METROPOLITAN OPERA: THE DEATH OF KLINGHOFFER …"It  will fan the flames of anti-Semitism by providing a prominent venue for the glorification of  extreme Islam and  sympathy with their goals and for their brutal methods."

Opening night: 20 October 2014   Booking through until: 15 November 2014

In 1985, Leon Klinghoffer was a passenger on board the cruise liner Achille Lauro when terrorists from the Palestine Liberation Front, a faction of Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization,  hijacked  the ship,  murdered Leon Klinghoffer, a wheel-chair bound American Jew, and dumped his body overboard. The Death of Klinghoffer never details the murder itself, The opera presents a false moral equivalence between Klinghoffer and his murderers.  It romanticizes Palestinian terrorists and claims  that Palestinian Arabs are driven to such “resistance” because the Jews stole their land.  It has been evaluated as anti-Israel and antisemitic by the Simon Wiesenthal Center .Accordiing to the evaluation standards proposed  by CAIR, this is definately hate speech.

 A response to  Peter Gelb and the Staff of the Metropolitan Opera- incorporating materials  from Tabitha Korol 

The "Jewish Soul" is often described as an energy and essence of virtue and humanity, passion and compassion, and depth of empathy for others.   It is Israel's Jewish Soul"  that provides quality medical attention even to their enemies, and the same that sends Israeli first responders to countries devastated by natural disasters. 

 AND IT IS THIS SAME QUALITY THAT APPEARS TO HAVE ELUDED PETER GELB, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR AT THE METROPOLITAN OPERA (THE “MET”).

It it is Gelb’s choice of opera for the 2014 fall season that is most disturbing. It  will fan the flames of anti-Semitism by providing a prominent venue for the glorification of  extreme Islam and  sympathy with their goals and for their brutal methods.

The Death of Klinghoffer was cited for being anti-Semitic and pro-Islamic terrorism, and Gelb’s integrity and moral compass are in question.  Instead of eliciting compassion and tears for the murder of Mr. Leon Klinghoffer, a defenseless, wheelchair-bound veteran of WW II, a fellow-American and Jew, Gelb’s opera will offer sympathy and apology for the Islamist terrorist  murderers – who might just as well have thrown the Jewish-American Gelb overboard, had he vacationed aboard the ill-fated Achille Lauro.

Rather than show concern for the victim and his family, and the other terrified, endangered tourists who were taken hostage, although ultimately spared, the artistes extol the contrived virtues of the cold-blooded killers.  They have taken a pro-Islamist, anti-American, anti-Jewish stance in favor of an avowed enemy – Islamists , whose adherents repeatedly warn that they will overtake the West and establish an Islamic caliphate on our soil. 

Would the Met sympathize with these cold-blooded  killers  if the victim were also their own family member or religious compadre? Did they likewise sympathize with the Mahmoud Abbas-financed and -orchestrated Munich Massacre of 11 Israeli athletes? Or the terrorists who commandeered the planes that killed three thousand in the World Trade Center? Or the Boston Marathon jihadists who killed three and injured/crippled 264 racers?  Or Major Hassan who fatally shot 13 and injured more than 30 at Fort Hood?  Would the Met also consider providing sophisticated entertainment while reproducing the beheading of Jewish-American journalist, Daniel Pearl?  Or blowing up a school bus of children in Chechnya or Israel?  Perhaps Gelb would consider a choral group of 200 young girls for an opera about the Boko Haram kidnappings in Nigeria? What other inspiration might one select for musical adventures into the exaltation of extreme Islam and its adherents for the pleasure of the unenlightened?

CAN THE MET NOT GRASP THAT TO GLORIFY EVIL IS EVIL? 

Just as we must never recreate the atrocities of the concentration camps for our amusement, so must we never recreate any acts of malevolence to minimize their impact on the human psyche. While the author(s) and producer(s) claim to find motivation for  these Islamic terrorist acts, they do not seek the truth; Islamic  terrorist motivation is hate, envy, resentment, against Jews, Christians, Americans, Western Civilization.

 No matter what the adversity or personal history behind acts of evil, never forget that the acts are evil.  Motivation is immaterial. Criminals must be held accountable, not excused, for their behavior, and never celebrated, or every felon would be freed and anarchy would reign.

These terrorists did more than take a man’s life.  They’ve attacked the humanity of every American who is even peripherally involved with this murder.  

OUR OBLIGATION IS MORALITY. THE MET'S OBLIGATION IS MORALITY !