must have been showered with thousands of messages--some may have praised your courage and others criticizing your position, but regardless of what others think, it is perfectly clear what you think, and for this we will be forever grateful. If after all these years of journalistic prominence and access to a wealth of information only reserved to the scholars and the cognoscenti you can say the things you said, you are either wholly ignorant or deliberately tendentious. The Arab-Israeli conflict has many facets but only the most malevolent have suggested that the Jewish people, whose claim to the land of Israel is unquestionable to the learned mind, do not belong in "Palestine" but rather in "Germany, Poland, America and anywhere else."

It is sad to witness the self-styled "doyenne" of American journalism stoop so low and to express such unabashed hatred in public. You have demeaned yourself, demeaned the profession of journalism but you have also contributed to learning the truth about people with ties to the Arab family.

I do not believe that your words were the result of some incipient symptoms of Alzheimer; your words revealed what is in your mind and that is why I am grateful for your honesty. I am quite sure that you regret having said those words because you would rather continue to pretend that you are a nice person and that only the Jews are "oppressors" and bad people. Now the mean, unforgiving and biased Helen Thomas has been revealed to us in full.

It certainly is not flattering to you but it is the true self and we appreciate your allowing us to see the true Helen Thomas at last. This is not to deny your right to your opinions. You have every right to defend the Arab claims--I certainly do not begrudge you this--but to do it in such an ignorant and hateful manner reveals that under the patina of courteous speech and elegant demeanor, there lies beneath the skin of every sympathizer with the Arab cause a measure of hatred, a desire for revenge and a meanness of spirit. Your position is not just anti-Semitic; it is anti-human. If all people spoke as you did, the world would be a horrible place to be, "in Germany, Poland and everywhere else."

It is not pure coincidence that the passengers of the Gaza flotilla were more interested in fighting and turning themselves into shahids, than in the promotion of welfare for their brethren in Gaza. You fit their mold:

it is better to destroy than to build. This sadly has been the legacy of those "Palestinians" you defend. In Gaza, after the enterprising Jews left behind beautiful fields of growing fruits and vegetables, your protégés proceeded to destroy them with a glee and a gusto that, in other civilized societies, are usually reserved for festivities. Normal people rejoice when they build, not when they tear down. Of course, the celebrations and the distribution of candy by the proud mothers of the "martyrs" responsible for the deaths of innocent people, are also festive and joyful. Normal people celebrate births, not death and murder. Their celebration of death is an important lesson for us to learn about the Arabic culture. By your candid words, you have taught us that all the rhetoric about tolerance and the search for peace by Islam may be a cover for other, more sincere feelings of hatred such as yours. Thank you for lifting the cover and letting us see the true face of the Arab. Your angry face could not have been more helpful in letting us know what your people wants. Ms. Thomas, we will remember that face for a long time.

For the record, the Jews have lived in the land of Israel for over 1,500 years before there was Islam. The name " Palestine " was an administrative name given by the Romans and then preserved by cartographers, but the proper historical name of that piece of earth is : the land of Israel. Those who promote " Palestine" as the native place of the Arab residents are ill-informed, biased or worse, destroyers of the world.

Thank you, Ms. Thomas, for allowing the world to see what an Arab sympathizer really is about and what the world can expect from people of your ilk. I do not know where you will end up, but certainly you have earned your place among those who destroy and tear. I hope the world is grateful to you for the candid revelation of the mind of a "progressive" Arab.

David Algaze
Of Lebanese Descent Also