I’m glad to know that my online colleague, M.J. Rosenberg, Director of Policy Analysis for Israel Policy Forum, has joined the debate over the controversial Palestinian film, Paradise Now which is a hot contender for Best Foreign Language Oscar. Like me, Rosenberg is made very uncomfortable by the hysterical campaign being waged by Israelis against the film’s candidacy:
I’m trying to describe the phenomenon when people appear trapped in a different historical period than the present and react to events in an outdated context. The phrase “time warp” comes to mind.
The thought struck me after reading an article about a campaign by, what the Associated Press called, “pro-Israel activists” to prevent the Palestinian film, “Paradise Now” from winning an Oscar for best foreign language film when the Academy Awards are presented this Sunday.
…In today’s Washington Post, the always hyperbolic Charles Krauthammer publishes a column called Oscars for Osama. (I’m serious). In it he fulminates about “Paradise Now” and “Munich” but adds George Clooney’s “Syriana,” which he says is “pathological” and “could have been scripted by Osama Bin Laden.”
And for more such over-the-top ranting, take a look at Debbie Schlussel who one of my readers tells me “has been screeching” about Paradise Now for A YEAR! She calls the film “the pro-homicide bomber movie.” She seems like an Ann Coulter wannabe (“We are fighting a religion that is now dominated globally by fascism and extremism”). Maybe a Jewish Coulter? Though Ann is thankfully sui generis. No one can be as toxic and insanely incendiary as she, not even Debbie.
Rosenberg continues by explaining why Paradise Now threatens no one, not Israel, not Israelis:
…This mindless hysteria is truly offensive.
It should be obvious that Israel is not threatened by the Motion Picture Academy. Even if the actors portraying the suicide bombers walked off with dual “Best Actor” Oscars, Israel would survive. It will even survive a Steven Spielberg film that simply raises the question of whether the status quo, the cycle of violence and retaliation, is in Israel’s best interests.
So why the movie madness?
I think it’s because it’s considerably easier to worry about an imaginary Hollywood threat to Israel than the real threat posed by continuation of the status quo.
Absolutely, in my experience what Rosenberg calls the “status-quoniks” want desperately to maintain the illusion that all’s well with Israel’s current policies toward the Palestinians. The Occupation is manageable. Nothing needs to change. So when the news media publish a disturbing article or a filmmaker creates a work that threatens that status quo, then all hell breaks loose. The attitude seems to be: how dare you rock the boat. We were doing just fine without your intervention, thank you very much. Now go away. And if you won’t go away we’ll make you go away. We’ll mount a campaign against you. We’ll will you into oblivion.
I join Rosenberg is hoping that Paradise Now overcomes such negative smears and campaigning and wins an Oscar.
While you are reading this, the Iranian reactor produces enriched bomb-grade uranium. Terrorists can deliver that bomb to your city, and it can kill you and your children. Yet the government does nothing.
Do we demand violence? Not in any common sense. Similarly, police use force to arrest criminals in order to stop violence.
But Iran is not a criminal? Wrong. Iran has proven malicious intent. Iran, under the current regime, conducted many terrorist bombings in the West, and sponsors deadly terrorists. Iranian leaders repeatedly called for fight against the United States and annihilation of Israel.
Perhaps Iran needs nuclear weapons for self-defense? No. Iran already bullies the Middle East with its huge conventional army. No country threatens Iran.
Since the eighth-century jihad and the Ottoman army at the gates of Vienna, the West has never been exposed to such threat. Iran�s several nuclear bombs can inflict more damage on America than the World War II. Never before the Islamic fundamentalists who hate the West and dream of attacking it had military might of apocalyptic dimensions. Are you crazy to doubt they will use the bomb?
We call on the United States: Do not hesitate. Protect your people. Protect your allies. Destroy the Iranian reactor!
Gee, thanks Sheila for more mindless hysteria from the Israeli right. Your comment is full of delusional thinking.
Of course Iran is a danger to the world, the region & its neighbors. That’s why I’m in favor of negotiations to prevent Iran from going nuclear. But a good argument could be made that Israel is at least an equal, if not greater danger. It already HAS nuclear weapons & as the Lebanon invasion shows it would be fully prepared to use them in the “right” circumstances. I’m sure that thought scares the shit out of its Arab neighbors including Iran.
Rather than rattling sabers against Iran you’d be better served by lobbying for a nuclear free Mideast.
I just love it when foreign nationals are so enamored by our bellicose foreign & military policy that they beseech us to do their dirty work for them. I’m comforted by the fact that nutjob hysteria like this will (hopefully) be tempered by Congressional opposition even if Cheney & his boys are fully prepared to use the big one on Iran.
Isn’t it about time to dust off Dr. Strangelove & watch the generals and political leaders lead us blithely to nuclear war?
If there is war with Iran you can take Iraq AND Lebanon and double the mayhem, double the resistance, & double the insanity. Israel will suffer, Iran of course will suffer, & our own country will suffer–deeply.
I’ve removed both yr website URL & your petition URL because I don’t believe in using my blog to promote causes to which I’m adamantly opposed.