Mark Ruffalo ties the Paramount-Warner merger to a Jewish "oligarch" and to Gaza. The most troubling part isn't his post — it's the open letter from 170 Jewish figures rushing to his defense, turning a Hollywood spat into a full-scale test of who gets to define antisemitism.
In late August, actor Mark Ruffalo posted a message on social media linking David Ellison — head of Paramount Skydance and architect of the $110 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery — to Oracle, the company of his father Larry Ellison, which he accused of sustaining "a system of apartheid and oppression" in Gaza. He described Larry Ellison as a "classic oligarch" who "crushes workers and hoards the world's wealth for his own power." Both Ellisons are Jewish, and outspoken supporters of Israel.
The reaction was swift. Paramount denounced "antisemitic tropes." The president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles called out rhetoric that "combines Jewish wealth, media control, secret technology and sinister global power" — which is, word for word, the grammar of antisemitic conspiracy theory for over a century. The Simon Wiesenthal Center and Creative Community For Peace followed suit. "Fauda" co-creator Avi Isaacharoff summed the man up in one phrase: "a rare combination" of "ignorant" and "stupid."
