I have spent much of my career supporting many charities. And over nearly four decades of making films and TV shows, I’ve worked with people from so many different walks of life: ethnicities, races, women, LGBTQ, etc. And this was before the “woke” generation came along. I did it because it’s how I saw the world, not because I “should.”
Then came October 8, 2023, the day after the horrific massacre in Israel. I noticed my phone wasn’t ringing. I wasn’t getting the calls from this diverse group of people I’d worked with most of my life: “Are you okay?” “Do you have family or friends in Israel, and are they doing well?” “Can I come visit you?” The people I normally saw on Instagram would say things like, “I’m trying to understand,” “It’s complicated.”
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Hamas terrorists killed civilians, including women, children and the elderly, when they attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. (Israeli Armed Forces via AP)
Are you trying to understand? What is there to understand about the thousands of terrorists who invade Israel and brutally rape, murder and hold hostages – innocent people who were just sleeping in their beds? What’s complicated about that?
Not only did my peers remain silent, but many were in denial about the atrocities that were taking place. Some even began to justify the acts of terror. They began wearing the red handprint as a pin – a symbol of two Israeli reservists who were brutally murdered and whose bodies were mutilated when one of the Palestinian perpetrators waved his blood-soaked hand.
And the anti-Semitism of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, of which I have been a member since 1995, became clear. The very industry that preaches inclusivity and empathy mostly turned away when my fellow Jews were raped and murdered. Worse, many blamed Israel for all this.
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I was forced to take action, and the result is my limited scripted TV series on Paramount+, “Red Alert.” My team and I did this to honor the very people who lived through this horrific experience, those who died and those who survived.
Lawrence Bender is seen filming his Paramount+ series “Red Alert,” which focuses on the October 7 terrorist attacks. (Ran Mendelson/Green Productions, Bender Brown Productions, Keshet 12, the IEF and Paramount+)
It became a mission to tell their stories – to show the truth of these incredible heroes who were ignored or vilified by Hollywood and the rest of the world. This show is the reason we are here today. And especially now that the living hostages are back and there is a desire to move towards some form of peace, this can only be done if the truth is recognized. This show dramatizes that truth.
We wanted to have global appeal, so we chose stories that were universally recognizable. They are family and underdog stories – a middle-aged mother who runs to save her son, saving many neighbors in the process; a man trying to save his wife; a mother who saves her two daughters while her son is taken to Gaza. And we have a very important story about an Arab family whose father saves his child, saves himself and ultimately an IDF unit. All true. The fact is that most people don’t understand how multicultural Israel is – and that many Arabs have been murdered there too. All these ordinary people became superheroes.
A woman reacts as the community of Kibbutz Kfar Aza commemorates their members who were murdered, held hostage and died in captivity, following the deadly attack by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023 in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, southern Israel, on October 16, 2025. (Hannah McKay/Reuters)
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For me this was a life-changing process. The actors in the show are all based on real people, and those people spent a lot of time with us on set – a man whose wife was murdered, a mother whose daughter was murdered, a woman who saved the life of one of our actor’s nieces. It’s impossible not to walk away a changed person.
When you see “Red Alert,” I hope you are moved by this incredible drama and that it helps change the conversation. And for my progressive friends who have gotten it so wrong—who have distorted the truth, excused terror, and demonized Israel—I hope they begin to understand the real truth, which cannot be denied.
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And as news cycles continue, years from now you may not remember what happened in a particular cycle – but “Red alert‘ is here as proof of the truth and the everyday heroes in Israel.
