Transcript [00:00] What does Paramount buying Warner [00:01] Brothers have to do with Israel? Well, [00:02] nothing, but Mark Ruffalo seems to think [00:04] otherwise because Mark Ruffalo has a [00:06] serious case of Israel obsession [00:07] disorder. He has spent years singling [00:09] Israel out, accusing it of genocide, and [00:11] he even put his name on a campaign [00:13] demanding the release of Marwan [00:14] Barghouti, who is serving five life [00:16] sentences for terror convictions. And [00:18] that pattern repeated itself this past [00:20] weekend. First, some backstory. [00:21] Paramount, which owns franchises like [00:23] Yellowstone, SpongeBob, and Mission: [00:25] Impossible, is set to merge with Warner [00:27] Brothers, which owns DC, HBO, Harry [00:29] Potter, The deal is being challenged in [00:31] court. For many in Hollywood, this [00:33] merger is a threat to jobs, competition, [00:35] and gives too much power to a small [00:36] number of studio execs. While a lot of [00:38] celebrities have spoken out against the [00:40] deal, Mark Ruffalo chimed in this [00:41] weekend and made it about his signature [00:43] obsession, Israel. Ruffalo shared a [00:45] video on his Instagram story of an [00:47] Oracle executive explaining how the [00:49] company provided technology to Israel [00:51] after October 7th. Oracle was co-founded [00:53] by Larry Ellison, whose son, David, runs [00:55] Paramount. And that was enough for [00:56] Ruffalo to combine both his hatred for [00:58] capitalism and Israel. Ruffalo claimed [01:00] Oracle's technology would likely end up [01:02] inside the new media company and warned [01:04] that one day it could be used on you, [01:06] whatever that means. Then he brought in [01:08] accusations of Israeli genocide and [01:10] apartheid. And it kept going. Ruffalo [01:12] called Larry Ellison a classic oligarch [01:14] and accused Ellison's of concentrating [01:16] the world's wealth for their own power [01:17] and dominance. The Ellisons are Jewish, [01:19] so Ruffalo's use of those terms is not [01:21] only conspiratorial but constitutes [01:24] dog-whistle anti-Semitism. And Paramount [01:26] called him out for it. They said Ruffalo [01:27] was advocating anti-Semitic tropes in [01:29] what was supposed to be a corporate [01:31] business dispute and called his decision [01:32] to inject genocide and apartheid into [01:34] the merger fight a bridge too far. But [01:36] Ruffalo didn't like being identified as [01:38] an anti-Semite, so he doubled down. He [01:40] gave the typical I have Jewish friends [01:42] defense and called the accusation [01:43] appalling and fundamentally dishonest, [01:45] arguing that criticizing Israel military [01:47] technology or the executives involved is [01:49] not the same thing as criticizing Jews. [01:51] But that's not what Ruffalo was actually [01:52] doing. He inserted Israel into a fight [01:54] over a Hollywood merger alongside [01:56] warnings about a rich Jewish family [01:58] controlling the media and technology [02:00] that could supposedly be turned against [02:01] you. That's anti-Semitic. The big angry [02:04] Hulk wanted a supervillain to smash, so [02:06] he created one out of thin air.
Mark Ruffalo thinks he's living in a Marvel movie, and Israel is the supervillain.
How else could he have merged a Hollywood studio deal with warnings about Jews controlling the media, and Israel's "genocide”?
It's nothing new for the Israel-obsessed actor-turned-activist, who most recently lent his name to a petition to free a jailed terrorist. But it was a “bridge too far" for Paramount, which clapped back at Ruffalo's use of antisemitic tropes.
Ruffalo may claim he has Jewish friends, but we see his record and rhetoric for what it really is.
Read more about Mark Ruffalo’s long-running obsession with Israel here: tr.ee/McaJPj
Presenter: @jacobgold
#MarkRuffalo #Paramount #WarnerBros #Marvel
