Thomas' words hateful

Helen Thomas' parting words before retirement were few, but extremely poignant. In a sentence she betrayed her prejudices of historically sensitive dignities. She asked the Jews to "get the hell out of Palestine … go home." To where? "To Poland, Germany … they are occupiers." Sorry, Helen, but they are not "occupiers." They are there by right and not of sufferance. They are the rightful heirs, not only of the part now called Israel, but of all of Palestine. For her to urge a return to Poland or Germany was abjectly, disgracefully repugnant to a race of people who have endured beyond suffering and who are today a bastion of freedom in a hostile neighborhood.

Thomas is old enough to remember Haj Amin al Husseini, his pact with Adolf Hitler regarding the "final solution" to the Jewish problem, and his successor in terror, Yasser Arafat. Surely she had some knowledge of the blood on the hands of those two firebrands.

Vernon O. Cook

Salt Lake City