Mel Gibson wants Jews to help him on a “journey through recovery.” Really.

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It would be easy to ridicule Mel (“sugar tits”) Gibson’s flailing attempts to salvage his rep — which currently stands at Judas Iscariot/Pontius Pilate levels. So let’s. Today, Mel dons his crown of thorns to issue this very, very pathetic statement:

“There is no excuse, nor should there be any tolerance, for anyone who thinks or expresses any kind of anti-Semitic remark. I want to apologise specifically to everyone in the Jewish community for the vitriolic and harmful words that I said to a law enforcement officer the night I was arrested.

“I am in the process of understanding where those vicious words came from during that drunken display, and I am asking the Jewish community, whom I have personally offended, to help me on my journey through recovery…

I know there will be many in that community who will want nothing to do with me, and that would be understandable. But I pray that that door is not forever closed.”

Leaders of the community, meanwhile, are rightly content to withhold absolution until Gibson has self-flagellated a good while longer.

Several Jewish leaders said he must first complete his recovery program and perform acts of goodwill, such as visiting Nazi death camps.

“We will know when the time is, but the time is certainly not when his press agents think it is,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center.

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PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

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