Donny Deutsch wants more people, especially those with public platforms, to speak out against anti-Semitism.
“If you have a platform and something important is happening, I think people have a responsibility,” the MSNBC regular and host About the brand with Donny Deutsch speak to PEOPLE.
“It is not necessarily about escalation or retaliation or about a two-state solution or Fr [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu. “This is all about slaughtering and killing Jews, and that is Hamas’s mission,” he says. “I think you should be able to speak very clearly and unabashedly and condemn this. Period.”
The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel by land, sea and air using paragliders on October 7, with approximately 2,200 rockets fired from the Gaza Strip heard over Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and southern Israel. The attack resulted in the deaths of more than 1,300 Israelis, with thousands more injured, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
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Cars burned by Hamas rockets during a terrorist attack in Israel on October 7, 2023.
AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty
Deutsch, who is Jewish, notes that hatred is something Jews feel in the United States as well. “It’s not just there,” he says. “Not condemning it there, we allow it here.”
With younger generations relying almost exclusively on social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter) for their news, Deutsch worries about anti-Semitism’s ability to run rampant and unchecked.
“Where are all the athletes? Where are all the musicians? Where are the performers? Where is Broadway? Where is the television industry, the film industry?” he asks. “This lack of openness, this lack of anger hits all the tentacles of entertainment.”
Duetsch recognizes that people’s fear of backlash and lack of understanding, whether they’re celebrities or CEOs, can be what keeps them from speaking up in the first place. However, he considers the silence “deafening and unacceptable”.
“Cultural leaders, celebrities, corporate leaders, political leaders, academic leaders — people who are the voices of who we are, that’s what leaders do,” he says. “They lead in difficult times, and silence does not lead.”
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Israeli soldiers drive a tank along the Israel-Gaza border after a Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.
Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu Agency via Getty
Ultimately, the conflict is nuanced. So, as Deutsch speaks out against virulent anti-Semitism both at home and abroad, he emphasizes that “two things can be true at once.”
“My heart goes out to all sides in this conflict,” he says, adding, “You can say, ‘These are complex issues, and I can certainly sympathize with all sides, and I don’t understand these issues, but I do understand that the mass slaughter of women is and children and elderly people and innocent people are a problem just because they are Jews.'”
He continues about those also suffering in Palestine: “You can be incredibly sensitive to the plight of the Palestinians and all oppressed peoples and yet come out and unequivocally condemn the open slaughter of babies by a terrorist organization whose entire mission statement is to kill Jews all over the planet.”
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Source: HIS Education