In remembrance of Pearl Harbor, a ZOT for an America hater

New York Times ^ | December 7, 2005 | DAVID M. HALBFINGER

[aug645]

Mod note: Please note our little friend's tagline down below. It helps explain its screen name.

Mel Gibson Developing Holocaust Mini-Series

The project is in its early stages, so there is no guarantee that it will be completed. Mr. Gibson is not expected to act in the mini-series, nor is it certain that his name, rather than his company's, will be publicly attached to the final product, according to several people involved in developing it.

But Quinn Taylor, ABC's senior vice president for movies for television, acknowledged that the attention-getting value of having Mr. Gibson attached to a Holocaust project was a factor.

"Controversy's publicity, and vice versa," Mr. Taylor said.

Mr. Gibson's father, Hutton Gibson, has repeatedly denied that the Holocaust happened. Before the release of "The Passion of the Christ," Hutton Gibson said that accounts of the Holocaust were mostly "fiction" and asserted that there were more Jews in Europe after World War II than before.
Mel Gibson, for his part, when asked by an interviewer in early 2004 whether the Holocaust happened, responded that some of his best friends "have numbers on their arms," then added: "Yes, of course. Atrocities happened. War is horrible. WWII killed tens of millions of people. Some of them were Jews in concentration camps."

But in the same interview, Mr. Gibson said his father had "never lied to me in his life," and Holocaust scholars have cited those and other statements as evidence that he had failed to disassociate himself clearly from his father's views.

[aug645]

Mel Gibson's record of historical distortion, inaccuracy even revisionism as it relates to the Jewish people does not bode very well for history in general, Jewish history in particular. Gibson's ugly portrayal of Jews as Christ Killers, his disdain for Jews as manifested in his artistic and personal points of view, his close relationship with his father and the unemphatic, convoluted manner in which he reconciles his father's Holocaust denial make for a frightening harbinger of what we can expect from a Mel Gibson Holocaust project. Gibson is a follower of distinct form of Christianity that did not accept the Catholic Church position absolving the Jews of Christ's death. This same sort of posturing occurred in the months leading up to the release of his Christ film whereby any hint of anti-semitism was emphatically denied and we all know how untrue that turned out to be.

Mel Gibson, for his part, when asked by an interviewer in early 2004 whether the Holocaust happened, responded that some of his best friends "have numbers on their arms,"
.
How disingenuous! How misleading! It's like the old,standard anti-semitic refrain; "some of my best friends are Jewish!

Then added: "Yes, of course. Atrocities happened. War is horrible. WWII killed tens of millions of people. Some of them were Jews in concentration camps.

Some of them?? Some of them?? Mr. Gibson! Your asinine, ignorant comments reveal your true feelings.

[nutmeg]

read later

[Bogey78O]

'Gibson's ugly portrayal of Jews as Christ Killers'

Should he have made the mob who turned him over to the Romans into German Neo-Nazis?

Assigning the phrase "the Jews killed Christ" to the depiction in the Passion is like saying the WASPs killed Terri Schiavo.

[Roberts]

What, exactly, was "anti-semitic" about "The Passion of the Christ"?

[familyop]

It's an interesting and honest topic. But with no mysticism or spiritualism whatsoever, I see flames for obfuscation with rhetoric in the very near future. [g]

Information is a good thing, though, and that will come out once in a while between infernal comments that would make Dante blush.

[aug645]

The look/facial features of the Jews portrayed in the film was stereotypical of the way European, Middle-Age Jews were portrayed, as in Nazi propaganda, features that didn't surface as being "Jewish" for at least another millenium or more.
Did you see the film?

[Forte Runningrock]

WW2 killed over 100 million people, and yes SOME of them were Jews, there were also Polish and Ukrainian Christians, and Priests murdered in labor/death camps.

WW2 wasn't just all about the Jewish Holocuast. There were other holocausts which are buried and forgotten, like 15 million Ukrainians murdered and starved during late 1929 to 1935, but how DARE anyone use the word HOLOCAUST.

it wasn't all about Jews.

[Optimus Prime]

Looks to me like you're the one distorting history.

[patriciaruth]

Since Nov 20, 2005.

What brings you here to Free Republic?

A desire to smear the reputation of a fine man?

[Cobra64]

I agree with you. Some folks just don't get it. Or have been so indoctinated, and refuse to read factual accounts of history.

[familyop]

"Should he have made the mob who turned him over to the Romans into German Neo-Nazis?"

No, although neo-Nazis and radical Islamists would enjoy such a depiction. Religious writers often go with the "Jews killed Jesus" story in many roundabout words, while assuming that Pontius Pilate was as good to Jews as the Nazi-like antisemite Anne Catherine Emmerich (whose work went into the film) said he was. But Pilate probably wasn't nice to them at all, and there's no history--biblical or otherwise--with as much information on Pilate's wife as Emmerich (through her visions/dreams) or the film presented.

So how well did Pontius Pilate get along with the Jews?

Antiquities of the Jews - Book XVIII
Flavius Josephus
[Go down the page to] CHAPTER 3.
SEDITION OF THE JEWS AGAINST PONTIUS PILATE. CONCERNING CHRIST, AND WHAT BEFELL PAULINA AND THE JEWS AT ROME,
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/josephus/ant-18.htm

Pilate probably abolished the Jewish laws, defiled Jerusalem, plotted and schemed to set Jews up to riot and had thousands of them murdered. The man who appointed Pilate to his office is proven by original documents to have hated the Jews, also.

And it is assumed, according to the New Testament, that Jesus was a Jew who studied the Torah and taught the Law (Matthew 19:18).

"Assigning the phrase "the Jews killed Christ" to the depiction in the Passion is like saying the WASPs killed Terri Schiavo."

It seems that all who propagandize against Judaism would try to finish their intent before going after the very few real remaining Protestants. There aren't many Puritans around these days.

[Roberts]

Yes, I saw the movie, and was deeply moved by it. I had no negative feelings for Jews whatsoever; Jesus, His disciples and his mother were all Jewish, for pete's sake.

I did feel a visceral reaction to those in power and those who wanted him dead, be they Jews or Gentiles.

[wardaddy]

BTTT...they have been crawling out of the woodworks lately...

[beaversmom]

Yes I'm sure if Mel produces this mini-series he will depict the Jews as big nose money grubbers who had it coming. I don't really think that will be the case, but if the show is 100& sympathetic to the plight of the Jews, which it should be, you will probably find something anti-semetic in it. Are you from the ADL?

If this story is true about Mel producing this series, I applaud him for doing it. I wish more Holocaust stories would be told. Not that I think we should wallow in the misery of that time, but the crimes and stories of that time are too big to ignore. If the series is truly anti-semetic, I will come here and apologize and my opinion of Mel will forever change, but will you come here and apologize if you have misjudged him.

[patriciaruth]

The rest of his in forum posts aren't bad.

Maybe he's just got it in for Mel.

And I thought The Passion was Mel's personal "mea culpa" and that those of us Christians who saw it felt the same way, it was our "mea culpa".

I don't think many Jews actually get this, that we Christians know Christ died for OUR sins, that WE are the reason he had to die. We killed Him.

[Forte Runningrock]

I saw the film. I didn't see it as a Jew smear campaign either. I saw the passion of Christ.

It appears YOU didn't see the film. It was about Christ, not the Jews. In case you don't understand, Christ was supposed to die, it was by God's design that he die on the cross for YOUR sins. the sin of all mankind thus releasing us from it's penalty- death. Christian's do not "blame Jews" for what was God's plan. He died for Jews too, it's all part of his plan. Read your Torah, It tells all about it.
As for Mr. Gibson not 'disassociating himself' from his father's views, it's called honoring thy father. Some people demand he condemn his own father, because subtle admission that they aren't his views isn't good enough for them.
Mr. Gibson has made many films taken from history, and has done a fine job in all of them. I'm looking forward to his Holocaust series if his past works are any indication of what to expect.

[laney]

What are you talking about???THe Passion of Christ was far from Anti-Semetic and was a AWESOME film about the sacrafice of Jesus Christ, first everyone in the film was played as a Jew with the exception of the Roman Soldiers.

HOWEVER most of the actors were Italians. Mary Mother of Jesus was one that was Jewish from Romania...

Jesus was born into the world as a Jew and associated only with JEWS and did not associate with Gentiles while on earth...I am sure he looked like the Middle Easteners of that time and era.

[Roberts]

Well stated.

[Irishguy]

hear hear!!!


there is nothing anti jewish about the truth. can people just let it go. the holocaust is a disgusting blot on the history of this planet...as was the whole nazi cause....

as for the passion of the christ being anti jewish..

STOP BEING SO DARNED PARANOID!

it is about CHRIST and his death, i have watched it and what is the problem. it is not anti jewish.

HERE IS A FACT!

jews killed christ!

HERE Is another

if christ had been in ireland -- IT WOULD HAVE BEEN IRISH PEOPLE who KILLED HIM! if he had been in france, it would have been french people...

CHRIST KNEW HE WAS GOING TO DIE, IT IS IRRELEVANT WHO KILLED HIM, WHAT IS RELEVANT IS WHY HE DIED!!!

[Irishguy]

please stop trolling....