Bush Press Secretary Ari Fleischer: Fire Helen Thomas For Advocating "Religious Cleansing"

In response to Helen Thomas saying on camera that Jews should "get the hell out of Palestine" and go back to Germany and Poland, Bush Press Secretary Ari Fleischer has in an e-mail correctly called for Helen Thomas to "lose her job over this. As someone who is Jewish, and as someone who worked with her and used to like her, I find this appalling. She is advocating religious cleansing. How can Hearst stand by her? If a journalist, or a columnist, said the same thing about blacks or Hispanics, they would already have lost their jobs."


Elan Steinberg, executive director of the World Jewish Congress, sharply rebuked her. "Shame on Helen Thomas. She is certainly old enough to remember the Holocaust and the Second World War. She owes an apology to all victims of the Nazis," Steinberg said. Tweet