The Oscars are always a superb occasion for leftists to indulge in an orgy of virtue-signaling, and this year was no different. Foes of Israel sported little round pins featuring a red hand with a black heart in the palm, which even for them was a bizarre and ham-fisted way to show the world that they want Israel to stop fighting and Hamas to live. It recalled nothing more vividly than a notorious Palestinian jihad massacre which, despite having taken place over twenty years ago, is still recalled with horror among Israelis and supporters of Israel.
NPR reported happily on Monday that “a notable accessory on Sunday's red carpet was a red pin featuring a hand with a black heart in the middle. Celebrities like Billie Eilish, Ramy Youssef and Mark Ruffalo wore the pins in support of Artists4Ceasefire, a group of advocates and artists that opposes the Israel-Hamas war.” The luminaries explain that the pin “symbolizes collective support for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, the release of all of the hostages and for the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza." This explanation, however, doesn’t really clarify much.
At first glance, it looks as if these enlightened artists are being soberly even-handed: they want “the release of all of the hostages and for the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza.” So Israel gets its people who are being held hostage back and allegedly starving Gazans get their humanitarian aid. Sounds great, right?
The statement, however, also calls for “an immediate and permanent ceasefire,” which may seem like a call for peace for a moment, but it actually means that instead of being destroyed, Hamas will survive and be able to murder more Israeli civilians. Hamas top dog Ghazi Hamad said it back in October 2023, just a couple of weeks after the Oct. 7 jihad massacre: “We must teach Israel a lesson, and we will do this again and again. The Al-Aqsa Flood,” that is, the attack on Oct. 7, “is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth.” This prophecy, however, will only come true if Hamas gets a ceasefire that will enable it to regroup and recover.
This makes it clear that the red hands, black heart symbolism is not just a reference to the horrors of war in general, it’s an indictment of Israel, as Israeli leaders have repeatedly declared that they intend to fight on until Hamas is completely destroyed, and they don’t want to accept a ceasefire that will force them to stop before the job is done.
The pins, however, have an even more ghastly resonance.
Back on Oct. 12, 2000, two IDF reservists, Yossi Avrahami and Vadim Nurzhitz, mistakenly entered the city of Ramallah, which was and is under Palestinian control. An enraged mob set upon them and lynched them then mutilated their bodies. One of the killers, a Palestinian named Aziz Salha, recounted, “We were in a craze to see blood. I entered the room…I saw an Israeli soldier sprawled on the floor in front of the door. I came closer to him and saw a knife lodged in his back, near his right shoulder. I removed the knife and stabbed him in the back two or three times… while others in the room continued to kick him. I put my hand over his mouth and the other on his shoulder, in order to strangle him.”
Related: What We’re Seeing Isn’t Protest Against Israel. It’s Open Jew-Hatred.
Salha continued: “I saw that my hands were drenched with blood, and so was my shirt.” So he did what any bloodthirsty murderer who knows that he is in the company of other bloodthirsty murderers would do: “So I went over to the window and I waved my hands at the people who were in the courtyard.”
Oscar2024
— Svetlana Noskov (@SvetkaIL) March 12, 2024
On October 12, 2000, two Israeli reservists Vadim Nurzhitz and Yosef Avrahami were detained by police in the city of Ramallah(where they ended up by accident).They were apprehended and taken to the police station,where the crowd lynched them and mutilated their bodies pic.twitter.com/ZYGT6lJpPJ
The Times of Israel explains, “The disturbing image is deeply rooted in the memory of many Israelis and later became a symbol of the horrifying attack.” The virtue-signalers at the Oscars didn’t know it, but their pins recalled for many Israelis what has become emblematic of the bloodlust, ruthlessness, and hatred of their enemies.
And that was fitting. If the leftist actors get their way, there will be new massacres of Israelis, and more Palestinians gleefully displaying the blood on their hands. Without realizing it, Oscar night showed the world what the result would be of the ceasefire that all the right-thinking people are calling for these days.
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