March 21, 2011 | 3:07 pm

Helen Thomas talks Jews and Israel to Playboy

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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Last summer, Helen Thomas lost her job in the White House press corps after saying Jews should get out of Palestine and go back to whatever God-forsaken European country they came from. Then, last month she said that post-War European Jews had life easy.

Now she tells Playboy that she’s no anti-Semite, just an anti-Zionist who was “fed” up with Israel. Via JTA:

I knew I’d hit the third rail,” she said in an interview published in the April issue of Playboy. “You cannot say anything about Israel in this country. But I’ve lived with this cause for many years. Everybody knows my feelings that the Palestinians have been shortchanged in every way.

“Sure, the Israelis have a right to exist—but where they were born, not to come and take someone else’s home. I’ve had it up to here with the violations against the Palestinians. Why shouldn’t I say it? I knew exactly what I was doing—I was going for broke. I had reached the point of no return. You finally get fed up.”

When pointedly asked by Playboy contributor David Hochman, who is Jewish, whether she dislikes Jews, Thomas responded:

No. I think they’re wonderful people. They had to have the most depth. They were leaders in civil rights. They’ve always had the heart for others but not for Arabs, for some reason. I’m not anti-Jewish; I’m anti-Zionist. I am anti Israel taking what doesn’t belong to it. If you have a home and you’re kicked out of that home, you don’t come and kick someone else out. Anti-Semite? The Israelis are not even Semites! They’re Europeans, and they’ve come from somewhere else. But even if they were Semites, they would still have no right to usurp other people’s land. There are some Israelis with a conscience and a big heart, but unfortunately they are too few.