They Did It For the Children

Who's the genius who invited this anti-Semitic creep to speak to high schoolers in the first place? It's not as if too many of them would know who this relic from the Eisenhower administration is to begin with. On the upside, now the kiddies won't have to shield their eyes or run in horror.

Veteran journalist Helen Thomas, who recently made controversial comments about Israel and Palestine, agreed Sunday not to appear as commencement speaker at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda.

Alan Goodwin, principal of Whitman, where objections to the appearance had been raised, said he reached a niece of Thomas's earlier in the day. "We had a mutual understanding about her not coming," he said.

"Graduation celebrations are not the venue for divisiveness," Goodwin said in an e-mail to Whitman parents. "Graduation is the time for a cohesive and joyous celebration of our students' achievements," he wrote.

Not a place for divisiveness? Then why did they invite her to begin with? It's not as if she's been impartial any time the past five decades.

Thomas, 89, who has covered the White House for decades, provoked criticism by her response in an impromptu video interview that was posted online. In a brief comment, she said Israelis should "get the hell" out of Palestine and go to places including Poland, Germany and the United States.

In an interview, Whitman parent Raisa Slepoy said, "I don't know why anybody would ask a person like that to speak at a commencement ceremony . . . especially where there's a pretty large Jewish population."

If Thomas had appeared, Slepoy said, there would "be a lot of people booing her off the stage. . . . It would be an embarrassment."

Meanwhile, Thomas has been dumped by her PR agency. Former Clinton White House Counsel Lanny Davis unloaded on her.

“Helen Thomas, who I used to consider a close friend and who I used to respect, has showed herself to be an anti-Semitic bigot. This is not about her disagreement about her criticisms of Israel. She has a right to criticize Israel and that is not the same as being an anti-Semite,” Davis said in a statement.

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Update: Thomas has resigned. Martyrdom to follow.