‘Disbelief, Rage and Anger’: Israelis in Hollywood Plead for Support in War With Gaza

As the conflict between Israel and Gaza continued to escalate, Israelis and their allies in Hollywood pleaded for support and said they were riven with anxiety for the well-being of friends and family.

“Some of the immediate reaction is disbelief, rage and anger. And I think I’ve settled in over the last 24 hours to just immense sadness,” said Casting Networks co-CEO Rafi Gordon, who was born and raised in Israel before moving to the United States as a teenager. “This feels like a 9/11 kind of moment, where I don’t know what normal is on the other side of this.”

“People have tried justification for violence for 3,000 years and it doesn’t work. We need to find justifications for peace,” MRC co-founder and co-CEO Modi Wiczyk, who has close family in Israel, told TheWrap two days after surprise attacks by Hamas left some 900 Israelis dead and thousands wounded.

“It’s a playbook we’ve never seen before. We don’t know where it’s going,” said a saddened Orly Adelson, a prominent television producer and dual American-Israeli citizen whose Lifetime movie “Buying Back My Daughter” aired over the weekend while she was glued to the news.

She added: “At this time, all I can think of is the people, the loss. Nothing matters at the moment except the little kids, the mothers, the fathers, the grandmothers now in captivity. That’s all that matters now. How we get them back.”

Across Hollywood, Israeli industry professionals and American Jews with ties to the country expressed despair and anxiety over the carnage, and spoke of the wave of suffering to come.

“Abbott Elementary” actress Lisa Ann Walter said on social media: “My whole family believes in a two-state solution. We don’t like Netanyahu. Including my oldest kids who are Jewish. To reduce this to simplistic ‘us against them’ is not only false, it furthers fighting.”

She added: “Everyone deserves a homeland. Killing is wrong. Feel free to unfollow.”

Walter’s post on X was in response to a cascade of criticism of Israel on social media that followed quickly on the heels of an initial wave of sympathy for Israelis who were hunted down in their homes on southern farms and murdered at a music festival in the desert. The killings have been condemned across the world — and in a rare, joint statement by the leaders of the U.S., Britain, France, Italy and Germany on Monday — but voices of anti-Israel dissent pierced through and touched raw wounds in the industry.

The bulk of the backlash saw social media users point out that Israel shouldn’t get a blanket statement of sympathy after the attacks, following years of Palestinian suffering.

“Nobody has ever been able to answer why Israel is allowed to repeatedly violate international law. Nobody,” wrote German-Palestinian filmmaker Lexi Alexander. “I’m starting to think we should spend less time debating people who aren’t interested in Palestinian liberation. It’s strategically exhausting.”

Former “Grey’s Anatomy” showrunner Krista Vernoff shared her thoughts on the social media narrative switch on her Instagram, saying that criticizing the Israeli government in the face of the attacks would be the same as “decrying the sh—y U.S. government and our policies immediately after 9/11.”

“Mass murder, kidnap, rape, and torture is not a solution to anything. It is not justifiable,” Vernoff wrote. “The mass murder of Jews is not a moment for silence.”

Hollywood has significant ties to the Israeli people, including Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel, a first-generation American who remains close to the Jewish country. As a heavily Jewish industry, it’s easy to find executives and creatives with loved ones close to the conflict. The industry has also seen a recent surge in production from Israeli entertainment companies, such as Keshet International and Yes, the satellite television company that produces the Netflix hit “Fauda.” (“Fauda” star and co-creators Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff shared footage helping extract two families from the conflict alongside Israel Democracy Institute Yohanan Plesner.)

How the war will impact Israel’s growing footprint in entertainment is far from the top priority at the moment, with those abroad glued to the news and social media for updates, while those on the ground hunker down for a continuing battle.

“Our country was attacked by a cruel enemy who murdered children, women, and men in cold blood in their beds… This is not a victory. It is darkness fighting light,” Raz wrote on his Instagram Stories over the weekend.

“When the war turns, and we promise you that we Israelis will turn it, and Gaza will absorb the losses, remember that we go into this war with a heavy heart, with no desire to kill innocents, and with no choice in the face of those who come against us,” he continued in a separate post.

Here in Hollywood, Wiczyk urged people to help de-escalate violence and turn the conversation back toward peace. “I encourage everyone to ask themselves if what they’re doing is seeking peace or inflaming violence,” he said. “I’m trying to keep hope alive. I’m prepared, but hopeful too.”

Sharon Waxman contributed to this report.

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