Bill Maher, the liberal host of HBO’s “Real Time,” discussed anti-semitism with former Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late last week where he awkwardly tried to protect Democrat politicians from past remarks that they have made.
The segment began with Maher bringing up recent anti-Semitic remarks from rapper Kanye West and getting Netanyahu’s reaction.
Maher then transitioned into talking about similar remarks made by U.S. elected officials in recent years.
“I just want to read a few quotes from American congressman, just to, congresspeople rather, just to show that Kanye West is, Kanye West’s comment is not really out of order with some things that are said by people in more official positions,” Maher said. “Here’s one, ‘Israel has hypnotized the world. May Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.’ Ten years ago, if you read that, to me, I thought that would be from Hezbollah, that’s an American congressperson. Another American congressperson says ‘the reality of Israel’s apartheid government’ goes on to say, ‘the occupation and ethnic cleansing Palestinians live with every day’. Another one says ‘Israel targets media sources so the world can’t see Palestinians being massacred.'”
All of the quotes that Maher referenced came from far-left Democrat Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. However, Maher never once mentioned their political affiliation and he appeared to try to make it harder for people to tell who he was talking about by referring to them as “congresspeople” instead of “congresswomen” after he had initially stated that they were “congressmen.”
“I have three questions for you,” Maher continued. “Are you massacring Palestinians? Are you ethnic cleansing? And are you an apartheid state?”
“No, no, and no,” Netanyahu responded. “These are all ridiculous charges against the one democracy in the Middle East. The one democracy that upholds human rights, that defends freedom, and is America’s best ally. So I think these people should wake up to reality. But I think that’s a far too great of hope. It’s not going to happen. We just have to defend ourselves against these people because they purvey lies. You ever hear the word ‘Fake News’? This is fake old news, it goes back thousands of years? We’re not impressed by it.”
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