How come Arabs are always bungling and stupid in Hollywood depictions?

2009-05-20T14:59:00-07:00

Back in December 2008 at a time when many Americans were justifiably filled with self-congratulatory effulgence over the election of their first African-American president, the Israeli armed forces were quietly and efficiently murdering Palestinians in one of their periodic ethnic cleansing forays into the occupied territories of Palestine.

Israel’s splendid little Gaza War, as it has since been called, began December 27, 2008 and ended less than a month later on January 18, 2009.

During that time, approximately 1,400 Palestinian men, women, and children died, while there were 13 reported Israeli deaths. (This represents the usual kill ratio “Western” nations with high tech killing machinery denied all Arabs have come to expect and swagger about when they invade Arab lands.)

Israel was in and out of the Gaza Strip while Americans and their news media were focused on New Year’s celebrations and the upcoming inauguration of President Obama.

George W. Bush was the lamest lame duck of the century and Barack Obama was not yet president. No one was minding the store here and Israel took advantage of the situation, never expecting so much as a wrist slap from their blindly supportive allies in Washington.

Anyway, and to arrive at what some may think a tortured point, I wrote the following statement January 25 decrying, as I have most of my adult life, abuse of Palestinians by Israelis.

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25 January 2009

Forgiving Israel until 70 times 7

Get ready for some PR work from the Jewish lobby

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Israel Has Fewer Friends Than Ever, Even In America

By Rod Nordland – NEWSWEEK

Jan. 24, 2009

Israel has never been more isolated. Its best friend, the United States, had vetoed 41 Security Council resolutions condemning Israel in the past three decades, but was about to vote for the Jan. 8 resolution denouncing the attack on Gaza when President Bush intervened, at the behest of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Still, in the face of unprecedented global criticism, the U.S. didn't dare veto, but merely abstained... .
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But give the Israeli lobby a few months and they will neutralize the negative publicity their latest ethnic cleansing foray into Palestine has engendered.

Why, they will come up with another heart rending "undiscovered" story from the European Holocaust.

Or Sacha Baron Cohen of “Borat” fame will make another film mocking a non-Jewish ethnic group that sets naïve Americans rolling in the floor with laughter.

Or Jewishness will be glorified in another popular television sitcom, film or comedy routine that gets rave reviews in New York and Hollywood.

We Americans will soon forget about the grim-faced, grimy, angry, and ever so "non-Western" Palestinian men, women, and children that were murdered by Israelis as 2009 began.

The Arabs are mere statistics, while Jews are our doctors and dentists and attorneys and beloved entertainers.

We'll forget and forgive again and reward Israel with another generation of high tech killing machinery for their next genocidal mission in the land they stole from Palestinians in 1948.

It's gone on for 60 years now, folks. How much longer can Americans be wholly blind to what is fair and just?

D. Grant Haynes

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That was my January statement in the matter.

What I did not know at the time was that Adam Sandler had already done Sacha Baron Cohen one better with a lewd, filthy, slapstick, Islamaphobic, Palestinian-baiting absurdity of a film titled, “You Don’t Mess With Zohan”.

A friend and I attempted to watch “You Don’t Mess With Zohan” last weekend.

I was boiling as soon as I realized the plot involved a super macho Israeli commando, Zohan, (played by Sandler) who spoke matter of factly of killing Palestinians, and who continued to kick their asses at every turn in the slapstick comedic action unfolding.

The Arabs were all depicted as simpletons and buffoons whom Zohan could master at any time with the flick of his wrist--or foot—or ass--or anything.

The Israeli Jew was superhuman, while the Palestinian Arabs were subhuman.

When a bungling Arab was not the butt of the uproarious laughter the film was expected to elicit, Adam Sandler’s anatomical butt was presented on camera, with viewers expected to find that spectacle equally as amusing as a pathetic ass-kicked Arab.

About a third of the way through the film, my friend and I looked at one another and, with few words, decided enough was enough. We turned the obnoxious movie off, having paid $3 to view a DVD not worth 3 cents to either of us.

America’s wholly subjective and entirely one-sided approach to the Arab-Israeli question has been shaped largely by persons like Adam Sandler and Sacha Baron Cohen who dominate the entertainment industry of this nation.

No Arab or other non-Jewish Middle Easterner is ever given an even break by Hollywood. Syrians, Palestinians, Iraqis, and even Iranians are typically depicted as cruel, devious, cowardly, dirty, backstabbing, unworthy of trust, and very different from us.

On the other hand, Jews are always depicted as charming, intelligent, upright, brave, dashing, strong, and, most importantly, vital contributors to Judeo-Christian culture and Western Civilization.

This lopsided dichotomy in our perception of Jews v. other Middle Eastern groups is a direct result of more than half a century of conscious propaganda efforts directed, again, primarily from Hollywood, but also from the American news media and a plethora of other institutions heavily influenced by American Jews.

The situation is morally reprehensible and should be highly repugnant to any thinking person.

A more balanced treatment is in order.

Know that I am fully aware many readers of this statement will write me off as an “anti-Semite”. This is a knee-jerk reaction on your part engendered by generations of cultural conditioning.

The epithet of “anti-Semite” is always thrown at any American who calls into question his nation’s unflinching support of Israel in all things.

I am not an anti-Semite.

I am not a white supremacist.

I am not a Klan member.

I am not a skinhead or neo-Nazi.

I am not ignorant or unthinking.

I am, rather, a thinking American who strongly believes the Palestinian Arabs have been dealt a rotten hand since Israel appropriated their ancestral lands beginning in 1948 with the help and ongoing support of my nation.

D. Grant Haynes

If you tremble indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine.

Ernesto 'Che' Guevara