Oliver Stoned

In a recent interview published in London's Sunday Times, Oliver Stone declared 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 glitterati, 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. The plot to exterminate the Jews was well underway before the outbreak of World War II. When Hitler 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 specter 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 a 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.