“Moral equivalency” had no footing for Bill Maher as he rejected those on the American left showing their support for Hamas.
“I think the Israelis have always had the moral high ground, and I think they still do.”
(Video: Real Time with Bill Maher)
Friday, the host of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” reacted to the terrorist attack against Israel that took the lives of at least 1,300 and injured hundreds more with a strike of his own against the idiocy of those who’ve postured on the side of evil.
Speaking with his guest panel, Tablet Magazine’s James Kirchick and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I) former foreign policy adviser Matt Duss, the comedian critiqued, “Mostly what I saw this week was a shocking amount of support, even at the moment of the rampage or right after when they’re still counting the bodies.”
“That was shocking to me. Even at its best, I feel most people who you would read in the media, the attitude is sort of like, ‘This is very complicated. I don’t really study it. I don’t really know the facts. So, I’m just going to go with a kind of they are both guilty equally and a moral equivalency.’ Which I would like to take issue with tonight,” he continued. “I think the Israelis have always had the moral high ground, and I think they still do.”
While he did take umbrage with the siege of Gaza, noting his concern that Israel could find itself losing that moral high ground, he continued, “It’s just amazing to me that the American left throws, so much of it, throws its lot in with people whose values, I hope they don’t share.”
At one point, Maher rattled off some of the extreme restrictions against freedom in Gaza that progressives have disregarded seemingly “because they’re antisemitic…I think it’s because they want to be social justice warriors. It’s not about the issue. It’s about them.”
Calling out bigotry and alleging pedophilia, the host slammed the lack of women’s rights and noted, “Religious tolerance. That doesn’t exist in Gaza. You’re either Muslim or an infidel, and you better be a Muslim.”
He called out signs that read “Queers for Palestine” prompting Kirchick to quip, “Did you hear their sister organization, ‘Blacks for the KKK.'”
“I’m a gay man. I’ve lived in Berlin. This is a level of masochism that even I cannot comprehend,” the Tablet Magazine writer added.
As had been reported, Harvard University had found a prominent place in reactionary coverage to the heinous attacks after student organizations had blamed Israel and the president of the university had not readily condemned it.
Harvard President Claudine Gay had instead said in part, “We will all be well served in such a difficult moment by rhetoric that aims to illuminate and not inflame. And I appeal to all of us in this community of learning to keep this in mind as our conversations continue.”
The statement included her asserting student organizations don’t speak for the school, but at her failure to condemn hateful positions, leading to Israeli billionaire executive board members Idan Ofer and his wife resigning from Harvard’s Kennedy School board.
Harvard takes another big blow, Israeli billionaire and wife resign from executive board https://t.co/9amBx5VFFJ via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) October 13, 2023
“I don’t think it’s a minority on elite college campuses,” criticized Maher, “which is the mouth of the river this nonsense flows. And, they’re very influential, and those are the people who graduate and become the a**holes in society.”
Duss had taken up a position of defense for others on the left and claimed, “I don’t want to overrepresent this as part of the political left…They are not a majority here. They are not close to a majority.”
However, Kirchick fired back “I think we should just shut down Harvard University until we figure out what the hell is going on.”
“You’re saying they’re not sending us their best?” mocked the host.
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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