ADL accepts Oliver Stone's 2nd apology
By GIL HOFFMAN AND JPOST.COM STAFF
29/07/2010
Director had complained about Jewish influence in US media.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has accepted Academy Award-winning director Oliver Stone's second apology over comments he made in an interview to Britain’s Sunday Times, in which he downplayed the Holocaust, defended Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and complained about Jewish influence in the United States.
“I do agree that it was wrong of me to say that Israel or the pro-Israel lobby is to blame for America’s flawed foreign policy. Of course that’s not true and I apologize that my inappropriately glib remark has played into that negative stereotype," the director said.
In a statement released Wednesday night, ADL national director Abraham Foxman welcomed the apology, saying, “I believe he now understands the issues and where he was wrong, and this puts an end to the matter.”
Stone's publicist, Rubenstein Communications, released a previous apology on Monday, stating, “In trying to make a broader historical point about the range of atrocities the Germans committed against many people, I made a clumsy association about the Holocaust, for which I am sorry and I regret."
The first apology came after Diaspora Affairs and Public Diplomacy Minister Yuli Edelstein slammed Stone on Monday for the comments. Edelstein said that Stone’s statements to the newspaper were racist and anti-Semitic and made him sick.
“Beyond the ignorance he proves with his comments, his demonization of the Jewish people could be a sequel to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” the minister said. “When a man of Stone’s stature says such things, it could lead to a new wave of anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism, and it may even cause real harm to Jewish communities and individuals.”
In the interview, Stone said America’s focus on the Holocaust was a product of the “Jewish domination of the media.” He said his upcoming Showtime documentary series Secret History of America would put Hitler and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin “in context.” “Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people, 25 or 30 [million killed],” Stone said.
When asked by the interviewer why so much of an emphasis had been placed on the Holocaust, Stone responded, “The Jewish domination of the media. There’s a major lobby in the United States. 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, who recently met with Ahmadinejad, said American policy toward Iran was “horrible.”
“Iran isn’t necessarily the good guy,” he said. “But we don’t know the full story!”
By contrast, Stone praised Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez as “a brave, blunt, earthy” man, who does not censor the Internet in his country.
Stone also raised an uproar when he defended Hitler at a press conference in January.
“Hitler is an easy scapegoat throughout history and it’s been used cheaply,” he said at the time. “He’s the product of a series of actions. It’s cause and effect.”
Simon Wiesenthal Center director Rabbi Marvin Hier responded then that “to talk about ‘placing Adolf Hitler in context’ is like placing cancer in context, instead of recognizing cancer for what it really is – a horrible disease, just as we must recognize Hitler as the ultimate expression of evil.”
Bloomberg contributed to this report
What ever happened to men being men.
I live in a world where men are fighters and have put their lives on the line.
These men live by a code of honor and their word means something.
I don't ever want to accept the world of Oliver Stone and the ADL, they both fill me with disgust.
In my world if a man said what Stone said he would stand by what he said, not give a PC apology that means nothing.
In my world the ADL would never accept a PC apology from a Jew hating punk like Oliver Stone.
The ADL feels much more comfortable chasing make believe bad guys, than standing up to a Stone. ADL think about this. Of the thousands of guys I come in contact with that own guns, lots of guns including "evil" assault rifles, not one is a threat to the Jewish people. But Stone with his mouth has caused so much more harm than all these guys and their guns and you accept his apology.
If this was two hundred years ago I would slap Stone in his face and demand he meet me on the field of honor.
