Jewish

I have been a Jewish Leader for the last 26 years. This is indisputably true because I have the plaques to prove it. I remember when I first met Thomas Friedman in Israel back then he told me that he never met a Jew in Israel who wasn't a "leader." He said he had yet to meet a Jewish Follower.

Shortly after Highway 443 opens to Palestinian Authority traffic, Jewish drivers report attacks along the road.

Earlier this week I wrote that the Jews were good at P.R. But that was before I saw the "We Con the World" video, a spoof of Michael Jackson's 1985 song "We Are The World" which raised charity for Africa.

On today's Wilshire & Washington, we discuss the Helen Thomas resignation, as well as the politics of the BP oil spill and how Hollywood might help. But first, we tackle the midterm primaries this week.

In light of Turkey's reaction to the Israeli attack on the Gaza-bound flotilla last week, media pundits and policy wonks are already underlining the demise of the US-Turkish special relationship. The growing chorus of critics miss one vital point. Turkey was criticizing Tel Aviv's military overkill off the Gaza coastline, not Washington's.

I love Peter Beinart. The last time we had breakfast, in Washington, D.C., about a year and a half ago, our conversation got so lively that I think someone asked us to quiet down. We don't see eye to eye on everything, but I've been moved by his compelling logic and sense of fairness in the many opinion pieces he has written over the years.

Yet again we are witness to the double standard that results from the criticism of Israel. To watch the venerable (and, admittedly, increasingly irrelevant) Helen Thomas go down in flames for her comments on Palestine is yet another moment of suck in the mutually masturbatory relationship that exists between the US and Israel.

Was what Helen Thomas said inappropriate?

Possibly.

Was what Helen Thomas said rude?

Sure.

BEIRUT: A Jewish European peace group is to launch a boat to break the blockade of Gaza in the coming months, organizers said, almost a week after nine activists were killed making the same trip.

European Jews for a Just Peace (EJJP) - an umbrella organization of Jewish groups from 10 European countries against the occupation of Palestine - aim to deliver humanitarian aid such as school books and medicines to the Gaza Strip, and to draw attention to the blockade which they call "immoral."

Helen Thomas, the veteran journalist and dean of the White House Press Corp, abruptly retired on Monday in the wake of a comment she made following the Israeli raid on the Turkish Flotilla in international waters that killed nine activists, including an American citizen. During a conversation that was videotaped, the interviewer asked Ms. Thomas to make a comment about the Israeli raid. She responded by saying, "Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine. Remember, [Palestinians] are occupied and it's their land.

Michael Chabon wrote a curious op-ed in The New York Times this weekend decrying the Jewish people's "chosenness" and alleged superior intelligence that left many Jews scratching their heads, thinking either "why is he writing this now?" or "duh, we knew that already!" Either way, many were saying to themselves (and their friends), "please don't publicize this to the rest of the world."

The Yiddish Policeman's Union author uses the occasion of the Flotilla fiasco to puncture the Jewish belief that they are chosen -- and smarter -- than other peoples.