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Some of My Best Friends....
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| Last
uploaded : Thursday 28th Oct 2004 at 19:25 |
| Contributed
by : Burt Prelutsky |
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Several years ago, when I was reviewing movies for the UCLA Daily Bruin, I got in hot water for panning "Pepe" and "Exodus" in the same issue. The Bruin editor and the head of publications for the university got called on the carpet by the president of the Directors Guild of America, George Sidney. He threatened to cut off grants and scholarships to the theater arts department unless I was canned. Like most Hollywood types, he was a true zealot when it came to free speech?except when he wasn't.
At the meeting, to which I was not invited, Sidney, who had produced and directed "Pepe," an expensive bomb starring Cantinflas, claimed he didn't care what I wrote about his own movie, but that anybody who would dare give "Exodus" a bad review had to be an anti-Semite. When the editor told him that I was Jewish, Mr. Sidney, I was told, slammed his fist on the desk and announced, "They're the worst kind!"
At the time, I thought it was one of the funniest things I had ever heard. This is to report that I have finally stopped laughing.
When I find American Jews in the forefront when it comes to denouncing President Bush, while dismissing Saddam Hussein as just another minor nuisance; when I find American Jews leading the parade of appeasers; when I find Jews sympathizing with the plight of Yasir Arafat and the PLO, and labeling homicide bombers as heroic patriots willing to die for their beliefs; I find myself thinking that George Sidney was right on the money.
Many, way too many, of my fellow Jews are those most vocal on insisting that only the U.N. has the moral authority to determine America's foreign policy. This is the same world body that elected Libya to head up its commission on human rights. In terms of logic, this is akin to hiring Wile E.Coyote to guard your chicken coop. In terms of morality, it is something far worse.
In what bizarro universe would you commit to a policy only when and if it were first approved by China, France and Russia--three nations you wouldn't trust to tell you the time of day?
Most of the canards regarding President Bush are eagerly promoted by American Jews in and out of the media. It is most often they who insist, for instance, that his only reason for attacking Iraq is his desire to gain control of Saddam Hussein's oil fields. While it's true that the entire world should devoutly wish to see Iraq's oil profits being spent for something other than palaces and munitions, what gives anybody the idea that we would ever confiscate Iraqi property? Has anyone noticed the American flag waving over Kuwait City?
It's particularly reprehensible for American Jews to treat Bush to the constant tirade of lies and insults. After all, even the Arabs complain about his close ties to Israel--the one nation in the area, we should all keep in mind, without oil reserves!
Finally, why is it that American Jews and journalists so often insist on using the term "occupied territories"? During World War II, Germany occupied Poland, Holland, France, Norway, etc. Japan occupied China, Mongolia, the Philippines, etc. For years, the Soviet Union occupied Hungary, East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, etc. We all understood that when a sovereign nation was invaded and conquered by another country, it was occupied.
The fact that Israel has offered, in hopes of achieving a lasting peace, to cede land to its enemies has been turned on its head. The Arab refugees never had a nation; the so-called "occupied territories" were formerly parts of Jordan and Egypt. When those countries decided to join others in attacking Israel, they wound up losing some of their turf. That's the way it works: When you start a war and lose, you lose.
The real question remains, why do so many American Jews insist on identifying with people who share none of their democratic ideals, who parade their dead through the streets, lionize the killers of babies and old people, treat women as chattel, and would gladly turn the clock back to the ninth century? There is no rational reason why in a society that is increasingly secular, my fellow Jews have made something of a religion out of casting stones at Bush, Israel and the Republican party.
It took me four decades, but I finally comprehend how correct George Sidney was when he made his pronouncement. But I still stick to my guns--"Exodus" was a real stinker.
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If you liked this article, perhaps you'll also like Burt's collection from Scorched Earth Press, "Conservatives Are From Mars, Liberals Are From San Francisco." Order your autographed copy now from
http://www.BurtPrelutsky.com
e-mail:burtprelutsky@aol.com
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