Seth Rogen says Israel makes 'no sense' as a means to preserve Jewish life, Internet says 'he chose humanity'
Writer/comedian Seth Rogen is one of those Hollywood celebrities who isn’t afraid to speak their mind on any issue. Rogen is currently promoting his new film ‘An American Pickle’ – a movie about Jewish life in the US. Recently he was on the Marc Maron podcast and discussed about the idea of Jews immigrating to many places in the world after the Holocaust and not to Israel.
According to a story published in the Mondoweiss, Rogen said, “I think that’s a better strategy. You don’t keep all your Jews in one basket. I don’t understand why they did that,” he said. “It makes no sense whatever. I agree with that strategy… It would be nice to live somewhere that is not part of the Christian apocalyptic prophesy… Maybe live somewhere that the Christians don’t think we all have to die…”
"There’s some common vested interest in the meantime… Our ridiculous visions are temporarily parallel and allied with one another."
He also says that there’s a huge amount of misinformation about Israel. He said, “I also think that as a Jewish person, like I was fed a huge amount of lies about Israel my entire life. You know, they never tell you, that oh by the way, there were people there. They make it seem like it was– just sitting there, oh the f**king door’s open!”
The story says that when the host asked the ‘The Interview’ star if he would live in Israel, his answer was a straightforward ‘No’. It quotes Maron saying, “They want to make you feel frightened enough about your own survivial that when you are old enough, you will make sure money goes to Israel, you always speak highly of it.. and Israel must survive no matter what.” And Rogen responded by saying that he doesn’t understand Jews who call themselves progressive and challenge the status quo, what they are doing.
He even goes on to say that he is afraid of Jews. The story quotes him as saying, “I know… I’m afraid of Jews. I’m 100 percent afraid of Jews, that’s it! Aside from James Caan we have no one to be afraid of!”
His fans and most Twitter users lauded the outspokenness of the actor. One even said that he is ‘hot’ now. A tweet appreciating him said, “@Sethrogen speaks Yiddish on film and makes a common sense statement about Israel that most celebrities would be afraid to say out loud. 2020 might actually be good for the Jews?” Another user said, “Imagine being afraid as a Jew to express criticism of Israel. That's the dilemma Seth Rogen faced. He chose humanity and spoke out.”
Some even thought that he must be protected at all costs. One user tweeted, “Thank you @Sethrogen- and remember the same ppl that come after him are going after @IlhanMN for speaking up about Israel and it’s apartheid/genocide. It is critical that ppl protect both of their voices!” One Twitter user even claimed that Rogen said he was never told that Palestinians lived in the land that became Israel—and that he has been misled his whole life about Palestine.
During the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, a 2014 Variety report states, before hostilities ended, those weighing in on social media on the side of Israel included Bill Maher, Howard Stern and Roseanne Barr. And Creative Community for Peace, a pro-Israel activist org, released a petition with 200 names in support of Israel. Sylvester Stallone, Seth Rogen, Minnie Driver and Arnold Schwarzenegger were among the signatories, as were several top studio execs.
Critics were equally vocal on Twitter and they expressed their cynicism about the episode. “Seth Rogen said he was taught his whole life there was no one living in the land israel has occupied and my TL is full of “seth rogen is hot now” .... what have we come too where a millionaire claims he just never heard of Palestine and we praise him for ‘learning and growing’,” said an user.” Why are we all praising Seth Rogen for agreeing with basic human rights lmao?,” pointed out another. A user even called Rogen’s views as ‘simplistic and naïve’.