« Why Are Jews Liberals? | Main | Jew-hatred: The New Cool »
September 07, 2009
Wide-Angle: Toronto Film Festival Jew-Haters
Yesterday we asked: Why Are Jews Liberals?
Today we observe that the left is a comfortable home for Jew-hatred.
I know the defense: these creatures are not really Jew-haters, they are, ahem, “nuanced thinkers,” protesting the policies of the state of Israel.
Yeah, the way Iran, Hamas and Hizbullah protest.
Look, 50,000 people die in the Congo every month from murder, forced starvation and disease. Mass rape is sport in that blighted land. There are 1.2 million refugees from the Congo living in the most deplorable conditions.
But these, uh, artists, choose to beat up on Israel.
And Tel-Aviv is a problem?
Huh?
Tel Aviv was sand dunes—not an Arab village—until Jews built it into a great city. But the Arab Muslim world considers all Israel to be occupied land.
Thus it's clear that these celebrity boycotters are really protesting Israel's existence.
Or, maybe they are just ill-informed idiots.
One of the great ironies of this protest is that John Greyson, one of the boycotters, makes gay-themed films. Now, let me ask a simple question:
What country in the Middle east would allow Greyson to screen his films?
Israel, of course.
If he tried to show his films in Gaza, Iran, Libya, Algeria, Egypt, Syria, etc. he would be lynched in the public square. Saudi Arabia would behead Greyson.
And of course, Danny Glover has cozied up to Hugo Chavez, a tyrant who is leading a policy of repression against Venezuela's Jews.
Jane Fonda should have been prosecuted for sedition back when she posed with her North Vietnamese buddies by an anti-aircraft installation. But she was a Hollywood celebrity, thus hands-off.
The Hebrew reads: Don't Tread on Me. via: Joshua Pundit
Make no mistake about it, this is Jew-hatred disguised as “mere anti-Zionism.” These people are the fashionable lap dogs of the PLO, Hamas and Hizbullah, self-confessed Jew-hating terrorists who boast that their long-term strategy is to eradicate Israel and Jews from the face of the earth.
Some 50 celebrities, artists and filmmakers, including actors Jane Fonda and Danny Glover, musician David Byrne and filmmaker Ken Loach, have accused the Toronto International Film Festival of "complicity with the Israeli propaganda machine" over its spotlight this year on Tel Aviv.
The 2009 festival will present 10 films by local filmmakers on the Israeli metropolis, for its City to City program, which each year focuses its lens on a different city.
The choice led to protests that the film festival was "staging a propaganda campaign" on Israel's behalf, given "the absence of Palestinian filmmakers in the program," said an open letter to festival organizers, AFP reported.
Full story here.
My good friend, two-time Oscar winner, Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, blasted everyone who signed the letter.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at September 7, 2009 08:47 AM
Comments
Seraphic Secret is private property, that's right, it's an extension of our home, and as such, Karen and I have instituted two Seraphic Rules and we ask commentors to act respectfully.
1. No profanity.2. No Israel bashing. We debate, we discuss, we are respectful. You know what Israel bashing is. The world is full of it. Seraphic Secret is one of the few places in the world that will not tolerate this form of anti-Semitism. That's it. Break either of these rules and you will be banned.
Sometimes celebrity is used as a license to tell millions instead of tens of people that you're ignorant.
Jane Fonda's response to criticism helped reaffirm that she doesn't get it.
I am willing to give some of these celebs the benefit of the doubt and say that they are not antisemitic.
However it doesn't relieve them of the obligation to educate themselves about the issues they support.
I wonder how many can intelligently discuss this without handlers or the assistance of a search engine.
Posted by: Jack at September 7, 2009 10:15 AM
Useful idiots all.
Posted by: Beth Barnat at September 7, 2009 10:23 AM
Or, maybe they are just ill-informed idiots.
Or maybe you are far too polite to describe what these stupid *expleting* knuckle-dragging *explet* *tive* simian *expleter* *expleting* morons are really like.
May they all rot.
(apologies Sir if my self censored profanity still goes over the line; please delete in said case)
Posted by: pdwalker at September 7, 2009 10:59 AM
I was watching a recent bloggingheads episode with Megan McArdle and Michelle Goldberg when Goldberg stated she was very, very, very pro-palestinian.
Now, I have never met Michelle Goldberg but I suspect she does not come from a long line of Roman Catholics from Ireland. Instead, looking at her resume (Huffington Post, American Prospect, UC Berkeley and NYU School of Journalism) it is obvious she fits in very comfortably with the boycotters. The same people that think people like her should not be allowed to live in parts of Judea and Samaria.
How Goldberg and Greyson reconcile their beliefs with the real world boggles the mind. It must be great to believe in unicorns and fairies.
Posted by: Johnny at September 7, 2009 05:06 PM
I keep thinking of that family dinner scene in the Color Purple when an angry Celie (Whoopie Goldberg) yells at Albert (Danny Glover) and says "until you do right by me, everything you do is gonna fail".
Until these actors realize that Israel really DOES stand for all the human rights they claim to espouse, hopefully their efforts to harm Israel will fail too.
Posted by: Rachel at September 7, 2009 07:19 PM
"the absence of Palestinian filmmakers in the program,"
uhm,
which Palestinian filmmakers made films this year that could have been shown at the festival, but weren't,
and if (surprise/shock) there weren't any,
then what do the celebrities who make this claim have to respond to this?
Posted by: exdemexlib at September 7, 2009 08:09 PM
The Arab Moslem world also considers Europe to be occupied land.
Posted by: Miranda Rose Smith at September 7, 2009 11:51 PM
The Arab Moslem world also considers Europe to be occupied land.
Posted by: Miranda Rose Smith at September 7, 2009 11:51 PM
Dear Johnny: Does Michelle Goldberg not realize that she's very, very, very pro-People Who Would Much Sooner Shoot Her Than Look at Her?
Posted by: Miranda Rose Smith at September 7, 2009 11:57 PM
Dear Johnny: I'm 1/8th Roman Catholic from Ireland, myself.
Posted by: Miranda Rose Smith at September 8, 2009 12:01 AM
As a Canadian, I am embarrassed by this disgusting hijacking of TIFF.
By the way, one of the signatories of the "Toronto Declaration" is Canadian rabble-rouser Judy Rebick - the epitome of a self-loathing Jew - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Rebick
And I guess Danny Glover hung out too much with Mel Gibson making those Lethal Weapon movies.
Posted by: Mark at September 8, 2009 04:24 PM
They are definitely displaying their anti-Semitism, or in some cases (Wallace Shawn, Naomi Klein, Noam Chomsky), their self-hatred. Jon Voight, a true friend of the Jewish People and a firm supporter of Israel, has already condemned the boycotters. Israel does have friends in filmdom, I hope they will soon speak up, loudly and clearly.
Posted by: Reuven at September 14, 2009 11:58 AM
Linked to at:
OY! THAT'S THE SPIRIT!
Posted by: Bob Belvedere at September 20, 2009 03:52 PM