There's nothing new about Hollywood lefties getting up on stage at the Oscars and making a fool of themselves advocating for one issue or another.
In 1973, Marton Brando sent a Native American on stage to accept his "Best Actor" award for "The Godfather." As we know today, Sacheen Littlefeather, the woman who accepted Brando's award, wasn't Native American at all, according to her sisters.
Vanessa Redgrave, a strong supporter of Yasser Arafat's PLO, angered almost everyone with a pro-PLO speech in 1978. And who can forget Michael Moore calling out George Bush for the War on Terror?
Needless to say, there's no shortage of left-wing hysterics when it comes to denouncing the United States or its allies.
During the Oscars award ceremony on March 10, "The Zone of Interest" director Jonathan Glazer gave an astonishing speech against the Israel-Hamas War and actually tried to deny his heritage. “Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people,” he said.
Author Batya Ungar-Sargon called out Glazer's "moral rot."
I simply cannot fathom the moral rot in someone's soul that leads them to win an award for a movie about the Holocaust and with the platform given to them, to accept that award by saying, "We stand here as men who refute their Jewishness."
— Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) March 11, 2024
The speech drew an outraged response from 450 Jewish creative professionals in Hollywood.
"We refute our Jewishness being hijacked for the purpose of drawing a moral equivalence between a Nazi regime that sought to exterminate a race of people, and an Israeli nation that seeks to avert its own extermination," an open letter said. The letter was first reported Monday by Variety.
"Every civilian death in Gaza is tragic. But Israel is not targeting civilians. It is targeting Hamas. The moment Hamas releases the hostages and surrenders is the moment this heartbreaking war ends. This has been true since the Hamas attacks of October 7th."
The left believes that just as long as they denounce the attacks of October 7 it gives them license to call out Israel for defending itself. But there is no "moral equivalence." There is no "bothsiderism." Hamas attacked and deliberately targeted and murdered 1,200 Israelis. Israel responded by targeting Hamas terrorists who are hiding among the civilian population of Gaza.
Anyone who can't see the difference is a moral pygmy.
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The letter continued:
The use of words like "occupation" to describe an indigenous Jewish people defending a homeland that dates back thousands of years, and has been recognized as a state by the United Nations, distorts history. It gives credence to the modern blood libel that fuels a growing anti-Jewish hatred around the world, in the United States, and in Hollywood. The current climate of growing antisemitism only underscores the need for the Jewish State of Israel, a place which will always take us in, as no state did during the Holocaust depicted in Mr. Glazer’s film.
Actor and comedian Brett Gelman told Variety that Glazer's speech was missing a very big piece of the puzzle.
"There was no concern for how Jewish people are going to react to a speech like that, to that applause to those red pins, when not even our hostages are being mentioned, and it’s just incredibly hurtful, incredibly painful," Gelman told Variety. "It’s truly baffling to me that people were choosing to be silent that night."
One of the executive producers of "The Zone of Interest" denounced Glazer's speech. Danny Cohen said last week, "I just fundamentally disagree with Jonathan."
"It’s really important to recognize it’s upset a lot of people and a lot of people feel upset and angry about it. And I understand that anger, frankly," Cohen said on the Unholy podcast. "The war and the continuation of the war is the responsibility of Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organization which continues to hold and abuse the hostages, which doesn’t use its tunnels to protect the innocent civilians of Gaza but uses it to hide themselves and allow Palestinians to die. I think the war is tragic and awful and the loss of civilian life is awful, but I blame Hamas for that."
We've seen the divide in the Jewish community. At this point, the two sides are talking past each other. It's an unbridgable chasm that has led to hurt feelings and broken alliances. And it has driven a wedge between America and Israel that will be a long time healing.
Already, Biden is talking about denying Israel critical military aid to continue the war. Israel could probably do without it, but it is indicative of the political power of the anti-Jewish lobby that Democrats are petrified of losing the votes of Muslims and radical left anti-Semites.
If Hamas had planned it this way, it couldn't have turned out any better for them.
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