March 11, 2024

ZONE OF IRONY: ‘As a Jew’ Oscar moment shows how woke antisemitism works.

Unless you’re a film buff, you may not have heard of Jonathan Glazer before his viral moment at this year’s annual Academy Awards ceremony. After “The Zone of Interest”—a highly-praised film about the commandant of the Auschwitz death camp that is very loosely based on a Martin Amis novel with the same title—was named the winner of the Oscar for Best International Feature Film, Glazer appeared on the stage along with the rest of the production team to accept their trophies. Standing with producer James Wilson and their billionaire financial backer Leonard Blavatnik, Glazer, who wrote and directed the movie, chose not to speak extemporaneously but instead read the following prepared statement:

“Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It’s shaped all of our past and present. Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness in a Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people. Whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza—all the victims of this dehumanization, how do we resist?”

The tortured syntax of his comments notwithstanding, what Glazer said wasn’t merely deeply offensive. It marked a new low in Hollywood’s descent into fashionable rationalizations of hatred for Jews. It also showed us how the new woke antisemitism works, especially when its standard-bearers are Jews with little or no connection to their heritage. As such, it was the quintessential “as a Jew” moment in which persons invoke their Jewish identity to denounce other Jews.

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To link the Holocaust to Israel’s campaign in the Gaza Strip to eradicate the organization that perpetrated the atrocities committed in Jewish communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7 is to turn history on its head. Pretending that it is the Jews who are today’s Nazis, rather than Hamas and its Palestinian supporters, is a big lie. It is the Palestinians of Hamas who are the contemporary torch-bearers for Adolf Hitler’s plans for the genocide of the Jewish people, as made explicit in their charter and all of their propaganda, which seeks Israel’s destruction and the slaughter of its population. This sort of inversion tactic is—as the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)’s working definition of the term makes plain—textbook antisemitism.

As Seth Mandel tweeted last night:

At the PJM Mothership, Rabbi Michael Barclay adds: The Academy Awards Are Again on the Wrong Side of History… and Boring!

Actors and filmmakers really should stick to their craft: fantasy and make-believe. Every time these imbeciles leave their overpaid fantasy world, they demonstrate their complete lack of understanding of reality. And they did it again at this year’s Academy Awards; which has a sordid history of being a soapbox for self-indulgent narcissists to show their consistent hubris and foolishness.

This year, the director of [Zone of Interest, which won best international feature], Jonathan Glazer, most demonstrated the insanity when he spoke for his partners and said, “We stand here as men who refute their Jewishness in a holocaust being hijacked by an occupation.” Clearly, they refuted being Jewish long ago and are painfully unaware of the irony of the statement: had they been in one of the areas attacked by Hamas, they would now be dead or hostages.

And Glazer seems oblivious to the fact that close to 90% of Gazans still support the horrors of October 7 and the charter of Hamas, which calls for the “obliteration” of all Jews, as well as anyone who doesn’t support their fanatical brand of Islam. But hey, it’s the Oscars and a time for film people to show their stupidity.

Some of the attendees demonstrated just that quite proudly:

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll