Death of Klinghoffer Opera

The ongoing and evolving war against Israel has taken multiple phases. The first phase was direct warfare, the second, terrorism ... but the most far-reaching phase is in the media and the arts. Today's anti-Semitism enjoys support at both the highest and lowest reaches of society and recently found a new home in polite society – at a world-famous New York opera house.

The Nazis knew how to use propaganda in the arts to appeal to the hearts and influence the minds of the masses. The opera's writers have taken a page from Nazi Jew hatred and propaganda with the controversial anti-Semitic show "The Death of Klinghoffer." In a devious and subtle way, the people behind this Metropolitan opera align themselves with terrorists, the BDS camp and anti-Semites around the world thus adding fuel to a fire to embolden the enemies of Israel.

The opera purports to depict the brutal 1985 murder of Leon Klinghoffer, a disabled Jewish-American tourist who was shot and dumped into the sea by members of the Palestine Liberation Front. The terrorists hijacked the cruise ship on which he and his wife were taking a special trip to Israel for their 36th wedding anniversary. Instead of showing the brutal killing of a defenseless old man by terrorists, the opera takes a strange turn, positing both Leon Klinghoffer and his murderers as moral equivalents, each representing an equally valid worldview.

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It opens with a wholly invented scene of Jews brutally killing defenseless Palestinian women. Jews are depicted as bloodthirsty and venal, willing to exploit others for their own gain. In contrast, the Palestinian terrorists who killed Klinghoffer are portrayed as more complex and even noble, singing at one point "we are soldiers fighting a war – we are not criminals, we are not vandals – we are men of ideals."

The opera had its opening performance at the Lincoln Center Metropolitan Opera of New York on Oct. 20, 2014 and was met with several nights of large and angry protests. Outraged New Yorkers and others from around the country came to protest the work. Mayor Giuliani stated that the "decision of the MET to present this production was a grave mistake that should have never been made and should never be made again."

Proclaiming Justice To The Nations founder Laurie Cardoza-Moore stood with the protestors at Lincoln Center, saying "No to terror and no to moral equivalence," and demanding the opera be canceled.

"The Death of Klinghoffer" isn't an abstract piece of theatre, but goes a long way towards excusing the murder of a helpless American Jew. Its performance runs the very real risk of exacerbating Jew-hatred around the world. Ilsa and Lisa Klinghoffer, Leon Klinghoffer's daughters, explained, "This opera rationalizes, romanticizes and legitimates the terrorist murder of our father."