Buchanan points to the Jews (surprise) and other Da Vinci doings

By Lee Russ

Tuesday, May 16, 2006 at 04:04 PM

Never at a loss for a way to connect a controversy to one of his pet peeves/bigotries, Pat Buchanan has actually decided that the fact that The Da Vinci Code has been produced is a sure sign of the power that Jews wield in our culture:

From WHOSE GOD MAY WE MOCK?,  by Pat Buchanan
May 15, 2006

....
Last February, British historian David Irving, whose books on World War II have sold in the millions, was convicted in an Austrian court of Holocaust denial and sentenced to three years in prison. His crime: In two speeches in Austria in 1989, Irving asserted there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz. Though he recanted in court, it did not save him. Prosecutors felt his sentence was too light.

Karen Pollock of Great Britain's Holocaust Education Trust applauded the verdict: "Holocaust denial is anti-Semitism dressed up as intellectual debate. It should be regarded as such and treated as such."

In nine countries of Europe, Holocaust denial is a crime. In the United States, to deny the Holocaust happened or suggest that it has been exaggerated is not a crime, but marks one down as a social leper.

If you would know who wields cultural power, ask yourself: Whom is it impermissible to offend? Thus the hoopla attending the release of "The Da Vinci Code," based on the Dan Brown novel that has sold 7 million copies in the United States, tells us something about whose God it is permissible to mock and whose faith one is allowed to assault.
....
Putting "The Da Vinci Code" on film, with what it alleges about the Catholic Church, is the moral equivalent of making a movie based on the "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and implying this is the truth about the Jewish plot to control the world. One imagines Ron Howard and Tom Hanks would take a pass on that script.

Just how obsessed with Jews do you have to be to get that out of the fact that The Da Vinci Code was published and produced? On the other hand, this is remarkably consistent with Buchanan's general antipathy to Jews (and abiding moderation for several aspects of Hitler) as shown by this Middle Tennessee State U posting of mtl from FAIR:

Buchanan referred to Capitol Hill as "Israeli-occupied territory."
(St. Louis Post Dispatch, 10/20/90)

     During the Gulf crisis: "There are only two groups that are beating the drums for war in the Middle East -- the Israeli defense ministry and
its 'amen corner' in the United States." McLaughlin Group," 8/26/90)

     In a 1977 column, Buchanan said that despite Hitler's anti-Semitic and genocidal tendencies, he was "an individual of great courage...Hitler's
success was not based on his extraordinary gifts alone. His genius was an intuitive sense of the mushiness, the character flaws, the weakness
masquerading as morality that was in the hearts of the statesmen who stood in his path." (The Guardian, 1/14/92)
...
  Buchanan was vehement in pushing President Reagan -- despite protests -- to visit Germany's Bitburg cemetery, where Nazi SS troops were buried. At a White House meeting, Buchanan reportedly reminded Jewish leaders that they were "Americans first" -- and repeatedly scrawled the phrase "Succumbing to the pressure of the Jews" in his notebook.  Buchanan was credited with crafting Ronald Reagan's line that the SS troops buried at Bitburg were "victims just as surely as the victims in the concentration
camps." (New York Times, 5/16/85; New Republic, 1/22/96)

     After Cardinal O'Connor criticized anti-Semitism during the controversy over construction of a convent near Auschwitz, Buchanan wrote:
"If U.S. Jewry takes the clucking appeasement of the Catholic cardinalate as indicative of our submission, it is mistaken. When Cardinal O'Connor of New York seeks to soothe the always irate Elie Wiesel by reassuring him 'there are many Catholics who are anti-Semitic'...he speaks for himself. Be not afraid, Your Eminence; just step aside, there are bishops and priests ready to assume the role of defender of the faith." (New Republic, 10/22/90)

     The Buchanan '96 campaign's World Wide Web site included an article blaming the death of White House aide Vincent Foster on the Israeli
intelligence agency, Mossad -- and alleging that Foster and Hillary Clinton were Mossad spies. (The campaign removed the article after its
existence was reported by a Jewish on-line news service; Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 2/21/96.)

While I'm on the subject of The Da Vinci Code, a very cursory internet news search today turned up the following:

Places where Christians are agitating to ban and/or censor The Da Vinci Code:
Korea
India
Phillipines
Thailand

In Azerbaijan, Muslims are "protesting" the Da Vinci Code.

Greek Orthodox are "protesting" it in Greece.

According to the WaPo:

At the Vatican, language from some church leaders has been equally strong. Last month, powerful Archbishop Angelo Amato, the second-ranking official in the Vatican's Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, said Catholics should "should boycott 'The Da Vinci Code' and speak out against it and reject its lies against the church." Soon after, highly visible Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze said Christians should consider "legal means" against the film and the book, though he did not elaborate.

I can't even bring myself to get into the fact that albinos are protesting the fact that the movie's main villain is an albino monk.

Just as the silly Muslim protests of the Muhammad cartoons resulted in exponentially more people seeing the cartoons, I hope this absurdity over The Da Vinci Code results in a far bigger audience for the movie.