This past week, Mel Gibson was revealed on two accounts: an individual who has an addiction (alcoholism) and who harbors animus towards Jews. The fact that he made the statements while intoxicated does nothing to minimize or excuse his hostility. Nor is it a great surprise that he has such feelings as his past comments have hinted at such.
Nonetheless, the focus and intensity of reaction to Gibson’s comments by Jews and Jewish organizations seem ill-advised. With apparent glee, Abe Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), stated in a press release of July 28 that “Gibson’s tirade finally reveals his true self and shows that his protestations during the debate over his film ‘The Passion of the Christ,’ that he is such a tolerant, loving person, were a sham.”
Is Mr. Foxman trying to revive issues surrounding the film, which despite his emphatic and dire predictions, came and went without incident in 2004?
The ADL also demanded in the same release that, in response to Gibson’s comments, Hollywood “distance themselves from this anti-Semite.” Two days later, Mr. Foxman gave qualified sanctification to Gibson’s apology — “for now.”
Many in the Jewish community have publicly offered advice as to how Gibson can repent (including large charitable donations), creating the uncomfortable appearance of a coercive shakedown by the Jewish community.
Around the time of Gibson’s arrest, other events were unfolding, far more daunting than the ranting of a Hollywood celebrity whose only access to a weapon of mass destruction is a car (while driving drunk).
Among those issues and events: Israel is at war and as I write, struggling with little support except from the United States; six women were shot in the Seattle Jewish Federation by an individual who described himself during the ambush as a “Muslim American” who hated Israel (for which no apology was demanded of Muslim community leaders).
The genocidal President of Iran yet again articulated the dream of Israel’s destruction; the French Foreign Minister, prior to a meeting with his Iranian counterpart, characterized Iran as a “a great country” that “plays a stabilizing role in the region”; the Secretary General of the United Nations talked of Israel’s “apparently deliberate” attack on a U.N. outpost.
A return of U.N. “peacekeeper” troops to Lebanon and U.N. resolutions highly detrimental to Israel are avoided only thanks to the Bush administration; Senator Joseph Lieberman, the first Jewish candidate for vice president, is suffering an onslaught from the Left (permeated with hostility to Israel) that seems likely to cost him a Senate seat.
Is Gibson the appropriate focus of Jewish outrage at this time in history, which feels like the 1930s all over again?
But the story goes beyond the ADL. Radio and television have been replete with debates: “Is Mel or isn’t Mel an anti-Semite?” Gibson’s typical proponents are conservative Christians (most inclined to be ardent supporters of Israel, by the way) and some conservative Jews.
Those scolding the actor tend to be self-appointed secular observers (many apparently Jewish) who inevitably link the recent attacks on Gibson as payback — a smug “I told you so” for “The Passion of the Christ,” a movie with deep meaning to many Christians. In a surreal manner, those Gibson critics seem oblivious to the true dangers lurking in the Jewish world.
An unmistakable subliminal message is conveyed: Jewish outrage toward Gibson is part of a hostile or ignorant view of Christians held by some Jews. Isn’t the war with Islamofascism (which has at its center Israel and world Jewry) enough to take on?
Neither “The Passion” nor Gibson’s struggle with alcoholism nor his feelings about Jews have harmed a single Jewish individual. Much the same cannot be said for those openly aligned against us. History has taught that those who threaten us with harm mean it and often succeed with devastating efficacy.
Let Gibson focus on the struggle with alcoholism and rethink his animus if he wishes. Let the Jewish community quietly and constructively engage him if he reaches out. But let the community — here and in Israel — focus on the real threats to our survival.
Ralph M. Schapira lives in Milwaukee; he is a professor of medicine and vice chair at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
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