Jon Voight fears for Israel
Jon Voight says he's skeptical of the U.S./Ran nuke deal, 'fearful about fate of Israel'
NEW YORK – Jon Voight, a longtime vocal Hollywood Republican, said he has some concerns about the Obama administration’s recent nuclear deal with Iran.
“We had a socialist president—a socialist representative in France—say it was a rotten deal, so, you know, you figure it out. Who do I believe? Who do you believe?” he told FOX411, adding that the deal was particularly concerning for Israel advocates.
“Right now in the news, there is stuff that makes us very fearful about the fate of Israel,” he said. “Those of us who love Israel, as I do… we know a little bit about nuclear disasters so we’re very, very concerned.”
Voight spoke about the President and his latest headline-making decision at a gala event for the Chabad Children of Chernobyl, an organization which takes children out of the radiation-ridden environment site of the April 1986 nuclear accident and permanently relocates them to Israel.
“This organization is an amazing organization because it started many years ago with the Chernobyl disaster,” Voight raved. “[Chabad Children of Chernobyl] has taken young children out of the Chernobyl area from the pollution that was making them all very, very sick—all sorts of different diseases and things were created by this radiation—and gotten them help [by moving them] to Israel.”
Voight said he got involved with the organization after a trip to Russia in the early ‘90s. His connection to the Jewish non-profit isn’t surprising, as he has long been a supporter of Israel and the Jewish cause. Though he’s Catholic, Voight is particularly involved with Chabad, a Hasidic movement.
“They’ve gone in there. They’ve opened clinics. They’ve done all sorts of work,” Voight mused. “It’s an amazing organization, Chabad.”
Many of the people living in the site of the nuclear disaster are afflicted with cancers, and the Chabad Children of Chernobyl organization has opened up a mammography clinic to help “combat the astronomically high rates of breast cancer in the area,” according to its website.
Voight said this year, the organization’s initiatives hit closer to home, after his daughter, Angelina Jolie, revealed she had a double mastectomy to avoid getting breast cancer after she found out she had a gene mutation that meant she had an 87 percent chance of being afflicted with disease.
The former “Midnight Cowboy” star posed on the red carpet with his “Ray Donovan” costar Liev Schreiber. Naomi Watts joined them briefly but she rushed inside to avoid the brutal New York City cold.
Schreiber told reporters his TV dad, Voight, got him involved in the cause and Voight honored Schreiber at the gala for his contributions.
“The Butler” star raved about working alongside Voight on the critically-acclaimed Showtime series. Though he’s long been coy the status of his relationship with Watts, Schreiber excused himself from interviews early, quickly telling reporters he had to go inside to meet up with his “wife.”
Was he finally giving the entertainment world the answer we’ve been waiting for, or was he just messing around with a very chilly group of reporters? We may never know…
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