Mel Gibson's "Hate Crime"

by Fashion of the Christ Wednesday, Aug. 02, 2006 at 6:57 PM

The odd episode of a "drunk" (1.2% blood alcohol level) Gibson resisting arrest after being pulled over for DUI in Malibu, then allegedly making "anti-Semitic" statements about Jews being responsible for the war, has now been reported throughout the world. However, "Jews Against Anti-Semitism" has publicly called for this incident to be prosecuted as a "hate crime" under the "anti-terrorism" provisions of The PATRIOT Act.

First, let's examine the case of Mel Gibson, a man who by his own admittance has had a chronic drinking problem for years. The story that was "leaked" to the press and spread around the world like wild fire portrays his arrest as one of total belligerency--attempting to run from the arresting officers, threatening their careers, slamming his head against the inside of the patrol car, etc. No other drugs were found on Gibson and initial reports of his behavior ignored the fact that his BAC (initially reported as 0.9% then later as 1.2%) would rarely result in this kind of behavior, especially from somebody with the tolerance of a chronic drinker.

As online reporter Alex Jones pointed out in a recent article ( http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/july2006/290706Gibson.htm ), the arrest and media flogging of Gibson is beginning to look like a setup. As one of the most popular and highly paid actors in Hollywood, he has been an increasingly vocal critic of the Bush Administration and Iraq War.

Furthermore, this is not the first time Gibson has found himself in the cross-hairs of the "anti-Semite" machine gun. His movie "The Passion of the Christ" told the 2000 year old Catholic story that it was Jews who carried out the execution of Jesus Christ. Mel Gibson was raised Catholic, just as some 40 million Americans have been, and wanted to make a movie about this central story of his faith. Yet the Hollywood movie-making establishment (which does, in fact, have a large number of Jews in key positions of executive power) refused to finance it, so Gibson put his money where his faith is and financed the movie on his own. Despite the immediate cries of "anti-Semitism" and predictions of a box office failure, the long and very un-Hollywood blockbuster of a film was hit, leading the box office and grossing over 0 million.

So it's fair to say that Mel Gibson wasn't going to get any invitations to speak to AIPAC or to join Bush and his pals at the annual Bohemian Grove party. Nor is an exaggeration to suggest that the ADL, AIPAC, or their close friends in the Bush Administration have a history of heavy-handed tactics against their enemies. Recently a humble Catholic minister in California who spoke against the war in Iraq as being non-Christian found himself the immediate subject of an IRS audit. Even long-time Republicans like Joe Wilson and Paul O'Neill who dared blow the whistle on this rogue administration have been vociferously attacked.

So is Gibson a lone radical in questioning Jewish activities? Is it reasonable for Gibson, a Christian, to be extremely upset about civilian deaths in what are predominantly Christian towns of Lebanon? Why do the radical right-wing Jews in the Neocon-Republican party in the USA and the Likud Party in Israel always react in horror at the death of an innocent Jew, but exponentially greater deaths of innocent Muslims and Christians are acceptable? Could it be that there are people with extreme views of Judaism (just as their are radical Islamic and Christian interpretations) actually believe in their heart what the Talmud says about Jews being the chosen race and the rest of us just being goyim who do not deserve equal protection under the law?

This "Jewish Question" is one that has been debated over centuries and since the rise of modern Zionism in the late 1800s. Henry Ford, after fighting off a covert and aggressive attempt at taking over his company by several Jews, dedicated two years of his life to studying this question ( http://www.jrbooksonline.com/Intl_Jew_full_version/ijtoc_.htm ). Aviation hero and congressman, Charles Lindberg said (ironically on 9/11 1941), "The pressure for war is mounting. The people are opposed to it, but the Administration seems hell-bent on its way to war. Most of the Jewish interests in the country are behind war. The greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio and our government." Churchill editorialized on the subject in 1920 after the Red Terror brought about the murder of tens of millions of Christians in Eastern Europe and Russia "This movement amongst the Jews (the Russian Revolution) is not new. It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the Nineteenth Century; and now at last this band of extraordinary personalities has gripped the Russian people by the hair of their heads and have become practically the undisputed masters of that enormous empire. There is no need to exaggerate the part played in the creation of Bolshevism and in the actual bringing about of the Russian Revolution by these international and for the most part atheistic Jews. Moreover, the principal inspiration and driving power comes from Jewish leaders." Former President Harry Truman, commenting on the situation in post-war Europe wrote, "The Jews, I find are very, very selfish. They care not how many Estonians, Latvians, Finns, Poles, Yugoslavs or Greeks get murdered or mistreated as long as the Jews get special treatment."

Are these warnings from some of history's greatest actors all just blind anti-Semitism? [ NOTE: The term anti-Semite itself suggests rascism, when in fact, only about 10% of the world's Jews are of Semitic origin. Real questions of Judaism are questions aimed at religious beliefs and cultural norms, the very elements we demonize in the Islamic world. ] Are not the questions Gibson is asking himself reasonable in the context of the same questions that were asked by people like Truman and Churchill regarding radical elements of the Jewish belief? It should be noted that in Ford's book, "The International Jew," he devoted an entire chapter to differentiating between peaceful followers of Judaism who accept their new nationality and those that practice a belief in their destiny of world domination. Just as all members of mankind are right to question Christians who use the Bible to justify the actions of the Ku Klux Klan, for example, so to is it valid to question those Jews who find in the Talmud and Torah some kind of justification for cruelty and iniquity against others.

Maybe Mel Gibson is just asking the questions all Americans and peace-loving humans should be asking as the Neocons and Likud-led Israelis escalate the slaughter in the Middle East closer to a Third World War

Original: Mel Gibson's "Hate Crime"