By Debbie Schlussel

Here’s another one in the unfortunate category of pop culture’s negative influence on Middle East politics and jihad.

For those who don’t know, Julianne Hough is a rising B-list movie star who is Mormon (in name only). She rose from “Dancing With the Stars” dancer to cheesy lead actress in bad, anti-Christian, pro-gay musical and romance flicks (see “Footloose” remake, “Burlesque,” “Rock of Ages,” and “Safe Haven”–all movies I’ve reviewed and absolutely hated). Her father, Bruce Robert Hough, was twice the chairman of the Utah Republican Party, but apparently his politics didn’t sink in. After recently being dumped by Ryan Secrest, she’s now “dating” (euphemism) anti-Israel director Ari Sandel. It’s especially unfortunate because Hough–who is a cute, petite blonde and frequently wears very little–is often glamorized and hyped by all the celebrity gossip magazines, and many young girls view her as a role model.

Longtime readers may be familiar with Sandel because I interviewed this self-hating, anti-Semitic Jew and wrote about him when he was nominated for and won an Academy Award for his short film musical, “West Bank Story.” The movie is a disgusting exercise in morally equivocating Jewish Israeli victims of Islamic terrorism with their Palestinian Muslim terrorist attackers. When I interviewed Sandel, whose father is a far-left wacko Israeli, he echoed the tripe you commonly hear on Al-Jazeera . . . or worse. The guy is deranged.

Here’s a snippet:

The politics of “West Bank Story’s” Director and Co-writer, Ari Sandel, are illuminating. He is involved with several far-left organizations with an admitted agenda in the Middle East. That includes “Peace Now,” at whose events Sandel promoted his movie. Peace Now is a far-left group of Israelis that advocates giving the entire West Bank and half of Jerusalem to the Palestinians. It has repeatedly advanced discredited claims of Palestinian ownership of land in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Sandel recognizes a Palestinian state and has traveled to Dubai, where Israeli citizens are not allowed entry due to the Arab Boycott.

I interviewed Ari Sandel, earlier this week and was shocked by his incredible obtuseness and ignorance. Ditto for his views.
He said he refuses to take a position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and would not condemn Palestinian homicide bombings as evil on their own. He insisted that the Israelis were equally evil in killing Palestinians. I asked him if there’s a difference between Palestinians who deliberately blow up innocent civilians in a pizza shop and Israeli soldiers who accidentally hit civilians when they are trying to target terrorists and save lives. He refused to respond.

Sandel, whose father is an Israeli, told me how proud he and his father were to travel to Dubai, despite its observance of the Arab Boycott of Israel and its state-funded sponsorship of anti-Semitic speakers and conspiracy theorists. He told me that he was proud to have his movie at a movie festival full of anti-Israel movies. I asked him why he didn’t show a movie that’s pro-Israel. He said he is on no-one’s side, only on the side of “hope and peace.” I asked him how we can achieve hope and peace while he glosses over deliberate mass murders of cafe patrons. He refused to answer.

I asked Sandel if he would be opposed to showing a movie with the Nazis and their death camp victims as laughing, singing moral equals in a musical. He said, “Well, ‘Life is Beautiful’ won an Academy Award.” When I pointed out that “Life is Beautiful” was against the Nazis and was not a moral equivalency film, he tried to change the subject. I asked him if Jews and the Nazis are equal. No response.

Read the rest.

When our celebrity-obsessed culture sees the women glamorized and pimped on us by the instruments of that culture (US Magazine, Entertainment Tonight, People, TMZ, etc.), their “dates” and partners in romance are unfortunately glamorized, too. Ari Sandel gets his name and his waning career in the spotlight via sleeping with Julianne Hough. That’s how sleazy Hollywood works.

Mormons and the Latter Day Saints church were among the most pro-Israel people on earth (until the LDS church began donating over $20 million per year to the world’s largest Al-Qaeda and HAMAS money laundering “charity,” Islamic Relief). How sad that none of the Mormon teachings and culture seem to have much of an influence on Julianne Hough.

Regardless, let’s hope the bim dumps Ari Sandel soon.