Disappointing interview of Mel Gibson by Joe Rogan

Mel Gibson has announced that he will be involved in a movie about the revolt led by Judah Maccabee against the Greeks in 160 BC—the basis for the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Patrick Goldstein in the LATimes (“Mel’s miracle: doing right by Maccabee” 9/10/11; apparently not available online) says that “Gibson is back in good standing in Hollywood, at least at Warner Bros., arguably the industry’s leading studio.” (On the other hand, Jim Caviezel says that his career has been damaged because he played Jesus in Gibson’s Passion which was widely detested by Jewish activists.)

Jewish activist organizations have expressed their displeasure with Gibson’s current venture. Abe Foxman called it a “travesty,” and the Simon Wiesenthal’s Marvin Hier said, among other things, that it would be like having “a White supremacist  trying to play Martin Luther King Jr. [!] It’s simply an insult to the Jews.” No surprise there.

Goldstein thinks it’s just fine for Gibson to be involved, noting the parallels of the Maccabee story with Gibson’s signature movie role in Braveheart: An embattled warrior fighting for his people. He expects that Gibson will produce a properly heroic depiction because he “must surely realize that a film from him that in any way undercuts the heroism of Maccabee would be a career killer of the highest order. But it would be almost as bad if he were doing the film as an act of penance for his sins, since dutiful acts of penance rarely lend themselves to great artistry.”

If Gibson is doing this as penance, it would represent groveling taken to a new low.

Jeffrey Goldberg seems a bit skeptical. He calls Gibson “Hollywood’s leading anti-Semite” but also notes his long fascination with the Maccabee story. Goldberg clearly doesn’t buy Gibson’s excuse for his anti-Jewish rant when he was arrested for DUI:

He answered me directly: “I was loaded, and some stupid shit can come out of your mouth when you’re loaded.”

But from what dark corner of his soul did this terrible accusation—that Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world—emanate? He said, “That day they were marching into Lebanon. It was one of those things. It was on the news.”

The “they” in question is the Israel Defense Forces. I found this answer to be proof, of course, of Gibson’s anti-Semitic tendencies. Most drunk people, when stopped by the police, don’t launch into tirades against Jews. He was obviously preoccupied with the putative sins of Jewish people. …

I’d have to agree with Goldberg in the sense that his rant probably does indicate a problem with Jews released by the alcohol. An unbuttoned Abe Foxman arrested for DUI would probably rant about Hitler, Neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan as causing all the world’s problems.

Gibson’s negative views of Jews likely stem from his traditional Catholic theology [also apparent in the Rogan interview], much apparent in his Passion (and the reason Gibson was forced to endure a deluge of hostility from Jews for making it).  The fact is that the idea that Jews are responsible for wars is part of the ancient loyalty theme of anti-Semitism (see here, p. 60 ff)—that Jews have interests as Jews that are not always the same as those of the country they happen to live in, so they have at times pushed for wars that haven’t necessarily been in the national interest. There is a great deal more than a grain of truth to it. For example, Charles Lindbergh’s accusation that the Jews were an important group pushing for US entry into WWII was quite correct, and you are just not paying attention if you are unaware that Jewish neoconservatives with close ties to the U.S. government, the media, and the organized Jewish community—not to mention close family ties and close personal relationships to the political and military elites that run Israel—were the main force responsible for getting the US to invade Iraq. The image of Israel as a peaceful but beleaguered power in the Middle East conjured up by Goldberg’s mention of the Israeli Defense Force is the stuff of Zionist propaganda and self-delusion. And now the same forces are preparing the US for a war with Iran.

…

I think some us had a vague hope that Gibson was a closeted White patriot and that he could be a White savior—someone with enough money and popularity to really make a difference. We thought that he really identified as William Wallace battling for his people and that he would perhaps try to be a leader in the battle against White dispossession. I have been involved in several conversations with strongly identified Whites where Gibson was mentioned this way.

But making a movie about a Jewish hero doesn’t seem consistent with that.

And his interview with Rogan confirms that in spades. BTW, the Maccabees movies was shelved  because it was deemed too “controversial,” because of Gibson’s putative role in it. The “move comes after Jewish groups were outraged to learn that Gibson would produce and direct.”

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One Rachel Abramowitz says the following:

I saw him in 2004 during the media meltdown of “The Passion of the Christ.” Huddled in a swank hotel room, Gibson had aged considerably and appeared harried and even paranoid, which is a strange quality for a gazillionaire mega-star. “I’ve been subjected to religious persecution, persecution as an artist, persecution as an American, persecution as a man,” he told me, which was a little hard to take, given that he didn’t have a concentration camp number on his wrist or hadn’t just spent five years in a labor camp in Siberia.

Still, he was remarkably warm and seemed genuinely surprised when I told him how much “The Passion of the Christ” upset me. As a Jew, it made me feel like I had a target on my back. “I’m sorry if it’s caused you to feel that way, because you’re a friend of mine and I love you,” he said sincerely. “It completely tears my heart out when I see you like that.”

So Abramowitz finds Gibson a “nightmare on two legs” because he made a movie of his version of the crucifixion — a version that is fits squarely with the Gospel account and mainstream historical Christianity. The persecution Gibson endured for this “crime” can’t even be termed ‘persecution’; since that word is reserved for victims of real suffering such as the Holocaust survivors. And it doesn’t help to say that you are sorry that you caused such pain. What matters is that you offended Jewish sensibilities.

This Hollywood Reporter piece notes superagent Ari Emanuel’s change of heart on Gibson:

Emanuel’s essay referenced a 2006 piece he wrote for HuffPost in which he said entertainment companies should stop working with Mel Gibson after the antisemitic remarks he made that year during an arrest for drunk driving. In his new op-ed, Emanuel explained that he has since recommended Gibson for roles following the actor’s public apology and “commitment to understanding the consequences of his actions,” and that he would be open to helping West do the same.