After the introduction by festival organizer Govindi Murty (video), Dennis Prager takes the stage (video) at the Harmony Gold Preview House at 7655 Sunset Blvd.
(The sound quality on my videos is good but the picture quality sucks because I have horizontal roll so bad on my viewfinder that I don’t use it, and thus much of the time, the people I’m pointing my camera at don’t even show up on my video. To fix my camera would mean losing it to repairs for a month and I have too much work I have to do with it on a regular basis. Normally my camera work is not this bad.)
"It’s very intimidating to speak to people who like you," says Prager. "You feel like you can only disappoint them.
"The last time I spoke in Hollywood, it was for a film festival. They invited me on a lark to be on a panel with three liberal-left critics and it was to analyze the film, ‘The Making of Deep Throat.’"
Actually, the film analyzed that night was Inside Deep Throat.
The panel discussion was moderated by Peter Bart and the panelists, in addition to Prager, were Arianna Huffington, Lawrence O’Donnell, and Richard Schickel (pictures).
Richard Schickel is no liberal.
"When I was introduced, everybody booed. I felt great. I figured I can’t get any lower."
"An audience of men and women watching fellatio, does that strike anybody as a decline in our culture? I said that and the audience, it was as if I started speaking sanskrit. The concept of elevating culture…"
At the time, I remember Prager saying on the radio that the 30 seconds of fellatio in that documentary were necessary and that Inside Deep Throat was a good and important film.
"To not have one film celebrating what is happening [in Iraq]…"
"Dialogue is very difficult in America and it is not because of us [conservatives]… We do not have something comparable to this — the utter dismissal of the human who makes the other argument. When I read a critique of David Horowitz from the left, it is of David, and not of what he wrote or said.
"I get the same thing. Periodically, [Prager Googles himself]. Just Google ‘Dennis Prager asshole’ and you get between 12,000 to 39,000 hits."
I just Googled: ""Dennis Prager" asshole" and got 4,330 returns. Googling "Dennis Prager asshole" gets 4,500 results.
According to Prager, this type of character assassination is the province of the left.
I Googled ""John Kerry" asshole" and got 136,000 results. Googling ""Bill Clinton" asshole" brings 196,000 results. Googling ""Al Franken" asshole" brings 70,900 results.
By this measure that Prager recommends, there is more personal invective slung against the left than the right.
I am sure Dennis Prager would get the same number of asshole results wherever he was on the political spectrum.
"There is no dialogue of ideas. Only defamation of character."
"There is one blog by a Jewish guy who particularly hates me. He’s a member of some thinktank on the Jewish left. He wrote, ‘Dennis Prager is a fraud. He claims to keep kosher but I have seen him on multiple occasions eating pork.’
"I haven’t seen me eating pork on multiple occasions. I’ve never seen this guy. It’s a pure lie."
I don’t know who Prager is referring to and I can’t find the blog post in question.
"I am not a believe that in the end the truth wins. I don’t know."
The first film screened is "The Road to Jenin." The second one is The Making of a Martyr.
Near the beginning is close tight lingering shot of blue jean clad bottom of filmmaker and human rights attorney Brooke Goldstein, a 24-year old fine looking blonde.
She walks into this Israeli prison for terrorists wearing tight jeans and a sleeveless top. The terrorists must’ve thought they’d died and gone to heaven.
I know I did.
On October 16, Prager had Brooke on his radio show.
After the screenings, Prager had a dialogue with her.
Check out the video.
When she sits down, Brooke’s short tight skirt hitches a foot above her knee.
Good times.
I never knew fighting terrorism could be so erotic.
I know it is generally bad form to comment on a woman’s looks when she’s engaged in serious endeavors, but Brooke dresses provocatively and thus asks for this sort of feedback.
Dennis: "The woman…who blew herself up in the pizza parlor in Israel [the first female Palestinian suicide bomber] was a strikingly beautiful woman. She could’ve been a model or actress in Western society… The fascinating thing was…the throwaway line was that she was miserable and divorced because she couldn’t have children, as though that makes perfect sense in Palestinian society.
"If you were to ask me why I was pessimistic about Palestinian society and much of the Muslim Middle East, I’d probably point to that as much as any factor, that in the 21st Century a woman could be divorced for not having children and it being understood by the society."
Brooke (who is a dual Canadian and American citizen): "When we were talking to her mom off-camera, and what came through was a more accurate version of the story. Not only was she divorced, she was also an adulteress. She was threatened with an honor killing…and had to choose between a rock and a hard spot. Am I going to go down in shame or am I going to do something that would raise my family’s head high? She chose the latter."
Dennis: "Why didn’t you include that in the film?"
Brooke: "We weren’t 100% sure and did not want to propagate any myths."
Dennis: "You were surprised at how bad things were?"
Brooke: "Absolutely."
"I risked my own life to speak to these people because I couldn’t comprehend how a mother could send her own child to die. I had to see for myself. I didn’t go in to the West Bank to make a film. I intended to get a series of depositions. I was a law student and wanted to collect evidence of a crime against children, inciting them to become suicide bombers.
"I came out with 82 hours of interviews. I showed it to a filmmaker friend. They said, ‘You have a great film here.’"
Dennis: "There is a naivete in the West about evil generally and the love of death that permeates parts of the Arab world. It’s hard not to believe that underneath it all, we’re all the same. But we’re not all the same. You’ve been sobered by this?"
Brooke: "Absolutely. I’m a bit more of a pessimist now."
Dennis: "For the females [suicide bombers], it’s more to escape life and for the males, it is more to get the rewards of death."
Brooke: "There’s a trend of marginalization. The cool kids are never the ones to die. They’re used to recruit the loser kids. …It’s their way of fitting in. It’s their way of becoming a hero."
Dennis: "What’s despairing is not just the celebration of death but the lying."
Brooke: "The only way we are going to find a consensus between Muslims and non-Muslims, between left and right, is when we focus on the children. Everyone should agree that a child, a Muslim child, is an innocent party. If we can’t come to that conclusion, I have no hope for the future. Even when I spoke to Palestinian adults who were otherwise OK with suicide terror against the Israeli civilian population, were not OK with the use of young children as suicide bombers. If we put a plebiscite, if we empowered Palestinian mothers so they would feel free to speak out, they’d say they do not support these tactics."
A big Australian lady yells: "Their mentality is so different, we have to admit it’s different."
Brooke: "A base consensus can be found when you focus on children."
Woman: "No! Look at your film."
Brooke: "Of course Palestinian children are innocent. That’s their cause… When you confront the United Nations which claims to be the protector of Palestinian children, surely you are outraged by the premeditated murder of these children by their own community, there is no way they are going to publicly…"
Woman: "You are projecting yourself onto them… You are still a naive Westener."
Brooke: "I’ve spoken to the parents. Them telling me they have a problem with the use of their own children. It may be a fringe minority that agrees children are innocent…"
Dennis: "I agree with their passion and I thank you for your film."
"Those [Palestinian] mothers who lament the death of their 13 year old also lament the death of their 30 year old son or daughter. The age does not make them lament less. As the parent of children running from 30 to 13, no parent thinks that way."
"If you don’t care about the murder of Jewish 12 year olds, it is unlikely that the age of innocents will bother you."
The audience shouts questions. Video
Question: "During the filmmaking process, did you ever state you were American?"
Brooke: "No."
"They love Canadians."
Question: "Was there any time you feared for your life?"
Brooke: "Yeah. The entire time. I was hanging out with people who have no scruples. They kill young children. They kidnapp journalists. I was terrified."
Later, Dennis: "I would ask you and everyone else to never say, ‘Every Muslim.’ We need to choose our words carefully to be effective. Once you say, ‘Every,’ the good guys are doomed."
"Here is my problem with the contemporary Islamic world — the silence that has greeted the slaughters. It is more depressing than the slaughters."
Brooke: "What I found troubling was that the kids [Palestinian terrorists in Israeli jails] were allowed to watch PA TV (Palestinian Authority television) while in jail. They each have TVs in their cells."
Dennis: "It’s because liberal thought is dominant in Israel too."
Brooke: "You feel Hassam [the 15yo terrorist and focus of her documentary] deserves to be detained for the rest of his life. He’s a victim. These kids are not criminals. They don’t deserve to spend their formative years in jail."
Audience member yells: "They’re murderers!"
Brooke: "They’re victims."
Audience member: "They’re murderers!"
Brooke: "They’re children."
Dennis hushes the crowd. "We’ve got the point. They are murderers but she’s saying they’re brain-washed murderers."
"In the final analysis, the imprisonment of this boy is the fault of Palestinian authority just like the Japanese who died at Hiroshima and Nagasaki died because of the Hirohito regime."
"A Jew who cannnot hear a Christian say, ‘We’d like you to convert’ is a wimp."
"Ann Coulter said the world would be better if the Muslim world woke up tomorrow Christian. I can’t understand why that is even debatable."
"I don’t have a porcupine in this sanitarium. Morally speaking, at this time, the Christian world is on a higher moral plane than the Islamic world. Nobody nurtures this hatred in the Christian world."
There are no Palestinian Christian suicide bombers.
"On Sunday night in San Antonio, Texas, I spoke to 5,000 Christians at the Cornerstone church of Pastor John Hagee and they raised $8 million dollars for Israeli [charities]. The Reform rabbi in San Antonio would not show up because he differs with them on same-sex marriage."
Brooke: "When I said that not every Palestinian mother wanted her children to become suicide bombers, I was called naive."
Dennis: "No, no. You were called naive for another reason, that because they care about 10 year olds is a glimmer of hope for the future."
Brooke: "We as Westeners have to empower these Muslims. Look what we’ve done with Irshad Manji."
