Mark Ruffalo, actor and expert extraordinaire on the Arab-Israel conflict, doesn’t much care for Israel. He’s read online so much about its deplorable treatment of the Palestinians. Why shouldn’t he believe all these stories of Israeli “brutality”? Could so many Palestinians be lying? Of course they could. Muhammad says in a famous hadith that “war is deceit.” The Palestinians have long been able practitioners of such deception.
Here’s why those charges “of Israeli brutality” are so implausible: the Israeli record tells quite a different story. Israel treats in its own hospitals wounded Palestinians, whether civilian or military, who manage to arrive in Israel from the battlefield. Israel also provides medical care to the families even of terror leaders, such as the daughter of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who in 2014 was treated at Ichilov Hospital in Israel, just a few weeks after Haniyeh’s Hamas had stopped killing Israelis. Haniyeh, despite all his public attacks on the “murderous” Israelis, knew that the Israeli doctors would do their best to treat his daughter’s condition, offering the same standard of care as they routinely provided to Israeli Jews, and he was right.
“Mark Ruffalo talks Palestinian issues, calls Israel a ‘kind of apartheid,'” by Zachary Keyser, Jerusalem Post, October 11, 2020:
Ruffalo added to the conversation, noting that he spoke out previously to share his view on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and was called an antisemite for doing so.
“I was called an antisemite about it, for doing that – which was really tough to hear,” Ruffalo said. “The fact that so many people will take it to that extreme when you’re talking about that type of inequality, that type of oppression, that kind of apartheid: really!”
Maybe Ruffalo is just a gullible sort, who has swallowed whole the endless Palestinian propaganda about enduring “inequality,” “oppression,” and “apartheid” from the Israelis, without doing any research of his own into the matter. But given his large following (acquired as an actor, not as an Arab-Israeli expert), he has a higher duty than most to investigate claims before spouting off about “the crimes of Israel.” He will not find “inequality” in Israel between Arab and Jew; nor any “oppression” by the state of Israel, nor “apartheid” practiced anywhere in Israel. Perhaps he should visit Israel and see for himself how the state enforces full legal equality between Arabs and Jews, and how Arabs in Israel have more political freedom and human rights than Arabs do anywhere else in the Arab world. Then he can come back to tell his followers online what he learned and why he is issuing a mea-maxima-culpa.
Ruffalo then likened the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to what’s taking place in the US today, saying that America houses an “apartheid system” noting the systematic racism and racial inequalities present within the country.
Well, at least we know that unlike Roger Waters, Ruffalo is not obsessed only with the putative misdeeds of Israel. Apparently a far-leftist (or more exactly, Ruffalo is a salon Bolshevik with a net worth of $35 million), Ruffalo accuses the U.S. of an “apartheid system,” too. Perhaps he hasn’t noticed that a recent American President was a black man. Or that virtually every institution in America, from police forces, to media companies, to universities, to corporations, to local, state, and federal governments, are all trying to increase the presence, and prominence, of black Americans. Where is this “apartheid system” that Mark Ruffalo claims is to be found in America today?
He stated that there are two Americas, one being BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) America and the other being white America.
If Mark Ruffalo believes that there are “two Americas,” one of them – BIPOC – being subject to every sort of unfairness and abuse by the members of the second (white) America, he can do his bit to make up for his own “white privilege” by donating, say, $30 million of his $35 million fortune to a Black Cause of his choice such as a Monument to Black Victims of Racism on the Washington Mall (From Emmett Till to George Floyd and Breonna Taylor), or by endowing Professorships in African-American History at a half-dozen universities. Ruffalo is only being asked to put his money where his mouth is and help out that Other America of Black-And-Brown citizens. What do you think are the chances that Mark Ruffalo, having now been asked, will pledge anything like $30 million, or $10 million, or $1 million, to help end “systemic racism” and make sure that Black Lives Matter?
The conversation on Palestinian human rights and Israel’s involvement began after NBC television host Hasan – formerly of Al Jazeera – asked the actor why he decides to share his voice on such “unfashionable issues,” when many shy away from such topics – initiating the conversation.
Mehdi Hasan has come very far very fast. He presents himself as a “moderate Muslim,” but is an assiduous attacker of Israel and a sly Defender of the Faith. He got his start at an Oxford Union debate where he argued that Islam is a peaceful religion having nothing to do with terrorism, and other such absurdities – and judging by the audience’s vote at the end, he prevailed. Yeats’s claim that the “worst are full of passionate intensity” certainly apples to Mehdi Hasan. He was hired by Al Jazeera, that propaganda organ of Qatar, that gave Hasan three separate talk shows in English, where he promoted Islam as peaceful but misunderstood, and offered a steady diet of anti-Israel polemic. Apparently that was just the ticket for NBC, which has now wooed him away from Al Jazeera — with the promise of more money and more power — to give him his own talk show on a major American network.
Hasan praises Ruffalo for daring to speak about such “unfashionable issues” as the mistreatment by Israel of the Palestinians “when many shy away from such topics.” What in god’s name can Mehdi Hasan have been thinking? The most fashionable issue on campuses today, where BDS rules the roost, is precisely the “mistreatment by Israel of the Palestinians.” The truly “unfashionable” speakers in America today are those who speak up for Israel, despite every conceivable attempt to shut them out or shout them down. Mehdi Hasan wants to present himself as a intrepid representative of a brave group who won’t be intimidated – but it is Muslims and their wiling collaborators in the BDS movement who have been doing all the intimidating, of defenders of Israel, on and off campuses.
Hasan in his own right is notably outspoken in his views against Israel.
If “outspoken” is meant to imply “bravely going against the current” then Mehdi Hasan is hardly outspoken. I’d choose another word to describe his views: “venomous.”
DURING LAST year’s Israeli elections, Hasan spoke to Palestinian American Lawyer Noura Erakat on his program Deconstructed to determine if Israel was a democracy or an apartheid state.
How’s that for stacking the deck? Ask a Palestinian-American activist to decide whether Israel is a “democracy or an apartheid state.” Would it have been too much trouble for Hasan to invite an Israeli to debate the point with Erekat instead of leaving the discussion to Hasan himself and to Erekat — both of them fervently anti-Israel? Apparently, yes.
It bears repeating from above: that the “apartheid” state of Israel has an Arab Party in the Knesset, Arabs sitting on the Supreme Court, Arabs serving in the diplomatic corps, Arabs in the police and even the military. That “apartheid” state has Arabs and Jews studying together in universities, working together in offices and factories, staffing hospitals and providing care together, playing in orchestras and on sports teams together.
Lindsay Graham once compared picking between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz to having to choose between being poisoned or being shot. I wonder if Palestinians feel that way this week after the latest Israeli election results – which could see racist warmonger Benjamin Netanyahu replaced by yet another racist warmonger, opposition leader General Benny Gantz,” Hasan said in his opening remarks.
“Racist warmonger”? One more time: Neither Palestinians nor Muslims are a “race.” And what entitles Hasan to describe Netanyahu and Gantz as “racist warmongers? Netanyahu served as a young officer in the elite unit Sayeret Matkal, where he helped to rescue hostages on a Belgian plane seized by Palestinian terrorists, including Leila Khaled; does his participation in that rescue constitute “warmongering”? He also fought in the Yom Kippur War that began in 1973 when Egypt and Syria launched simultaneous surpirse attacks on the Jewish state. Was that warmongering? As for Benny Gantz, he was head of the IDF during two defensive campaigns. The first was Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012, which began when Palestinian terrorists fired more than 100 rockets at Israel in a 24-hour period. The main Israeli aim was to suppress that rocket fire. The second campaign which Gantz headed was Operation Protective Edge, which began following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers by Hamas members. Israel was determined to find and punish the Hamas leaders behind that attack. Does Mehdi Hasan expect anyone to believe that Gantz, in responding to the ferocious rocket barrage by Hamas on civilian targets in Israel, and to the kidnapping and murder of three Jewish teenagers, was being a warmonger?
How is it that NBC continues to allow Mehdi Hasan, who offers a steady stream of such remarks, both venomous and false, to remain on its network?
Here’s how Hasan manages to inject his anti-Israel venom into his every remark, even into this first question to a guest:
After he introduced his guest Erakat, his opening question was: “Is Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister and proud unabashed racist, on his way out of office?”
Netanyahu a “proud unabashed racist”? No need to offer proof, for there is none. Simple affirmation will be quite enough. But when has Netanyahu ever made a “racist” remark or done a “racist” thing? Or is Hasan saying it because he picked it up from Bernie Sanders, who called Netanyahu, pleonastically, a “reactionary racist”? The epithet is affixed and re-affixed to the man; no one feels the obligation to explain or justify the Homeric epithet “racist.” It is enough that many people – “progressives” — are eager to use it. No evidence is apparently necessary, when Israel is in the dock, weighed and always found wanting.
However, Hasan states that his anti-Israel views are not grounded in racism and that they instead surround Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people. He argued that fact last year when he won an Intelligence Squared debate going against the notion that “anti-Zionism is antisemitism.”
“[The] debate is not about Israel per se: It’s not about whether you support or oppose Israel or the occupation. It’s about… the case that those of us who oppose Israel in its current form, who oppose the political ideology underpinning it, that we’re racists,” Hasan said.
Mehdi Hasan should watch his language. Those who deny the Jewish people the right to a state, and want to see it deprived of the means to defend itself, are not being called “racists,” as Hasan claims, but “antisemites.” For what else should we call those who are obsessed with the Jewish state and its supposed transgressions, while ignoring the human rights violations in China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Pakistan Syria, Saudi Arabia, and practically every other nation on earth? Those who continue to make baseless charges against Israel, keeping the Jewish state perennially in the dock of such kangaroo courts as the U.N., where Israel is a permanent item on the agenda of the U.N. Human Rights Council, so its “crimes” are required to be discussed at every session of the Council, who ignore the fact that Israel has had to fight three major wars for its very existence, that it is even now the prime target of Islamic terror groups, that Israel is only attempting to defend itself against those terrorists, are justifiably described as “antisemites.” Those who fail to recognize that Jews have lived uninterruptedly in the Land of Israel for 3500 years, and instead embrace absurd claims made on behalf of the recently-invented “Palestinian people” who supposedly have lived in “Palestine since time immemorial” are, in the depth and breadth of their cruel indifference to the historical and moral claims of the Jews to that tiny strip of land, “antisemites.” Those who deliberately misrepresent the Jewish state as practicing “apartheid” and subjecting Palestinian Arabs to all sorts of nonexistent atrocities can reasonably be called “antisemites.”
“‘I learned about Palestine by meeting Palestinians.’ [said Ruffalo]. Mark Ruffalo, that is great – really,” said Middle East analyst Yoni Michanie. “Now, get to know Israelis. Meet with Israelis who had their entire families ethnically cleansed from Arab countries and who have lost loved ones to terrorism.”
Mark Ruffalo might be surprised to learn that 900,000 Jews had to flee Arab lands, stripped of all their property, to avoid pogroms following the first Arab-Israeli war. Meanwhile, about 600,000 Arabs left Mandatory Palestine (and then Israel) during and after the first Arab attempt to snuff out the life of the nascent state of Israel. Unlike the Jews who fled persecution and death in Arab lands, the Arabs who left Mandatory Palestine, beginning in late 1947, and then Israel, were led to believe by their own leaders, and from broadcasts in neighboring Arab states, that they should leave “Palestine” in order to get out of the way of the invading Arab armies that would soon destroy the Zionists, at which point the Arabs could return to reclaim their homes and, at the same time, take over the properties that would have then been left behind by the fleeing Jews. As we all know, the war didn’t work out that way. The Arabs who left did not return, and the Jews remained.
Perhaps Mark Ruffalo will talk to those Jews whose families fled to Israel from Arab lands; their story has only recently started to be given its due. He should do a little research into the subject. Again, as with the testimony of Colonel Kemp as to the IDF being “the most moral army in the world,” Mark Ruffalo might learn something that, the next time he feels the urge to flail Israel, just might give him pause.
Ecosse1314 says
The more i listen to these “famoue people” and their pronouncements the more pro-Israel I become.
tgusa says
Mark is credited with a list of movies I have never heard of or never viewed and that’s fine with me. Much of what Hollywood produces today is geared towards kids. Actors should stay in that lane and not spout off on adult issues. Now go sit down at the small table Mark.
Actors often behave like children, and so we’re taken for children. I want to be grown up.
Jeremy Irons
He ought to know.
Oren says
He is A middle aged, rich white guy. There is no way he does not know, that islam is A brutal and oppressive religion. Climbing to the top of Hollywood, either means he has A descant IQ score, or he is part of some secret society with an agenda. It is possible that he hates Jews, but either way he is well aware he is lying. In G-d I trust.
David says
When you are pro-islam, you accept lies (Taqiyya) as part of the attack.
To make a wise decision, you need to know both sides of the situation. Weigh up the facts, and be honest.
James Lincoln says
The following, from Wikipedia, may help explain Ruffalo’s mindset:
1. In the 2016 election, Ruffalo supported socialist Bernie Sanders.
2. In June 2017, Ruffalo endorsed Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in the 2017 UK general election.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Ruffalo
gravenimage says
Thanks for that background, James. Not surprising.
tgusa says
We hear these lefty Hollywood types threatening to move to Canada Australia New Zealand and the like when things don’t go their way in the USA. Funny that we never hear them threatening to move to the territories. Bigotry racism or both? You be the judge.
James Lincoln says
tgusa,
To your point, Dan Bongino just wrote a great article about Hollywood types threatening to leave the USA if Pres. Trump is reelected.
Bruce Springsteen is the latest.
The problem is, they *never* actually leave…
https://bongino.com/bruce-springsteen-says-hes-moving-to-australia-if-donald-trump-wins
walkurja says
That’s wonderful news bye bye Bruce
Horseman says
Bruce who?
tgusa says
James,
They remind me of the song, How can I miss you when you wont go away.
We need to do anything and everything we can to help them along on their way out.
Prayers for Dan Bongino. He has been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
James Lincoln says
tgusa,
Yes, thoughts and prayers for Mr. Bongino – a true patriot.
Luckily, treatment options for Hodgkin’s lymphoma have improved significantly…
tgusa says
I would wager that Bruce wouldn’t last long down under. He would be attacked and eaten by a Koala in short order.
gravenimage says
Mark Ruffalo Deplores the ‘Racist Warmongers’ of Israel
…………………
What a useful idiot…
David says
Ruffalo speaks out because he has a public voice. In doing so, he exposes his ugly side, so we know to avoid him, and his anti-Semitic feelings. He must know he is lying, because he cannot truly be ignorant of the facts about the fake ‘palestinians’, who have no History.
Who came first? Jews or Muslims? I rest my case.
Linde Barrera says
To all the Hollywood “stars” and media “personalities” including the CEO’s of Twitter, Facebook and Google who do not like free speech (unless it agrees with your outlook) and who threaten to leave the US should Trump get re-elected-
I WILL HELP YOU PACK.
It will be my pleasure to assist you. I am very honest and would not steal any of your stuff. I will wave “good-bye” to you with a hand towel as you board the aircraft for your new home.
(Jihad watch readers please note: I hate sarcasm and I am not being sarcastic here. But I have just had enough of the threats to leave the US by the elites.)
James Lincoln says
Linde Barrera,
I, for one, do not think that you are being sarcastic.
I certainly would not miss any Leftist Hollywood “star” or media “personality” types if they left the United States permanently.
Let them peddle their brainless nonsense in, say, Sweden, UK, Germany, France, etc…
E T says
Just another movie making, mouthy, moron.
ATBOTL says
Jiahad Watch are nothing but Israel First neocons pretending to care about the West.