Mel Gibson's Rant : an "oops", or heinous hate crime?

"The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world" - Mel Gibson

First off, we have to recognize one thing: anti-semitic rants are not cool. There seems to be a universally understood and implied "hands off" when it comes to even well-intentioned, good natured criticiques of Jewish culture or the Jewish state of Israel. Unrepentant racists in distinctive garb who blather on about Jews being an inferior people immediately spawn that hateful burn inside most of our insides. You know the feeling? That feeling that you sincerely wished those *$#@ bigots would choke on a chicken bone at their next Klan dinner. I hate anti-semites (can't even bring myself to capitalize it, even though its a proper noun). I hate them with that hatred that only love understands (Tennyson).

Well along comes Mel.

Mel had a few things going against him last Friday:

• He had a lot to drink. He was apparently in the same league as Boris Yeltsin.
• He has an ego. A huge Hollywood ego that renders him beyond reproach. For a police officer to question him would be like me questioning Stephen Hawking's scientific theories.
• And, yes, he was pissed off.
  

In many people, there is an "asshole switch". With some, getting cut off in traffic engages the switch. In others, getting nudged in a busy street flips the switch. Gandhi's switch was defective. Mel's switch was flicked on that fateful night, he found himself in "asshole mode". When you're in asshole-mode your mission is to say anything to provoke your antagonist, you really want to fry his bacon. There's not much you can say to a cop to raise his brow, so he chose the anti-jew rant. Bad bad choice. No question.

So that was then, this is now. Mel claims to be profoundly apologetic. He seems sincere, keeping in mind that he is a professional actor. But what now? I did try to get official Israeli-Jewish opinion on this, but Jewish news sources are focusing on the Hezbollah conflict, and rightly so. So there wasn't much there, not even in the Jerusalem Post.

But I'm not seeing a huge outrage. Neither has former AOL Time Warner Vice-Chairman Merv Adelman who is trying to manufacture one with an expensive quarter- page ad in the LA Times. Spielberg and Katzenberg have been silent.

So here's my prediction:

1. Mel WILL check himself into rehab
2. Mel will make some sort of appearance at a Jewish institution, like a Synagogue, or the Wiesenthal Center.
   
3. Mell will appear on the major news/interview shows like Dateline and 20/20 and be very candid.
   
4. Mel will donate a sizable amount to a Jewish charity.

These may or may not occur in this order, but you heard it here first folks.