Mel, Kofi and Me

Like soft drinks and poison, anti-Semitism comes in various flavors and strengths.

It is easy and tempting to wax cynical about Mel Gibson, the once-famously outraged-for-being-called-an-anti-Semite Hollywood powerhouse who recently, under the revealing effects of alcohol, proved his erstwhile accusers to have if anything underestimated the depth of his animus for Jews. And, indeed, cynics abound.

I am not among them. Not that I am beyond cynicism, unfortunately. But Mr. Gibson's apology, in which he disowned his drunken diatribe and asked the Jewish community to help him in "the process of understanding where those vicious words came from," cannot be blithely ignored.

I am given to understand that the successful actor/director/producer is not a man in financial need. Even if he never works in Hollywood again, he won't be homeless. So it would be ungenerous if not unfair to assume his words less than heartfelt. If Mr. Gibson is honestly grappling with the infection in his soul, he deserves not only sympathy but credit. It is infinitely healthier to know there is a prejudice lurking in one's heart than to be oblivious to it.

Unsurprisingly, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan wasted no time, after word came in that Israeli forces had shelled a UN post in Lebanon, casting the Jewish State as a dastardly villain. Before any facts beyond the shelling itself came in, he publicly proclaimed Israel guilty of "apparent deliberate targeting" of the post.

Jackie Mason: Mel No Anti-Semite

Friends of embattled Mel Gibson have leapt vigorously to Gibson's defense, but none with more vehemence than comedian Jackie Mason, who heaped scorn on Gibson's detractors.

Proclaiming that Gibson has been "a mecca of decency all of his life," an angry Mason stormed that the actor and producer of "The Passion of the Christ" has "never offended a Jew in his life personally, " and lambasted some of Gibson's most vehement critics.

Appearing Friday on Neil Cavuto's Fox News show, "Your World," Mason said: "How a guy lived for 50 years is what should count, not one remark when you're drunk!" Gibson, he recalled, "never joined a club that was anti-Semitic; he never refused to give a guy a tip at a restaurant because he found out he was Jewish. His house doesn't have a sign in front of it that says 'No Jews Allowed.' What did he ever do that's anti-Jewish in his life? A whole 50 years of decency doesn't count because he made one remark? Now they say, Apologize!' But he didn't apologize enough; he should apologize a little higher. He should apologize in the morning; he only apologized at night. He should apologize at least two more times, four more times, 32 times. ... Now they want him to get circumcised!"

Noting that Mason had become a rabbi as a young man, Cavuto asked him why he is so forgiving of Gibson, whose anti-Semitic drunken rant has become a media sensation, drawing condemnation of the actor from rabbis, the media and Holywood figures alike.

"I'll be honest with you; it's not that I'm so forgiving," Mason explained. "It's that all these people are very sick; they're getting a vicious, sick, perverted, sadistic thrill out of this whole thing. Look at the glee in them, look at the happiness about catching him -- because they're basically failures; they never amounted to anything. There are actors struggling to make a living and they have always been envious and bitter and jealous of a guy who makes such a huge success ... It's all an excuse, a rationalization of ... excuse to bury this guy because they're enjoying it with such a sick, perverted pleasure."

Responding to Cavuto's suggestion that alcohol is a "truth serum," Mason said: "You've got to be a moron; you gotta be the phoniest, wretched fraud in the world to claim that it's a 'truth serum.' If it's your family or your friends and they say something in a drunken state, you say, 'Hey, he was drunk,' and you forget about it. In a drunken state, you might bang your head against the wall; does that mean you really want to break your head? You might go into a car ... I want to ask you a question: Did you ever notice how people beg a guy not to drink when he's drunk and he drives anyway because he doesn't even know he's drunk and he doesn't even know he shouldn't be driving and he doesn't even know that 10 seconds later, he's dead?

"Now, if you want to kill yourself, does that prove that if you gave him a gun, he'd kill himself? If you gave him a gun, I don't think he'd kill himself. He's too sick and drunk to know that he's about to kill himself."

Turning to those in Hollywood saying they would never work with Gibson, Mason told Cavuto: "I want to ask you a question: These people are attacking him; they're all saying the same thing in Hollywood -- 'I would never work for him again!' These are all failures that never worked with him before. He never asked them to work with him. He doesn't need them. He makes a fortune and they can't get a job, but they're threatening him, that they won't work with him again?"

When Cavuto asked, "So you think a lot of this is jealousy?" Mason fumed: "Jealousy and hate, their contempt for a guy who's doing too good! Also, this guy, [Abraham] Foxman, this head of the ADL [Anti-Defamation League] -- another fake from top to bottom. I don't talk about people; it's not my nature. ... He's a total fake. ... Let's be honest about it -- anybody who makes a life out of fighting racism in effect has to blow up racism in order to justify himself in his job he has. Otherwise he'd have to go to work. Otherwise he'd have to get up in the morning and get a real job."

Noting that ABC has already cut plans to co-produce Gibson's Holocaust special, Cavuto asked if Gibson is going to have "any ill effects from all of this in Hollywood?"

Said Mason: "He might have ill effects because people love burying a guy who's big. If a guy on a bicycle breaks down, you cry for him. If he breaks down in a Rolls-Royce, you applaud. People make a living from fighting anti-Semitism -- like Al Sharpton, or for fighting racism -- they have to convince themselves there's racism every place and that every minute they're about to blow up every Jew in America, because otherwise he would have to go to work for a living. He fears a job a lot more than he fears anti-Semitism. Getting up in the morning is the main fear that Foxman has. And all of a sudden, he made himself the judge and the jury of this man?!"

When Cavuto asked, "Who was that rabbi who suggested maybe Mel Gibson should apologize to his congregation on Yom Kippur?" Mason shot back: "You know why? Because nobody knows who this rabbi is. Who cares who he is! All of a sudden he becomes a producer, all of a sudden he's producing a show with him and Mel Gibson and he'll become the star of the show and then you'll see it in the newspapers: 'STARRING RABBI SCHWARTZ WITH MEL GIBSON' -- he'll probably get second billing because it's another rabbi looking for attention. They decided -- the judge and the jury of this whole situation -- they've become a personal mafia now because who knows who they are? Who would pay attention to them? Foxman and this other guy are loving it."

Noting that "There are some Jews who aren't in that camp who are just legitimately offended," Cavuto asked: "You say they should get over themselves?"

Said Mason: "They're nuts if they're offended. You're offended if you know anything about his life."

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.