The Snapshots blog picked up this item from the Israel newspaper Ha'aretz: leftist former White House correspondent Helen Thomas will be the keynote speaker on May 21 for a "Move Over AIPAC" rally against defenders of Israel as AIPAC hosts Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
A series of protests against Israeli policy and its support by AIPAC are planned in May to coincide with the AIPAC conference in the U.S. capital and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech there. The protests, under the heading "Move over AIPAC," will include demonstrations opposite the building where Netanyahu will speak and Congress, and a series of lectures and meetings with critics of Israel, including veteran journalist Helen Thomas who lost her place in the White House press room after saying Jews should leave Palestine and go back to Poland, Germany and the United States.
Thomas will give the keynote address at the Move Over AIPAC conference, and will receive an award from the women's pacifist organization Code Pink, one of the hundred left-wing American organizations behind the conference.
"Pacifist" isn't exactly the right word for Code Pink, which has given aid and comfort to Hamas in the Gaza Strip and supported Iraqi insurgents' "right to resist" American occupation.
Also, in a press release, the tiny Falls Church News-Press, Helen's current newspaper, announced she has received congressional press credentials:
Legendary White House correspondent Helen Thomas, age 92, now a weekly columnist for the Falls Church News-Press, picked up her official U.S. government issued press credential at the Senate Dirksen Building pass issuing office Tuesday, joining News-Press owner Nicholas Benton in obtaining her credential.
The credential, issued by the Sergeant at Arms of the U.S. Senate on behalf of the Senate Periodical Press Association, is for access to the Senate and House press galleries, and also is routinely treated as a bonafide press pass for other events in Washington, D.C., including as a precondition for passes to other agencies and arms of the federal government.
In other words, press secretaries all over Washingtion might have to confront the vivacious Helen Thomas lecture about how Americans drop bombs and kill people to protect the Jews.
