The Toronto Film Festival opened on Thursday with an outcry against the fest’s City to City program, which spotlights Tel Aviv this year. Some prominent names in the industry — including Harry Belafonte, Jane Fonda, Julie Christie and Viggo Mortensen — are protesting the inclusion in light of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. One filmmaker, John Greyson, withdrew his doc “Covered” in protest, although the group, led by writer Naomi Klein, says that their protest is not a boycott. Their letter is called “The Toronto Declaration — No Celebration of Occupation.”

I will admit he is a good actor, since watching him as Aragorn, one could be convinced he is a hero.

Meanwhile, some other celebrities have joined Jon Voight in speaking out against this anti-Israel protest.

TORONTO, Sept. 10 /CNW/ – Leading members of the film industry are speaking out against the group that opposes the Toronto International Film Festival’s spotlight on Tel Aviv. Judging films, they say, by their country of origin rather than the quality of the artistic product, is censorship. “I am against censorship in all its forms. The attempts to stop TIFF’s City to City spotlight on Tel Aviv amount to political censorship. I am against it.” David Cronenberg, Filmmaker.

“Empowered groups of people, deciding whose stories can, and cannot be told, does nothing but remind us of oppression that has no place in film-making.” Minnie Driver, Actor.

“The recent attack on Israeli films at TIFF is an attempt to politicize art. It has been demonstrated that in Israel, artists are free to create work, which often is critical of their own society. “Waltz with Bashir” was nominated for an Academy Award last year, despite its criticism of Israeli government policy. This recent attempt at political censorship smacks of anti-Semitic bigotry. Let’s keep political hatred out of the artistic community. Artists should treat each other with respect and support regardless of religion, colour, or nationality. You can have a great career and become a Hollywood legend – but there’s a spirit of humanity and caring for others – that we are honouring tonight and we thank you for coming to Toronto.” Norman Jewison, Filmaker.

“Israel is the only country in the Middle East where films are made without censorship of any sort. Films that are critical of the country, or some aspect of Israeli society, even the Israel Defense Forces, are made freely, without interference and with the State’s financial support. Witness last year’s Academy Award nominated Waltz With Bashir, which, despite its ferocious criticism of Israel, was largely funded by the Israel Film fund, a government agency. The attack on TIFF is a vile attempt by a gang of fashionable bigots to use coercive tactics to stifle voices they don’t like. These are not crusaders for justice. If they were, they would be alarmed by films from countries like Malaysia (where a woman gets lashes for wearing trousers), China and Iran where civil liberties are in short supply. But these vigilantes have no stomach for standing up to ruthless totalitarian regimes. They prefer to wage their crusade against a tried and tested target: Jews. Today, Jewish filmmakers from Tel Aviv get their turn. Their brand of political censorship is at odds with the most cherished values of Canadian society: Freedom of expression and freedom of choice. Bigotry like theirs has no place at the Toronto International Film Festival.” Robert Lantos, Filmmaker.

“Film is essentially about telling global stories – of exploring the complexities and contradictions of the human condition. Any attempt to silence that conversation – to hijack the festival for any political agenda in the end, only serves to silence artistic voices.” Ivan Reitman, Filmmaker.

“Back in the early 1970’s when I was performing at the newly founded Theatre Passe Muraille, Toronto Free Theatre and Factory Lab Theatre, Toronto police had what was called a “Morality Squad” to protect the population from unseemly material. I remember an early production by playwright Hrant Alianak was seen by the squad and deemed unworthy of public performance. They threatened that if the show wasn’t closed immediately, the next night anyone onstage could be arrested and charged – and so over fifty well-known Toronto artists like Pierre Berton sat on the stage the next night and dared the police to arrest them. That night effectively ended the power of Toronto’s Morality Squad. Censorship has reared its ugly head now and again, against all kinds of art, for all kinds of reasons. The reasons invariably suit only the agenda of the one doing the censoring – as if the same specious logic couldn’t be turned on them one day.” Saul Rubinek, Actor and Director.

“The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has been hijacked by a group of so-called activists bent on furthering their agenda – to demonize Jews and to marginalize Israel, in order to bring about the destruction of the Jewish State. Clearly, they do not support a two state solution. By objecting to a “spotlight” on Tel Aviv they are saying that no place in Israel is legitimate. From their twisted perspective, everything that Israel does is – by definition – illegitimate and everything that the enemies of Israel do is – by definition – legitimate. This is anti-Semitism in its crudest form. Furthermore, they have chosen to align themselves with Gaza’s Hamas regime that stands for terrorism, fundamentalism and totalitarianism. It is a Holocaust denying organization that is against Jews, Christians, gays and women. There is no worse regime in the world and yet Naomi Klein, John Greyson and company have chosen to identify themselves with it. You can tell a person by their friends.” Simcha Jacobovici, Filmmaker.

At the annual Likud party Rosh Hashana toast yesterday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said:

“We have proven that we desire peace and we are willing to compromise, but we will not be taken for fools.”

“One thing is clear – there is a government in Israel that bolsters security, that is leading the economy and that is pursuing a responsible peace process, while preserving Israel’s crucial interests.”

—-

“Jerusalem will remain united. And Israel’s capital forever.”

The Israeli people will not be taken for fools either, Mr Prime Minister. So please keep your actions consistent with your words.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

5:02PM: The IDF has stated that we hold the Lebanese government responsible.

And on that note, I have to log off and prepare for the Sabbath.

4:38PM: Three Katusha rockets fired from southern Lebanon reportedly struck northern Israel earlier this afternoon, with no reports of casualties but an electric tower being hit.

The IDF has fired artillery into southern Lebanon in response.

3:58PM: Speaking of Jane Fonda, she published my response to her protest in the comments on her blog. Unfortunately, there were a few Israeli commenters who actually agreed with her stance. There were also a couple of appearances from you-know-who, doing his best to bash Israel and his fellow Jews who support her.

Like this one:

Richard Silverstein says:
September 9, 2009 at 12:43 am

Sorry I clicked on the wrong reply button above & placed my comment in the wrong place.

Tel Aviv, likely the only city in the Middle East where being gay isn’t punishable by violence

Glenn, Glenn. How much do you know about Israel? You do realize that only a few wks ago a mass murderer decided to go on a shooting rampage in Tel Aviv & killed several gay teenagers & hasn’t yet been found by a police dept. not particulary known for their interest in solving crimes against gays.

Perhaps you’d like to rewrite yr comment to reflect reality, as opposed to yr own version of it.

And this one:

Richard Silverstein says:
September 9, 2009 at 12:39 am

Yours was a principled position and the fact that the right pro-Israel figures have resorted to twisting yr position out of context (or lying about it) isn’t surprising) since that’s how these people do their politics.

I’ve got news for you, Marvin Hier was only yr friend as long as you could do something for him. He’s a user. He used the lie that the Iranian parliament passed a law forcing Jews to wear a yellow start (a lie) to advance his own group’s anti-Semitism agenda. He is building a “Museum of Remembrance” on a Muslim cemetery in West Jerusalem thereby oblitering the memory of the Muslims buried within it.

Not a nice man. Not a good rabbinic model (& I am a proud American Jew btw).

Silverstein is anything but a proud American Jew and certain not in a position to accuse another of being “not a nice man.”

3:26PM: Actor Jon Voight has attacked Jane Fonda and company for their protest against the Toronto International Film Festival’s decision to hold the City to City Spotlight on Tel Aviv.

Actor Jon Voight said he was speaking out against an “evil, destructive force” in taking on his former co-star Jane Fonda and other high-profile protesters condemning the Toronto International Film Festival in a controversy involving Israel.

“What’s going on is they’re taking over the festival with this agenda that they have,” he said in an interview explaining his take on the controversy that threatens to overshadow the opening today of the 34th edition of the festival.

Last week a group of authors, academics and celebrities released The Toronto Declaration criticizing the festival’s decision to hold the City to City Spotlight on Tel Aviv, which highlights films from 10 Israeli directors. Among the signatories were Naomi Klein, Danny Glover and Jane Fonda, who starred with Mr. Voight in the 1978 Vietnam War drama Coming Home, which netted both actors Oscars.

“I think that validating these guys in any way is the wrong approach. I’m not interested in their answers to things because it’s all going to be a bunch of poison,” he said.

“I know the situation that exists on the left, because I was there in the late ’60s, and I know Jane,” said Mr. Voight, now 70, who even appeared with Ms. Fonda at events supporting a leftist Chilean political party. (In an opinion article that appeared last year in The Washington Times, however, the actor said his political activism was due to “Marxist propaganda.”)

Mr. Voight, in a letter published today in the National Post, blasts Ms. Fonda “and all those who signed the letter with her, of aiding and abetting those who seek the destruction of Israel. How do you not respond to a very dangerous lie against a democratic country, Israel, who for years tries to defend themselves against constant wars and aggression?” the actor told the Post when asked why he had written the letter.

“I’m seeing a very dangerous precedent beginning to catch hold now in the United States. If our movie stars start protecting the enemy against Israel, we can be sure the beginning of a very evil destructive force is showing its face.”

I really love this guy. He is always there defending Israel amongst a sea of cretins. In fact, given the extent to which Hollywood is “Jewish”, it is amazing – and sad – that he is the only one doing so in a vocal way.

Negligent father, Jon Voight,

who is also a serial adulterer, got rich and made his mark by very convincingly, almost TOO convincingly portraying a male prostitute opposite d. hoffman in midnight cowboy, now insults thinking americans further by attacking the leader of our country, our first elected President in eight years!
I am a Jew, and I do not support Jon Voight, the whitest man on earth when he blabs on about Israel. You honky peckerwood, shut your stupid bill kristol directed mouth!

If you were to try to breach my security here in the state where obama was born, I now would have the right as a legal rifle bearing citizen to shoot your rosacea-encrusted face off. So stay out of here! Jon voight is not for socialism without the national part!

I am guessing Barr (or her lawyer) decided it wise to take down this post, which she seems to have done – from her home page (Notice how there are a couple of posts from August 19th, and then one from August 17th).

The problem for her is the August 18th post remains at the link above, and I’ve taken the screen shot just in case she tries to fully delete the evidence.

Could it be that this post will get Barr into more trouble than her Hitler-dressing exploits?

I sure hope so.

Well, Jon’s not going to take it lying down. Here’s his response:

Burn!

Update: The insane one responds on her blob blog:

Jon Voight’s words about me, where he totally blames the victim, as all right wingers always do:
“We can never be surprised at what vile evil comes from the mouth of a confessed victim of child abuse”

“Confessed victims of child abuse”….like “confessed criminals, confessed rapists, and confessed child abusers and confessed murderers” this sick and twisted statement sits happily on the front page of EXTRA on line… I guess the people at EXTRA agree that children who are being abused should keep their mouths shut! “confessing” (telling the authorities) that you are abused makes you vile and evil! warner brothers should be ashamed of themselves.

jon voight

is a frightened little girl in a pink ballet tutu, who acts like Obama just wandered in from the rain forest with a bone thru his nose and a communist pamphlet in his loincloth. The neocons who own jon voight and make him dance on the chabad telethons are the worst most elitist people on earth. glen beck and jon voight are their bitches… both of them are used tampons who must be flushed down the toilet immediately! jon voight your evil spawn angelina jolie and her vacuous hubby brad pitt make about forty million dollars a year in violent psychopathic movies and give away three of it to starving children trying to look as if they give a crap about humanity as they spit out more dunces that will consume more than their fair share and wreck the earth even more. (just sayin’).
Also miss jolie says she likes mccain too and hasn’t decided who to endorse….huh? Aren’t you supposed to be somewhat enlightened, or do you not know that the african daughter you hold in every picture had parents who suffered and died because of the republican party’s worldwide economic assault on africa over the last few decades since reagan? whaaaa…??????!!!! (for that matter, the thai and cambodian sons you are photo’d with weekly too who’s pictures you sell to raise money to help the poor? Their families are victims of America’s right wing military incursions too. Mccain wants to continue with the idea of war for profit…the americans are over that thinking now! They have drugged our troops and lower classes into supporting their oil business atrocities for long enough. We want to save not lose our souls thank you. Now go back to making your movies about women who love to handle big guns that shoot hundreds of people to death. Ps….it might be good for your asian and african children’s self esteem to know you support a brown man for the leader of the free world.)

For those who hadn’t realized it, neocons is a code word for Jews (update: yes, I know this is not always necessarily the case, but here, it is. The giveaway is Barr’s reference to “neocons who own jon voight and make him dance on the chabad telethons.” Chabad is one of the largest Hasidic movements in Orthodox Judaism).

This rather inarticulate attack has gained the attention of the mainstream media. But instead of reporting it as an attack on Voight – as Barr’s post title even suggests – the majority of the mainstream media are reporting this as an attack on Voight’s daughter Angelina Jolie and her hubby Brad Pitt.

I’m guessing they are shifting the focus because it makes for a juicier story. Although the thought did cross my mind that the mainstream media would likely be sympathetic towards Barr for her attack on the conservative, pro-Israel Voight.

First of all, here is yet another video of him explaining why he supports Israel.

The Jerusalem Post also published this interview with him that underscores his humanity and ability to distinguish good from evil.

Jon Voight ever decides to give up acting, he could easily sign on as a Nefesh B’Nefesh emissary.

Unlike many celebrities, who parachute in for quick, superficial jaunts through Israel, the 69-year-old Academy Award winner speaks of the country with the passion and knowledge of an insider.

And despite focusing his week-long visit on some of the grimmer realities of life here, Voight, who is not Jewish, remains fervent in his enthusiasm for what he terms a “miracle in progress.”

“My business is story telling, and this is such a great story. To think in my lifetime that the Jews have returned to their land is simply amazing,” said Voight last week, while fighting off a cold in the executive lounge of the David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem.

“One of the most impressive things is that this barren land has returned to fullness of its description in the Bible – it really is the land of milk and honey,” he said.

Best known for his roles in Midnight Cowboy, Deliverance, Coming Home and the National Treasure series with Nicolas Cage, as well as being the father of actress Angelina Jolie, Voight was visiting the country as a guest of Chabad and their Children of Chernobyl program, for which he has acted as spokesman for 15 years.

He welcomed the organization’s 80th rescue mission of children from the area of the 1986 nuclear reactor disaster, brought terror victims to a Hapoel Jerusalem basketball game and hosted a barbecue for their families, visited scenes of Kassam rocket attacks in Sderot, and attend President Shimon Peres’s “Facing Tomorrow” conference.

Like many in the entertainment industry, Voight was a regular guest on Chabad’s annual telethons in the 1980s, along with the likes of Bob Dylan, Martin Sheen and Whoopi Goldberg. But it wasn’t until he travelled to the Soviet Union to star in the 1991 television film called Chernobyl: The Final Warning that his relationship with the organization blossomed.

“I saw the damage done, and when I got back home I knew I needed to find a way to help. Chabad was having a fund-raiser for the Chernobyl children and asked me to MC. Since then I’ve been helping out with these dinners where they raise the money for these flights to rescue kids from the Chernobyl area and bring them to hospitals here in Israel to provide treatment, change their environment and save their lives,” said Voight, recalling the previous day’s welcoming ceremony at Ben- Gurion Airport for the latest delegation of 36 kids.

“There were a couple of little girls – little toughies. It’s a four-hour flight, they’ve never been on an airplane before, they’re leaving their homes without their parents and when they got off the plane, they were just such tough little wise guys, little rascals… it was hysterical.”

Voight said he derived inspiration on his visit not only from helping the Chernobyl children but by meeting 50 terror victims and their families and by visiting residents of Sderot.

“It’s very moving to be with people who have courage. These are good people, who are struggling with this challenge that has altered their lives,” he said.

“In Sderot, we went to a home which had suffered a direct Kassam hit on Saturday morning through the bedroom of the family’s young sons. Windows were shattered, tables were broken, there were holes in the wall. You look at the devastation and you say, my God, this kid must have been obliterated,” he said, his voice gaining emotion.

“But the kid had just a couple scratches on him – it was a complete miracle. And his brother’s in the next room, same thing. Everything was damaged, except some tefillin, which wasn’t touched. It gives me chills to think about it.

“In the living room, there was a broken table, with flowers bought by the father for the mother for their anniversary strewn on the floor amid a broken vase. Someone said to her that it was a shame about the flowers, and she answered, ‘Those aren’t flowers, my children are flowers,’” recalled Voight, choking up and his eyes welling with tears. “What you’re seeing in Sderot – there’s nobody on the streets. It’s a normal community, but there’s nobody outside, no kids playing. It’s like a twilight zone, the people there are terrorized. That’s what terrorism is.”

Voight said that if he were Israeli, he would be staunchly against negotiating with Hamas, and compared the plight of Sderot to that of London in World War II.

“Do I think that [Neville] Chamberlain should have talked to Adolf Hitler? It’s not different with the situation in Sderot. There were German barrages coming across into London terrorizing the London population. And that’s what’s going on in Sderot – they’re trying to demoralize that little town – that little town,” repeated Voight for emphasis.

Calling himself a former liberal Democrat, Voight recently endorsed Republican Sen. John McCain in the US presidential race. He added that he would prefer Sen. Hillary Clinton over Sen. Barack Obama, citing Obama as “dangerous.”

“He’s really extreme, but he’s always trying to say something to cover it. He’s like a Leftist from the ’60s. I was on the Left, that’s why I know who he is,” said Voight.

“He says he’ll talk to everybody [like Hamas and Iran], but it’s simpleminded candy he’s throwing to the extreme left wing. He’d be the biggest disaster for Israel – and all democracies – that I can think of.”

Being an outspoken conservative in liberal Hollywood isn’t necessarily the smartest career move for an actor. Voight admitted that political discrimination was prevalent in the entertainment industry but said he was hopeful that things were slowly changing.

“After all, if Washington is a two-party town, why can’t Hollywood be one too?” he joked.

Regarding his iconic 1969 role as naïve male hustler Joe Buck in the groundbreaking film Midnight Cowboy alongside Dustin Hoffman, Voight said he had no idea the film would have such long lasting resonance.

“You never know what’s going to happen. It was such an unusual movie. Like I told Dusty [Hoffman], it’s like Don Quixote and Sancho Panza – these guys are a couple and you’re always going to smile when you think of them,” he said.

“It’s about desperate characters trying to make their way, fumbling through life while making big mistakes. And yet there’s something endearing and universal about their struggle. We’re all like that in a way. We all make mistakes.”

One mistake that Voight didn’t make was accepting an offer in 1994 to make a cameo appearance on the hit comedy series Seinfeld – a 30-second appearance that was part of a legendary episode. Based on character George Costanza buying a used car because it was previously owned by “Jon Voight,” the show turned into a comical case of mistaken identity highlighted by Voight, playing himself, biting the character Kramer on the arm as he sticks it into Voight’s taxi.

“I thought it would be fun to do a Seinfeld walk-on, then I got the script and I see my name on every page. I thought it was great,” said Voight.

“But I couldn’t’ figure out how they came up with something like that, until one of the writers came on the set and and said, ‘Would you walk around the corner here and look at something for me? Was this your car?’

“He had bought a Chrysler Lebaron on the word that it was my car. Then he found out that it wasn’t me, but another Jon Voight, a dentist. The whole idea came about because of this event in his life.”

Kept alive by countless TV reruns, the episode also returned to Voight’s life through an unlikely channel that has remained a constant presence in his life – Chabad.

“I’m at the annual Chabad telethon, and it’s the same night as a party for Planet Hollywood with Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis. So, of course there were no celebrities on this poor little telethon, except for me. They asked me, ‘Can you get us some celebrities’?

“So, I agreed to go to the Planet Hollywood party and try to recruit some participants. I get in this limo which was donated to Chabad and say hello to the driver. ‘Hi, my name’s Jon Voight,’ and he says ‘I’m Jon Voight.’

It turns out he was the actor who played Jon Voight the dentist in the episode, and he was moonlighting as a driver.

“We drive up to the party and I tell him, ‘I’m not sure they’re going to let me in – I had a ticket but I don’t know where it is.’ “He said, ‘No problem, of course they’ll recognize you.’

“Outside, there’s a tough looking cop with his arms folded – he looks like one of those guys who’s not going to be moved too much and who would go by the book. But the driver rolls down the window, and the cop looks at him and says to him, ‘Jon Voight – how are you?’ and whisks us through,” concludes the real Voight with a guffaw.

After all those years and movies, Voight indeed remains a story teller.

Via Ha’aretz, which also has this report on his visit:

Award-winning American actor Jon Voight visited Israeli victims of Palestinian rocket attacks in Sderot on Tuesday, taking pictures with children and speaking out harshly against latest truce efforts to stop the rocket barrages and Israeli reprisals in Gaza.

Voight described the southern Israeli town as a “war zone.” Sderot is a frequent target of Palestinian rocket fire.

“When I see these children, from my perspective they are traumatized children from a war zone,” Voight said. “You are on the front line.”

During his visit, he met the town’s mayor and families affected by Palestinian rockets.

Voight, who a best actor Academy Award in 1979, is also the estranged father of American actress Angelina Jolie.

On Monday, Voight met families affected by Palestinian attacks in a Jerusalem restaurant. One man sat in a wheelchair, missing both his legs after a suicide bombing in Jerusalem in 2002. Another man still had his arm in a sling from an attack on the now-dismantled Israeli settlement bloc in the northern Gaza Strip.

Voight, surrounded by photographers, knelt down next to children and sketched a picture of King David – a prominent Jewish biblical figure – next to a little boy. The young boy’s father was killed in a suicide bombing on a bus in 2004.

Voight said his experiences led him to believe that Israel should not negotiate with Palestinians militants for a truce. An Egyptian mediator was in Jerusalem on Monday to work on a truce proposal. Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip frequently fire rockets toward nearby Israeli communities, prompting deadly army airstrikes and ground assaults into Gaza. On Monday, an elderly Israeli woman was killed after a Palestinian rocket fired from Gaza exploded in a village outside Gaza.

“They are barbarians,” Voight said, referring to the Gaza militants. “They are relentless, looking to destroy (Israel),” the actor said. “If somebody breaks your leg, don’t give another. Don’t play this game.”

Palestinians complain that Israel is responsible for much of the deprivation in poverty-stricken Gaza. Though it pulled out of the territory in 2005, Israel controls all but one of its border crossings. Since the Islamic militant Hamas overran Gaza last year, Israel has enforced a blockade, leading to severe shortages of vital supplies.

After meeting the Israeli children, the actor failed to launch a bunch of colorful balloons tied to a bag that held prayers for peace. The weight of the bag kept the balloons skirting the ground. “God is down there, too,” he joked.

Voight was the guest of Chabad, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish outreach program that helps Israeli victims of militant attacks. “It’s like a warm hug,” said Ester Zigron, a 42-year-old woman whose husband was wounded in an attack and left partially blind and deaf.