I don't wish to link to this because it's from a website I'm unfamiliar with. And maybe - maybe - her comments were taken completely out of context, but they bother me all the same. There's a possibility (maybe even a good one) that she's referring to the Jews who live in the West Bank, but even then, how about telling them to move to Tel Aviv?
I have a lot of respect for Helen Thomas, and not merely because of her longevity. She's been asking tough, pointed questions of Presidential administrations for decades, and during the Bush years, was one of the only ones to try and hold his feet to the fire (remember, he wouldn't take her questions).
Last year, HBO ran a good documentaryabout her career.
But oh, what to say about this:
Maybe the reporter/blogger/whoever (I don't know much about this guy) was being provocative, and it does look like the end of her comment may have been edited, but telling Israeli Jews to "go back to Poland and Germany" is beyond offensive.
I don't want to get into a debate about Middle East politics at all, but telling Jews to leave Israel - and especially - to back to Poland and Germany - is regrettable at best. For one thing, Jews have been in that part of the world for longer than there was a Poland or a Germany. And for another, the implication of her statement - an Israel without Jews, is the dream of groups like Hamas (and no, I'm not equating Thomas to Hamas) and out of the mainstream of even Palestinian thought. It's incredibly hurtful.
She should apologize.