Jewish lobby to Helen Thomas: GOTCHA!

Helen Thomas has some truly impressive credentials as a journalist and a feminist. Until this past weekend she was dean of the White House press corps. She served for 57 years as a correspondent and, later, White House bureau chief for UPI.

She covered every US president from Eisenhower through Obama, and was particularly noted for her insightful articles on JFK. (She was the one who used to thank him at the end of his press conferences.)

Known as "the sitting Buddha", Ms Thomas was the first female officer of the National Press Club, the first female member and president of the White House Correspondents Association, and, in 1975, the first female member of the Gridiron Club, the oldest and most prestigious journalistic organization in Washington.

All that has ended now. Ms Thomas "resigned" her position on the weekend, thinking it better to jump before she got pushed. Why? Not because of her age. Although she's almost 90, Ms Thomas is sharp as a mouthful of mustard and still capable of turning out good copy.

But she made one mistake. She spoke out against Israel and its recent act of piracy on the high seas. In an interview earlier this month with Rabbi David Nesenoff Ms Thomas said that the Jews of Israel should "get the hell out of Palestine [and] go back home to Poland, Germany, America and everywhere else."

In the world of America media, dominated as it is by Jews, that has to be the worst of all Career-Limiting Moves. To make matters worse, Ms Thomas, in spite of looking a bit like Molly Goldberg in this old file photo, is Lebanese-American.

She's not Muslim, having been raised in the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch. "But," Walt imagines them saying, "hey, she's an Arab and she's an old woman. Let's get her!" And they did.

Moral of the story: If you're intent on a career in journalism in the USA, better not piss off the guys who wear the yarmulkes!