Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Helen Thomas Talks Israel, Jews to Playboy!

Nearly a year after the scandal that ended her epic run as a White House correspondent, Helen Thomas has re-emerged to share more thoughts about Israel and Jews – specifically, that they’re “wonderful,” but also that they wield too much money and power.

“[They are] using their power, and they have power in every direction… over the White House, power over Congres,” Thomas says in the new issue of Playboy. “Everybody is in the pocket of the Israeli lobbies, which are funded by wealthy supporters, including those from Hollywood. Same thing with the financial markets. There’s total control…”

The 90-year-old Thomas, who covered every administration from JFK to Obama, said she considers herself anti-Zionist rather than anti-Jewish, and mixed a few words of praise into her conspiratorial comments. “I think [Jews are] wonderful people,” she said. “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.”

The daughter of Lebanese immigrants, Thomas resigned from her White House posting last May after video went viral of the veteran journalist saying that Israel should “get the hell out of Palestine.” She suggested they go “home” to Germany, Poland and the United States instead.

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version