LOS ANGELES – As the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, comedian Jackie Mason is calling out celebrities who blame Israel for the crisis.
“How come there was no disagreement anywhere in the world by celebrities after the attacks on September 11th, when we decided to take action against Al Qaeda and the Taliban for unprovoked attacks on innocent people? This was after only one incident,” Mason told FOX411. “Can you imagine how furious these celebrities would be if we were being attacked by thousands of missiles, killing innocent people hundreds of times. Would anybody question our military for taking every conceivable action to put a stop to it?”
“Only in the case of Israel, are the terrorists treated as victims and Israel the aggressor,” Mason said.
The celebs in question include married actors Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, who were two of many Spanish film industry bigwigs who signed an open letter published in El Diario last week attacking Israel for committing “genocide,” claiming that Israel “humiliates, detains, and tramples on the rights of the Palestinian population in all of the West Bank every day” while the “international community does nothing.”
Mason recorded an interview for the Aaron Klein Investigative Radio show, which aired Sunday, where he suggested such the stars who signed the letter “come from these kinds of anti-Semitic, low-class backgrounds where a Jew is the most disgusting thing in the world to them.”
“The ironic thing is that it’s Jewish people who own these Hollywood studios,” he said. “And they all hire these people and they depend on them for a living. Every penny they made is made from Jews and they hate every Jew just by nature.”
Mason isn't the only one. Jon Voight singled out Cruz and Bardem for “inciting anti-Semitism” by penning an open letter of his own, published by Variety.
“They are obviously ignorant of the whole story of Israel’s birth, when in 1948 the Jewish people were offered by the UN a portion of the land originally set aside for them in 1921, and the Arab Palestinians were offered the other half,” the actor wrote. “The Arabs rejected the offer, and the Jews accepted, only to be attacked by five surrounding Arab countries committed to driving them into the sea."
Voight goes on to note that “after years of trying to make peace, the wars they had to fight, being attacked by their enemies, and still being attacked, and finally after years of running into bomb shelters and having hundreds of civilians killed by suicide bombers and finally retaliating,” his peers have instead chosen to “take out poison letters” against the only democratic country in that region.
Reps for Cruz and Bardem did not respond to a request for comment, but each released statements backtracking from the letter they co-signed.
“My signature was solely meant as a plea for peace. Destruction and hatred only generate more hatred and destruction," Bardem worte. "While I was critical of the Israeli military response, I have great respect for the people of Israel and deep compassion for their losses. I am now being labeled by some as anti-Semitic, as is my wife – which is the antithesis of who we are as human beings. We detest anti-Semitism as much as we detest the horrible and painful consequences of war."
Cruz added: “I don’t want to be misunderstood on this important subject. I’m not an expert on the situation and I’m aware of the complexity of it. My only wish and intention in signing that group letter is the hope that there will be peace in both Israel and Gaza."
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