Among the celebrities I wrote about last week who are speaking out for and (mostly) against Israel during
the Gaza conflict were Spanish husband-and-wife actors Javier Bardem and Penelope
Cruz. They, in addition to dozens of other Spanish artists, signed an open letter condemning Israel for its “genocide” of the
so-called Palestinians. In response, Jon Voight, Hollywood’s most vocal
conservative actor, penned a strong open letter of his own for The Hollywood
Reporter, advising Cruz and Bardem to “hang your heads in shame.”
In a statement on Wednesday Penelope Cruz tried to
walk back her denunciation of Israel. After prefacing her clarification with an
acknowledgement that she is “not an expert on the situation,” Ms. Cruz explained that “My only wish and
intention in signing that group letter is the hope that there will be peace in
both Israel and Gaza.” Well, that’s what we all hope for, but some of us
understand that peace is not going to come from the hatemongering terrorists of
Hamas, and some of us, like Ms. Cruz and her husband, seem to believe that
Israel is the problem.
Bardem released a statement as well, in which he tried to clarify his position and complained of the
backlash against him and Cruz: “I am now being labeled by some as anti-Semitic,
as is my wife — which is the antithesis of who we are as human beings. We
detest anti-Semitism as much as we detest the horrible and painful consequences
of war.” Bardem went on to try to make a distinction between his criticism of
“the Israeli military response” and his “great respect for the people of Israel
and deep compassion for their losses.”
As I wrote last week, that distinction would carry more weight if Bardem
and others like him didn’t always direct their condemnation toward the one
nation in the Middle East that holds the values which liberals like Bardem and
Cruz claim to cherish: human rights, women’s rights, gay rights, equality
between Jews and Arabs, religious freedom, freedom of speech, and all the rest.
Instead, in addition to his signature on the open letter, Bardem had also written
an op-ed for a Spanish newspaper, in which he unjustly labeled
Israel’s military operation “genocide” and “a war of extermination… where
hospitals, ambulances, and children are targets and presumed to be terrorists.”
“Right now,” Bardem wrote in the op-ed, “there is NO place for distance or
neutrality.” He’s right about that, but unfortunately he chose to throw his
support behind the terrorists.
In his more recent statement, Bardem noted that “Too many innocent
Palestinian mothers have lost their children to this conflict. Too many
innocent Israeli mothers share the same grief… There should not be any
political reason that can justify such enormous pain on both sides.” But there is a reason for the enormous pain – the
Palestinian leadership’s relentless determination to kill Jews and wipe Israel
off the map. Any further pain would cease overnight if the terrorism ended and Palestinians
demonstrated a willingness to coexist in peace.
Incensed by what Jon Voight calls their “ignorance,” he lashed out at the
couple in defense of Israel. “I am more than angry,” his open letter began. “I
am heartsick that people like Penelope Cruz and Javier
Bardem could incite anti-Semitism all over the world and are oblivious to
the damage they have caused.”
Voight proceeded to deliver a thumbnail history of the Arab-Israeli
hostilities and to remind his readers that the current conflict began after the
“travesty” of Hamas kidnapping and murdering three Jewish teenagers. He
concluded thusly:
After years of trying to make peace, the wars
they had to fight, being attacked by their enemies, and still being attacked,
and finally after years of running into bomb shelters and having hundreds of
civilians killed by suicide bombers, civilians being killed in their sleep,
stabbed to pieces, finding enough is enough and finally retaliating, instead of
my peers sticking up for the only democratic country in that region, they go
and take out poison letters against them.
Voight didn’t let his acting colleagues get away with claiming no ill
will against the Jewish people, asking
all my peers who signed that poison
letter against Israel to examine their motives. Can you take back the fire
of anti-Semitism that is raging all over the world now?... You had a great
responsibility to use your celebrity for good. Instead, you have defamed
the only democratic country of goodwill in the Middle East: Israel.
The actor concluded by admonishing Bardem, Cruz, and the rest to “hang
your heads in shame. You should all come forth with deep regrets for what
you did, and ask forgiveness from the suffering people in Israel.”
(This article originally appeared here on FrontPage Mag, 8/4/14)
