All of western liberalism’s much-vaunted institutions, its legal, political and cultural, have collapsed in on themselves to protect a genocidal, apartheid ethno-state.
I've worked in the industry for almost twenty years, and have been to LA a bunch of times, pretty much annually. Years ago, I was stunned when I tried to schedule a trip around Yom Kippur and couldn't get any meetings on that day. I went to see an Arab colleague at a big agency and it was him and a few others in the office, but everyone had taken the day off. He said, "Oh yeah, everyone's off during Jewish holidays. Even when they're not Jewish. No work gets done and no one important is around."
When Oct 7th happened, this agency forced all employees to attend a session with a Rabbi, regardless of their faith. Their CEO came out loud and proud in the press with racist rhetoric against Palestinians. My Arab colleague had an Israeli flag baseball cap dropped on his desk. I saw other Arab colleagues and Muslims demoted or fired for speaking up for Palestine.
There is so much fear because this industry is riven with Zionism. They will speak up against Russia, no problem, but they can't speak up for Palestine because some very powerful people in Hollywood will have them blacklisted and they won't work again. I've seen it. On the ground, there are many artists, representatives, and industry folk who are pro-Palestine, but they are muzzled by fear. Coupled with an extraordinarily rough time in the industry since COVID and the strikes, people are trying to keep their heads down and stay employed.
I don't excuse it and I don't like that there are a tiny handful of people who are risking their livelihoods to protest Israeli brutality while everyone else hides behind them. Until we can move power out of Hollywood and away from Zionists, this will continue to happen. It is very disappointing but it doesn't surprise me at all.
Aiyana, the facts you describe above are the result of the humongous power of the US Jewish Lobby, the largest single-issue, political force that the world has ever seen. In just the USA, it consists of nearly 450 Jewish political organizations that spend upwards a billion political dollars annually, possess billions of dollars in endowments, and are funded by the Jewish community and Israel. By funding and membership, AIPAC and the Christian Zionist supporters of Israel are only a drop in the bucket compared to the entire lobby, which concerns itself of many political issues beyond Israel, and the "Israel Lobby" is only part of the entire lobby. Here's the proof, the data, the smoking gun that illustrates these facts: https://iwasathought.substack.com/p/the-jewish-lobby
Thanks for the article. This event should be naturally boycotted, but not sure they don't care too much for money... Spain is more courageous, let's see now with Eurovision in May what will happen ?
The Eurovision Song Contest is facing an “existential” crisis as a growing band of countries threatens to boycott the 2026 edition if Israel is allowed to take part.
You want to know an insane example of selective outrage like this?
In 2024, Hannah Ritchie (who markets herself as an environmentalist but works for Our World in Data, the progress liberals you've written about before) wrote about a book festival boycott.
A group called Fossil Free Books arranged the boycott, citing two reasons:
- Baillie Gifford, the sponsor, invests in fossil fuels.
- They invest in the war machine, particularly those companies supporting/profiting from the genocide in Gaza.
Ritchie criticised the boycott, comparing it to book-burning and wrote a long, rambling column on her substack where she didn't mention Gaza once. She only focused on the fossil fuel investment (she literally argued that they only invest 2% of their portfolio into fossil fuels, which is lower than the industry average), and just pretended the genocide wasn't a major reason for the boycott.
Read their statement, made on the anniversary of the Nakba, and then the article Ritchie wrote (or as much as you can before being sick). It’s genuinely mind-blowing. I couldn’t stop thinking of that while reading this post and it exposes the kinds of people you’ve written about before.
Yeah, pretty much every mainstream environment has still said nothing on Gaza. I remember being blocked by Michael Mann on Twitter for calling him out for his silence 😅
I've been following the likes of Mann, Elizabeth Kolbert, Naomi Oreskes, and others for years but will no longer support anyone's work in environmental spaces unless they've used their platforms to speak out against genocide. They all had lots to say when Russia invaded Ukraine, like those you discussed here.
"All of western liberalism’s much-vaunted institutions, its legal, political and cultural, have collapsed in on themselves to protect a genocidal, apartheid ethno-state."
We can be more precise, more truthful, and braver:
All of western liberalism’s much-vaunted institutions, its legal, political and cultural, have collapsed in on themselves to protect a genocidal, apartheid Jew-state.
you got the pocket-dial story a bit wrong. the nutritionists was the one pocket-dialed and he believed that the noises constituted a threat. this is a dumb thing to think.
OK so now we have to add Wim Wenders to the nearly endless list of celebrated cultural personalities who by selling their souls to the zio mafia expose their moral bankruptcy. Such a disappointment to see my heroes come crashing down off their pedestals. Gutless sycophants the whole lot of them.
Good article, hypocrisy, ref Gaza - Western government buy it wholesale (hypocrisy).
I'm unconvinced there is a big distinction between judaism & zionism. I have some quotes from orthodox rabbis (the sort that condemn the political existence of Israel) - they place jews as the chosen ones and the rest of us as little better than servants. One could thus argue that their "theoretical view" is given concrete expression by the everyday realities for Israeli arabs (= 2nd class citizens). A Youtube video of a town in the USA, inhanbited by 30,000++ orthodox jews has a similar flavour - non-jews do all the work (with the male jews doing "work" such as "praying").
Most western institutions have been penetrated by zionists (who may or may not be jews), this gives a flavour to the "position" of a given institution vis-a-vis Israel and Gaza. The current situation ref zionist/judaism vs "us lot" is untenable, given the core attitudes of judaism (all based on "god" and jews being chosen by god) and the education of jews both in Israel and in other countries which reflect their core tennets. My fundamental tennet: live & let live, with the implication that +/- we are equal if not in abilities, then certainly in rights. The problem is that this is not something zionism & its judaism substrate, supports.
I've worked in the industry for almost twenty years, and have been to LA a bunch of times, pretty much annually. Years ago, I was stunned when I tried to schedule a trip around Yom Kippur and couldn't get any meetings on that day. I went to see an Arab colleague at a big agency and it was him and a few others in the office, but everyone had taken the day off. He said, "Oh yeah, everyone's off during Jewish holidays. Even when they're not Jewish. No work gets done and no one important is around."
When Oct 7th happened, this agency forced all employees to attend a session with a Rabbi, regardless of their faith. Their CEO came out loud and proud in the press with racist rhetoric against Palestinians. My Arab colleague had an Israeli flag baseball cap dropped on his desk. I saw other Arab colleagues and Muslims demoted or fired for speaking up for Palestine.
There is so much fear because this industry is riven with Zionism. They will speak up against Russia, no problem, but they can't speak up for Palestine because some very powerful people in Hollywood will have them blacklisted and they won't work again. I've seen it. On the ground, there are many artists, representatives, and industry folk who are pro-Palestine, but they are muzzled by fear. Coupled with an extraordinarily rough time in the industry since COVID and the strikes, people are trying to keep their heads down and stay employed.
I don't excuse it and I don't like that there are a tiny handful of people who are risking their livelihoods to protest Israeli brutality while everyone else hides behind them. Until we can move power out of Hollywood and away from Zionists, this will continue to happen. It is very disappointing but it doesn't surprise me at all.
Thanks for this great little insight. Unsurprising, as you say
Aiyana, the facts you describe above are the result of the humongous power of the US Jewish Lobby, the largest single-issue, political force that the world has ever seen. In just the USA, it consists of nearly 450 Jewish political organizations that spend upwards a billion political dollars annually, possess billions of dollars in endowments, and are funded by the Jewish community and Israel. By funding and membership, AIPAC and the Christian Zionist supporters of Israel are only a drop in the bucket compared to the entire lobby, which concerns itself of many political issues beyond Israel, and the "Israel Lobby" is only part of the entire lobby. Here's the proof, the data, the smoking gun that illustrates these facts: https://iwasathought.substack.com/p/the-jewish-lobby
Thanks for the article. This event should be naturally boycotted, but not sure they don't care too much for money... Spain is more courageous, let's see now with Eurovision in May what will happen ?
The Eurovision Song Contest is facing an “existential” crisis as a growing band of countries threatens to boycott the 2026 edition if Israel is allowed to take part.
You want to know an insane example of selective outrage like this?
In 2024, Hannah Ritchie (who markets herself as an environmentalist but works for Our World in Data, the progress liberals you've written about before) wrote about a book festival boycott.
A group called Fossil Free Books arranged the boycott, citing two reasons:
- Baillie Gifford, the sponsor, invests in fossil fuels.
- They invest in the war machine, particularly those companies supporting/profiting from the genocide in Gaza.
Ritchie criticised the boycott, comparing it to book-burning and wrote a long, rambling column on her substack where she didn't mention Gaza once. She only focused on the fossil fuel investment (she literally argued that they only invest 2% of their portfolio into fossil fuels, which is lower than the industry average), and just pretended the genocide wasn't a major reason for the boycott.
Read their statement, made on the anniversary of the Nakba, and then the article Ritchie wrote (or as much as you can before being sick). It’s genuinely mind-blowing. I couldn’t stop thinking of that while reading this post and it exposes the kinds of people you’ve written about before.
https://x.com/fossilfreebooks/status/1790659934381605047/photo/2
https://hannahritchie.substack.com/p/book-festival-funding
That's unreal. She's awful, always has been
Yeah, pretty much every mainstream environment has still said nothing on Gaza. I remember being blocked by Michael Mann on Twitter for calling him out for his silence 😅
I've been following the likes of Mann, Elizabeth Kolbert, Naomi Oreskes, and others for years but will no longer support anyone's work in environmental spaces unless they've used their platforms to speak out against genocide. They all had lots to say when Russia invaded Ukraine, like those you discussed here.
Has Peter Kalmus? I think so. One of very few
Yeah he has been one of the rare ones to talk about it and call it for what it is
fantastic. you said it clear and succinct. i think i feel the tide turning.
"All of western liberalism’s much-vaunted institutions, its legal, political and cultural, have collapsed in on themselves to protect a genocidal, apartheid ethno-state."
We can be more precise, more truthful, and braver:
All of western liberalism’s much-vaunted institutions, its legal, political and cultural, have collapsed in on themselves to protect a genocidal, apartheid Jew-state.
you got the pocket-dial story a bit wrong. the nutritionists was the one pocket-dialed and he believed that the noises constituted a threat. this is a dumb thing to think.
OK so now we have to add Wim Wenders to the nearly endless list of celebrated cultural personalities who by selling their souls to the zio mafia expose their moral bankruptcy. Such a disappointment to see my heroes come crashing down off their pedestals. Gutless sycophants the whole lot of them.
S i g h . . .
Good article, hypocrisy, ref Gaza - Western government buy it wholesale (hypocrisy).
I'm unconvinced there is a big distinction between judaism & zionism. I have some quotes from orthodox rabbis (the sort that condemn the political existence of Israel) - they place jews as the chosen ones and the rest of us as little better than servants. One could thus argue that their "theoretical view" is given concrete expression by the everyday realities for Israeli arabs (= 2nd class citizens). A Youtube video of a town in the USA, inhanbited by 30,000++ orthodox jews has a similar flavour - non-jews do all the work (with the male jews doing "work" such as "praying").
Most western institutions have been penetrated by zionists (who may or may not be jews), this gives a flavour to the "position" of a given institution vis-a-vis Israel and Gaza. The current situation ref zionist/judaism vs "us lot" is untenable, given the core attitudes of judaism (all based on "god" and jews being chosen by god) and the education of jews both in Israel and in other countries which reflect their core tennets. My fundamental tennet: live & let live, with the implication that +/- we are equal if not in abilities, then certainly in rights. The problem is that this is not something zionism & its judaism substrate, supports.