Viral plastic surgeon says Hollywood celebrities need to learn Israel-Hamas history from books, not memes

Jewish Iranian-American plastic surgeon Dr. Sheila Nazarian, the star of Netflix’s "Skin Decision: Before and After" who recently went viral for calling out progressive Jews, has a message for Hollywood folks who want to speak out on the Israel-Hamas war. 

"All of these actors and actresses who have never even stepped foot into that region… these huge celebrities who, to this day, are listening to their hairstylists and going to fake plastic surgeons and, you know, taking the advice of people who don't know anything… now they're talking about complex Middle Eastern issues. They know nothing of the history. They know nothing of what's going on, and they feel like it's their right to make a statement," Dr. Nazarian told Fox News Digital before offering advice to celebrities. 

"If you haven't been to the region, if you haven't read the history… in a book, not a meme, and not what your hairstylist told you, better to stay quiet," she said. "I grew up there, I feel like I can say something. I lived there; I have family in Israel. I've been to the region many times. I've seen it with my own eyes."

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Nazarian was actually born in New York, where her Iranian parents frequently traveled before the 1979 Islamic Revolution made it so her Jewish family no longer felt safe living in Iran. When she was six, her parents fled Iran and eventually landed in Los Angeles, where she lived out the American dream by becoming an award-winning plastic surgeon. She has become a go-to doctor in Hollywood and has appeared on reality TV programs such as "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" and "Revenge Body with Khloe Kardashian." 

But first and foremost, Nazarian is still a Jewish person who fled Iran, and she has been appalled by what she’s seen from some Hollywood progressives since Hamas slaughtered over 1,400 civilians, including women, children and the elderly. She has been an outspoken defender of Israel for years and her pinned post on X is from March 2022 and says, "If you are silent when terrorists murder Israelis, stay silent when Israel defends itself." 

She feels the message holds up over a year after she posted it, as the Hamas terror attacks on Israel have left many Americans defending Israel’s right to retaliate, while some progressives call for a ceasefire.

"The reason why I decided to start speaking up is my daughter… I said, ‘Oh my goodness, she's four years away from being on a college campus and look at what's happening on college campuses. There's such walking on eggshells," she said. 

"What is the purpose of college if you can't go and listen to people who have different thoughts than you, or come from a different walk of life and see the world through a different lens? So, with great trepidation, I put the hashtag Shabbat Shalom on one of my Instagram posts. And in Iran, you never said you were Jewish," she continued. "I just I did it for my kids. Then, when the conflict broke out two years ago, I went straight into survival mode and I just said, ‘You know what? I have a roof over my head… I will be able to sleep well at night knowing that I have done everything I can to make this world a better place for my children.’ And so, I did one post in defense of Israel and I lost 3000 followers in the first 30 minutes and I just kept going."

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Nazarian said it was "really scary at first" and was prepared to lose it all, but the opposite happened. She says she's been stopped by people who thank her for being a voice with the courage to speak up. 

"I did lose a lot of followers, but I gained a lot of followers. And my patients when I would walk in the room would be in tears saying, 'I loved you before and I'm obsessed with you now,'" she said.

Last month, "Jeopardy" host Mayim Bialik, who is Jewish and another outspoken supporter of Israel, posted a lengthy video about the rise of antisemitism in America. Bialik said many liberal Jewish people in America were stunned that some progressives marched and cheered in solidarity with the Hamas terror attacks of Oct. 7. 

"I respect her, and I appreciate her voice, but the last minute of it really just, you know, she expressed how the progressive spaces that she's been in have been such a letdown and that she's so devastated, when in my view… the signs were there that these people were never pro-Israel, they're never pro-Jewish," Nazarian said. 

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"For example, Black Lives Matter in their charter was antisemitic. And I called them out two years ago in the height of the Black Lives Matter organization. I'm not saying Black lives don't matter, but that organization was antisemitic and corrupt and all of those things," she continued. "I called it out from the beginning and there was some pushback on that. Whereas now people were like, ‘Oh my God, you were right.’"

Nazarian didn’t realize her response to Bialik would go so viral, and she said she filmed it on a whim without makeup because she needed to get her message off her chest. Her response has been viewed over 1.2 million times on her X account alone. 

"I do think a lot of the progressive Jews have come around and are admitting and seeing the hypocrisy. I've had people that were at Shabbat dinner in my own house while I'm feeding them, screaming at me two years ago in disagreement, now calling me and saying, ‘I'm sorry I screamed at you. You were right,'" she said. "So, I do think that there is a shift and a realization and an awakening. Will it change how they vote? We shall see."

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