BLOG 4 - THE NEO-CONS ARE COMING

Last night we had a preview screening at Lincoln Center with a panel
moderated by Richard Pena, the Director of the Film Society of Lincoln
Center. The panelists were Alan Brinkley, Professor of American History at
Columbia University, Stuart Klawans, film critic for The Nation, and Martin
Peretz, Editor in Chief of the New Republic.

I joined the panel and quickly realized it was something of a critical gang
bang – one after another came the litany of criticism and complaints – no
intellectual rigor – scattershot – too personal and in your face – but then
Martin Peretz went for the jugular intimating that the film was not good for
Jews.

Peretz got personal, “The most shocking thing actually that I felt, the most shocking image to me was in your father’s house the photograph of the picture of Che and I think the picture of Che has distorted your view of the world. ”

He went on to suggest that I had basically produced the Jew hatred in the film that I had to ”go to a prison, a Patterson street corner to get any resonance of the Protocols of Zion, any resonance and the resonance was really pathetic." He insisted it was a totally inaccurate picture of what’s happening.

Excuse me Marty, I wanted to do a gonzo film without talking heads, experts,
academics, and pundits like you. If it bothers you, well it bothers me that
you didn’t bother to check out my body of work with street gangs, mobsters,
CIA operators, anti abortion terrorists, prisoners, drug dealers, religious
zealots, and extremists of all stripes. Then you might have had a better
understanding of my approach.

I didn’t need to go out and stage these encounters – they were right there
on my street corner.

Or for that matter right at this computer keyboard. Just type Jew into
Google – guess what the second listing is? Jew Watch, created by another
one of those marginal, don’t waste your time on freaks. It’s only the
largest anti-Semitic web site available to millions – so why talk to the
man who runs it? As you repeated over and over Marty, they are fringe freaks
and irrelevant, certainly not worth screen time in any reputable and
intellectually rigorous documentary. “Why talk to some bums on a street
corner in Paterson?” Hey Marty didn’t you read the 9/11 report? Turns out
over half the hijackers spent some time in Paterson, N.J.

Didn’t we learn anything from 9/11? For Martin Peretz and his Neo Con
comrades 9/11 was the perfect justification for their long dreamed of
invasion of Iraq. Saddam Hussein was certainly a despot and killer.
Unfortunately, the US government helped him through much of the 80s.
Although he and Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 attack and ultimately
had no weapons of mass destruction, these mighty minds helped justify Bush’s
shock and awe war. But it hasn't seemed to work out as they promised.
Maybe they were listening to the wrong extremists and marginal characters,
like Chalabi.

Meanwhile, extremists in Spain, Bali, Israel, Egypt and London showed the
real nature of the threat we face. Today a small cell of extremists can
hijack history. With weapons of mass destruction now available to fanatics
and with information technology capable of spreading their hate message to
millions – it is absolutely essential to understand their thinking. What
is America’s greatest failure in this so-called “war on terror?” It’s our
lack of intelligence – our inability to penetrate these extremists cells,
and most important to get into the head of these fanatics.

So Marty keep defending the ill-conceived war in Iraq and ignoring the
homegrown extremists most likely to aid, support and possibly commit the
next terror attack.

Thankfully the audience was not shy about showing their distaste for
Peretz’s elitist world view. While the other panelists expressed
reservations about the film, especially the gonzo style and man on the
street exchanges, they were more circumspect and reserved. Peretz wanted to
flex his brawny brain and challenged the entire premise of the film. At
one point he suggested that America has nothing to worry about from
extremists and religious fanatics since there has been virtually no violence
committed by them, except for some anti abortion bombings and killings. Sure
Paul Hill and James Kopp shot and killed abortion doctors but what about
Eric Rudolph who also bombed the Atlanta Olympics, and the white power group,
the Order, which killed Jewish radio DJ Alan Berg, and Buford Furrow shooting
up the LA North Valley Jewish Community Center, and what about Timothy
McVeigh who was in touch with the Christian Identity leaders days before the
Oklahoma bombing? And recently Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, and the arrest
this summer of an alleged terrorist sleeper cell in Torrance, CA.

I challenged Marty, saying some of his comments reminded me of those of
young Jewish intellects in Germany in the late 20’s who dismissed Hitler as
a harmless crackpot and his Nazi followers as nothing more than street
hooligans – a few years later they were being shipped to death camps - I'm
not saying the brownshirts are coming now - but given the tragic history,
preemptive engagement seemed like a sensible strategy to me.

Maybe we can show the film in Baghdad, Marty, to the anti-American Islamic
extremists and street people we’ve empowered. If only you Neo-Cons had
listened to the wisdom of the street instead of the slick hustlers who took
our tax dollars and promised a quick and easy victory. Now look at the
mess we're in and ask yourself, "Who is really giving us Jews a bad name?"

Comments

[Robert Becker Pro Travel – world’s best travel agent]

That guy completely discredited himself sitting there pontificating like he knew what he was talking about at all, sitting there trying to simply be a critic without any basis, grasping for words as if for straws - how do these idiots hold jobs anywhere? I thought your responses were brilliant and I thought that the film obviously made a huge fucking impact because look at the passions that were aroused, look at the ire that it brought forth, immediately, in that room alone. I was GLAD it did and it told me that you really hit a LOT of nails on the head.
Its a fucking courageous film because nobody ever wants to call shit like this on the carpet, Americans have this need to dance around subjects and cage them in terms of endearment and propriety. Why are people like this permitted to actively disseminate hate without being exposed? You have done a bold thing. Let them rake you for it if that is the reason for the raking, right?

But, remember the fire in that room, and remember that the room was pretty full, with a pretty large cross section of populace. Those are the two important things to remember about tonight. I dont give a shit about what some gasbag from a fascist rag that brought us the likes of Andrew Sullivan has to say; there is simply no credibility. You didnt need to kick his ass, the audience did it for you. So, that being said; I wanted to at least ask an intelligent question (which I thought I managed to) to hopefully deflect the discussion back to the actual content of the film and the issues it raises. I am in fact quite interested to know what kind of death threats you get from the fake christian evangelical terrorists - I think they are even more dangerous than their garden variety muslim brothers.

Onward and upward Friday. I have a small group going, about 14 of us so far, some from out in Borough Park...... what theater should we go to where it will make the most impact?

I also will send out another reminder to Protravel clients and staff tomorrow.
I loved seeing people get inflamed about it - it should tell you the film had a deep impact.

Break a leg -

Robert

[Jerry Kleinman]

Peretz and the Neo-Cons are complete and total assholes. They not only are giving Jews a bad name around the world, but they're poisoning our democracy as well as the false democracies they are trying to create elsewhere. I'm glad you stood up to their BS... seeing the film in a few hours!

[Rubin]

Well I must say I was this film at the hamptons film fest.. and I truly think this is the biggest piece of bull I have ever seen, in fact it is not different the a Nazi hate film flaming the fires of hate towrd Jews. I have gone on and on about this film to so many people. I regret not staying for the Q&A as I have so much to say that I can't post it all. I hope I get a chance to see you again at a Q&A so I could shed my feelings in person. Jew to Jew.

[maggie namjou]

As a frequent traveler to Morocco and to Qatar and Dubai for business, and NOT a Jew (nor Arab, for that matter), I know exactly what this movie is all about. i cannot tell you the countless conversations i have had since 9/11 (usually instigated by the local people themselves) who have insisted that no jews were killed in the WTC, that it was all a plot. The most recent was in spring of this past year, returning on a royal air nepal flight from casablanca to JFK. A lovely moroccan woman who lives in Brooklyn sat next to me. The conversation was great until this point came up. I do not hesitate in telling them the truth, which is always poo pooed (sometimes quite vehemently). thank youu for finally spreading the word. Peretz is a world class jerk for making statements like that. If he only traveled a bit or spoke to those of us who do travel in the arab world (and since so many muslims are in NYC now, it only makes sense this worldview is perpetuated there, as the moroccan born brookly resident shows), then he would know this movie is 100% accurate (i have only see the trailer, but from that one snippet alone, I know it is true).

[stephanie]

Mr. Levin, I haven't seen the movie yet but I've been really impressed by your resume and the interviews with you I've read so far. I know you're too busy to read it right now, but I really want to send you a copy of my book "The Other War: Israelis, Palestinians and the Struggle for Media Supremacy" (Encounter Books, 9/05) It's highly entertaining, was called "an eye-opener" by Publisher's Weekly and got favorable reviews in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Sun. Where can I send it? When you get a chance to read it I think you'll really enjoy it.

Sincerely,
Stephanie Gutmann
New York
masha@stephaniemasha.net

[KinemaZOne]

Do you think your film will be distributed in Italy next year?

Thanks.

KinemaZOne

[Steve Rosenbach]

Congratulations on you film, Marc - you've done a great service in exposing the International Jewish Conspiracy as a ridiculous lie that should have died out long ago. I don't understand what Martin Peretz' problem could have been with you doing that. Good for you for getting an open public conversation to expose this calumny.

On the other hand, I'm struck at how unwilling you seem to be to consider that there might be some kernal of reasonableness and honor in the foreign policy of the Bush administration in response to 9/11.

Look, I'm saying this as a 56-year-old lifelong Democrat. I voted for McGovern, Clinton (twice) and Gore in 2000. But my hope that we could all hold hands and sing Kum-ba-ya and everything would work out has faded over the past decade or so - and then came 9/11.

McGovern-voting Democrat or not, I agree with Krauthammer when he said, "... there is not a single, remotely plausible, alternative strategy for attacking the monster behind 9/11. It's not Osama bin Laden. It's the cauldron of political oppression, religious intolerance, and social ruin in the Arab-Islamic world - oppression transmuted and deflected by regimes with no legitimacy into virulent, murderous anti-Americanism. It's not one man, it's a condition..."

And let us remember that we now know for sure what Bush et. al. suspected - that France, Russia etc were perverting the UN "containment" of Saddam for their own greedy financial gain - and that any restraint on Saddam from UN sanctions was likely to soon come to an end - remember Chirac essentially said, "I don't care if you prove to me Saddam has a bomb ready to drop on both NY and Paris - France will not stand for any military action against him ("...la France votera non quelle que soit les circonstonces." )

Isn't it possible to consider that, even if you believe strongly that the invasion of Iraq was bad policy, that Bush and his "neocon" buddies" were motivated, in the aftermath of 9/11, by the desperate desire to protect the US, and most of the rest of the world, for that matter, from what they saw as a situation that would only get intolerably worse should Saddam remain in power?

I think, like the Israeli destruction of the Osirik reactor in 1981, we may not know for sure who was right until several more years go by.

Give it some thought.

Meanwhile, yasher koach!

Respectfully,
SteveR

P.S. - "Scooter" Libby is indeed Jewish and a longtime congregant of Temple Rodef Shalom in northern Va. I think that is ironic and fitting - I know you and I will disagree on this, but I am cofident that Libby will be exonerated at his trial and be shown to be in fact a Rodef Shalom - a pursuer of peace.

[Shamgar]

Ah if you look at the voting record of "liberal" jews you will find they support the zionist program. . .like the war in Iraq and the war in Lebanon. . . .even the jew Hillary Clinton is a war Hawk. . . .certainly not a jewish dove when it comes to Israel. . . no surprise.
http://www.antiwar.com/frank/?articleid=8515
February 8, 2006
Who's the Bigger Hawk, George or Hillary?
by Joshua Frank

There aren't many elected officials in Washington who want to throw the gauntlet down on Iran more than Hillary Clinton. The New York senator believes the president has been too soft on the militant Islamic country, claiming that Bush has played down the threat of a nuclear-armed Tehran.

"I believe we lost critical time in dealing with Iran because the White House chose to downplay the threats and to outsource the negotiations," Clinton told an audience at Princeton University on Jan. 18. "I don't believe you face threats like Iran or North Korea by outsourcing it to others and standing on the sidelines. … We cannot and should not – must not – permit Iran to build or acquire nuclear weapons," Clinton added. "In order to prevent that from occurring … we must move as quickly as feasible for sanctions in the United Nations."

Sen. Clinton has attempted to out-hawk Dubya on other foreign policy matters, as well. From Iraq to Palestine, the Democratic Party's leading lady argues that the current administration has not done enough to combat the threat of terrorism. And like so many other neoconservatives (yes, admit it, Hillary is a bloody neocon), Clinton will never admit that the United States has fallen right into the grasp of al-Qaeda by attempting to fight stateless terror by walloping sovereign Mideast countries.
[snip]

http://www.forward.com/issues/1999/99.08.06/news.html

Meet Hillary Clinton's Grandmother, Della Rosenberg -- The Feisty Wife of a Yiddish-Speaking Jewish Immigrant
Family Secret's a Boost For Her Senate Chances

By SETH GITELL
[snip]

http://www.counterpunch.org/carmichael05302006.html
May 30, 2006
The DLC and Israel
Zionist Democrats

By MICHAEL CARMICHAEL
[snip]
In order to succeed with his plan for the reform of the Democratic Party, Governor Dean faces the stalwart opposition of Mr. From and his neoconservative cronies at the DLC and many powerful Democratic office holders as well, who are still under their sway. These neoconservative Democrats include: Governor Tom Vilsack, Senator Evan Bayh, Senator Joe Biden and Senator Hillary Clinton. These Democrats are committed to the DLC vision of America's future as defined by Mr. From, most recently in his glowing account of Zionism and its Manichean conflict with Islam.
[snip]

[Roy]

Just watched the documentary, well done. However, I was surprised it allowed Richard Perle to once again sidestep an issue.

What should be of concern isn't the number Jewish doves versus hawks, but the proportion of hawks (of any race) in positions of power and influence over U.S. foreign policy. A complex topic to be sure; but it could have used a rebuttal.