The phrase "it beggars belief" is apropos.
Mel Gibson is not some everyday, anonymous Joe. He's a world-famous celebrity who has screwed-up royally by showing his anti-Semitism in a drunken rage, and who has then, in an effort to undo some of that damage and salvage his career (to paraphrase Bill Clinton - to 'maintain his Hollywood viability'), promised to seek counseling, meet with "Jewish leaders" to gain understanding, and "reach out" to the Jewish community for forgiveness, etc. ad nauseum.
That any celebrity who has messed-up that badly and then publicly made those types of promises to "the Jewish community" would not make the minimal effort of keeping himself, or at least having someone on his staff keep him updated with a list of potentially embarrassing talking-points from the headlines of the day related to his "problem" is simply stupid. It puts the lie to all his promises.
The guy is on a whirl wind tour of the country, from early morning shows to late night shows, he may not be keeping up with current events right now.
As another poster said, if it weren't for FR, I wouldn't have heard of that conference.
It's quite clear regarding Gibson's opinions on US foreign policy that he doesn't pay much attention to events either.