Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Paul Schnee on Oliver Stone Putting the Holocaust "In Context"

This is the content of an email sent out by Paul Schnee, Executive Director for the Western Region for the Zionist Organization of America. It is posted with the permission of the author.




I have read Ms. Berrin's article in The Jewish Journal about Oliver Stone and his intention to make a documentary putting Hitler "in context".  I suspect this effort will probably illustrate just how frequently the bong is passed around Mr. Stone's house as did his film "JFK" which was riddled with invention and dramatic license of the most misleading kind stretching the 'willing suspension of disbelief' to the breaking point.

I do so hope that we are not going to be treated to an examination of the part that the "appeasers" in Britain and Europe played in the march towards the outbreak of World War II as if this was not already well known. The motives, activities, sympathies, and personalities of the "Cliveden Set" and their camp followers are all public knowledge today and there is little that Mr. Stone can add, other than his fanciful interpretation, that would enhance our understanding of that time in history. If, on the other hand, he made a film about the "appeasers' of today, then he might find himself, along with many of the Hollywood gliteratti, in one of the leading roles.

When Hitler passed the Nuremberg Laws in 1935 he codified what had already become the institutionalized persecution of the Jews that resulted in the annihilation of some 6 million innocent souls. When he invaded the Soviet Union in June of 1941 he betrayed his erstwhile ally with whom he had previously concluded a cynical "non-aggression pact" which eliminated, for that moment, the spectre of a war on two fronts while he concentrated on invading Poland with Russian help instead of Russian interference. It was during Operation Barbarossa ( the code name for the invasion of Russia) that the Nazi Einsatzgruppen, a paramilitary group of SS lovelies, went about the summary execution of Russian civilians some of whom were communists, some of whom were Jewish, and some of whom were Jewish communists. For Hitler it was a distinction without a difference but an urgent necessity to be accomplished with enthusiasm and a good deal of relish.

It is difficult to grasp the point Mr. Stone is making when he says that Hitler killed more Russians than Jews. Most of us learned this in high school and hardly need Mr. Stone to draw our attention to this gruesome fact. If, however, he is suggesting that our outrage at the institutionalized slaughter of 6 million Jews should be less than our outrage at the death of 25 or 30 million Russians who were killed by their former ally then he must believe that we suffer from the same kind of moral relativism with which he is afflicted. This is a prism which distorts everything that comes into view much like Mr. Stone's camera lens.

The tiresome and loathsome canard that the so-called Israel Lobby has an undue, unhealthy, and overwhelming influence on American foreign policy is one of the standard accusations of stealth anti-semites who seek to cloak their anti-semitism by portraying themselves as merely being against America's policies towards Israel. It's a sham, of course, but one that has managed to gain some traction with the publication of books like Walt and Mearsheimer's "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" which can now be purchased on Amazon.com at a discount of 34%. A discount of 75% would be a more accurate reflection of the book's true value.

The idea that the so-called media Jews, to whom Mr. Stone refers, control or enhance Israel's position in the world is the sort of flight of fancy to which we have become accustomed from Mr. Stone. Clearly he is not a subscriber to the New York Times. He must not watch the news programs on NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, or MSNBC, where many of the senior executives are Jewish. Nor have the efforts of the exalted Rahm Emanuel or David Axelrod done anything to to make Israel more secure or prosperous. We can leave aside, for the moment, that they haven't done that for America either!

Considering the position of Israel today as she is surrounded by genocidal enemies whose undiminished goal is her extinction, considering the plight of Jews who have been expelled from Arab countries, considering the rise of anti-semitism in Europe, considering that many of our universities and institutions are being subverted by the massive infusion of Arab petro-dollars, considering the historical opposition to Israel in our State Department, and considering the hostile attitude of the Obama administration towards Israel it does not seem as if all of Mr. Stone's vaunted claims of excessive Jewish influence amount to very much.

We cannot take Mr Stone "out" of context any more than we can put him "in" context since he lives so much of his life in an alternate universe where up is down and down is up and context is absent. The safest place for Mr. Stone is in a straight-jacket with his bong safely out of reach. In the meantime, I'm very much afraid that Mr. Stone is about to prove, yet again, that winning an Oscar is not sufficient proof that one has a firm grasp of reality.

Doubtless Mr. Stone's new project will be an entertaining tour de force where he can part company from the facts and demonstrate, once more, his faculty for realizing hallucinations.

It takes some chutzpah for Mr. Stone to imagine we have all been waiting for him to put Adolf Hitler "in context". Chutzpah, as Mr. Stone knows, is an old Yiddish word but then so, of course, is schmuck!.

Kindest regards,
as always,

Sincerely,

Paul Schnee
Executive Director,
Western Region,
Zionist Organization of America

Film director Oliver Stone told London's Sunday Times that the Holocaust remains a focus of the world's attention because of "Jewish domination of the media." "There's a major lobby in the United States," Stone said, according to the blog Normblog http://www.worldjewishdaily.com/toolbar.html?4t=extlink&4u=http://normblog.typepad.com/normblog/2010/07/stone-for-a-brain.html . "They are hard workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington. Israel has f***** up United States foreign policy for years."

Stone added that he is planning a 10-part documentary on Adolf Hitler that would put the Nazi leader "in context." For good measure, he added that "Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people." To read more, click here. http://www.worldjewishdaily.com/toolbar.html?4t=extlink&4u=http://normblog.typepad.com/normblog/2010/07/stone-for-a-brain.html.

1 comment:

There is NO Santa Claus said...

The Holocaust hardly needs to be "put in context". Oliver Stone needs to be put in context.

Let me help you!

Oliver Stone is an anti-Semite.