Well I sure as hell would have put it differently, but it's clear that Thomas has an understanding that most of Israel's present day immigrants are mostly Ashkenazim who are European descendants of the Medieval Jewish communities in Poland and Germany rather than the Sephardim who stayed in the Middle East or returned after the Spanish Inquisition. Ashkenazi literally means "German Jew."
From an historical perspective it is interesting that for thousands of years many Sephardic Jews, who are actually a Semitic people like the Arabs and tend to be dark-skinned and dark-eyed, lived in relative peace, side-by-side with Arab communities, and were allowed freedom of movement within what was left of the Ottoman Empire. Many Arabs attribute the troubles of today with the mass immigration of non-indigenous Ashkenazi and the establishment of a state in which Judaism is the official religion. A Hamas militant, upon seeing a Star of David on a relief worker recently, declared what one hears over and over, that their quarrel is not with Judaism but with Zionism...
Jews have always been in the Middle East. It is the advent of the Jewish state, as envisioned by Zionism's founder, Theodore Herzl, which is the new development. The philosophy of Zionism is opposed by a sizable segment of the Jewish religious and secular communities, such as the Orthodox rabbis led by Rabbi Yosreal Weiss of Jews Against Zionism. Completely ignored by the same media which now casts Thomas out for her remarks was a massive protest by Jews in New York last Monday against the state of Israel:
Anti-Zionist Jews Stage Massive Protest in Manhattan
Jun 1, 2010
On Monday, May 31, anti-Zionist Jews took to the streets of Manhattan to protest against grave desecration in Ashkelon and Jaffa. Police estimated that about 45,000 people attended the demonstration, held in front of the Israeli Consulate at 800 2nd Avenue. Speakers included the Mishkenos Haro’im Rebbe from Jerusalem, who himself had taken part in the protests there; Rabbi Yaakov Weiss, rosh yeshiva of the Pupa community of Monsey; Rabbi Alter Kaufman; Rabbi Yaakov Chanan; Rabbi Yechezkel Roth, dayan of Karlsburg; Rabbi Hillel Handler, and Rabbi Aryeh Leib Glancz.
The huge demonstration was a clear statement to the world that Zionists do not speak for all Jews.
A giant video screen was set up, 40 feet wide and 32 feet high, on which scenes of the grave desecrations and police beating protestors were shown. As the speakers spoke mostly in Yiddish, words on the screen explained the Orthodox Jewish position on Zionism in English: that ever since the destruction of the Temple 2000 years ago, Jews have been in exile by Divine decree and were forbidden from re-establishing themselves as a nation until the coming of the messiah.
Helen Thomas surely understands the difference between Ashkenazi and Sephardic, but her comments were delivered to an audience which by and large does not. Surely she deserved censure for her intemperate tone, but strangely enough, media figures like Michael Savage are never fired for calling the Koran "a book of hate."
Rabbi Weiss in 2009, Jews Against Zionism