Have you seen the full clip? She's not trying to be cruel; she's offering advice to the young man we see toward the end about a career in journalism; she's not anti-semitic at all.
YouTube - Helen Thomas Complete (original)
This is all the pro-Israeli and Zionist lobby manipulating facts and interpretations to steer the discussion away from Israel's despicable behavior. The media is freer in Israel, for crying out loud. Some of the best criticisms of the occupation come from the Israeli film industry -- films like "Lemon Tree."
She misspoke, forgetting that there are some Jews indigenous to the area. However, she was asked about Israel, not Jews. She said Israel should get out of Palestine, which is largely true and is a view that adheres to the human rights groups the world over and the UN. Israel expanded far beyond its allowed borders and even its creation as a state specifically for Jews was due to US pressure; the UK abstained.
It is a very racist state, both from its early days of expanding through ethnic cleansing and violence to scare Palestinians out of their homes and into the present with its blockade of Gaza, numerous roadblocks (where people are beaten and prevented from taking various foodstuffs), and building of an illegal wall (all the while allowing settlers to constantly violate the ridiculous borders they've created for them). Even Arab and Ethiopian Jews are heavily discriminated against. And suffice it to say that Hamas was democratically elected, but it's somehow regarded as okay to sow civil war by backing the corrupt losing side and giving them funds and blockading the winning side because they don't wanna put up with Israel's crap.
My sense is that the vast majority of Israelis are from nations where there is no significant persecution. Circumstances may have been different in the '40s, but it was wrong to take it out on the Palestinians, who have paid the price for the West's anti-semitism. Any time Palestinians criticize Israeli, the lazy US mainstream media, including PBS, characterizes it as anti-semitism, when it has to do with resources, not some Nazi construct. It's a cheap way to dehumanize your critics as evil. The basic issue is that Jews who migrated there did so by choice and, especially in the last few decades, they had many choices; the Palestinians have nowhere to go.
She's really talking about colonialism and about the better off willfully moving from reasonably comfortable lives and exploiting a situation where Palestinians are dispossessed. Settlers are some of the most disgusting people.
Haven't any of you noticed the odd degree to which Israelis speaking on news footage have strong American accents? That's no accident. They're people who have no conscience about the land they're taking from others and they're using the Israeli state to justify this theft.
A few years ago, I saw a news report about a Toronto Jewish couple that moved to Israel; what's worse is that they moved right up against the security wall, which means Israeli will invariably move that wall for the sake of protecting them from terrorists, but they weren't even legally permitted to move that close.
I remember when I was in 10th grade and a native was reflecting on his people's difficulties and he said quietly, "I hate the white man." At the time, I thought, "How extreme!" and I'm ashamed to say that I berated him; the art class teacher responded in the same way. However, looking back, I was wrong. His family was likely quite poor and natives would surely have been better off as a society if white settlers hadn't come. As an immigrant to Canada, my family has benefitted from a system that discriminated against them.
Israel's expansion was carried out in post-colonial times --when international law recognized colonization as wrong. Yet, it was allowed to continue and still continues, under the illusion that Jews have a right to do what they will there.
She may have been speaking quickly and unable to fully elaborate, but it's not like the interviewer really cared. She was also pained about the situation, which America is largely insensitive to. We should be far more disgusted with how the US media has constantly justified Israeli murder as "defense". Helen Thomas was the only one in that room who cared about the deaths on the flotilla; everyone else was making excuses for Israel because it helped their careers and because of their nationalistic bias (nationalistic because American national security identity has become tied up with being pro-Israeli, but that's largely due to Cold War decisions).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jNXXlyjQuo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6cj86ZWR_U
In the clip by the rabbi, she was trying to be forthright but wasn't trying to be racist or meanspirited. She was trying to convert any people who might be watching -- to realize that most of Israeli land was stolen and that most of its migrants didn't have a right to be there. CNN's Wolf Blitzer has Israeli citizenship, for crying out loud. Why should he have that power? What discrimination has he faced. I think you can tell how distorted the American media is by those who are attacking her -- people like Ari Fleisher and pro-Clinton scumbags like Lanny Davis and Joe Klein. People can't talk honestly about the real issues of rich versus poor -- of those with opportunities due to US aid versus those without due to US pressure and violence.
She was talking about colonization, not anything to do with Jewishness. There are many liberal Jews who agree with her.
As someone I've long admired, it saddens me that she's going out this way. 
