 If you're one of the many lefties that stopped watching Bill Maher, I do have an update for you. It's still pretty bad. You made the right decision. In fact, I'd argue that it's actually gotten worse because Bill Maher's descent into radical centrism is about to reach its logical conclusion. Because in the latest episode, if you haven't already heard, he condemned BDS and he didn't just condemn the movement and say, look, I disagree with it. Like he took it a step further and went out of his way to smear proponents of BDS. And I know that the word smear is overused, but this is exactly what he did. He claimed that proponents of BDS are historically ignorant and implied that they were anti-Semitic. He name dropped Ilhan Omar, and it was just, it was a disaster. Okay, since no one's answering my question, I'm going to answer it myself. It's a bullshit purity test. BDS is a bullshit purity test by people who want to appear woke, but actually slept through history class. It's predicated on this notion. I think it's very shallow thinking that the Jews are in Israel mostly white and the Palestinians are browner. So they must be innocent and correct. And the Jews must be wrong. As if the occupation came right out of the blue that this completely peaceful people found themselves occupied. Forget about the infatatas and the suicide bombings and the rockets and how many wars. And let me read Omar Bargoudi is one of the co-founders of the movement. His quote, no Palestinian, rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian would ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine. So that's where that comes from this movement. Someone who doesn't even want a palace, a Jewish state at all. Somehow this side never gets presented in the American media. It's very odd. Well, I think, I think it's absolutely become one of these litmus tests inside the hard progressive movement now that they need the enemies of the enemies of Trump. And before that, the enemies of Bush, you know, they looked at hard progressive, looked at Israel as an as a strong ally for both Trump and for Bush prior to that. And so it's been brewing a long time. This has been coming up into the, sort of percolating up to the progressive left for a long time. And I think you're right, it is largely ahistorical. It doesn't, it does not focus on the fact that there are two players in this dance and two sets of behaviors in this dance you got to look at. What he said. No, but I do think you're right on the ahistorical part. People don't understand history anymore. I mean, the entire well, shouldn't that come into play? Why aren't we saying it then? I don't get it. I mean, I think that we explain, you know, I work for the New York Times, you know, we tend to explain the history of this conflict. But I think people when they see Netanyahu, you know, the Democrats in Washington are still really mad about that speech that remember when John Boehner invited him and sort of went around Obama and they just feel that this administration has been playing. I mean, Saudi Arabia wouldn't let Jews into the kingdom. I'm not sure they still do. They don't. They don't. No. Okay. Isn't that something? I mean, I have a list here of Jews in the Middle East prior to 1948. Morocco, there was 250 to 350,000. These are a little old statistics, but last tally, 2500. Iraq had 150,000. In 03, they had 34. Tunisia had 100,000. And they had 900. Egypt had 75 to 80,000. Then 40. Iran had 150,000. Then 9,000. It's not a one-way street here, is it? And Congresswoman Omar has said things like it's all about the Benjamins. Israel has hypnotized the world. May Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel. She apologized for it. But it's out there. Jews control the world. Jews control the money. I can see why they don't get a hero's welcome. So the first claim he makes is that proponents of BDS are historically ignorant. And he says it's nothing more than a purity test by people who want to appear woke but actually slept through history class. Now, why are proponents of BDS historically illiterate? I don't know, because he doesn't actually make the case as to why they're historically ignorant. Because they're not. In fact, what he demonstrated there was that he's the one that's actually historically ignorant. Because if you'll recall, Bill, BDS was one of the main tools that helped us end apartheid in South Africa. And Ronnie Crazils, who's a Jewish South African who fought against apartheid, had this to say about the BDS movement with regard to Israel. South Africa's apartheid government banned me for life from attending meetings. Nothing I said could be published, because I stood up against apartheid. How disgraceful that despite the lessons of our struggle against racism, such intolerance continues to this day, stifling free speech on Palestine. During the South African struggle, we were accused of following a communist agenda, but smears didn't deflect us. Today, Israel's propaganda follows a similar root, repeated by its supporters, conflating opposition to Israel with anti-Semitism. This must be resisted. A growing number of Jews worldwide are taking positions opposing Israel's policies. Many younger Jews are supporting the Palestinian-led, boycott divestment and sanctions movement, a peaceful mobilization inspired by the movement that helped to end apartheid in South Africa. The parallels with South Africa are many. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently said, quote, Israel is not a state of all its citizens. Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people and them alone. Similar racist utterances were common in apartheid South Africa. We argued that a just peace could be reached, and that white people would find security only in a unitary, non-racist democratic society after ending the oppression of Black South Africans and providing freedom and equality for all. The anti-apartheid movement grew over three decades in concert with the liberation struggle of South Africa's people. To make a decisive difference in toppling the racist regime, Europeans refused to buy apartheid fruit. There were sports boycotts. Doc workers from Liverpool to Melbourne refused to handle South African cargo. An academic boycott turned universities into apartheid-free zones, and armed sanctions helped to shift the balance against South Africa's military. This required huge organizational effort, grassroots mobilization and education. Similar elements characterized today's BDS movement to isolate apartheid like Israel. Every step is important, pressing institutions and corporations that are complicit in Israel's crimes and supporting Palestinians in their struggle for liberation. This is not about destroying Israel and its people, but about working for a just solution as we did in South Africa. Long story short, when it comes to BDS and ignorance, historical ignorance, it's evident that there's a lot of ignorance around this issue, but it's not the proponents of BDS who are perpetuating this ignorance. It's people like Bill Maher who refused to acknowledge that BDS was crucial in ending apartheid in South Africa. So you can say that you don't think this is the best strategy. You can suggest that this is something that isn't going to be conducive to peace, but to say that supporters of BDS are historically ignorant when this Palestinian led movement was modeled after the BDS movement against South Africa, I mean that's just an idiotic comment to say. It's the definition of historical ignorance. Now on top of that, Bill Maher also stated, it's predicated on this notion, I think it's very shallow thinking that the Jews in Israel are mostly white and the Palestinians are browner, so they must be innocent and correct and the Jews must be wrong. Now this is obviously a straw man. This is about power dynamics because the state of Israel has more military might, they have more money, they have the weight of the United States behind them. So we're not just saying, well you know brown people are marginalized in many places, they're marginalized here at home, so we need to defend them just because they're brown, that's not what we're talking about here. We're looking at the power dynamic. Israel and Israel alone can end the occupation. Palestine can't say, you know what, we're gonna end this occupation today. They can't do that. Why? Because there's a power imbalance here that Bill Maher refuses to acknowledge. Israel holds all the cards. So Israel is the one that determines whether or not they're actually will be lasting peace, so it doesn't even make sense to say that we shouldn't put pressure on Israel. Of course, that's what you have to do. Israel has been the one, Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government in particular is the reason why peace doesn't even seem like it's a possibility, a two-state solution is basically not even possible anymore because of everything that has been going on, namely due to Benjamin Netanyahu, but he's not the first one and he probably won't be the last to continue to carry out this apartheid against Palestinians. Now this next part is grotesque because here he implies that the occupation maybe it's not just warranted, but it's justified. He says as if the occupation came right out of the blue that this completely peaceful people found themselves occupied. Forget about the Intifadas and the suicide bombings and the rockets and how many wars. So in other words, it's only the Palestinians who are the issue here. But let's pretend Israel didn't do that incursion into Gaza in 2014 where they butchered thousands of Palestinians, most of which were civilians. Let's not mention how Israel continues to demolish Palestinian homes and legally treats them like second-class citizens and responds with violence when they protest peacefully against these injustices. I mean Bill Marr, he just doesn't care about any of that and he thought that he got the left when he said Saudi Arabia wouldn't let Jews into the kingdom. Right, but that's wrong. That's brazenly anti-Semitic. Do you think that we'd say, no, that's fine. Saudi Arabia can do that? Of course not. Like are you trying to suggest that the left would defend Saudi Arabia because we've led the charge in fighting against Saudi Arabia's genocide in Yemen? What have you said about that Bill? I mean in his mind, he believes in this caricature of lefties that we will unquestionably defend Muslims no matter what even if they're wrong. But what he doesn't realize is that Muslims are not monolithic and they're currently being oppressed all throughout the world in India, in Myanmar, in Israel and elsewhere. But it's not about the ideology. We're not standing up for Muslims because we agree that everyone should be a Muslim or that we're Muslims. I mean it's about oppression. That's what this is about. In Egypt, Christians are the ones who are oftentimes the target of discriminations. So the left doesn't support discrimination because we're against discrimination. We are against marginalized communities being oppressed by the majority. It's about power dynamics. That's what we're talking about. Bill Marr won't recognize that because Bill Marr is a disingenuous idiot. He also then implied that Ilhan Omar is anti-Semitic. Of course you're gonna say that because that's what the mainstream media is saying. That's what the Democratic Party establishment is also saying as well as the Republican Party. But it's funny how he agreed a lot with the Republican on his panel. Yeah, there's a reason for that. It's because you're more closely aligned with Republicans now Bill than you are with people who are actually on the progressive left. Now let me just ask Bill this. If you're against BDS and you just don't think that this is a fruitful strategy, you don't think it's going to be conducive to peace? Okay, we'll agree to disagree. But what's your solution then? What will actually bring about long-lasting peace? Because people who like to say, I don't support BDS, they never propose a counter solution. They just condemn BDS and don't offer any solutions and then they'll say something, something, we should have a two-state solution. Okay, but you do realize that a two-state solution is not really feasible? So the question now that we're talking about is a one-state solution with full equality for Palestinians. So how do we get the long-lasting peace if not BDS? What's your solution? They like to, you know, condemn BDS but never offer a counter solution. If we truly want peace, then I don't know what other solution will yield that outcome. But BDS, it seems like the only plausible thing that so far is actually working because, guess what? Israel is fighting BDS hard because they realize that this helped end apartheid in South Africa and it could very well end apartheid in Israel. So, I mean, what side of history do you want to be on, Bill? Do you want to be on the side of the oppressors or on the side of justice? It seems like he's not thinking about that, he doesn't care. It's just so much easier, you know, intellectually to take the side that everyone else is on because then you're not going to get much pushback, you know, and you'll receive less criticism, it's just easier. So why stand up for what's right when right now it's more convenient to just join the course of hatred against people like Ilhan Omar for actually being bold and brave enough to take a stand that will possibly yield peace? I mean, Bill Maher is just, he is trash.