At the Bloomberg Screentime conference this week, Ari Emanuel, the CEO of entertainment agency Endeavor and a major Hollywood player, condemned Hamas’s attack on Israel. “As a Jew, what happened in Israel this past weekend was one of the worst pogroms in history, not including the Holocaust,” Emanuel said.
However, Emanuel also criticized the Israeli Prime Minister: “In my opinion, a morally corrupt Bibi Netanyahu exposed Israel and its people to rape, death, the beheadings of children, murders of fathers mothers, grandmothers. And he did it to stay in power. I don’t think this man deserves to be in power.”
Laying out the details of Netanyahu’s efforts to consolidate power in Israel, even as he faces corruption charges, Emanuel said that the leader’s attempts to “keep himself out of jail” led to a “a vulnerability that is unprecedented,” adding, “This would be like 30,000 Americans dying in 9/11. That’s what happened in Israel. And I just think it’s time we get rid of this man.”
Emanuel has close personal ties to Israel himself. His father, Dr. Benjamin Emanuel, served in the nascent Israeli Army during the Arab-Israeli War, and Ari Emanuel made frequent trips to Israel with his family as a child, the New Yorker reported in 2021.
The Hollywood super-agent has frequently popped up in high-profile political actions over the years. According to a report from The Daily Beast, he repeatedly denied requests from Democrats to release tapes filmed while Donald Trump owned the Miss Universe Organization during the former president’s first campaign.
Emanuel also disentangled his entertainment business from the Saudi royal family in the wake of journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder.
