A shout-out for Israel's non-Jewish supporters
Consider the case of Jon Voight.Read the whole thing.
The celebrated Oscar-winning actor is an outspoken champion of Israel. Earlier this month, Voight published an open letter to Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem in Variety where he harshly criticized the Spanish performers for their public statement condemning Israel and siding with Hamas in its war against the Jewish state.
In his words, “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.”
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Last week, two UCLA professors, Mark LeVine and Gil Hochberg, co-authored an article published in The Huffington Post assaulting him for his views and his temerity to suggest that Israel is a moral, embattled democracy fighting genocidal forces committed to its destruction.
The two Jewish academics are supporters of the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.
The principal aim of the BDS movement is to make it socially unacceptable to support Israel. In 2010 LeVine and Hochberg signed a petition calling for California state universities to divest from companies that do business with Israel.
Online Hollywood commentators, such as Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva, opined that Voight, who was nominated for an Emmy Award for his role in Showtime’s Ray Donovan series, was liable to lose his Emmy bid due to his support for Israel.
Hochberg and LeVine’s assault on Voight was a long-winded voyage into the post-Zionist and anti-Zionist literary moonscape. Their principal criticism of Voight was that he refuses to accept this intellectual wasteland’s rejection of the known facts of history.
Voight is not an academic, nor has he ever claimed to be an expert on Middle Eastern history. He is a non-Jewish American concerned about the future of America.
That is why he stands with Israel. Voight recognizes that when Israel is under assault, and its right to defend itself is denied while terrorists are supported, the US is endangered. And so he feels compelled to speak out, regardless of the price.
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Another non-Jewish champion of Israel is former US senator and Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum. Both during his tenure in the Senate and since, Santorum has spoken out strongly against Iran’s nuclear program, insisting that it is a serious threat not only to Israel, but to the US itself.
Like Voight, Santorum recognizes that the fate of the US is directly tied to the fate of Israel.
For his trenchant support for Israel, and his outspoken concern about Iran’s nuclear program, as well as his support for domestic issues where he has not shied away from taking controversial, inconvenient position, Santorum’s critics have demonized him.
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Last week, Santorum led a solidarity mission to Israel. The majority of his colleagues were non-Jewish opinion shapers from Iowa, the first state to hold Republican presidential contests. Santorum explained that his goal in coming to Israel was not simply to show Israelis that the American people support us. It was to build support among Republicans in Iowa for a robust US engagement in foreign affairs based on supporting Israel, fighting America’s enemies and preventing the forces of hatred, like Hamas and Iran, from expanding their power.
Santorum’s chief concern is that weary of foreign policy failures, more and more Republicans are embracing the isolationism most identified with Senator Rand Paul. Paul is currently polling well in Iowa.
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Santorum is convinced that if Iowans are educated about the nature of the threats emanating from the region, and of Israel’s singular contribution to the cause of freedom and stability, their position can become the basis for a Republican foreign policy that rejects isolationism and embraces US leadership in world affairs as the only way to secure the US and strengthen its embattled allies.
In other words, like Voight, Santorum’s support for Israel is rooted in his concern about America, and its future. Like Voight, Santorum recognizes that the growing penchant among elite opinion shapers to ignore truth in the pursuit of moral relativism and fake sophistication or isolationism constitutes a danger to America.
UPDATE 5:55 PM
Unfortunately, Santorum's trip left much to be desired. Please make sure to read the comments below as well.
Labels: Caroline Glick, Evangelical Christians, Jon Voight, RIck Santorum
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:45 PM
4 Comments:
Voight is also man who is able to recognize and acknowledge when he has been wrong. And he would never NOT do what is right for fear of losing an Emmy. In other words, he's a man of conviction.
What a coincidence! Just yesterday, we at JewishIsrael.com published a similar article:
Tell It to Jackie Mason: Hamas is No Laughing Matter for Some Liberal Jewish Comediennes
Regarding Santorum, read the fine print:
George Bush Joins the Lineup of Illustrious Christian "Friends of Israel" Who Support Efforts to Convert Jews
Avraham Leibler
Administrative Director
JewishIsrael.com and on Facebook
Jon Voight is truly a righteous gentile and deserves a major shout-out.
BUT Santorum was in Israel accompanied by some pretty notorious Christian missionaries, one of whom just took advantage of a loophole in Israel's Law of Return in order to make aliyah with his family as Christians.
Santorum has also appeared as a keynote speaker at the annual conference of the
Messianic Jewish Alliance of America.
Don't know why Caroline Glick chooses to ignore this stuff.
Jewish Israel and Ellen,
I was not aware of that. I am revising this post to take note of it. Thanks for writing.
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