Metropolitan Opera
accused of 'promoting terrorists'
'It's the same as in the days of Hitler'
Leon Klinghoffer
The famed Metropolitan Opera
is being accused of promoting propaganda and terrorism in its new
production portraying the death of businessman Leon Klinghoffer, who was shot
and killed by Palestinian Islamic terrorists aboard the Achille Lauro in 1985.
There already have been protests over the “The Death of
Klinghoffer,” and the Boston Symphony
Orchestra canceled a scheduled performance because of claims the opera was
sympathetic to Islamic terror.
A statement by Metropolitan Opera Director Peter Gelb calls
the show composer John Adams’ “greatest operatic composition.” In a statement
for the press he said the opera is
“high art.” WND calls requesting additional comment were not
returned.
But Laurie Cardoza-Moore, president of Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, says there’s no question
about intent of the work.
“It’s absolutely insulting to have an opera promote
propaganda and to use the arts to promote the terrorists’ cause. It’s even more
insulting that this show would attempt to show a moral equivalence between the
Israelis and the Palestinians,” Cardoza-Moore said.
She calls it a “horrifying” production that glamorizes
Palestinian terrorism.
“A group of terrorists took over the ship and openly shot
and killed Leon Klinghoffer, a man who was paralyzed and in a wheelchair,” she
said. “There is no reasonable comparison between terrorists and the Israelis.
This is especially true when the terrorists’ victim was openly shot in the
head. He was a handicapped Jewish American man.”
Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, president of the Israel Independence Fund, has organized protests for the Coalition to Stop the Klinghoffer Opera.
“It’s a gross glorification of terrorism and a horrible
attempt to bring about the moral equivalence between terrorists and all of
Western civilization. We don’t just need all Jews to be outraged by this, we
need Christians, too,” Wiesenfeld said.
Klinghoffer was the wheelchair-bound Jewish businessman who
was shot to death and thrown from the Italian Achille Lauro cruise ship during
a 1985 terrorist attack carried out by the Palestine Liberation Front.
One analyst suggested the terror attack was carried about because the
Palestinian terrorists were motivated by visions of a rich lifestyle.
But others conclude the opera production
simply reveals pro-Palestinian sympathies.
“The words in the show absolutely try to make the audience
feel sympathy for the terrorists. Just read the libretto and you see how the
music is presented. The words and music actually cause the audience members to
feel compassion for the terrorists,” Cardoza-Moore said.
The libretto by Alice Goodman opens with a child-like voice
singing: “My father’s house was razed in 1948 when the Israelis passed over our
street.”
Later in the program, a Palestinian character named Molqi
claims, “We are men of ideas.”
In an editorial, the New York
Daily News said a “terrorist sings of how his father was decapitated
in an infamous massacre in Lebanon.”
“He intimates that Israelis committed the killings even
though Christian Arabs had carried them out, a fact never related to the
audience.”
Cardoza-Moore noted a New York protest over the opera brought 2,000 people together.
“They canceled the production in London because of the
protests and the fear of the spread of anti-Semitism. I’m hoping that the
Metropolitan Opera will follow the example and lead of the London opera
company,” she said.
The New York Times, however, wrote that the “show must go
on.”
“The Met’s board of directors and Peter Gelb, its general
manager, are entirely correct in insisting the opera must proceed as planned
next month,” the Times editorial said.
But there have been signs that Cardoza-Moore views as positive.
Lori Lowenthal Marcus reported at JewishPress.com that
the Anti-Defamation League met with the Metropolitan Opera about the
production.
The Times of Israel then reported
fear of rising anti-Semitism prompted the Met to cancel its worldwide radio
simulcast of the production.
Other critics say that’s not enough, and Cardoza-Moore said
she sees an unfortunate symmetry with the production and Nazi Germany.
“It’s the same as in the days of Hitler. Historically we
know that Adolf
Hitler used the arts to promote
his Nazi and anti-Jewish agenda,” she said. “It’s unthinkable in a time when
we’re seeing a rising anti-Semitism around the world. Christians are being
slaughtered worldwide and the Jews are being persecuted. Then we have the
Metropolitan Opera allowing this production to go on.”
Wiesenfeld is staying his course, with another rally planned
for the opera’s opening day, Oct. 20, at 6 p.m. at the Lincoln Center.
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was
the leader of the Nazi Party, and
the fuhrer for Germany.
Note:
Nazi Party was
a political party in Germany.
Richard R. Burt
was a U.S. ambassador for Germany, and
is a director at the Atlantic Council of
the United States (think tank).
Rozanne L. Ridgway
was a U.S. ambassador for Germany, and
a co-chair for the Atlantic Council of
the United States (think tank).
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
(think tank).
George Soros is the
founder & chairman for the Open
Society Foundations, and was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote
Open Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), the International Rescue Committee, the Aspen Institute (think tank), the Roosevelt Institute, and the Brookings Institution (think tank).
John C. Whitehead
is a director at the Atlantic Council of
the United States (think tank), an overseer at the International Rescue Committee, an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and
was a director at the Lincoln Center
Theater.
Frederick J.
Iseman is an overseer at the International
Rescue Committee, a managing director for the Metropolitan Opera, and a trustee at the Carnegie Hall.
Adrienne Arsht is
a director at the Atlantic Council of
the United States (think tank), a director at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and was the chair for the Metropolitan Opera.
Marina Kellen
French is a director at the Lincoln
Center for the Performing Arts, and the president & CEO for the Metropolitan
Opera.
Tamsen Ann Ziff
is the vice chair for the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the chair
for the Metropolitan Opera, and a trustee at the Carnegie Hall.
Mercedes T. Bass
is the vice chair for the Metropolitan Opera, a trustee at the Carnegie
Hall, a trustee at the Aspen
Institute (think tank), and was married to
Sid R. Bass.
Henry Louis
Gates Jr. is a trustee at the Aspen
Institute (think tank), a director at the Lincoln Center Theater, and was an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
James C. Slaughter
was a managing director at the Metropolitan Opera, and a trustee at the Carnegie
Hall.
Andrew Carnegie
was the founder of the Carnegie Hall,
and the founder of the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank).
Jessica Tuchman Mathews is the president of the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank), a director at the American
Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), was an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference
participant (think tank).
Ed Griffin’s interview with Norman Dodd in 1982
(The investigation into the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace uncovered the plans for population control by involving the United States
in war)
Alger Hiss was the president of the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace (think tank), and attended the Yalta Conference with
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR).
Alger Hiss, (born
November 11, 1904, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.—died November 15, 1996, New York, New York), former U.S. State
Department official who was convicted in January 1950 of perjury concerning his dealings with Whittaker Chambers, who accused him of
membership in a communist espionage ring. His case, which came at a time
of growing apprehension about the domestic influence of communism, seemed to
lend substance to Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s sensational charges of
communist infiltration into the State Department. It also brought to national
attention Richard M. Nixon, then a U.S. representative
from California, who was prominent in the investigation that led to the
indictment of Hiss.
Franklin
Delano Roosevelt attended the Yalta Conference with Alger Hiss, was the president for the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration,
and his granddaughter is Laura Delano
Roosevelt.
Laura Delano
Roosevelt is Franklin Delano
Roosevelt’s granddaughter, and a governor for the Roosevelt Institute.
Schuyler G.
Chapin was a governor for the Roosevelt
Institute, and a general manager for the Metropolitan Opera.
Jonathan Soros is
a senior fellow at the Roosevelt
Institute, and George Soros’s
son.
George Soros is Jonathan Soros’s father, William D.
Zabel was his divorce lawyer
and was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Roosevelt Institute, the Human
Rights First, and the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
William D. Zabel
is the chair for Human Rights First,
was George Soros’s divorce lawyer, a trustee at the Foundation to
Promote Open Society, and a director at the Lincoln Center Theater.
Mark A. Angelson
was a director at the Human Rights First, and a partner at Sidley Austin LLP.
R. Eden Martin is
counsel at Sidley Austin LLP, and
the president of the Commercial Club of
Chicago.
Newton N. Minow is
a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, and a senior counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP.
Michelle Obama
was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.
Barack Obama was an
intern at Sidley Austin LLP.
James D. Zirin is
a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP,
married to Marlene Hess, and a
director at the Human Rights First.
Marlene Hess is
married to James D. Zirin, a
director at the Lincoln Center Theater, a managing director at the Metropolitan Opera, and a leader’s council member for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
Anne H. Bass is a leader’s
council member for the Breast Cancer
Research Foundation, and was married to Sid R. Bass.
Sid R. Bass was
married to Anne H. Bass, and married
to Mercedes T. Bass.
Mercedes T. Bass
was married to Sid R. Bass, is a
trustee at the Aspen Institute (think
tank), the vice chair for the Metropolitan
Opera, and a trustee
at the Carnegie Hall.
Memrie M. Lewis
is a director at the Lincoln Center Theater, and a leader’s council member for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
Audrey Butvay
Gruss is a director at the Lincoln Center
for the Performing Arts, and a leader’s council member for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
Daisy M. Soros was
a director at the Lincoln Center for the
Performing Arts, is a leader’s council member for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and George Soros’s sister-in-law.
George Soros is Daisy M. Soros’s brother-in-law, and the
founder & chairman for the Open
Society Foundations.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Atlantic Council of the United
States (think tank).
John C. Whitehead
is a director at the Atlantic Council of
the United States (think tank), an overseer at the International Rescue Committee, an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and
was a director at the Lincoln Center
Theater.
Richard R. Burt
is a director at the Atlantic Council of
the United States (think tank), and was a U.S. ambassador for Germany.
Rozanne L. Ridgway
was a co-chair for the Atlantic Council
of the United States (think tank), and a U.S. ambassador for Germany.
Nazi Party was a political
party in Germany.
Adolf Hitler was
the leader of the Nazi Party, and
the fuhrer for Germany.
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