July 31, 2006, - 10:41 am
Mel Gibson, The Jews & 72 Virgins
By
Just before Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” was released in theaters in 2004, my friend and Philadelphia’s top morning radio host, Michael Smerconish, wrote an excellent column about Mel Gibson and his father’s anti-Semitic rantings.
At the end of his column, Smerconish–a Catholic, not a Jew–asked, “Like Father, Like Son?” Well, now Michael Smerconish has the answer to his question. And so do the rest of us. Yes, LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON.
By now, you’ve probably read the reports that, Friday, Mel Gibson was arrested for drunk driving and launched into an anti-Semitic tirade (not to mention his classy reference to a female cop as “sugar-t-ts”).
Among Gibson’s attacks on the Jews was this: “F-cking Jews. . . . The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.” This from the man who started one of the greatest cultural wars between American Jews and Christians in modern times and willingly marketed that war to fill his deep pockets with ticket sales. Thankfully that war was quenched and put out–but not before, his “Passion” was a top box office seller in anti-Semitic Muslim and Arab nations. And not because they care a lick about Christianity. They simply hate the Jews, just like Mel Gibson. They become martyrs, he makes “movies” and engages drunken tirades.
Now, comes Mel Gibson’s “apology,” now that he is sober and his inhibitions are once again in place. (We heard what he really thinks about Jews, when the alcohol made his thoughts flow free, without any publicist handlers nearby to cleanse them.)
While Gibson specifically apologizes to the cops who arrested him–including presumably “sugar-t-ts” (though he doesn’t mention her by “name”)–he does not apologize to the Jewish people he defamed and attacked at a time when anti-Semitism is at its highest post-World War II levels. It’s not an accidental omission. It’s a glaring and deliberate one. Mel Gibson owes me and every other Jew in the world a specific apology. Don’t hold your breath to hear one, though.
For his “Passion” days a few years ago, Gibson employed publicist/spokesman Alan Nierob–constantly trotting out Nierob’s status as a Jew and the son of Holocaust survivors. Now, he’s trotting out Nierob, again, as his own personal, high-paid apologist. (“Some of my best publicists . . . er, friends . . . are Jewish.”) On Detroit’s Eight Mile Road, they have another world for it, and the women get paid less per hour or “act.”
Is anyone buying Gibson’s “apology”? If you are, I have some land in ancient Israel to sell you. “Sugar-t-ts” not included.
Tags: Alan Nierob, Debbie Schlussel Just, Detroit, Eight Mile Road, Gibson, Herald-Leader, Holocaust, Israel, Joel Pett, Mel Gibson, Michael Smerconish, Philadelphia, spokesman, The Passion of the Christ, USA Today
First timer, here. As much as I love Passion of the Christ and still believe it’s a very fair interpretation of The Passion, his comments are fully unacceptable and DO shine a light on disturbing beliefs. I’m a Catholic and have to agree with you about this shamefull event.
Allen on July 31, 2006 at 12:59 pm