IMRA Middle East News Updates

(A special place before God on Yom Kippur) Full list of Jews Who Signed Letter Supporting Mark Ruffalo

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 15:26:04 -0400

(A special place before God on Yom Kippur) Full list of Jews Who Signed
Letter Supporting Mark Ruffalo
Source: Variety Australia 2 September 2026
https://au.variety.com/2026/film/news/mark-ruffalo-open-letter-antisemitism-
claims-paramount-39883/

We are Jewish artists, writers, creative professionals, faith leaders and
thinkers who have, in response to the outrageous smear campaign against our
respected colleague Mark Ruffalo, a simple message to share with the world:
Enough! Enough with the false and dangerous weaponisation of charges of
antisemitism against those who are brave enough to point out the obvious:
that the assault on the Palestinian people and the assault on our liberties
at home are deeply interconnected, and there is nothing antisemitic about
recognising that fact.

The proposed merger of Paramount and Warner Brothers Discovery is no mere
combination of two huge multinational companies. Yes, it will destroy
thousands upon thousands of livelihoods. Yes, it will further consolidate
the oligarchic control of our media (witness the gutting of CBS News). Yes,
it will strangle competition and creativity in film and television
production and distribution.

But it will do all this and more as part of a larger project of tech-driven
domination, a project Larry Ellison and his partners have never been shy
about trumpeting — and one they themselves have explicitly linked to their
support for the ongoing depredations being visited on the people of
Palestine and their silencing of critics of those horrors. We all saw this
after their Trump-brokered takeover of TikTok — a takeover they openly
proclaimed was in large part motivated by their desire to boost pro-Israel
propaganda. Larry Ellison personally, with his astonishing purported $350
million in funding and pledges to the Tony Blair Institute for Global
Change, has been Blair’s major backer as Blair assumes an influential role
in the Trump-concocted “Board of Peace” takeover of Gaza, a territory which
has become an open-air laboratory for AI-driven killing and control
technologies like the ones celebrated by former Oracle CEO (and current
Oracle and Paramount board member) Safra Catz.

The AI road to WarnerMount runs through Gaza, and Ellison has often let us
know the Orwellian world he has in store for us as he consolidates control
over what we watch and how we watch it, knowing that as we watch he and his
corrupt cohort will always be watching us: “Citizens will be on their best
behaviour because we’re constantly recording and reporting.”

Pointing out the crucial connections between what is happening in Gaza and
what is happening in Hollywood is the exact opposite of antisemitism. It is,
for us, the very essence of Jewish ethical duty. According to a recent
Washington Post poll, 61% of American Jews now agree that Israel is
committing war crimes in Gaza; and four in ten even agree that these crimes
amount to genocide. Do those attacking Mark Ruffalo as an antisemite
seriously believe that all these American Jews are antisemites too? Or that
we don’t see the connection between, on the one hand, the criminal
impunities that have led the US and Israel into unending disaster and, on
the other, the oligarchic powerplays of the Musks, Ellisons, Thiels and
others who are working to dismantle our democracy?

But the virulence and falseness of the slanders they direct towards their
critics is evidence of the increasing weakness of their position, based as
it is on innuendos. Today, more and more people of conscience are joining
together, to loudly and univocally proclaim: The time is over for spurious
charges of antisemitism to be trotted out, this time in the defense of war,
oligarchy, and AI domination. That tired playbook has run its course.

We stand proudly with Mark Ruffalo, and with all decent people who are
bravely rising and speaking truth to power.

Aaron Costa Ganis, Actor

Abbi Jacobson, Actor/Comedian

Alan Snitow, Filmmaker

Alex Winter, Actor/Filmmaker

Alison Klayman, Filmmaker

Alison Leiby, Writer/Comedian

Alissa Weiss, Rabbi

Allie Gross, Writer

Amos Goldberg, Holocaust Historian, Hebrew University

Amy Ziering, Filmmaker

Anat Matar, Snr. Lecturer (Ret.), Tel Aviv University

Andrea Weiss, Filmmaker

Andrue Kahn, Rabbi

Anjuli Kronheim Katz, Advocate

Anna Pollack, Director

Anthony Arnove, Writer/Producer

Ariel Friedlander, Artist

Ariel Wengroff, Artist

Atalia Omer, Professor, University of Notre Dame

Avi Shlaim, Professor (Em.), St Antony’s College

Ayelet Waldman, Author

Barry Trachtenberg, Professor, Wake Forest University

Bella Freud, Designer

Ben Korman, Producer

Ben Moser, Author

Ben Natan, Actor/Producer

Brian A. Kates, Editor

Bruce Cohen, Producer

Camille Lévy Sarfati, Author/Curator

Cat Davis, Rabbi

Chani Nicholas, Astrologer

Charlie Goldensohn, Strategist/Commentator

Charlotte Sheedy, Literary Agent

Cindi Leive, Journalist

Collier Meyerson, Writer

Craig Aaron, Journalist

Dana Kornberg, Assoc. Professor, UC Santa Barabra

Daniel Levy, Political Analyst

David Borenstien, Filmmaker

David Mivasair, Rabbi

David Vine, Author

David Wilson, Filmmaker

David Zirin, Writer

Deborah Eisenberg, Writer

Deborah Kaufman. Filmmaker

Deborah Shaffer, Filmmaker

Debra Winger, Actor

Deidre Fishel, Filmmaker

Dr. Mark Perlmutter, Physician

Einat Weizman, Filmmaker

Emily Kunstler, Filmmaker

Emma Seligman, Filmmaker

Erin Axelman, Filmmaker

Estee Chandler, Radio Host/Producer

Estelle Tarica, Professor, UC Berkeley

Ethan Sacks, Writer

Frances Fisher, Actor

Gabor Maté, Physician/Author

Gili Getz, Photographer

Gina Gershon, Actor

Ginny Suss, Producer

Hana Morgenstern, Assoc. Professor, Newnham College

Hannah Einbinder, Actor

Henry Bean, Screenwriter

Howard Rodman, Screenwriter

Hunter Abrams, Photographer

Idith Korman, Musician/Composer

Ilana Glazer, Actor/Writer/Director

Ilise Cohen, Scholar

Itamar Ziegler, Composer/Musician

James Renton, Professor, Edge Hill University

James Schamus, Filmmaker

James Wilson, Producer

Jamie Zelermeyer, Producer

Jane Schoenbrun, Filmmaker

Jason Kliot, Filmmaker

Jason Rosenberg, Public Health Advocate

Jeffrey Kusama-Hinte, Producer

Jenna Weiss-Berman, Producer

Jennifer L. Pozner, Author

Jeremiah Zagar, Director

Jeremy Yaches, Producer

Jesse Mechanic, Writer

Jill Goldman, Artist

Jillian Neal, Manager

Jo Firestone, Comedian/Actor

Joaquin Phoenix, Actor

Joel Beinin, Professor (Em.), Stanford University

Joel Coen, Filmmaker

Jon Reiss, Filmmaker

Jonathan Feingold, Professor, Boston University School of Law

Jonathan Glazer, Filmmaker

Jonathan Lethem, Writer

Josette Maskin, Musician

Karin Loevy, Professor, NYU School of Law

Kate Berlant, Actor

Kathy Wazana, Filmmaker

Katie Halper, Journalist

Lance Kramer, Producer

Larry Charles, Screenwriter/Director

Laura Kraftowitz, Writer

Leora Barish, Screenwriter

Lex Rofeberg, Rabbi

Libby Lenkinski, Producer

Linda Holtzman, Rabbi

Lindsay Beyerstein, Journalist

Lior Sternfeld, Assoc. Professor, Penn State University

Lisa Cholodenko, Filmmaker

Lonnie Kleinman, Rabbi

Liz Flahive, Screenwriter

Mara Hoffman, Artist

Marc Weiss, Filmmaker

Marianne Hirsch, Professor, Columbia University

Maris Kreizman, Writer

Mark LeVine, Professor, UC Irvine

Mati Shemoelof, Author/Poet

Matt Bernstein, Content Creator

Max Zev Reynolds, Rabbi

Meryl Crean, Rabbi

Michael Greif, Director

Michael J. Drexler, Assoc. Professor, Bucknell University

Michael Skolnik, Organizer

Michael Rothberg, Professor, UCLA

Miranda July, Filmmaker/Writer

Mneesha Gellman, Professor, Emerson College

Molly Crabapple, Author/Artist

Mordechai Liebling, Rabbi

Morgan Bassichis, Writer/Performer

Morgan Spector, Actor

Naomi Klein, Author/Professor

Nathan Thrall, Author

Nicole Morse, Educator

Nina Menkes, Filmmaker

Noa Avishag Schnall, Journalist

Orian Zakai, Assoc. Professor, George Washington University

Orli Matlow, Comedian

Peter Beinart, Journalist

Phyllis Bennis, Writer

Rachel Leah Jones, Filmmaker

Rain Phoenix, Musician

Raphael Greenberg, Professor (Em.), Tel Aviv University

Raz Segal, Assoc. Professor, Stockton University

Rebecca Vilkomerson, Author/Analyst

Rick Pearlstein, Author

Rinat Abastado, Rabbinic Student

Roee Rosen, Artist

Romy Soleimani, Make-up Artist

Rosanna Arquette, Actor/Director

Sai Koros, Student Rabbi

Sandi DuBowski, Filmmaker

Sarah Kunstler, Filmmaker

Sarah Schulman, Writer

Sarah Sherman, Comedian/Actor

Sarah Sophie Flicker, Artist

Shira Klein, Assoc. Professor, Chapman University

Sigal Primor, Artist

Simone Zimmerman, Podcast Host

Spencer Ackerman, Author

Steve Quester, Anti-Racism Coach

Steven Katz, Screenwriter

Susan Margolin, Filmmaker

Susan S. Lanser, Professor (Em.), Brandeis University

Tami Gold, Filmmaker

Tamir Sorek, Professor, Penn State University

Tavi Gevinson, Actor/Writer

Ted Hope, Filmmaker

Terri Ginsberg, Asst. Teaching Professor, Rutgers University

Tia Lessen, Filmmaker

Todd Haynes, Filmmaker

Tony Gerber, Filmmaker

Tony Kushner, Screenwriter/Playwright

Udi Aloni, Filmmaker

Udi Raz, Writer

V (formerly Eve Ensler), Playwright/Author

Vanessa Hope, Filmmaker

Vanessa Nunes, Physician

Wallace Shawn, Actor/Playwright

Wendy Ettinger, Filmmaker

Yael Bridge, Filmmaker

Yael Ronen, Director

Yoni Golijov, Filmmaker

Zach Woods, Filmmaker

Zachary Foster, Historian

Zachary Lochman, Professor, NYU

Weekly Commentary: Despite Iranian Threats - IDF clears Ali a-Taher ridge

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 18:06:52 -0400

Weekly Commentary: Despite Iranian Threats - IDF clears Ali a-Taher ridge
Dr. Aaron Lerner 3 September 2026

"Huge news tonight. The IDF cleared the Ali a-Taher ridge. This ridge was built next to Beaufort as a strategic position from which they not only harassed Kiryat Shmona and Metula, but also threatened to conquer the Galilee. We instructed the IDF to clear it. I congratulate the Chief of Staff, the Northern Command Major General, our heroic fighters, they did a wonderful job there. They took out weapons, took out computers, it's in our hands. We eliminated a great many terrorists there, today it can be told. The Ali a-Taher ridge no longer threatens us."
Prime Minister Netanyahu - 3 September 2026

This is huge news for many reasons.

And while, in and of itself, the destruction of this huge Hezbollah underground command post, built at great expense by the Iranians over the course of many years, is a significant achievement, perhaps even more important is that the IDF operation continued unabated until its successful conclusion despite warnings and threats from Teheran to cease and desist.

This development, that Iran no longer can deter Israel, not only illustrates how determined we are to neutralize Hezbollah in Lebanon.

It also shows a critically important sea change in Washington.

A few months ago, if the same scenario were playing out, there would have been a real possibility that President Trump would have applied whatever pressure available on Netanyahu to halt the operation so as not to interfere with American attempts to work things out with Iran.

In fact, there were reports earlier in the Summer, denied by both the White House and Jerusalem, that President Trump asked Netanyahu to delay the operation.

It is public knowledge that the Lebanese Armed Forces failed miserably in the "pilot zones".

Expanding on that program without recognizing this could have doomed Lebanon to remain under Hezbollah control.

But now, just as Israel could not be deterred from clearing out the Ali a-Taher ridge, Israel also can't be deterred from insisting on the challenge in Lebanon being addressed with eyes open.

This is good news for the future of Lebanon.

Weekly Commentary: Shas Thinks Its Army Serving Voters Will Forget

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 12:22:53 -0400

Weekly Commentary: Shas Thinks Its Army Serving Voters Will Forget
Dr. Aaron Lerner 27 August 2026

I know I’m a bit emotional.

Each time I come out of the HaShalom train station in Tel Aviv I have two reactions.

First, I look up.

I see the extraordinary skyline. Building after building, each with its own beautiful design.

And I am overwhelmed with pride.

This is what we have built - and are building!

Then I remember what I saw when I just passed through the train station.

The walls inside are plastered with memorial stickers.

Young faces.

Soldiers who are no longer with us.

And I think about the price.

"Here’s what we accomplished.

And here’s the price.**

To be clear, I'm not suggesting that our terrible losses couldn't have been reduced.

Just that, regardless of how smart and nimble we are, our very survival ultimately hinges on our willingness to make terrible sacrifices when necessary.

I think that’s a winning message for some politician in this election.

Because this election we cannot afford to forget this painful reality.

And apparently Shas is counting on us forgetting.

Shas opened its election campaign with an extraordinarily well-produced video.

A father is preparing to make Kiddush Friday night with his wife and his yeshiva-student son.

But the father pauses for a moment in hope.

His other son is still making his way home.

He is a soldier.

Finally the soldier comes through the door.

His father embraces him.

His yeshiva-student brother tells him that he prayed for him and for the soldiers.

The soldier thanks his brother for learning Torah.

Beautiful?

Touching?

Coming from Shas, insulting.

Because while Shas asks us to be moved by the soldier coming home for Shabbat, its own spiritual leader, Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, has been telling yeshiva students what to do when they receive draft notices.

Don’t go.

Tear them up.

He even proudly related that his own grandson received a draft notice, tore it up and threw it into the toilet - just as Rabbi Yosef had instructed him.

This as the Shas politicians have been in the forefront of efforts to legalize what would effectively waive the obligation to serve the country for anyone recorded as learning in a yeshiva (I use the term "recorded" intentionally).

Think about the message in that campaign video.

One son goes to the army.

One son never will serve.

Only one of those sons can be ordered into Gaza.

Only one can be sent into Lebanon.

Only one can be called from his wife and children for another round of reserve duty.

Only one may become another face on a future sticker on the walls of HaShalom Station.

This isn’t an argument against Torah study as an integral part of an individual's life or of our collective existence.

It is an argument against a political party embracing soldiers in a campaign video while fighting to ensure that many tens of thousands of young men do not have to join them.

The reaction to the Shas video shows that I’m hardly alone in finding this offensive.

Bereaved family members were among those who reacted with fury.

One bereaved father put the contradiction in brutally simple terms: while some fathers can still embrace the son returning home from the army, many fathers since October 7 cannot.

That is the reality Shas apparently hopes a touching Kiddush scene will make us forget.

I don’t want to forget.

I want to remember both images every time I leave HaShalom Station.

"Look up at what we built.

Look at the walls and remember what it cost."

There is something profoundly wrong with asking the people carrying the burden - and the families paying the ultimate price - to applaud a political fiction in which refusing a draft notice and answering one are presented as equivalent contributions.

Shas knows it has a problem.

Otherwise, it wouldn’t have opened its campaign with a soldier rushing home for Kiddush.

The question is whether the huge number of traditionally Shas voters whose families serve in the IDF also feel that this video is enough to make them forget.

This election, no one cannot afford to forget.

________________________________________
IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis

Since 1992 providing news and analysis on the Middle East with a focus on
Arab-Israeli relations

Website: www.imra.org.il

Weekly Commentary: Uranium Metal Must Be Removed From Syria

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 15:03:35 -0400

Weekly Commentary: Uranium Metal Must Be Removed From Syria
Dr. Aaron Lerner . 19 August 2026
“Syrian officials said Tuesday the (uranium) material would remain in the country albeit under IAEA safeguards.”
Syria Takes Steps To Come Clean On Nuclear Past - Laurence Norman and Jared Malsin, reporting in The Wall Street Journal, Page A6, 19 August 2026

Absolutely not acceptable!

As Barak Ravid (Axios) and other sources have revealed, Syria AGREED TO ALL THE MATERIAL BEING REMOVED FROM SYRIA.

This is a deal Israel began pushing the moment a post-Assad regime was in place.

It was brokered through President Trump.

When the talks were launched, the new regime did not even know that the material existed!

To be clear: Israel insisted that the material be removed.

When Israel detected movements near the site where the material was stored, the Trump team convinced Israel that it would seal the deal so that Israel did not need to go in to remove the material by itself.

I want to emphasize this: we have a CRISIS NOW because we decided to rely on the Trump team’s word.

So now, suddenly, the new Syrian regime refuses to honor its commitment to let the IAEA team remove the tons of uranium from Syria.

Uranium which it has absolutely no ability to do anything legal with.

I do not know, and frankly do not care, if Mr. Trump’s BFF Erdogan is behind the Syrian change of heart or Ahmed al-Sharaa decided on his own to renege on the deal.
Either way, this is not something which can be ignored.

Not by Israel and ALSO not by President Trump.

It is an incredibly dangerous development in Syria and a catastrophic precedent for the treatment of U.S.-brokered deals worldwide.

There is no time to waste.

The Trump team - possibly Mr. Trump himself - must get the agreed arrangement back on track.

Weekly Commentary: Jared Kushner – Gaza Needs Real Plan – Not BS

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 00:29:45 -0400

Weekly Commentary: Jared Kushner – Gaza Needs Real Plan – Not BS
Dr. Aaron Lerner 13 August 2026

I hope that this message reaches Jared Kushner before he visits Israel to discuss Gaza.

The Gaza RoadMap is a farce based on the assertion that the goal of the Gazans – including Hamas – is an “end to the cycle of violence” which isn’t predicated on Israel no longer existing, while Israel’s enemies, who are senior members of the group behind the RoadMap, will take a purely neutral role in the implementation of the RoadMap.

Back to the drawing board.

With some simple principles:
1. All weapons, with the exception of a limited number of handguns for specially vetted security forces, are to be immediately removed from the Gaza Strip.
2. Gaza construction activity is to be based on metal, precast cement, and other modular approaches to keep the use of divertible cement at building sites to an absolute minimum.
3. All industrial activity which is potentially dual-use is to take place in an isolated industrial zone, with provisions for 24/7 monitoring of production and inspection of the flow of goods to ensure that weapons are not manufactured in the industrial zone.
4. A ban on civilian paramilitary training of any form.

The above limitations don’t turn Gaza into a prison.

Gaza can be rebuilt.

Gazans can be gainfully employed.

They are free to do pretty much everything except prepare to destroy Israel.

Doesn’t that make more sense than a plan doomed to failure based on wishful thinking?

Warning: Netanyahu’s Mouthpiece Supports Gaza RoadMap?

Mon, 10 Aug 2026 11:58:56 -0400

Warning: Netanyahu’s Mouthpiece Supports Gaza RoadMap?
Dr. Aaron Lerner 10 August 2026

Amit Segal, known for his close ties to PM Netanyahu, added the following comment to his exclusive Channel 12 interview yesterday with Nickolay Mladenov, Director General of the Board of Peace:

“My Take: they won’t get every weapon.
But so long as Israel doesn’t have to withdraw completely and keeps the freedom to go back in when it needs to, 20,000 disabled rifles are worth entertaining the process.”

It should be noted that while the RoadMap only refers to the amorphous “decommissioning” of weapons and equipment (in some international conflicts “decommissioning” meant no more than storing), Mladenov claimed in the interview that the RoadMap provides to “ultimately render unusable” the weapons and equipment.

Segal declined to follow up on this discrepancy.

With all due respect to Segal, his conditional support of the RoadMap is farcical.

“so long as Israel … keeps the freedom to go back in when it needs to”

With international forces deployed in Gaza as well as various other groups - plus enemies of Israel playing a role in determining whether Israel “needs to” invade Gaza (not to mention that we have no idea who will be sitting in the White House after Trump), it’s ridiculous to think that, if the RoadMap is fully implemented, we will be able to invade “when we need to”.