Director Oliver Stone is apologizing for anti-Semitic comments made in an interview published in the Sunday Times of London.

When asked by the interviewer about why, in America, there’s “such a focus on the Holocaust,” he replied “The Jewish domination of the media,” adding “They stay on top of every
comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington. Israel has f***** up United
States foreign policy for years.”

Stone, whose upcoming Showtime documentary series The Secret History of America will seek to put Hitler in “context” (as a mass murderer, yes, but one who killed more Russians than Jews and was somehow created by the Americans and British) apologized yesterday saying in a statement that “Jews obviously do not control media or any other industry,” continuing “The fact that the Holocaust is still a very important, vivid and
current matter today is, in fact, a great credit to the very hard work of a
broad coalition of people committed to the remembrance of this atrocity – and it
was an atrocity.”

The apology came after the Wall Street director was called out for his remarks by the Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Committee but drew relatively little uproar in the mainstream media.

In calling Stone out, AJC Executive Director David Harris said “For all of Stone’s progressive pretensions, his remark is no different from
one of the drunken, Jew-hating rants of his fellow Hollywood celebrity, Mel
Gibson.”

My only question regarding that statement is why is it somehow shocking that a so-called Hollywood Progressive would hold anti-Semitic views?

My own experience with Hollywood leads me to conclude that it is, indeed, a town dominated by progressive politics that includes strong support for gay rights, economic empowerment of racial minorities and women, and sensitivity toward Islam. It is solidly anti-war and pro-environment. On the whole, it strongly prefers Democrats over Republicans (and really doesn’t like Sarah Palin). It believes in the concept of free speech but thinks religion is a private matter that should largely be kept separate from the public square. It tends to be sensitive to the plight and Palestinians and critical of Israel.

In short, anti-Semitism seems fairly far down the list of progressive concerns — a convenient club with which to whack an occasional offending Christian conservative with but relatively ignored when the perpetrator hails from the left side of the political spectrum (i.e. Stone).

As for Stone’s claim of “Jewish domination of the media,” what does that even mean? Are there more Jews working in the industry than their numbers in the general population would suggest? Possibly. But you could probably say the same thing for gays, African-Americans and those who were raised Catholic.

If there is an agenda at work in Hollywood (or among media elites in New York and Washington), it clearly has little to do with promoting either the Jewish faith or the State of Israel.   

 
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