'Vos iz bay a shiker af der tsung iz bay a nikhter inem mogn'

Sometimes I can sit down and write something on some topic or other that sounds original. The reality is that most often times, there are others who can write better than I do and who can spend the time in thoughtful analysis and retrospection as well as editing. So when I happen across an article that is reflective of the foregoing qualities, I just put it up here and let my vast readership decide. In the sorry case of the Jew-hater Mel Gibson, Michelle Cottle of The New Republic has said a mouthful for the end of the discussion of Mel Gibson's latest confrontation with his "inner bigot". I think that despite the trust that I (and many other Jews that I know) were willing to and did give him as the result of "The Passion of the Christ" it is apparent that Mel is a model of self restraint, since it appears that when he is not shikker (Yiddish for "drunk") he is a huge Jew Hater. And nothing and no-one will ever convince me otherwise now. As the old saying goes: "'Vos iz bay a shiker af der tsung iz bay a nikhter inem mogn' — 'What a drunkard has on his tongue, the sober man has in his heart.'"

THE UPSIDE TO MEL GIBSON'S ANTI-SEMITISM.
Community Service
by Michelle Cottle
Only at TNR Online
Post date: 08.04.06

Let's go ahead and get a couple of things out of the way: Yes, Mel Gibson has a problem with Jews. No, it wasn't just the alcohol talking. Yes, the Los Angeles police treated him differently because he's a movie star. (You try repeatedly threatening your arresting officer and then calling a female sergeant "sugar tits" and see what kind of "special handling" you get.) No, Gibson almost certainly will not experience an epiphany concerning the evils of anti-Semitism. And no, we should not be shocked or outraged by any of this. Indeed, I'd venture to say that Gibson's drunken ecclesiastical musings may be the best thing to happen to non-right-wingers since Ralph Reed got caught dirty dancing with uber-crook Jack Abramoff.

In the spirit of generosity and compassion, I will accept the remote possibility that Gibson wasn't aware of how deeply he hated the Jews until the fine folks who make Cazadores tequila and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department helped him get in touch with his inner bigot last weekend. No matter: Since Gibson has a proven tendency to let his biases--whether subconscious or otherwise--color his very public work, I think we can all agree it's safer to have him out of the closet. After all, if Gibson had always worn his bigotry as boldly as, say, David Duke, we could have avoided that whole culture-war skirmish about whether The Passion was anti-Semitic. Now, if nothing else, Gibson's charming display of roadside rage means that those of us who don't regard The Passion as divinely inspired art will never again have to listen to some self-righteous religious activist hold forth on how Gibson is cruelly misunderstood and--like all true Christians--courageously enduring persecution in the name of faith. Or rather, we won't have to listen to this kind of twaddle without at least being able to ask when, exactly, scorching anti-Semitism became an accepted cornerstone of modern Christianity.

For its part, the Jewish community clearly intends to milk this little episode for all it's worth. Already the invites are rolling in for Gibson to meet with prominent leaders to discuss paths to redemption or even--get this--to speak at "the largest entertainment industry synagogue" on Yom Kippur. Good grief. Yom Kippur is nearly two months off. Without a juicy murder or molestation trial, the average celebrity scandal lasts no more than a couple of weeks. By early October, Gibson will have completed his de rigueur sensitivity training, done his confessional tour of the talk shows, and scampered home to Malibu to spend the rest of the autumn poolside, jamming out to Prussian Blue and highlighting his favorite passages in Hitler's War.

Initially, I found this rush to make Mel serially abase himself pointless, if not counterproductive. I mean, does anyone really believe Mel is genuinely longing for Jewish leaders to help him find "the appropriate path for healing," as his second shot at a heartfelt, publicist-penned apology so plaintively put it? Let's set aside for the moment the fact that we're talking about a 50-year-old megalomaniac ("I own Malibu!") who blames The Jews for killing his Lord and Savior--not to mention for causing all the wars on the planet--and whose daddy taught him that the Holocaust was some sinister hoax perpetrated by scheming Zionists intent on global domination. Beyond all that, Mad Mel doesn't just have a problem with Jews. He is also a vicious homophobe, a bit of a misogynist, bizarrely Anglophobic (still bitter about the Reformation, perhaps?), and a guy clearly obsessed with violence and torture--something we knew from his films even before he did a solo slam dance inside a deputy sheriff's patrol car and accosted the payphone at the station house. The man has issues of the sort unlikely to be resolved by reading Elie Wiesel's Night and accompanying Oprah on her next pilgrimage to Auschwitz. And, if anyone thinks that Gibson's being forced to publicly prostrate himself before the Anti-Defamation League is going to improve his attitude toward the Jews, well, I have a fabulous summer house in Ramadi I can let you have for a song.

But, upon further reflection, I've started to think that public acts of contrition--no matter how coerced--are the best outcome we can hope for in such situations. At this point, the state of Gibson's heart arguably matters less than the fruits of his labor. If the humiliated actor winds up spending the next several months--and several million dollars--trying to prove how contrite he is, he conceivably could advance the cause of tolerance more than most of the liberals now sitting around tut-tutting his bigotry.

With this in mind, I say ABC should reverse its decision to pull the plug on Gibson's planned miniseries about the Holocaust--and toss in a movie project about the evils of neo-Nazis for good measure. What better use of an anti-Semite's resources could there be--especially since, at this point, there's no way in hell Gibson could slip any of daddy's Holocaust-denial doctrine into the mix. If Gibson is truly repentant, then we could all feel good about watching him work to exorcise his demons and find that "appropriate path to healing." And, if he's not, we could still all feel good about how irritating it must be for Mad Mel to spend his hard-earned cash in the service of the Jews. Either way, the Lord's work is getting done.

Michelle Cottle is a senior editor at The New Republic.