An Open Letter to Steven Spielberg

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Reprinted from NewsMax.com

Myles B. Kantor
Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2002

Dear Mr. Spielberg,

As a Jew who lives in south Florida, I read with interest about your recent visit to Cuba. "I really want to make a movie here," you were reported as saying when you arrived in Havana.

Here's some recent press coverage on Israel:

  • "Aside from shooting and killing, the Israelis also destroy" (Nov. 3)
  • "More murders of Palestinian civilians" (Sept. 2)
  • "Israeli genocide continues against the Palestinian people" (Aug. 30)
  • "Crusade against the Arab people from Washington and Tel Aviv" (Aug. 21)
  • "Israeli soldiers continue mowing down Palestinian lives, with endless hatred" (Aug. 9)
  • "Israeli viciousness against the Palestinian population has been the cause of the new escalation of violence" (Aug. 5)
  • "Sharon announces continuation of Palestinian holocaust" (April 9)

Is this from Iraqi or Saudi Arabian media? No, it's from Cuban media, and these examples are far from exhaustive.

I read that you had an eight-hour meeting with Castro, which you described as "the eight most important hours of my life." Were you aware of his views on Israel? Here are four recent examples:

  • In June in Havana, Castro led a rally of approximately 10,000 to protest Israeli "genocide."
  • At last September's "World Conference against Racism" in Durban, South Africa, he referred to Israel's "ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people."
  • In an interview with Colombian media on Dec. 12, 2001: "One can see that Palestinians are victims of genocide."
  • In March, during a televised speech in Havana: "revolting and brutal killings such as the ones carried out by the State of Israel … against the people of Palestine."

Castro's efforts to Nazify Israel go back over a quarter of a century. In 1975, Cuba co-sponsored the infamous United Nations resolution equating Zionism with racism, praised by Castro's media at the time for showing "the identical imperialist origins and racist structure of the Israeli Zionist regime that is occupying Palestine and the one that is exploiting the black masses in South Africa." (Cuba voted against repealing the resolution in 1991.)

Books Cuba has published on Israel include "Zionism: The Fascism of the Star of David" and "The Other Face: The Truth about the Secret Relationships between Nazism and Zionism."

Lest you think Castro's demonization of Israel ends at propaganda, he has been at the vanguard of anti-Zionist violence. When Syria and Egypt attacked Israel on Yom Kippur in 1973, Castro sent thousands of troops including tank commanders and pilots to Syria. Cuba has trained Arab terrorists since the 1960s.

In the late 1980s, Castro even sent an orthopedic surgeon to Iraq to remove a lethal tumor from Saddam Hussein's back. The surgeon, Rodrigo Alvarez Cambras, visited Hussein in April for his birthday with a message of solidarity from Castro.

The Iraqi News Agency reported, "Condemning the Zionist crimes against our people in Palestine, Cambras described them as Nazi crimes. … He called on the world and its governments to take a decisive stand against the crimes of the Zionist aggressors."

Martin Luther King Jr.'s words to an individual who attacked Zionism come to mind: "When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You're talking anti-Semitism."

I read that you addressed the Cuban-Jewish community, which you might know is less than 10 percent of its size since Castro came to power. If Cuban Jews criticize Castro's venom against the Jewish homeland, they can be charged with "crimes" such as "disrespect" and "enemy propaganda."

Here are the words of Cuban Jew Tony Fune, a husband and father: "I understand that we have no freedom of speech, no freedom of the press, no freedom to travel, no freedom to choose how we will educate our children. And I understand that's not right."

Imagine what it feels like to be a Jew in Cuba: to see Israel constantly demonized, its enemies glorified, and not be able to say a damn thing about it.

Please tell me you didn't know the above. Please tell me you didn't know that Castro systematically violates Cuban Jews' human rights and equates Israel with the Nazism you indelibly depicted in "Schindler's List." Do you still want to make a movie on the soil that embraces those who would obliterate the Jewish homeland?

Sincerely yours,

Myles Kantor

Contact Myles Kantor at kantor@FreeEmigration.com

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Editor's note:
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