I am not sure what is worse: Mel Gibson’s “freak out” or everyone’s apparent lack of caring. His slurs are nothing new to me or any other Jewish person. Jewish jokes are considered harmless. Even Jews tell them and usually better. What bothers me is a growing global attitude towards anti-Semitic things.
The problem did not start as being anti-Jew, but rather started as being anti-Israel. Israel is simply a nation, and they do good things and do horrible things. People will support them, and people will oppose them. Opposing Israel should not mean opposing Jews. One is a faith and the other is a country.
Those on the left will yell that anyone who opposes Israel is labeled an anti-Semite. They take great offense to the label despite the fact that they address their anger towards Jews and not Israelis. I am not saying they are anti-Semitic at all, but they need to realize the impression they create. I oppose Bush and support gay marriage, but I always respond to these people with “just as you label anyone against gay marriage a homophobe or anyone who supports Bush a fascist,” Hypocrisy knows no sides.
One can turn on the news any day of the last few weeks and see a subtle anti-Israeli slant occurring. For example, it is fairly easy to hear about Lebanese victims (this information is usually in the headlines of a story), but there is only mention of rockets being launched into Israel. The Israeli innocents are given less value than the Lebanese innocent victims. The media has, in an attempt to seem fair and balanced, forgotten there are innocents on both sides. It is all Israel’s fault, and Lebanon is completely innocent in the matter.
However, I am not justifying Israel’s actions at all. I have felt they have gone too far and, much like Bush as done in Iraq, Israel has created circumstances that will only strengthen Hezbollah. The report today of sixty dead innocent people in Lebanon probably just created 120 new recruits.
Israel started off correctly. They were invaded, had soldiers killed, and two others kidnapped. They had to respond and one or two days of rockets in the very southern part of Lebanon was a message. They should have let Lebanon try and do something about Hezbollah. If Beirut was unable or unwilling, then Israel could invade. This current path they are on just appears like bullying.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Ray Ellis
Every once in a while, you hit on a basic truth that is so universally fundamental, it leaves all the would-be political pundits speechless.
Kanrei, the above article does just that.
2 - kanrei
Wow, thank you so much. That means a lot. I am nervous talking on this subject because I am going to piss someone off. The ultimate eggshell walk.
3 - Dr Politico
Great article, Kanrei.
BTW, the drunk excuse that Mel offered is a bit specious, considering that his blood alcohol level was only a 0.12 -- that's like 3 maybe 4 drinks. It usually takes me at least 7 drinks before I engage in hate speech. (A bad joke.)
4 - Dean
While criticizing Mel Gibson for his comments about Jews in his drunken state, similar notions have been in the minds of other notable persons over the years.
President Harry S. Truman wrote in a 1947 diary, "The Jews, I find are very, very selfish." The diary contains Truman's remarks on Jews, written on July 21, 1947, after the president had a conversation with Henry Morgenthau, the Jewish former treasury secretary. Morgenthau called to talk about a Jewish ship in Palestine -- the Exodus, carrying 4,500 Jewish refugees who were refused entry into Palestine by the British, then rulers of that land.
Truman wrote, "He'd no business, whatever to call me, the Jews have no sense of proportion nor do they have any judgment on world affairs. Henry brought a thousand Jews to New York on a supposedly temporary basis and they stayed."
Truman then went into a rant about Jews: "The Jews, I find, are very, very selfish. They care not how many Estonians, Latvians, Finns, Poles, Yugoslavs or Greeks get murdered or mistreated as Displaced Persons as long as the Jews get special treatment. Yet when they have power, physical, financial or political neither Hitler nor Stalin has anything on them for cruelty or mistreatment to the under dog. I've found very, very few who remember their past condition when prosperity comes."
"Truman was often critical, sometimes hypercritical, of Jews in his diary entries and in his correspondence.
The comments were unexpected because Truman is known as a president who acted to help Jews in postwar Europe and who supported recognition of Israel in 1948, when his State Department opposed it.
The fact that Truman played the role he did in creating the state of Israel can be attributed to his need for political contributions from New York Jews that were needed for the 1948 election, in which the polls were saying he would lose,
5 - Ray Ellis
Dean, perhaps you and Mel Gibson should do lunch sometime.
6 - Dean
You didn't read what was said.
Mel and Harry should get together.
Don't blame the messenger.
7 - kanrei
It has always been "envogue" to hate Jews, but I cannot remember it ever being this open. It is everywhere I look now. Has it always been this way and my eyes were closed?
8 - RJ Elliott
"It usually takes me at least 7 drinks before I engage in hate speech."
LOL! :-)
9 - JP
Dr. P, so you're pretty much drunk all the time then? ;)
(sorry, the door was wide open..)
10 - Bliffle
Gibsons father is a holocaust denier.
11 - Richard Brodie
Gibsons father is a holocaust denier.
"Holocaust denier" is a deliberately misleading charge. On the face of it, it seems to be describing someone who doesn't believe that any Jews were deliberately killed by the German government in World War II, or even just died while being held in detention centers.
And while there may be some far-out nutcases of the flat-earth variety holding to such an extreme position, most of the scientists, journalists, and other intellectuals now rotting in European jails for the "crime" of "holocaust denial", merely question the MAGNITUDE of it - i.e. the validity of the orthodox 6 million figure.
They point to evidences such as an unaccountably rapid regeneration of European Jewish population levels, etc. But what REALLY gets them into trouble with the European thought police, is if they are so bold as to suggest that an inflated number was deliberately settled on and officialized, for the purpose of creating maximum public sympathy for the Great Palestinian Dispossesion of 1948.
12 - Dean
The epithet 'holocaust denier' is used to deflect attention from the policies of the Israeli government.
The attempt is to stigmatize anyone who disagrees with what Israel does.
13 - kanrei
Gibson has released (sort of) an apology to the Jewish community. I am not sure if it will help at all, but it is a good start and I credit him for the effort. I only hope it is not just show, but sincere.
Gibson says sorry
14 - kanrei
No, "holocaust denier" is anyone who denies the holocaust. It has nothing to do with Israel's policies or actions today.
Read my article you are posting under please. Opposing Israel has NOTHING to do with Judism. I know because I am a Jew who does not support Israel's actions right now.
15 - Michael J. West
Kanrei, you nail it in #14. Dean, I don't think you're anti-Semitic by any means, but your obession with painting Israel as the evil villain seems (1) paranoid, (2) silly, (3) all around unhealthy. And far too over-the-top zealous to take seriously.
16 - Richard Brodie
No, "holocaust denier" is anyone who denies the holocaust.
No, you can't say that. You have to ask: Is someone denying it COMPLETELY, like NOTHING ever happened, or is it simply the magnitude of it that is being called into question. It is intellectually dishonest to lump these two fundamentally different approaches under the single label of "holocaust denier". That should be reserved for the former, while the latter would be more accurately referred to as "holocaust questioner."
17 - Dean
What have I posted that is not factual?
18 - kanrei
Dean,
The epithet 'holocaust denier' is used to deflect attention from the policies of the Israeli government.
That is what you said that was not factual. The "holocaust denier" does hate Israel, but they are attacking the entire Jewish faith, not the existance of Israel. My family was killed in the Holocaust and we are not in Israel in any way, shape or form. That means, when someone denies the holocaust, they are denying my family's history as well. As I said, we are not Israeli. Israel is to Jews as Vatacin City is to Christians: it does represent some, but certainly not all or even most.
19 - Dean
No one denies that Jews died during WWII but even the Holocaust Museum is not clear on the number.
Those (outside the Museum) who question the number are labeled “anti-semitic”.
Why?
20 - kanrei
I agree that the number of people murdered is hard to calculate. The real number of the Holocaust is closer to 12 million. More if you include the Russians that were slaughtered wholesale.
Does it really make a difference if 1 million Jews were murdered or 6? Does the actual number lessen the impact of the event?
I say 1 million people killed only for being Jewish is just as wrong as 10,000 or 20 million.
21 - kanrei
And I cannot speak for others who label people "Anti-Semitic". I can only speak for myself. When a person means Israel and says Jew, they are anti-Semitic.
22 - kanrei
From the above article on the subject of being called "anti-Semitic":
Those on left will yell that anyone who opposes Israel is labeled an anti-Semite. They take great offense to the label inspite of the fact that they address their anger towards Jews and not Israelis. I am not saying they are anti-Semitic at all, but they need to realize the impression they create.
23 - Dean
It is not unusual to encounter those who love Jews but detest what the Israeli government does.
Others question the "six million" figure repeated over and over again.
Frequently, these people are called "anti-semitic".
That's the problem.
A similar situation results when some foreigners exhibit "anti-Americanism."
They have no quarrel with Americans, they simply detest policies of the American government -- as many Americans also do.
24 - kanrei
It is also the same when those on the left call righties "homophobic" or "facist". These label make it easier to hate your opponent, but do nothing for real debate.
I have never called someone who questions the numbers an anti-Semite. I call those who say the Jews were behind the entire thing to fool the world anti-Semites.
I do not think you are that person, Dean. I am speaking in general terms and do not know anyone here well enough to even guess about their personal feelings.
25 - Dean
It's interesting that my personal beliefs are subject to being questioned here.
What do you call that?