A Brief Aside: Mel Gibson

And on the subject of right-wing anti-Semites who support Jewish nationalism, I suppose I should drop a note on Mel Gibson's latest movie about the Maccabean Revolt. For anyone who doubted that Mel Gibson was an anti-Semite, he clarified the issue with his notorious anti-Semitic rant in 2006, which dealt his career a setback. And no, the fact that he was drunk at the time does not absolve him of the remarks. After all, most drunk people, when stopped by the police, don't launch into tirades against Jews. But it turns out he is a great admirer of the the Jewish war for independence against the Greek Empire in the 2nd Century B.C.

I could see several reasons why this might be so. For one thing, these were pre-Christian Jews, and therefore still the Chosen People and free of the taint of having rejected Jesus. Second, Gibson is a Catholic and therefore learned the Books of the Maccabees as scripture and not mere apocrypha, or even history. But above all else, it the story is clearly part and parcel with his other movies like Braveheart and The Patriot. This will be his third movie about a nationalistic revolt. Apparently Mel Gibson like nationalistic revolts on general principle.