THE IGNORANCE AND IDIOCY OF HOLLYWOOD’S ISRAEL BOYCOTT:
If an alien descended and was asked whether actors in the West would tend to boycott the democracy or the extremist state, it surely would plump for the latter. The values of toleration, individual rights and free association that we hold most dear must surely be promoted.
You know where I’m going with this. This week, 1,300 actors and filmmakers including Olivia Colman, Mark Ruffalo, Javier Bardem and Tilda Swinton signed a pledge to boycott Israeli film companies (which, tending to be rather left-wing, oppose Benjamin Netanyahu and the war in Gaza with greater venom than anybody else).
As Lee Smith recently wrote at Tablet:
Obama’s Iran deal restructured the Democratic Party. Inverting U.S. foreign policy by replacing Israel with the regime that embodies exterminationist antisemitism was also a domestic stratagem to break Jewish power in the Democratic Party. It’s helpful to understand the post-Oct. 7 pro-Hamas protests in that light.
While many lifelong Jewish Democrats were shocked that the demonstrations were so openly antisemitic, calling for genocide of the Jews, this was precisely the point of Obama’s design: Negating Israel and prioritizing anti-Israel activists in the party’s hierarchy could lead only to the Democrats sanctioning anti-Israel activists who celebrated the murder of thousands of Israelis. That is, the protests that honored the Palestinians’ campaign of rape, torture, and murder—remember, the rallies started even before Israel launched reprisals—showed how wildly Obama’s policy had succeeded.
Remember how shocking Mel Gibson’s antisemitic outburst seemed almost 20 years ago? 1,300 more filmmakers just signed onboard as well, and in 2025, the news lands with barely a yawn.