You don't have to be Palestinian to stand with the Palestinian people.
You do. You do not have to be.
Palestinian to understand that the slaughter of almost 5000 children
is unacceptable and a war crime.
It's time to have an open heart.
It's time to be strong. And it's time that Palestine be free.
Actress and political activist Susan Sarandon has been dropped
by the talent agency representing her UTA after attending and speaking
at multiple pro-Palestinian rallies.
And it's really important to note that these are people who are concerned about
the well-being of Palestinian civilians.
They're speaking out against the aerial bombardment
carried out by the Israeli Defense Forces.
And unfortunately, as you see with Susan Sarandon, some of them face consequences
for their political speech.
What allegedly really got her into trouble, though, were comments that she
made at a New York protest comparing Jewish and Muslim experiences in America.
Let's watch.
There are a lot of people that are afraid, afraid of being Jewish at this time
and are getting a taste of what it feels like to be a muslim in this country,
so often subjected to violence.
It's important to listen. It's important to have facts.
- Try to take a breath. - Before you answer.
And if it's. Have a conversation.
You don't have to go through the entire history of that region.
You can just show.
The babies that have been dying in incubators.
The family and the love that people have for their loved ones
when they're blown to pieces.
Those images are enough to show you that something is drastically wrong.
So apparently that was what got her in trouble.
She also encouraged attendees to be strong, be patient, be clear, and
stand with anybody who has the courage to speak out and thank the Jewish community
who's come out to have our backs.
In other comments at the rally, surrounded also said criticism of Israel should
not be conflated with anti-Semitism.
She said, quote, there's a terrible thing that's happened
where anti-Semitism has been confused with speaking up against Israel.
I'm against anti-Semitism. I am against Islamophobia.
Nonetheless, her comments set off a storm of backlash.
Aviva Klompus, who is the co-founder of the pro-Israel nonprofit Boundless Israel,
wrote this on X when Susan Sarandon said that Jews are getting a taste of what it
feels like to be a muslim in this country, she was saying that American Jews
have it coming, that we don't deserve to live free from harassment and assault.
But hold on.
That statement by Aviva makes it seem as though Muslim-Americans deserve
the Islamophobic attacks that they've been dealing with in America, doesn't it?
And I think what Susan Sarandon was trying to say was that neither group
deserves that kind of hate or harassment in this country, period.
I mean, that's the way that I interpreted her statements.
I'm curious what you think, John.
Yeah, yeah, I don't I don't know her. I don't know her heart.
I would assume that that's what she meant.
And if those were the statements that dropped before, that's just absurd.
Like, that's a terrible look for you as an agency, particularly like considering what
she actually said, like that's what you took issue with at this particular time.
I would say I would not have used the expression get a taste of
just because the connotation of that.
It's not a neutral phrase.
I don't think that she meant they deserve to get a taste of.
But get a taste of necessarily has a little bit of a it's not a it's
not condemning the experience.
Again, that doesn't mean that that's what she meant.
But when you use phrases like that that can be interpreted in ways like that,
then you potentially open yourself to bad actors
purposefully misinterpreting things.
So I don't love that so much of what she
said is so indisputable, so basic.
Be strong.
Be patient. Care about civilians who are being killed.
Care about the the babies in incubators. It's like everyone is saying this.
How could you drop her for expressing opinions that poll at 60 to 70%.
It just it really sucks to see a major agency doing something like this.
Yeah, absolutely.
And it's not the only agency that has taken action against one
of their own who has actually spoken out against the brutal bombardment
of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Before we get to the other examples, though, I just want to go to one other
video because Fox News invited a guest, Carol Markowitz, on, to speak about Susan
Sarandon, and here's what she had to say.
So what I would say about Susan Sarandon is that she seems very gleeful
about the Jewish violence against Jewish people in this country.
I would also add that for anybody that wants to destroy Israel,
like Susan Sarandon does, the attacks on Jews in America only make us believe
in the existence of Israel and the fact that it must exist even stronger?
We always thought Jews needed a safe haven.
We just didn't think it would be for us.
So I think that she's really stepping on her own point if she hopes to help the
Palestinians, which of course she doesn't. She doesn't care about the Palestinians.
She just hates Jews.
I mean, that is such a clear mischaracterization of Susan
Sarandon's statements, what she believes.
I haven't seen a single example of her calling for the destruction of Israel.
That's ridiculous.
But to me, the statements made by Carol there are indicative of what's been
deployed every single time a war flares up between Israel and Palestinians,
because you see the high civilian death toll on the Palestinian side.
Of course, considering Israel's military capability made possible by
the United States of America and also their defense capability,
the Iron Dome paid for and provided by the United States of America, and in an effort
to silence those criticisms of the brutality targeting Palestinian civilians,
they use all sorts of like name calling.
They call you an anti-Semite.
And as we know, as we can see in these examples, that we're sharing with you,
some people suffer, you know, financial consequences, political consequences,
in this case, career consequences.
And so it's really a way to silence people.
And it's not working anymore.
I mean, we've said that multiple times on the show now, but I also want to be clear
in noting, you know, how privileged we are, John, in feeling safe and comfortable
to share the reality of the situation with our audience without fear of retaliation.
Exactly. Yeah.
Yeah.
Thankfully we, you know, we're we're, I would assume, not going to be dropped
as a result of any of that.
So that's that's a nice position to be in.
Yeah. I'm not familiar with that.
Second speaker.
So again, I don't know if what we just saw the the willful misinterpretation,
like a massive misinterpretation of what Susan Sarandon was saying, is indicative
of how she generally communicates.
I will say that most people go through their life looking for get
out of having to be persuasive free cards, and that was one of the most crazy
examples of it that I just saw there.
If you believe that what Israel is doing is indefensible, and I can read into you
that you might think that because you're not trying to defend it,
you are just trying to draw some sort of like fully invented equivalent, like
unacceptable position from Susan Sarandon.
The issue is that we just saw the video of what she was saying,
and she didn't say any of that stuff.
So it's crazy to say that if you say, I don't want babies in incubators to die,
you hate Jews and want to destroy the state of Israel.
I have no doubt that there are people that are like that.
Take it up with them.
But you can't simply just say, man, it would really be much easier to win
this argument if my enemy was a monster.
So I'm just going to pretend that she is.
You cannot like Susan Sarandon, you can take issue with what she said,
but she didn't say any of that stuff and there's no evidence that she believes it.
I now want to skip ahead to what's going over at the other talent agency, CAA,
because they're co-head of film.
Her name is Maha.
Dakhil ended up resigning from the agency's board after she reposted
an Instagram story that said, you're currently learning who supports genocide.
And of course, it's referring to what Israel is carrying out in Gaza.
So in another post, it read what's more heartbreaking than witnessing genocide?
Witnessing the denial that genocide is happening?
And she actually ended up apologizing for her comments and even deleted the post
because she got a lot of backlash for it.
Even though I agree with her and I especially the second statement, the
statement about it being so heartbreaking that people are denying it, especially
our own government, which ends up denying it day after day despite what we are
seeing happening on the ground in Gaza.
But nonetheless, she said, I made a mistake with a repost in my Instagram
story which used hurtful language.
Like so many of us, I have been reeling with heartbreak.
I pride myself on being on the side of humanity and peace.
But still.
According to variety, Dakhil was relieved of her duties as co-chief
of the motion pictures department.
Though she was allowed to remain an agent, it didn't hurt that her most important
client, Tom cruise, made it known to CAA that he was backing her.
Cruise met with Dakhil at her office on November 15th.
A knowledgeable source says he took the rare step of going in person
to show support for his embattled agent.
Look, I never really had any strong feelings about Tom cruise.
He he's just an actor who exists.
But I commend him for doing that because I have no doubt that she
would no longer be an agent at CAA had it not been for him stepping in.
That's just my guess.
I don't know for sure, but any final words on this, John?
Yeah. No, it's good that he would do that.
I mean, I don't know if he's doing that because he supports the message
or just because he has a long standing relationship with her.
I don't know, but it is good to see, you know, powerful people standing
up for people's ability to express their political opinions without consequences.
Which is why, you know, I draw like some like optimism from Tom cruise doing that.
And also the around the clock coverage of Fox News defending people who are
being fired for expressing solidarity with Palestinian civilians because they
hate cancel culture and they believe in free speech, which is why they're
just sticking up for all these people.
And that's why Dave Rubin won't stop talking about it.
And that's why Dan Bongino is talking about it.
And that's why literally none of what I'm saying is true.
And I'm being very, very sarcastic.
They don't give a damn about any of this, and they are perfectly comfortable
with people losing their entire livelihood for sharing an Instagram post
that doesn't line up with their politics.
These people's politics is incorrect and they deserve to be canceled for it.
That is their position and they are proving it with the way they choose
what to cover and what not to cover.
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