| "Kill Bill," Greg Easterbrook, and the Jews | |
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18 Oct 2003 @ 12:18, by Bruce Kodish
An Open Letter to Greg Easterbrook
Dear Mr. Easterbrook,
I winced when I read your blog commentary on the new Quentin Tarantino movie "Kill Bill."
You wrote: "Set aside what it says about Hollywood that today even Disney thinks what the public needs is ever-more-graphic depictions of killing the innocent as cool amusement. Disney's CEO, Michael Eisner, is Jewish; the chief of Miramax, Harvey Weinstein, is Jewish. Yes, there are plenty of Christian and other Hollywood executives who worship money above all else, promoting for profit the adulation of violence. Does that make it right for Jewish executives to worship money above all else, by promoting for profit the adulation of violence? Recent European history alone ought to cause Jewish executives to experience second thoughts about glorifying the killing of the helpless as a fun lifestyle choice."
I also read your apology and accept its sincerity. However, although I accept that you yourself may not qualify as an antisemite or Jew-hater, your (to me) self-righteous lecturing about some Jews (who may not feel very much connection at all to their culture or religion) has led you to unintentionally broadcast the antisemitic meme.
A key aspect of antisemitic behavior is to pick on prominent Jews for what one deems an undesirable behavior--which is not particular to Jews--and then to turn such behavior into a particular Jewish trait. Also make sure to apply a different, higher standard to Jews than to other groupings.
What led you to skirt so closely to this? I would guess your moralizing tone may have had something to do with it. But who are you--Michael Eisner's and Harvey Weinstein's rabbi? Who are you to lecture them on their Jewish ethics? This would seem dangerous even if you were Jewish--which you're not.
I don't feel offended anymore by the kind of talk you let yourself indulge in. I do take it seriously, though. I know where it can lead.
Your mistake brings out for me how easy it seems for 'innocents' to 'dip into' the meme pool or morphogenetic field of antisemitic sentiment--a more or less unconscious, historical well-of-hatred which has continued as a part of world culture for at least the last 2000 years. Some, like you, touch their toes in it and then quickly withdraw. Others bathe and swim and glory in it.
My grandparents barely escaped slaughter at the hands of people who also talked about the "Jewish worship of money above all else." Some of my relatives did not escape. However, as a Jew, I've been extremely lucky--born in the mid-twentieth century in perhaps the greatest country ever in the world for Jews, the United States of America. Unlike my parents, I felt nary a touch of antisemitism. Until the last few years.
Recently, in the U.S. and the 'enlightened' nations of Europe, an accelerated outpouring of Jew-hate rhetoric has been spewing from so-called 'progressives', i.e., leftists and left-leaning 'liberals' as well as from Arab-Islamic apologists. Many of these people also deny antisemitism but have fallen into the same antisemitic waters that you touched.
You must have some awareness that the notion of 'rich Jews' in control of the world has been for some time a staple of the Arab-Muslim world, i.e., note the Jew-bashing at the recent Conference of Islamic Nations in Indonesia.
Jews are facing an onslaught related to the Jewish state. Israel has been redefined by militant Arab-Islamic apologists and leftists as a 'pariah' state just as Jews the world over have been a 'pariah' people for centuries. (Quick test for antisemitism in the guise of anti-zionism--someone who thinks that Palestinian Arabs who have never had a state, ought to have one; but that Palestinian Jews, who do have a state, should not.)
Genocidal violence against the Jewish people in Israel and elsewhere once again remains a very real possibility. The destruction of Israel and further persecution of Jews elsewhere would not of course solve any of the basic problems of the Arab-Muslim world, Palestinian Arabs, or of 'progressives'. However, antisemitism, "the socialism of fools," has a rich, historical background that 'fools', 'the innocent', and the 'guilty' may all dip into with nary a second thought and serves as a convenient way for demagogues to shift attention away from their own crimes and perfidy.
Did any of this cross your awareness when you started blah-blahing about "rich Jews and their money?" What do you consider your responsibility in relation to this as a journalist with a wide readership? I'm glad that you've had second thoughts.
Best wishes, Bruce I. Kodish
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Category: Articles
6 comments
23 Oct 2003 @ 21:51 by vibrani : Your letter
is excellent - bravo. I think your quick definition of antisemitism in the guise of antizionism is a very accurate test. And try to hold people who are antisemites to that and they will, of course, deny it.
14 Nov 2003 @ 11:03 by waalstraat : I second everything you said Bruce
but what's new the majority of Anti-Semites never admit to others, and even to themselves they are Anti-Semetic. It reminds of Archie Bunker, who when his son-in-law called him a racist for being anti-black, said something like, "I am not a racist. I just want the blacks, and us to both be happy. I just feel the blacks will be happier with their own people, in their own neighborhoods and in their own businesses. I am for equality. I think whites would be happier with their own people etc...too. I mean what black person with their type of rhythmn wants to dance with a white person, and what white person want to buy black people's pomade ." The thing about racists is that most think their predjudice represents objective truth. How do you pierce that?
29 Nov 2003 @ 16:57 by koj @65.139.94.12 : fuck the jews
yes all right, without jews the arab world and the western world would be a lot better. the jews started communism and now they have started liberalism. they are the richest people in the world because they are also the raciest, only caring for those of their own.
1 Dec 2003 @ 13:31 by : An Example of Antisemitic Idiocy
I've debated with myself about leaving koj's message or deleting it (which I have the ability to do--thanks to Ming). I've decided to leave it up for now as a nice brief example of antisemitic idiocy.
1 Dec 2003 @ 18:03 by vibrani : There ya go
and it sure is.
28 Sep 2016 @ 11:17 by @122.179.145.49 : I Love this Book
Ya this is Awesome book and I would love to have it again
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