Part-Time Pundit

Drunken Rants and Payback

Mel Gibson’s drunken rants are disgraceful and there is no defending them. In fact, Mel Gibson himself doesn’t defend them and claims they are not only disgraceful but that they disgrace his family. In a world where public figures hardly utter the words “I’m sorry” and issue non-apology apologies, one would think people would have been satisfied with not only an apology, but a healthy self-indictment for a very bad episode.

For the Anti-Defamation League, that is not enough. After reading the several statements from the ADL, it is clear that their righteous indignation has less to do with comments from a drunk being pulled over and more about the “Passion of Christ” (a link they themselves make in this release).

In fact, much like Psalm 59, the entire tirade seems to have been nothing but lying in wait for Mel to stumble so they can jump on him and label him anti-semitic.

Take this statement they made at the time The Passion came out:

Q. Mel Gibson has stated that many people are calling him an anti-Semite. What is ADL’s position?
A. ADL and its representatives have never accused Mr. Gibson of being an anti-Semite. We do not know what is in his heart. We only know what he has put on the movie screen. The images there show Romans who behave with compassion toward Jesus. The Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, constantly expresses his reticence to harm Jesus. The Jews, on the other hand, are depicted as blood-thirsty. The Jewish High Priest, Caiaphas, is shown as bullying Pilate, and the hundreds and hundreds of amassed Jews demanding Jesus’ death.

Compare that with their recent statement:

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement:

Mel Gibson’s apology is unremorseful and insufficient. It’s not a proper apology because it does not go to the essence of his bigotry and his anti-Semitism.

His tirade finally reveals his true self and shows that his protestations during the debate over his film “The Passion of the Christ,” that he is such a tolerant, loving person, were a sham. It may well be that the bigotry has been passed from the father to the son. It is unfortunate that it took an excess of booze and an encounter with a police officer to reveal what was really in his heart and mind.

We would hope that Hollywood now would realize the bigot in their midst and that they will distance themselves from this anti-Semite.

At first, they couldn’t peer into Mel Gibson’s heart, and now they see him through and through. At what point did people start considering drunken rants authoritative of the identity of a person?

With this childish rant that goes far beyond the condemnation that was warranted, the ADL have silences anti-semites all over. They no longer need to speak on how those who criticize the Jews are blackballed, they simply need to point to this URL. The ADL doesn’t just condemn Mel, they call for him to be blacklisted. The Jews have enough problems with people falsely stereotyping them… they certainly don’t need the ADL to live up to those stereotypes. Call the comments hateful, fine. Say they were out-of-line and false, that is true. Waiting until after Mel apologizes, claim to peer into his heart, and then call for him to be blackballed is the height of arrogance and the depth of stupidity.

Apparently, the PR handlers at the ADL got Foxman to calm down in the latest release, but even then he couldn’t keep from kicking a man while he’s down. ADL’s Op-Ed largely goes back to the ranting, threatening to hold the sword of anti-semitism over Mel for life. There is conventional wisdom that when someone comes to you to sincerely apologize, you don’t keep kicking them in the face.

What the entire incident smacks of is revenge for The Passion in which, for whatever reason, the ADL didn’t feel like they could truly unload on Gibson. They are making up for that now. These releases smack of not really being all the concerned with what Mel said, but of being pent up anger finally finding a pretext to allow its release.

Anti-semitism shouldn’t be tolerated, but at some point the ADL should realize that their cause is not helped by the politics of personal destruction. Maybe they should save their big guns for those who are calling for a second Holocaust… like Iran.

August 2nd, 2006 Posted by John Bambenek | Misc | one comment