Schindler's List producer takes on Hollywood's most prominent Jews over Iran deal
Gerald Molen helped produce one of cinema's most important films, but his disapproval of Obama's nuclear deal with Iran puts him at odds with Hollywood's most prominent Jews.
By JPOST.COM STAFFUpdated: AUGUST 15, 2015 15:38Hollywood sign(photo credit: REUTERS)
The Oscar-winning producer of Schindler's List shot back at some of Hollywood's most prominent Jews Friday after an open letter supporting President Barack Obama's proposed nuclear deal with Iran was published with their signatures the day before. In his own letter, Gerald Molen, listed the potential dangers associated with the agreement and asked "Do they not deny the Holocaust?," among other questions, according to a report in The Hollywood Reporter.Molen wrote to LAJewishLeadersForIranDeal@gmail.com, the email account set up by the 98 Hollywood Jews who support Obama's plan, and argued that the Obama administration's key foreign policy achievement will allow the Islamic Republic to arm its military wing after half a decade, purchase ballistic missiles in eight years, and restart its nuclear program in another 15 years."This will more than likely push the inevitable nuclear crises out of many of the signers' lifetimes and onto the backs of their grandchildren or great grandchildren," Molen writes.Molen also argued that the cash windfall Iran is expected to receive once world-powers strip away sanctions will have a severely negative impact, especially on Israel, due to Tehran's continued funding of terrorism."How much of their new-found largesse will be used to kill innocents?" Molen asks. "How much of it will be spent on child-size, bomb-laden vests for the indoctrinated young to climb on a bus, enter a marketplace or a theater and go boom? Israel must be very wary and each of the signers must surely know that. Shouldn't they?"Calling themselves "American Jewish supporters of Israel," 98 prominent members of Los Angeles' Jewish community who are mostly linked to Hollywood signed a letter that appeared as a full-page ad in Thursday's L.A. Jewish Journal in which the group urges Congress to approve the agreement because it is in the "best interest of the United States and Israel."Among the lead signatories of the ad are billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad, superstar architect Frank Gehry and TV writer-producer Norman Lear.Other signatories included Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner, film producers Lawrence Bender and Mike Medavoy and Game of Thrones executive producer Carolyn Strauss. The group wrote that killing the deal would be a "tragic mistake."Molen ends his email to the 98 supporters with: "It is our president who defies the reality of Islamic terrorists and their ongoing promise to destroy Israel. While the letter-signers stand with him, I will stand for liberty and freedom and Israel."
