I shouldn’t have been surprised. At the Forward, JJ Goldberg has translated portions of an interview of Woody Allen that appeared in Hebrew in Yediot Ahronot last week. Allen’s attitudes are very conventional, and generational. He isn’t religious, loves Israel, has never bothered to go there, doesn’t understand why those Arab countries didn’t embrace it, and expresses the mildest criticisms:
“…I don’t believe in organized religions. Most of them exploit people, and I think these clubs have nothing to do with God. Today I feel Jewish mainly when people attack me because of my being Jewish.”
About Israel, on the other hand, he has only good things to say. In practice, when Allen starts talking about Israel it’s hard to stop him. So hard that even his assertive, energetic publicist merited only a dismissive wave of the hand, indicating that she should wait until he was finished gushing about his love.
“I support Israel and I’ve supported it since the day it was founded. Israel’s neighbors have treated it badly, cruelly, instead of embracing it and making it part of the Middle East family of nations. Over the years Israel has responded to these attacks in various ways, some of which I approved of and some less so. I understand that Israelis have been through hard times, I don’t expect Israel to react perfectly every time and that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a wonderful, marvelous country. I’m just worried about the rise of fundamentalism in Israel, which I think damages its interests. I also have questions about your leadership, which doesn’t always act in Israel’s best interests. But even my criticism of Israel comes from a place of love, just like when I criticize the United States. It would be a mistake not to say something if you think a country you love makes a mistake and could hurt itself.”
Then why have you never visited Israel?
“I’m not a tourist. I travel regularly to three cities that I know and love — Paris, London and Rome — and that’s it. I don’t like to leave home because I’m a bit neurotic, and when I do leave home, it’s mostly for work. I don’t like flying and I don’t consider myself a curious person who wants to see new places. There are many states in the United States that I’ve never visited. My wife is of Korean origin and she’s been trying for years to convince me to go to South Korea with her — so far, unsuccessfully. She’s also very curious about Israel and wants to go there with the girls, so they can see and understand their father’s Jewish culture. I assume we’ll go and visit Israel soon. There’s no way around it.”
He is a Jew, not Asajew link to cifwatch.com
Yes, but what does Woody Allen mean in the wider context?
His support for Israel is shallow. Even if he is described as ‘energetic’ when saying the things he says, I suspect Israel has become a shield for him to repel those who question his Jewish identity.
We all become more conservative as we grow older. The reaper is closing in on us and we want to see continuity in our lives, so we look to our grandchildren and our people, whatever our local affiliation, and then try to psychologically soothe ourselves.
Michael Steinhardt readily admits that he’s an atheist, didn’t keep kosher etc. He was a Jew with guilt and he founded Birthright as a safety valve for his own insecurities. A lot of Jews have supplanted their Judaism with Israel.
It isn’t a coincidence that assimilation skyrocketed because people’s grandparents were often in one shape or another like Woody Allen. He himself readily admits that the only time he feels Jewish is whenever someone attacks him based on his Jewishness.
And this twin identity mechanism: nationalism and the building of an identity on threat, on persecuation(of which the holiest shrine is the Holocaust) has been a disaster.
Judaism should be much deeper, much more meaningful. But it’s telling that so many Jews try to build their identity on much more fleeting things. So why, then, are people surprised at the intermarriage rates? The same old geezers who complain about it, paved the way for it themselves because they simply didn’t have and still don’t have a strongly rooted Jewish identity that is rooted in Jewish culture itself, rather than external threats, nationalism etc.
So instead of blaming Jews, perhaps the rabbinate should look inwards and ask why Judaism isn’t very exciting for Jews and why so many try to supplant it with an identity based around said threats, nationalism(which is also a form of us vs them). It’s an identity, at it’s heart, based on fear. And that obviously isn’t very good for anyone.
Also, the nature of his support also explains how people like Abe Foxman and others can get away steering the debate to never-question-the-settlements. But in the end, Woody Allen and co may pretend that they care, but deep down they actually don’t care because they never never been or only been once or twice and never came back and don’t think about. It’s become a slogan, a pose for them.
And this shallow support may be easily controlled, but it follows that it is also weaker than many people think. Underneath the Establishment fanatics, I don’t think there is so much resistance to having a genuine discussion. Only that people are so scared because as support for nationalism have become a key part of people’s identity, supporting Israel isn’t just about politics. It’s about proving that you’re a ‘real Jew’(which is nonsense). Because that’s how the elders like Dershowitz, Steinhardt and even, apparently, geezers like Allen coped with their own lack of depth in Judaism. So is it any wonder that the same patterns are being telegraphed down the ranks from the top?
People support Israel but deep down, many don’t even know why. They just don’t want to be acused of not being a ‘real Jew’ and/or a 5th column or whatever else the neocons throw at them for standing up for human rights for everyone, including non-Jews.
@Krauss
Great post & analysis.
That’s probably one of the greatest comments written on MW. Indeed, the Zionist project is a result and the manifestation of a Jewish identity crisis of secular Jews.
That is how Zionism originated and why religious Jews were originally opposed to it. But later the Zionists made a deal with a section of Orthodox Jews, producing the current delightful fusion of modern organic nationalism with medieval religiosity. Some Orthodox women in Israel are now even wearing a version of the chador (I saw a video about it). The big loser in this historic deal was the Jewish enlightenment, Haskalah, Reform Judaism, which is marginalized in Israel by the state-imposed Orthodox monopoly.
Maybe Mr. Steinhart feels that Jews, like any other nationality, deserve a homeland. Maybe Mr. Steinhart believes that since the Holocaust, it is urgent and necessary that Jews have their own State and the means to protect and defend it.
I think that Mr. Steinhart is a much finer representative of the Jews than Mr. Allen. In truth, I don’t think there is any real comparison at all.
>> Maybe Mr. Steinhart feels that Jews, like any other nationality, deserve a homeland.
The nationality of an American Jew is American. The nationality of a German Jew is German. Neither “deserves a homeland” elsewhere, especially one conceived and executed as a supremacist state, and whose existence comes at the expense of the homes, lands and lives of others.
>> Maybe Mr. Steinhart believes that since the Holocaust, it is urgent and necessary that Jews have their own State …
Oppressive, colonialist, expansionist and supremacist states are never necessary.
Obviously I disagree.
I don’t mind the concept of a Jewish state.
What I do mind, however, is when said state is literally being built by bulldozing the homes of other people, walling them in, checkpointing their lives and claim they are all evil terrorists, Jew-haters when they have the chutzpah to actually resist the ethnic cleansing.
That’s what I am against. But the concept of a Jewish state is definitely acceptable. The trouble is that the world is pretty full already. And most states/nations in this world has been created by direct or indirect genocide. Just look at America. So in one sense Israel isn’t unique, and unlike America, it did not do mass killings at it’s inception. But then again, this isn’t the 1600s either.
Deserve one but evidently, don’t need one, seeing as he refuses to live there.
Even if it means Jews are at geater dangers in that state than the diaspora. Yeah, makes perfect sense.
I think they are as Pam Gellar like’s to call herself – a socialite Jew. Jewish only when it comes to social status.
Mr. Steinhart can use his billions to buy territory from Canada or Argentina and create a Jewish homeland there. Palestine was and is populated by non-Jews, so your “necessary refuge” is just another colonial dispossession project. Even better, Steinhart can use his mighty influence and money to harness the entire American Jewish community to lobby the US government to declare New York a Jewish homeland. He has no business in promoting a Jewish homeland on top of other people’s land and villages in Palestine.
I agree with you, eljay.
>> I don’t mind the concept of a Jewish state.
I wouldn’t mind it either if it actually meant one of two things:
1. A state comprised of the bureaucratic nationality “Jewish”, which is possessed by all citizens of that state and which is bureaucratically granted to all legal immigrants to that state. 100% of current citizens of Israel, foreign Jews and Palestinians who wish to exercise their RoR would be Jewish citizens of Jewish State.
2. A secular, democratic and egalitarian Israel with a primarily “ethnic Jewish character” that is fostered and encouraged but not shoved down anyone’s throat. If Israelis as a whole were to accept and wish to maintain that character, it would thrive and have greater legitimacy than the current artificial construct could ever hope to acquire; if not, it would gradually change into something else – say, a more-generic but equally-legitimate “ethnic Israeli character”.
At this time, Israel is neither of these two things, and it seems unlikely that it will ever become either of these two things.
Absolutely, proudzionist666. Maybe Mr. Steinhardt feels that when the Chosen Rosen commit terrorism and ethnic cleansing, it is a good thing. Maybe Mr. Steinhardt feels that doing unto others what has been done unto you is a good thing. Maybe Mr. Steinhardt feels that when you’ve had your house stolen, you should offer the thieves tea and biscuits.
I think that Mr. Steinhardt is a much finer representative of Satan than of Jews. In truth, I don’t think there is any real comparison at all.
Do homosexuals deserve their own homeland? The Holocaust also belongs to them, does it not? Or are you stealing the entire meaning of the Holocaust too? Homosexuals have been persecuted throughout the anals of history just like Jews and many, many other people…you cannot monopolize suffering.
“And most states/nations in this world has been created by direct or indirect genocide. Just look at America. So in one sense Israel isn’t unique, and unlike America, it did not do mass killings at it’s inception. But then again, this isn’t the 1600s either.”
Iran was not created by genocide, although the Iranian people have been subject to numerous invasions and overthrows. Nor was slavery prominent in Iran for most of its history.
“Maybe Mr. Steinhart feels that Jews, like any other nationality, deserve a homeland. Maybe Mr. Steinhart believes that since the Holocaust, it is urgent and necessary that Jews have their own State and the means to protect and defend it.”
Kind of hard cheese for the Palestinians, though, isn’t it?
Hitler had the same ideas. Germany had to have ‘lebensraum’ in the East if it was to survive.
Of course, that was different. That was going to be hard cheese for the Slavs.
“Maybe Mr. Steinhart feels that Jews, like any other nationality, deserve a homeland. Maybe Mr. Steinhart believes that since the Holocaust, it is urgent and necessary that Jews have their own State and the means to protect and defend it.”
So what are you waiting for, Pudula 666? Do you have some kind of a death-wish? Only a matter of time til the boxcars roll again. Seems to me that waiting till the last minute and then leaving in a panic is not very smart. It certainly didn’t work for the Jews of Europe. Sure, maybe for a single guy, with no obligations, who is responsible only to himself. But a guy with a family, a prominent man, known as a Jew? Do you really think it’s right to take this kind of a chance with your family’s futures and lives? Man, get out while you still can, I can hear the jackboots and train-whistles and orders being shouted in a harsh, guttural German right now!!! Mein Gott there’s somebody pounding on my door!
Okay, maybe you should wait until real-estate prices rebound. No point arriving in the Promised Land broke.
Anarchists too. I want a state of my own! Preferably somewhere tropical please.
“…Michael Steinhardt readily admits that he’s an atheist, didn’t keep kosher etc. He was a Jew with guilt and he founded Birthright as a safety valve for his own insecurities. A lot of Jews have supplanted their Judaism with Israel…”
This would actually be fine. I could care less why Steinhardt wanted to do whatever. Go for it! If it feels good, do it!
The difficulty is that it involves contributing to the dispossession, oppression, and misery of a whole lot of innocent people.
That makes it not so hot. It’s the difference between me shooting tin cans with my assault rifle and me livening up the local shopping mall with it.
People attacked Woody for marrying his adopted daughter. Who was quite young when he started “seeing” her.
“I don’t like flying and I don’t consider myself a curious person who wants to see new places. ” Not a curious person is an understatement. He talks about Israel as if his head has been up where the sun does not shine since the creation of Israel in 48. Not being curious is one thing being totally ignorant about the facts is another.
Oh he never adopted her. Just took nude pictures of her when he was with Mia Farrow. No biggie …
link to google.com
“Allen did not adopt any of Farrow’s other family, including Soon-Yi Farrow Previn (the adopted daughter of Farrow and André Previn, now known as Soon-Yi Previn). Allen and Farrow separated in 1992, after Farrow discovered nude photographs that Allen had taken of a then 20-year-old Soon-Yi.[98] In her autobiography, What Falls Away (New York: Doubleday, 1997), Farrow says that Allen admitted to a relationship with Soon-Yi.[99]
After Allen and Farrow separated, a long public legal battle for the custody of their three children began. During the proceedings, Farrow alleged that Allen had sexually molested their adopted daughter Dylan, who was then seven years old. The judge eventually concluded that the sex abuse charges were inconclusive[100] but called Allen’s conduct with Soon-Yi “grossly inappropriate.” She called the report of the team that investigated the issue “sanitized and therefore, less credible” and added that she had “reservations about the reliability of the report.”[101] Farrow won custody of their children. Allen was denied visitation rights with Malone and could see Ronan only under supervision. Moses, who was then 14, chose not to see Allen.[1″
Woody cares about Woody. Oh and Israel
Kathleen, I think we are about equal in our admiration for WA.
Oh well, the movie about the missing hand in New Mexico was interesting, but I’m afraid I’ve ignored Woody on everything since the step-daughter matter. In hindsight, he wasn’t that interesting, just contemporary and a little late. A follower of the lower east-side.
Everything’s a maybe with him. Perhaps his success was all about Jewish Hollywood, after all? Just another soup can? Too bad, another ethnic self-destructs? At least he hasn’t shot anyone as far as we know?
Hej! Tumta
I don’t know, my parents loved him in the 70s. Maybe he just appeals to a certain demographic. Educated urban baby boomers? I saw his movies and They didn’t speak to me in any real way… Also I was too young when the stuff about his personal life came out so I really don’t care.
As for his views on Israel, hes just someone who clearly doesn’t care one way or the other- his views appear to come from a pretty conventional Jewish upbringing- all his comments are pretty much out of the standard Hebrew school education, but it doesn’t look like he’s done any additional education on it since then. He’ll eventually die and his opinion won’t count.
I prefer him over Bob Dylan and his pro Israel activism.
I don’t know, my parents loved him in the 70s. Maybe he just appeals to a certain demographic. Educated urban baby boomers?
i’ll admit a soft spot for allen the ‘artist’, but not the creepy pedophile. (same goes for polanski). but his schtick has been done better by others, e.g. ‘metropolitan’, or for neuroses see spaulding gray. even ‘VCbarcelona’ was very good, although its success in my opinion had more to do with great performances by bardem and cruz than the material, which allen has regurgitated to death.
‘artists’ do seem to have a particular strain of delusion. allen’s never been to israel, but it’s part of his culture? wah? a monthly family meal of kapusta and pierogis and a smattering of polish doesn’t mean i know a damn thing about life in poland. what a dope.
I loved Woody’s humor insights into relationships etc. I was beside myself during Sleeper when it came out and many of Woody’s other flicks. Laughing so hard in the theatre my guts hurt I could barely catch my breath. The man is brilliant in his craft. But the step/daughter thing steered me away. Way over the cliff.
Hilarious.
Yeah, Woody, go to Israel so that your girls can learn more about their father’s culture. After all, NYC is chalk full of racist, gun-toting thugs who get off on making the lives of others miserable {Sarcasm}.
Is that the “culture” you want your girls to “understand” and associate with their father?
What’s unfortunate is that all this is coming from a man who I thought had displayed a lot of insight, well, at least through his movies.
Actually, his girls should watch themselves.
An Israeli-born Asian girl aged 7 was recently deported for being a non-Jew.
Does Woody Allen seriously think that the theocrats in control of conversion etc consider his daughters Jewish?
“Actually, his girls should watch themselves.”
You bet they should! Oh, what a wonderful family, father-mother-daughter dynamic must be going on there.
“…She’s also very curious about Israel and wants to go there with the girls, so they can see and understand their father’s Jewish culture…”
Kind of a non-sequitur, really. They’re in New York — Woody Allen’s Jewish culture is right there. What’s in Israel? Screaming Beitar Jerusalem fans? That’s his culture?
Vaguely like me taking the family to what was my great grandmother’s ranch but is now well within Sacramento suburban area so they ‘can see their father’s culture.’ In fact, precisely like it.
Isn’t Israel more about denying Jewish culture than celebrating it? It always seemed that way to me.
ColinWright, It’s too bad that your only idea of Israeli culture is “screaming Beitar Jerusalem fans”. That’s like saying that British culture= football hooligans and American culture = the KKK.
“ColinWright, It’s too bad that your only idea of Israeli culture”
Gee jons, if the Tel Aviv Symphony never hits a wrong note, does that make the occupation all-right? What exactly about Israel’s “culture” (seems like ordinary Western cultcha to me) excuses or ameliorates Israel’s crimes?
Sounds to me like when we get to the base of your argument it will be ‘Israelis are white, Palestinians are not’.
Mooser,
1, It’s the Israel Philharmonic (IPO), not Tel Aviv, that I assume you’re referring to. There are also other orchestras.
2. I’m not excusing any crimes.
3.Israeli culture is distinct from Western “cultcha” because of the Hebrew language and other unique components and influences.
4. Where did you get the idea that Israelis are “white”? or “whiter” than the Palestinians?
“ColinWright, It’s too bad that your only idea of Israeli culture is “screaming Beitar Jerusalem fans”. That’s like saying that British culture= football hooligans and American culture = the KKK.”
It’s a matter of degree. I read all too much about ‘Israeli culture’ — and the place happens to be dragging my country down to ruin along with it. The popularly expressed attitudes, the kind of politicians they elect, the continual, vicious brutality, the barely-cloaked psychotic hostility towards the entire outside world…these are eight million folks I don’t want to meet, on the whole.
So you’ll just have to forgive me if I don’t try to get to know Israel’s better side.
Colin, that’s too bad. If you were a bit more curious you would see that Israeli culture is exceptionally rich and varied. We are not seven million psychotics.
iwas curious and I found is hugely disfucntional, deluded and burried in denial.
I am sure there are many former Nazis who would say the same thing.
“We are not seven million psychotics.”
No, 20% of the de jure state (and 50% of the de facto state) are Palestinians. Of the rest, there are a limited number of non-zionist Jews and good people like B’Tselem and Vanunu. So, no, you’re not all psychotics. But enough “psychotics” (perhaps “sociopaths” is a better term) to vote in and form racist governments one after the other. So maybe it’s only 75% of you people who are psychotics and sociopaths.
“Where did you get the idea that Israelis are “white”? or “whiter” than the Palestinians?”
Well, I can’t speak for Colin, but the Ashkenazi Jews who comprise about half of the Jewish Israeli population look pretty white to me. Look at Netanyahu. Does he look like a Semite? Or more like a dude from Poland who also happens to be Jew? Tzipi Livni? Ehud Olmert? Israeli professor Shlomo Sand recently published a book called The Invention of the Jewish People in which he shows (argues) that Jews are not one race, and that Ashkenazis are not descendants of the original Hebrews but of Khazar nomads who converted to Judaism and then migrated to Europe. Zionist Arthur Koestler, about whom there was an article here yesterday, made the same argument in his book The Thirteenth Tribe. Ben-Gurion, in his memoirs, writes that the Palestinians are the likely descendants of the original Israelites, who later converted to Christianity and Islam. Genetic studies also support this. That is where I get the idea that the Ashkenazi Jews who dominate Israeli society and founded Israel are “whiter” than the Palestinians.
link to amazon.com link to amazon.com
“4. Where did you get the idea that Israelis are “white”? or “whiter” than the Palestinians?”
Oh, I don’t care what color the Israelis are, or think they are, or think other Israelis or Palestinians are.
In fact, aren’t there Jews from Africa who are very dark-skinned?
And don’t expect me to know nothing about them symphony orchestras. I don’t like all that DWEM scmaltz.
“We are not seven million psychotics.”
Of course not! I would say the greatest majority are merely sociopaths.
And BTW, who are you counting to get “seven million”
“Where did you get the idea that Israelis are “white”? or “whiter” than the Palestinians?”
Well, I can’t speak for Colin, but the Ashkenazi Jews who comprise about half of the Jewish Israeli population look pretty white to me. ..”
I don’t think it was me that said that, and I don’t think Israelis are ‘White’ in the first place (as in not Arab) but if I had said it, or if I had thought it, I could tell you exactly from where I got the idea.
From Israel’s Interior minister: ‘Israel is for the White man.’ One of the more absurd statements of all time, as I’ve discussed elsewhere, but obviously meant in all seriousness.
From Israeli propaganda. There was actually a campaign that was consciously intended to make Americans think that Israelis are ‘like us’ — and no, they didn’t mean like Spike Lee. If one looks at the images of Israelis that are purveyed in Israeli propaganda, they are overwhelmingly ‘white.’
Great point, and I haven’t heard a single argument to the contrary that carries any weight. Come on, Hasbara Brigade, do your very best. Roya puts it very clearly. Look at Tzipi and crew. Please. I suspect you don’t argue it ’cause you’ve got no rational arguments left.
Colin Wright- It is feasible to say that Israel is about denying the ethical Jewish culture, as in that passivity leads us to get murdered and we must be manly men with wills of steel and do what is necessary to survive. It is also feasible to say that secular Israelis are about defying the religious traditions. But to treat this as a closed issue is to miss the point. Israel is about many things and part of it is still very Jewish, the talkative Jew I imagine sitting in pre WWII Warsaw cafe, arguing, gesticulating, almost like the yeshiva boy, but without the yarmulka and not arguing about Talmud, instead about politics, or office politics, but arguing with the same voice with the same hand motions, that in fact exists in Tel Aviv and is a continuity of Jewish culture. And as far as religious Judaism, that can be found aplenty in many varieties in Jerusalem. So to state: Israel is more about denying Jewish culture than celebrating it, is to believe the sound bite about Israel and to avoid realizing that there is more to it than that.
There is nothign you’ve described about Israel that isn’t readily available for Jews in the US.
yonah fredman, that is sooo inspiring! Between you, and Giladg’s panygeric to the settlers (“heroes”) you’ll make a Zionist out of me yet.
Yes-sir-ree bob, when I think of those hand gestures down thru the generations, I understand why the nakba didn’t go far enough, why the Occupied Terrirories really aren’t, and why the houses, fields, lives of and justic for Palestinians come in dead last on the scale. No, I don’t wonder about it, I know!
And there is something else you can do with your hands. But thanks, anyway, I’d rather jerk myself off.
You can also make hand motions at Starbucks in New York. And what’s cool about that is you don’t have to uproot a Palestinian home in order to build a Starbucks on top of it for the sake of making hand motions. Heck, they’ll even let you talk office politics there!
“…part of it is still very Jewish, the talkative Jew I imagine sitting in pre WWII Warsaw cafe, arguing, gesticulating, almost like the yeshiva boy, but without the yarmulka and not arguing about Talmud, instead about politics, or office politics, but arguing with the same voice with the same hand motions, that in fact exists in Tel Aviv and is a continuity of Jewish culture…”
That’s nice. Now go do it someplace where you’re not taking someone else’s home to do it, and you’re set.
Colin Wright- Instead of saying that you were wrong, you change the question to one of Palestine. Of course, Palestine and justice are the core of the issue, not just here on mondoweiss, but i accept them as the main public square issue. But you made a false assertion, can’t you fess up that you were wrong.
There is no question that to the objective observer the Jewish culture that exists on or near the Mediterranean cannot justify the gap between the reality imposed by Israel and the democratic ideal. But to assert that the Jewish culture does not exist, is just to traffic in falsehood, never really a good thing.
The attitude on the other hand might be appropriate to you. The distance between here and justice is not short and dialogue will not get us there without some other factor beside dialogue preceding that dialogue, so your hard hearted hard headed, “you can’t tell me nothing I need to know” attitude is probably suited to your personality and the times we live in.
“almost like the yeshiva boy, but without the yarmulka and not arguing about Talmud, instead about politics, or office politics, but arguing with the same voice with the same hand motions, that in fact exists in Tel Aviv and is a continuity of Jewish culture”
In Warsaw he got the crap beaten out of him by goons and now with the same goon hand gesture drawn across his throat he indicates before beating the crap out of a Palestinian
What has transmitted over the generations is mindless violence- it is the victims who are different
Gosh, yonah, it must be wonderful when you stop wondering and just know! I’m glad you changed your nym.
You forgot about the denial of ethical behaviour that allows you to committ murder, collective punishment, theft & torture.
Assuming one believes that it possible for a religion practiced by millions of individual people across the world to have some kind of inbuilt “ethical” nature which is clearly preposterous.
“Colin Wright- Instead of saying that you were wrong, you change the question to one of Palestine…”
Apparently, I have to admit Israelis are just great people. Never mind that when polled, it turns out they are a lot of racial supremacist authoritarians, that they elect moral vermin as leaders, and that they continually engage in the foullest crimes imaginable with obvious relish — they’re just great.
However, that’s really beside the point. Israel is indistinguishable from Palestine. It’s sitting right on it. If we are discussing Israel, I cannot be ‘changing the subject’ if I refer to Palestine — which happens to be the correct name for the area in question anyway.
Palestine is all I care about — and I assure that if Israel were not squatting firmly on Palestine — and doing it with my dime — I would care no more about Israel than I care about Honduras, or Togo, or any other country of equivalent insignificance and remoteness, and if you felt that I was wrong about something, I’d let you have it and go on to something that mattered. Jeepers, you mean Togo actually has a thriving economy and is a functioning democracy? Well, live and learn. I wouldn’t care.
You can have your Israel — fine with me. Just so long as it isn’t at someone else’s expense and doesn’t require my continuous support and the probable eventual ruination of my own country not to mention a good chunk of the planet in general.
However, I’m not about to go there to see if it’s really as bad as it’s cracked up to be. I’m confident that it is — and in any case, I’d rather burn the money than see it go to help that place survive.
I may well visit Palestine, though. If, when I do, I discover the occupiers are really great folks and they just have no choice but to shoot all those kiddies, I’ll be sure and let you know when I get back.
“…In Warsaw he got the crap beaten out of him by goons and now with the same goon hand gesture drawn across his throat he indicates before beating the crap out of a Palestinian
What has transmitted over the generations is mindless violence- it is the victims who are different”
It is strikingly similar to the story of Vlad the Impaler — the notorious Transylvanian ruler.
Apparently, he was held as a boy as hostage in the Ottoman court — and sodomized while there.
Guess what he did when he grew up?
Individuals who are abused do tend to reenact their abuse when they grow up, only with themselves as the abusers. Maybe we all tend to reenact our past in various ways — it’s just that it’s generally not a problem. I can think of an example from my own life…but never mind that.
So anyway, Israel seems to be doing the same thing, only on a national scale — and I see no reason why a collective cannot mirror the impulses of the individuals who make it up.
In other words. Israel is the national equivalent of a very badly disturbed person. I really think that’s true.
“She’s also very curious about Israel and wants to go there with the girls, so they can see and understand their father’s Jewish culture. ”
Didn’t Woody Allen direct Rambo?
“understand their father’s Jewish culture. ”
Oh, I think Leviticus or Deuteronomy would pretty much tell them what they need to know about Woody’s Judaism.
Even though he is too old for Birthright, Woody Allen may have an all-expense paid trip to Israel in his future.
link to jewcer.com
Wow this girl means business but I have a feeling it’s not gonna happen through her. I’m actually surprised the Israeli government hasn’t yet sponsored Woody to make a film there. What better for Brand Israel than to have an Oscar-winning Woody Allen film shot in Tel Aviv?
Nevermind just realized she’s mad famous and one of AIPAC’s jewels. Could happen.
He said he’s not interested. He has three places he likes, Paris, London, and Rome, and he seemed pretty firm on it.
Besides, a past his prime woody Allen movie is not much of a win for Israel. He’s kind of washed out at this point. Like Robert Deniro. Everyone loves him because of who he was, not what he has accomplished now.
“not what he has accomplished now.”
And gee, his most lasting accomplishment is so unusual. I mean, how many guys marry their own daughter?
It’s an interesting comment on changing mores that Grover Cleveland did something that wasn’t all that different — and his marriage was apparently a complete success from a P.R. point of view as well as others.
Okay, not quite as kinky — but he did marry his twenty one year old former ward when he himself was forty nine and in the White House.
Happily, the squib I read said that they wanted to raise nine million dollars to finance a movie Allen would make in Israel — and so far, they’d collected six thousand dollars!
I suspect Woody Allen isn’t exactly the real he man Jew Israel is supposed to be all about. Hard to see him with his arm around an adoring chick and his boot in a Palestinian child’s face.
“I suspect Woody Allen isn’t exactly the real he man Jew Israel is supposed to be all about. Hard to see him with his arm around an adoring chick and his boot in a Palestinian child’s face.”
Haha, are you sure about that Colin? I mean, he married his adoptive daughter after all, he’s full of surprises.
Good one. All expenses paid trip for the whole family. Even his daughter wife
Woody Allen character in Love and Death: “He was so depressed, he tried to commit suicide by inhaling next to an Armenian.”
I think he will fit right in if he travels to Israel.
“He was so depressed, he tried to commit suicide by inhaling next to an Armenian.”
good point, mudder. as i’ve said i like his movies, but there are some pretty racist portraits painted in movies like ‘annie hall’ and later ones like ‘hannah and her sisters’. (i see an analysis of racism in allen’s films as a useful enterprise) the thing is it’s okay to be a racist if you do it with a bookish smile, like gary shteyngart. cultivate a nebbish persona, and you can spew all sorts of racist claptrap about the undifferentiated collectivity of ‘asians’, ‘russians’, ‘WASPs’, or more generalized swarthy mediterranean types, and it’s big laughs.
What was that all about? I think it was in “Love and Death” that he has a scene with an uncle or grandfather showing him the piece of land he has been trying to hang onto
link to script-o-rama.com
Ah it was the father
“And my own father,
a handsome and generous man.
In addition to oursummerand winter
estate, he owned a valuable piece ofland.
True, it was a small piece. But he carried
it with him whereverhe went.
Dimitri Pietrovich!
I would like to buy your land.
This land is not for sale.
Some day, I hope to build on it.
He was an idiot. But I loved him.”
“My wife is of Korean origin and she’s been trying for years to convince me to go to South Korea with her”
Mia Farrow is Korean? I did not know that.
@Mooser: Nah, they broke up after she discovered nude photos he’d taken of her adoptive daughter from Korea/Allen’s current wife.
Maybe he had taken LSD and was having a bum-voyage?
Woody’s son Ronan tweeted “Happy brother-in-law’s day” to his father.
Actually, that’s being reported all over the place.
Could be, but to marry your daughter you’d have to be on something similar to the stuff Lady Gaga is on.
Saw that at the Wikipedia page I linked. Good one Ronan. Sad but true
Woody is on Woody. Woody always seemed to be wrapped up in the ID, EGO, SUPER EGO tango. ID won
“Woody is on Woody. Woody always seemed to be wrapped up in the ID, EGO, SUPER EGO tango. ID won”
I hate when Woody Allen is mentioned on this site. It makes flinch. I wanted to say, “Hey Kathleen, I may be ID-driven, but you don’t have to rub my nose in it… Oh, you mean Woody Allen…”
“Woody is on Woody. Woody always seemed to be wrapped up in the ID, EGO, SUPER EGO tango. ID won”
Hell hath no fury like the ID of a nebbish!
As Woody Allen told Newsweek: “The French make two mistakes about me. They think I’m an intellectual because I wear these glasses and they think I’m an artist because my films lose money.”
Personally, I appreciate this level of frankness. When the cognoscenti call a non-entity like Elena Kagan “brilliant”, I recall Allen’s quote.
link to informationclearinghouse.info
Jews DO Control The Media
By Manny Friedman
**********************************
We’re a driven group, and not just in regards to the art world. We have, for example, AIPAC, which was essentially constructed just to drive agenda in Washington DC. And it succeeds admirably. And we brag about it. Again, it’s just what we do.
But the funny part is when any anti-Semite or anti-Israel person starts to spout stuff like, “The Jews control the media!” and “The Jews control Washington!”
Suddenly we’re up in arms. We create huge campaigns to take these people down. We do what we can to put them out of work. We publish articles. We’ve created entire organizations that exist just to tell everyone that the Jews don’t control nothin’. No, we don’t control the media, we don’t have any more sway in DC than anyone else. No, no, no, we swear: We’re just like everybody else!
Does anyone else (who’s not a bigot) see the irony of this?
Let’s be honest with ourselves, here, fellow Jews. We do control the media. We’ve got so many dudes up in the executive offices in all the big movie production companies it’s almost obscene. Just about every movie or TV show, whether it be “Tropic Thunder” or “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” is rife with actors, directors, and writers who are Jewish. Did you know that all eight major film studios are run by Jews?
*********************************************
Moderators don’t delete this. Theres a lesson here.
Oh Woody Allen, Mr. “I’m a bit neurotic” Jew. Oh Mr. Larry David another man who plays on the whole “neurotic Jew” theme.” Oh look, there’s Jon Stewart another “neurotic Jew .” Oh wait except for the fact that these men aren’t actually mentally ill and yet claim to be so and make it part of their Jewish identity. They make it something to do with their inate Jewishness. And then people make fun of me who actually have struggled with real psychological problems and people see me through the “neurotic Jew” stereotype as if this is something all Jews share biologically. I hardly know any Jews who are nervous and anxious, yet these comedians promote this thinly-veiled racial anti-Semitism.
I don’t think they promote anti-Semitism.
A lot of Jews take pride, in a twisted way, of anti-Semitism.
It’s like the old joke:
“Two Jewish men in Vienna in the 1930s are reading newspapers. One of them is reading a Jewish communal newspaper and the other is reading Der Stürmer. The one reading the Jewish paper asks the other man what on earth is wrong with him, why does he read that?
And the other man answers that in the Jewish papers it’s all about persecution, panic and weakness. It depresses him. In the paper he reads, however, Jews go from strength to strength!’
So although a lot of Jews see a racial tinge, fairly or unfairly, when some people say “Oh yes, those Jews are so smart”(those Jews think that those people subtly mean that we’re devious etc), the same kind of Jews then turn around to their interior audiences and brag about how much smarter we are and everyone else is an idiot and although they won’t say “we control everything” they don’t mind young Jews to think that.
I remember a funny post, I don’t remember where I read it, but it was about a disrupted event by a Jewish affiliation of the Occupy movement. I think some women from Code Pink were there.
And they were at this event which was very Jewish and this author had done a book on Jewish achievement, touting how many Wall Street bankers were Jews and bragging about it etc. How many of us were billionaires. And at the event, he attacked by this group for spreading anti-Semitism. And it’s a double-edged sword. On the one hand we don’t want the general public to talk about Jewish power, it makes us nervous. But inwards, we can’t gloat enough!
And I think the whole meme of the ‘neurotic Jew’ is actually useful. If you have a bad day, isn’t it better to blame your genes instead of people actually suspecting maybe you’re not as good a performer as some people think you are?
I agree with your insight. But the attitudes to illness play out on other social axis as well: if you are rich you are merely eccentric not ill, If you are religious you are devout not ill, if you are in right academic setting, you are an absent minded genius etc…… Unless touched by the illness, people have no way to identify with the inner turmoil that suffering brings – and as we whisk suffering away to hospitals, and half houses and sanatoria, we create society devoid of empathy and not even aware of casual cruelty of dismissal.
Wow. Thanks Eva. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
I also think that the whole ‘illness’ paradigm is somewhat inappropriate. That comes from physiology, and it implies a disease, which can be treated, and then you’ll be ‘well.’
Ain’t like that…
Sometimes, what we’re talking about are just personality traits. Like my son was once described as ‘the best candidate for ritalin I’ve ever seen.’
Well, that wasn’t going to happen. I figure (barring certain extremes) that people just have to work out how that ol ‘me/everything else’ interface is going to go. They adjust. It’s called ‘growing up.’
…and my son is seventeen now. We seem to be over the hump — although he did deal with having locked his keys in his car the other day (which he worked and paid for, not me) by smashing in the window.
Okay, so now he’s contemplating the consequences of that. He’s figuring it out…
ColinWright,
If your child has been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, then you are wrong if you think these conditions nothing more than the normal process of “adjustment” or “growing up”, or a failure to examine consequences or whatever nonsense you’ve concocted in your head.
Half of the problem that people with these conditions have is the attitude you are expressing here. You are doing your son no favor by pretending that his condition is a personality or maturity issue if it isn’t.
Except the is quite a lot of evidence that ADHD is over diagnosed. I know of several families who refused medication after a child’s diagnosis and after a few rough years the kids DID adjust/grow up. Their periods of hyperactivity and low attention span were no greater than other kids who were never diagnosed. I am by no means anti medication/diagnosis when it comes to mental/adjustment disorders, I work in the field of public mental health, but it is simplistic to think just because someone is diagnosed that is the be all and end all. Many patients are initially diagnosed with (for example) schizoid disorder and treated for that, then the diagnosis is changed to bi-polar spectrum and the medication tweaked only for the diagnosis to be changed and tweaked again at a later date. Mental illness is not like glandular fever whe you can do a quick blood test and get a definitive diagnosis. Much of it is informed guess work, and like all guess work, no matter how well informed, it not always correct. (sorry for roaming OT there folks)
My son’s doing great. My daughter worries me, but I have no worries at all about my son’s future. Admittedly, he may grow up to be one of the great conquerors of history — but I can’t see him fizzling out.
The guy is actually a kick in the ass. Everyone keeps telling me that. It can be a pain being the authority figure in his life, though…
‘Half of the problem that people with these conditions have is the attitude you are expressing here. You are doing your son no favor by pretending that his condition is a personality or maturity issue if it isn’t.’
Well, I think I’ll pass over your somewhat-uncalled for posture of moral condemnation and go on to discuss the substance of what you’ve said.
Yes, some people are genuinely and seriously dysfunctional. I know at least one such. And indeed, they should get help. Whether it’ll actually do them much good is another question, but sometimes, you gotta try something.
But at the other extreme, I object even to your use of the term ‘issue’ to describe my son’s characteristics. It’s who he is. He’s a meat volcano. He always has been. It’s not a ‘condition.’ It’s him. Now, obviously he and reality have to sort a few things out, but they seem to be making progress, and I’m pleasantly surprised. He’s had quite a few adventures in the course of this, but you don’t sound receptive, so I won’t attempt to regale you with some of them.
I do think there is too much of a tendency to see any deviation from the norm as a ‘condition’ that should be treated — by a lot of people who draw their paradigms from the only distantly related field of physical health.
To a great extent, people are who they are, and they need to be allowed to work out their own accommodation with reality. I’m glad you never had the opportunity to decide whether my son should or should not have been ‘helped.’ I’m confident he wouldn’t have been the better for it.
“To a great extent, people are who they are, and they need to be allowed to work out their own accommodation with reality. I’m glad you never had the opportunity to decide whether my son should or should not have been ‘helped.’ I’m confident he wouldn’t have been the better for it.”
Please take into account that different communities have different understanding of normal: some require more more conformist attitude in its society (Japan, Germany); while some tolerate individuality to much greater degree: England or Australia.
Djinn,
I’m not talking about overdiagnosis. My point is simply that with regard to the diagnosis of ADD or ADHD, there is a ill-informed subset of the population who refuses to acknowledge that they are, in fact, real conditions which have an actual basis in fact, and can be treated or helped, whether it be with medicine or other treatment.
All too often you end up with the curmudgeon amateur hour, where parents refuse to accept that kids who have this condition actually have it; they say nonsense like “all kids are active. it’s normal. They’ll grow out of it. What do these doctors know anyway?” without understanding that the guy who went scores of thousands of dollars in debt to study these things is actually capable of distinguishing between a normal kid and one with ADHD or ADD. If the kids who are the unfortunate children of these morons are lucky, they’ll be smart enough to figure out coping strategies on their own. If they’re unlucky, they never will or they’ll use harmful ones, as they go through life afflicted with this condition, and oftentimes no even being aware of it because his or her parent was too proud, stubborn or stupid to face realilty.
And, no, disagnosis of mental health conditions are not at the point where they can be reduced to a blood test, and there are often wrongful diagnoses, but that does not mean they are always wrong or, hell, even usually wrong. My only point is that if there is a diagnosis, you do the kid no help by ignoring that diagnosis.
“Well, I think I’ll pass over your somewhat-uncalled for posture of moral condemnation and go on to discuss the substance of what you’ve said.”
I have no posture of moral condemnation. I’m simply stating a fact. If he has been diagnosed, you’ll do him no favor by sticking your head in the sand simply because the issue is mental health and not physical health.
“But at the other extreme, I object even to your use of the term ‘issue’ to describe my son’s characteristics. It’s who he is. He’s a meat volcano. He always has been. It’s not a ‘condition.’ It’s him.”
If he’s been diagnosed with a menal health condition, then “who he is” is a person with a mental health condition. From your attitude, you don’t seem to want to face that possibility. In fact, you seem to have the attitude that the people who actually study this stuff for a living don’t know what they’re talking about because it’s all about “growing up and mental ‘illness’ isn’t really an illness, hell, it’s not even a condition.”
When you’re talking about someone having to “work out their own accomodation with reality,” that sounds like someone who needs the attention of a properly trained mental health professional. If for no other reason than to be sure that they are not suffering from ADD, ADHD, an autism spectrum disorder or any number of other things.
I hope he’s a perfectly normal kid. But I also hope that if he does need or even could benefit from professional help, that he gets it. That’s all I’m saying. Because it would be a shame if he spend half his life trying to stumble upon solutions to his issues on his own, when a short time with a professional could save him years of grief.
“…They make it something to do with their inate Jewishness. …people see me through the “neurotic Jew” stereotype as if this is something all Jews share biologically…”
…
I’ve known some neurotic Jews. Some who weren’t of course, but now that you mention it, I’m coming up with quite a list. A lot who were definitely tightly-strung in some way if not actually neurotic.
Stu Miller my rival in the moving business had what I can only describe as a neurotic obsession with making money — and I heard that he used to argue with customers for up to half an hour about where they were placing furniture in a room, which I thought was pretty weird. I mean, it just never crossed my mind. You want your sofa in the kitchen? Your sofa’s in the kitchen. Where did you want the dresser?
There was my girlfriend who used to crawl into closets and curl up in a ball occasionally. The friend who decided he was homosexual, went on a camping trip with what was to be his gay lover, then realized he wasn’t homosexual, the woman who is so insanely competitive that if you want to go out to dinner with her, don’t talk about it and just let her order the wine, her sometime-boyfriend who has (literally, I moved them) a good twenty thousand pounds of books and at one point, was living in a single room with them…
I guess that’s about it. I can work myself into some impressive states myself. I’m not pretending to be immune on the grounds that I’m a gentile. I’m a perfectionist. I will ask for another table if I can’t have my back to a wall — I genuinely get uncomfortable otherwise. I immediately get and stay angry if I can hear a neighbor’s music — however faintly. And of course there’s Israel — but I feel pretty good about that.
But Jews can be pretty neurotic (or whatever). Just sayin’ — as they say.
Don’t forget Colin — Jews in the moving business form a special subcategory. It’s statistically dangerous to generalize from their behavior.
And the Stu Miller I know was a very fine junk ball pitcher for the Giants and Orioles. Be a mentsch and leave him out of this.
Stu Miller (the mover) is a special sub-category all to himself.
I guess I mean that people see me not as someone who belongs to the religion of Judaism and what it what make me neurotic. Rather they see me as belonging to an ethnic group that being Easten European Jewish, who are wrongly perceived by many as all of them having mental traits like anxiety. Too many “Family Guy” and “South Park” jokes out there perhaps. Too many Woody Allens and Larry Davids out there and then I have to hear it. Another example, in my Chemistry class a couple of years ago we were , for some reason, talking about diseases that certain ethnic groups tend to get at elevated frequencies. The professor handled the subject with care and all, even the Ashkenazi-Jewish diseases. When the Ashkenazi diseases were brought up, the student next to me (non-Jewish) turns her head and quickly looks at me for a second. How nice. Can’t make this stuff up.
“…When the Ashkenazi diseases were brought up, the student next to me (non-Jewish) turns her head and quickly looks at me for a second. How nice. Can’t make this stuff up…”
So? I think it’s morbid to see something significant in this.
Okay, so someone was conscious that you were Jewish. If they’re conscious of the fact, they’re conscious of the fact. ‘Gee, these are diseases that Jews get — and he’s Jewish.’ And she glances at you. So what?
Jon Stewart is “neurotic Jew”? He makes some jokes relating to the New York Jewish stereotype, but he seems very normal and well adjusted.
“Jon Stewart is “neurotic Jew”? “
Ditto. I’ve never noticed anything ‘neurotic’ about Jon Stewart.
He plays into that stereotype. i.e. doing an impression of Congressman Charlie Rangel of Harlem sounding like an old Jew whose indecisive.
“Oh wait except for the fact that these men aren’t actually mentally ill and yet claim to be so and make it part of their Jewish identity.” Not sure what you call “mentally ill” A 55 year old man taking naked pictures of a very young woman while in a role of being her father is “mentally ill” in my book
Kathleen, I meant Jon Stewart and Larry David.
“Oh Woody Allen, Mr. “I’m a bit neurotic” Jew…./…. this thinly-veiled racial anti-Semitism.”
Wow! One hell of a comment YMJ! I never saw that situation from that perspective before, and taken from your own experience, too. And probably not too easy to talk about. Thanks, very much. Also very interesting because I often contend that people use Zionism as a way of masking or inverting ( from bad flaws to assets) psychological issues of control, prejudice, anger and anomie.
I have a distinct recollection of Woody Allen saying something quite different about Israel a few years back — of course, he was speaking to a different audience.
I still think he’s a great filmmaker. Sad that he is willing to make supportive noises about Israel when cornered, but there it is.
Yeah — I remember too, but not the specifics. It occurred to me that the blowback he got from that remark has something to do with the protestations of love in this interview. This is clearly not an issue he’s thought much about and he’s not really invested in it. Why not just make nice and avoid all the flak.
“Why not just make nice and avoid all the flak.”
I’m sure that’s his take. I can’t accept it –but I’m sure that’s his take.
I recall reading some interview where he was very categorical about his refusal to involve himself in political issues — and I see this as an instance of that.
It’d be nice if he had just refused to talk to the Israeli reporter — but then, that would have been a statement right there. He came out with some mush that won’t give the Zionists a target.
Woody Allen: Pervy Nerd.
“Woody Allen: Pervy Nerd.”
Some moralist critic would say that after his own last frame he’ll end up in Nervy Perd.
And how many Hollywood years does the nerd get the beautiful girl? That image has been around for decades
“Israel’s neighbors have treated it badly, cruelly, instead of embracing it and making it part of the Middle East family of nations”
There must be a word for the feeling when an artist you respect turns out to be a know nothing regarding Zionism . Perhaps Yiddish has it.
David Mamet is in the same boat as Woody Allen
link to ft.com
“The speeches that Charles Lindbergh made and Oswald Mosley made in the 1930s are the same speeches that are being made today, only slightly more politely: ‘The Jews are bringing us to war. Perhaps we should give their state away.’ The liberals in my neighbourhood wouldn’t give away Brentwood to the Palestinians but they want to give away Tel Aviv.”
Funnily enough, in the same interview Mamet gives the overview of the tragedy both he and Allen are acting in reality. We are at act 2 now
“So what is the basis of drama? Mamet gazes at me blankly as if the question is naive, then elucidates in one long sentence. “The basis of drama is … is the struggle of the hero towards a specific goal at the end of which he realises that what kept him from it was, in the lesser drama, civilisation and, in the great drama, the discovery of something that he did not set out to discover but which can be seen retrospectively as inevitable. ”
Civilisation is the thing that will bring down Israel.
Mamet is a crazy person. I saw an interview with him on Bill Maher’s show about 5 years back and he did nothing but promote Zionism in the most frothing-at-the-mouth fashion. He droned on and on about how ‘the tribe’ needed to get to Israel because of ‘all the exciting things going on’ how ‘it was an amazing time to be a Jew’ and ‘if you’re not on board, then shut up and go away’ then finally something to the effect that you’re not a Zionist Jew, you’re not a real Jew at all and you should just stop calling yourself one and cease getting in everyone else’s way and being a bad example.
Another happy conflation of Judaism and Zionism.
“Mamet is a crazy person…”
All this sort of thing would be just fine…if there weren’t several million victims and a more-or-less global cast of innocent bystanders.
When someone starts expressing himself by swinging a chainsaw around on a crowded bus, you have to draw the line.
Christ. Don’t immunize your children, or move into the Alaska woods, or decide you’re an Amazon rain forest deity, or whatever. But pick something relatively harmless. Seen — or read — “The Mosquito Coast“? Now there’s a fine example for you. You can be crazy as a fruit fly — and only take a modest cast down with you.
The thought of going down to a major global catastrophe is bad enough — but to do it because some people find it meets their needs for self-expression? I really can’t have much patience with that.
God, that last paragraph (everything really) was good. Sorry to eulogize. I may have to steal some lines from you one of these days.
Maybe Woody could make a movie similar to Annie Hall, only this time he goes to Jerusalem instead of LA for a few months and has trouble relating.
>> WA: “I support Israel and I’ve supported it since the day it was founded. … it’s a wonderful, marvelous country. … But even my criticism of Israel comes from a place of love … It would be a mistake not to say something if you think a country you love makes a mistake … ”
>> Then why have you never visited Israel?
>> WA: “I’m not a tourist. I travel regularly to three cities that I know and love — Paris, London and Rome — and that’s it.”
With all that luuuuuv for the Jewish State of Israel you think he could have learned to luuuuuv at least one city in it and to add it to his list of cities he knows and luuuuuvs and to which he regularly, but non-touristically, travels.
I’m not entirely convinced that those were the actual words that came out of his mouth.
“Today I feel Jewish mainly when people attack me because of my being Jewish.”
In New York City? I’m supposed to believe this?
MRW- I’m glad you brought this up. The comment struck me as strange. What exactly does he mean by “people attack me because of my being Jewish?” Is he interpreting criticism as somehow being anti-Semitic? If so, then he has a lot in common with Israel which treats all international criticism as manifestations of anti-Semitism. What other explanation could there be? No wonder he loves Israel so much!
What a distraction…way out for his immoral behavior
“Today I feel Jewish mainly when people attack me because of my being Jewish.”
Oh no! He can’t be talking about people who criticised his little erotic-marital adventure on the basis of traditional Jewish marriage or Biblical prohibitions, can he?
Are those the people who “attacked” him “for being Jewish”?
I remember in the late 80′s I think he wrote an op-ed or something criticizing the Israeli crackdown of the intifada. Or something. Sid Zion attacked him for it, also in the Times. Woody has regressed since then, one of the few.
Israel was a wonderful idea.
But the mechanics of building a Jewish state were brutal. They only way to glue all those Jews together was via militarism.
link to haaretz.com
“As Israelis, we must define our goals clearly,” says Stern, in his small room at the institute, located in Jerusalem’s Talbiya neighborhood. “One important goal is equality in distributing the burden. Another is integrating ultra-Orthodox people into Israel’s economy. But the most important goal is integrating them into society. We must enable the development of an ultra-Orthodox Israeli who is not necessarily Zionist by ideology, but is part of Israeli society.”
“The new Haredi-Israeli can feel solidarity with Israeli society without losing his separate identity. He will be part of the national sovereign experience without losing his faith and endangering his community. The main path to reaching this goal is through military service. ”
You build an army. It has to have a raison d’etre. It is a hammer that needs nails. Everything looks a like a war for an army. You need wars. You need an occupation. You destroy your value system which was the point of bringing everyone together…
Reminds me of President Reagan, who, when asked what does he think of the NATO, said: “I have never been there, but it must be a great place”!!
It seems we had a slew of duds as presidents.
I just ran a search on ‘Reagan “I have never been there, but it must be a great place” ‘
The only hit was your post. I’m sure some variation of it is somewhere — but this does sound suspiciously like something someone made up.
Like a conservative variation I once heard. Clinton hears there are 500,000 cattle guards in Colorado and immediately decides to terminate half of them. Barbara Shroeder calls up and pleads for them to be given an opportunity for retraining instead.
Also pretty funny — but also clearly made up.
Colin
I read that a long time ago, after all he is gone since decades, and cannot vouch for the validity.
However I remember hearing him on TV and he sure was not a very intelligent person. Perhaps his age, to be fair?
Allen says that he would like to take his girls to Israel so they can learn more about their father’s culture… Are they going to learn about a new yorker´s culture in Israel?
Does he mean that Israel=Jewish culture everywhere?
That´s why a lot of people think that Jew=Israel=Zionism
Mr. Richard Silverstein in his Tikun olam (worth reading and commendable) once reprimanded somebody for doing this equation which he considered racist. He is right but the hasbara has pushed this equation into many people´s consciousness, and Allen´s words strengthen that dishonest equation-
Allen wants to take his daughters to Israel to teach them about his “Jewish culture.” Wow, I didn’t know he spoke Hebrew, followed Israeli theater, ate Israeli food, or listened to Israeli music…I’m surprised he’s never been there?
He’s seems to be too ignorant to undersand it is ISRAELI culture, not Jewish culture…and he’s not a part of it!
Just because someone makes movies, it doesn’t make them a genius….Allen is clearly a profound idiot when it comes to knowledge of Israel, Palestine, the Middle East, or history.
“I’m not a tourist. I travel regularly to three cities that I know and love — Paris, London and Rome — and that’s it.”
When Poughkeepsie is remote wilderness, in Middle East there is only one reasonable country: one visited by people Woody Allen knows. The rest is “ubi leones”.
“But even my criticism of Israel comes from a place of love, just like when I criticize the United States.”
Fair is fair. Anyone is familiar with Allen’s criticism of USA?
Woody Allen “I don’t like flying and I don’t consider myself a curious person who wants to see new places.”
Or learn the facts
Of course the interview could also be somewhat tongue in cheek in which case everyone’s reading too much into it. I remember him saying in an interview, with what looked like pride, that he stole from the JNF box when he was a kid. He put a story about that in one of his movies at some point. And critics of his role in the decades old movie “The Front”, about the McCarthy era, called his portrayal superficial – Ebert called it “schlemiel in wonderland”, which applies to many of his roles come to think of it.
Now I thought ‘The Front’ was pretty good. Woody Allen could have been caught eating live babies, and it would still be good. Polanski’s films are pretty good too — but he really did go beyond the pale, and I refuse to overlook that.
“During the proceedings, Farrow alleged that Allen had sexually molested their adopted daughter Dylan, who was then seven years old. The judge eventually concluded that the sex abuse charges were inconclusive[100] but called Allen’s conduct with Soon-Yi “grossly inappropriate.” She called the report of the team that investigated the issue “sanitized and therefore, less credible” and added that she had “reservations about the reliability of the report.”[101] Farrow won custody of their children. Allen was denied visitation rights with Malone and could see Ronan only under supervision. Moses, who was then 14, chose not to see Allen.[1″
Woody Allen: “I assume we’ll go and visit Israel soon. There’s no way around it.”
ROTFL, no there probably isn’t, is there? Anyway, it’s always there if the kids grow up and start talking too much.
Very surprised Mr. Allen hasn’t registered and joined the discussion. Too bad, I hear he’s quite a wit and enjoys a good joke.
That would be fun.
It’d certainly be more interesting than torpedoing HMS Zionist for the umpteenth time.