Seems that a group of Hollywood folks have gone off to Iran to make nice with fellow filmmakers. Iranian filmmakers are hoping to use this opportunity to expose them to Iranian films.
The Hollywood folks probably expected to sit and sing a round of Kumbaya. Instead they Iranian government demanded an apology for films that insulted Iran. Among those films was one about an American woman married to an Iranian man. The mother had to smuggle her daughter out of Iran when the Iranians would not let her leave with her. It's a true story... but I won't be surprised if the Hollywood delegation apologizes for it.
The attack on American films did not seem to phase some of the filmmakers. Phil Alden Robinson, director and writer of Field of Dreams, who rather dreamily declared that "today is my birthday and I cannot think of any other place I wanted to be other than here."
The NYTimes placed the story of the Hollywood folks' visit next to an article about an NPR reporter who has been arrested and detained by the Iranians. As of this morning nothing has been heard from her.
Did/ will the filmmakers ask about her?
Did/ will they make it clear that everything about their profession calls for freedom of creativity and freedom of the press?
Did/ will they even mention her?
Did/ will they say that nothing will change as long as Iran is one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists?
I predict that they will return full of rapture for Iran and the wonderful country that it is. They will probably suggest we should ignore the Holocaust denial and threats against Israel and antisemitism that spews forth from that country. [And the open attacks on homosexuals.]
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I was in Iran, in Teheran, in 1969. Took a ferry boat from Baku in USSR to Pahlavi on the Caspian Sea. Then took bus to Teheran City. Slept on some rooftop of a youth hostel hotel in the city. Backpacker I was. 1969.
I think the Hwood delegation will return with good insights into the regime there and they will not return as traitors. They know what they are doing. Don't always be so negative, Deborah. Look at life in a postiive way sometimes, too. SMILE.
I guess Dan is still living in the sixties, which would be before Iran's Islamic Revolution. I guess he hasn't seen the present day photographs of "dissidents" and homosexuals hanging from construction cranes. How else could anyone make such condescending and infantile suggestions?
The sixties are over, man. The "Peace Train" was decommissioned the day Cat Stevens became a Muslim.
"Merriment is for fools and children." -Yiddish proverb
HockeyHound: Mea gulpa: I am still living in the 60s. My bad.
But I am also living in the year 2099, see here: "Virtual Graduation Speech to the Class of 2099" -- just googgle it and you will see. Time moves on, sir.
And yes, I was in Iran pre Rev. Sad place now I agree. But wait until the H-wood delegation returns before we judge them, that is all i am saying.
Shoot first and then ask quesions? Let's wait and see. That's all I am saying, not give peace a chance.....haha
"But wait until the H-wood delegation returns before we judge them..."
I thought this statement was a jest when I first read it, but now I see you are serious. Let me guess (before anyone upbraids you for naivete), you've been "debunking Holocaust deniers for decades" also. Thankfully the West has more reliable intelligence sources than "H-wood".
Did I say "shoot first and ask then ask questions"? That statement is presumptuous to the point of being an insouciant and denigrative generalization of anyone who is wary of Iran's whack-job of a leader. And being wary of this Iranian president is a reasonable prudence in light of his anti-Jewish statements and not so covert references to an intended genocide against the Jews of Israel.
The only people who will be changed after their return from Iran are the H-wood delegation, and that change will be nothing more than a fawning approval of Iran's nuclear program, like the world's not dangerous enough right now. This whack-job president will hate Jews long after H-wood leaves and he will dream even more fervently of killing the Jews of Israel. Why should you be concerned, right? You don't live in Israel, right? The Jews of Israel are expendable so long as we have hugs all around with this evil bastard, right? Nothing changes.
HH, you are NOT listening to me or even reading what I write. How can we have a discussion here if you do not listen. You are a bit of a whackjob yourself, my dear Canuck!
Dr. Lipstadt,
There was an interesting article in the New York Times last week about the condition of the Jewish community in Iran.
I was surprised you didn't post on it. It provoked letters to the editor for several days because in tone and substance it gave a more or less positive view of Tehran. It reminded me a lot of what's above.
No opinion myself. I just thought it was right up your alley.
Did you see it?
Okay, actually I do have an opinion. In the 1930's platoons of American journalists and literati made pilgrimages to Moscow and came back glowing with excitement.
Looking at the above not much has changed. Here's the quote that sums up the whole problem of the chattering class when it faces totalitariamism. Bernard Baruch met Lincoln Steffens just after his visit, Bernard said,
"So you've been over into Russia?" said Bernard Baruch, and I (Steffens) answered very literally, "I have been over into the future and it works”
...and it works. No it didn't. No it doesn't. No it never will.
"You are a bit of a whackjob yourself, my dear Canuck!"
If you're going to call me names, at least give reasons for your calumny. Otherwise your statements infer a lack of intellect.
"But wait until the H-wood delegation returns before we judge them, that is all i am saying."
I'm reading here. So what are you saying? I'm saying I don't base my opinion of Iran's president simply on the whimsical imaginations of mere Hollywood actors. I base my opinion on what this whack-job president has already declared to the world by way of his threats against the Jews of Israel.
By the way, the Iranian government has accused the Hollywood establishment of misrepresenting the Iranian people. I find this ironic, even hypocritical, coming from a government and a [predominantly Muslim] people who insist the Holocaust is a myth.
'Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at a news conference in Saudi Arabia, denied that the Holocaust happened. "Some European countries insist on saying that Hitler killed millions of innocent Jews in furnaces," Mr. Ahmadinejad said. "We don't accept this claim," the Iranian president said, adding that if Europeans want to believe in the Holocaust, then they should make room for the state of Israel to move to Europe.'-voanews.com
Drat It Deborah, you've just exposed the plot of an film script I'm working on. It concerns a boy Holocaust victim who bunked in Buchenwald with the worlds leading nuclear physicist, who whispered to him before he died the secret formulae for the X-bomb, with instructions to deliver it to Israel. When the SS guards were not about this boy managed to pass the formulae over the fence to a girl who provided him with apples. If he survived they both agreed to meet on top of the Empire State Building, but whilst on the way to this meeting they were both kidnapped by DOH?, the non-de-plume of an enemy group working for the Iranian Secret Service, taken to Iran our hero was tortured by having a cupful of cold water thrown in his face, this forced him to reveal all and to co-operate, forsaking all others including his friends and comrades he then settled down to a life of luxury in Iran with Apple Annie. The film makers you mention are in Iran looking for locations for this film. So far the Iranians have refused to let them use their nations mammoth nuclear facilities, they have denied they exist and claim the spy sattelite photos that they've got from the CIA of them are water treatmant plants. Any help you can give on publishing this book would be appreciated. Do you think Harris Salomon would be interested?
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