Gibson Gives Ground

Mel Gibson's decision to delete a controversial scene about Jews from his film "The Passion of the Christ" is being attributed, in a report by Sharon Waxman of the New York Times, to "focus groups as much as to protests by Jewish critics." Ms. Waxman quotes an associate of Mr. Gibson who indicated that a scene in which the Jewish high priest Caiaphas calls down a curse on the Jewish people will be deleted in the final version. "His blood be on us and on our children," will not be in the movie's final version, the Gibson associate said."It didn't work in the focus screenings," the associate of Mr. Gibson is quoted as saying.

Well, focus groups or none, if this deletion is made, credit will go to the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, and other Jewish leaders who had the gumption to stand their ground on the dangers that this type of passion play poses. We're not much interested in the question of what were Mr. Gibson's intentions. The fact is that Mr. Foxman understood better than Mr. Gibson how passion plays have been used throughout our common history.

This was illuminated in the recent exchanges, when Mr. Foxman pressed for a meeting and asked Mr. Gibson to consider a postscript that would "implore your viewers to not let the movie turn some toward a passion of hatred." Mr. Gibson sent what has to be seen as an inadequate, even disingenuous, letter, saying: "I hope and I pray that you will join me in setting an example for all of our brethren; that the truest path to follow, the only path, is that of respect and, most importantly, that of love for each other despite our differences."

Mr. Gibson's flaws were on further display in his interview with Peggy Noonan, who told him: "You're going to have to go on record. The Holocaust happened, right?" Mr. Gibson answered, "I have friends and parents of friends who have numbers on their arms. ...Yes of course. Atrocities happened. War is horrible. The Second World War killed tens of millions of people. Some of them were Jews in concentration camps. Many people lost their lives. In the Ukraine several million starved to death between 1932 and 1933. During the last century 20 million people died in the Soviet Union."

The answer was either a gaffe or an insult, and Mr. Gibson was called on it by Rabbi Marvin Hier, who wrote: "We are not engaging in competitive martyrdom, but in historical truth. To describe Jewish suffering during the Holocaust as 'some of them were Jews in concentration camps' is an afterthought that feeds right into the hands of Holocaust deniers and revisionists." Ms. Waxman quoted Mr. Gibson's spokesman as denying the director was looking to further inflame Jewish leaders, saying, "There's no doubt in my mind that not only does he know the Holocaust and acknowledge it, he has shed tears over it, with me," he said. Both Mr. Foxman and Rabbi Hier stood their ground in what is no doubt a never-ending fight.