Free Republic

Things have reached a pretty pass when reports of a celebrity’s drunken misbehavior and anti-Semitic rants are treated as bigger news than an actual war in Israel. But there you have it, life in America in 2006, and for the moment Mel Gibson’s encounter with a deputy from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is The Story. Tel Aviv could be in flames and I’m not sure it would push Gibson’s sordid little tale off the front pages. We don’t see many celebrities in the part of town where I work, and as I’m employed by the Los Angeles Police...

I was one of a number of Jewish conservatives who spoke out in defense of Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of The Christ. (See "More Power To Mel," published in FrontPageMag.com on February 10, 2004.) For that, I have no regrets. I believed then – and continue to believe – that The Passion is not anti-Semitic. However, based on what followed Gibson’s drunk-driving arrest on Friday, I’m convinced that the actor/director himself is an anti-Semite. According to various news reports, when he was arrested by a sheriff’s deputy in Malibu for DUI, Gibson was enraged. At one point, he reportedly...