Bill Maher and Young Turks host spar over Israel’s war on Hamas

Liberal comedian and pundit Bill Maher clashes with far-left Young Turks host Ana Kasparian over Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip, as Maher accuses woke left of hypocrisy in denunciations of Israel.

By World Israel News Staff

Liberal comedian and commentator Bill Maher sparred with Ana Kasparian, the co-host of the far-left “The Young Turks” podcast, on Israel and the war in Gaza during the latest episode of Maher’s “Club Random” podcast.

During the one-hour-and-40-minute interview, which debuted on Monday, Maher chided Kasparian over her criticism of Israel and accused left-wing opponents of the Jewish state of hypocrisy for ignoring human rights violations in Arab and Muslim countries.

“The fact that you can’t see the moral difference between these two sides always amazes me,” Maher told Kasparian.

“If you social justice warriors…have any other issue besides gender apartheid in the world that is above that, you are just a joke.”

“If you hate oppression, there is one issue that should be above all because it affects more people – hundreds of millions of women who have basically no freedom in the Muslim world,” he said.

Kasparian accused Israel of engaging in the “slaughter” of Gazans, to which Maher responded that civilian casualties are inevitable in war, and he blamed Hamas for embedding its forces in civilian areas.

“Well, you should prosecute a war to end it. That does involve slaughter,” Maher said. “Especially when you hide behind them,” he added, referring to Hamas.

Citing reports based on alleged leaks of IDF data, Kasparian falsely claimed that the Israeli military estimates that 83% of casualties in Gaza during the war were civilians.

The figure is based on reports citing data purporting to show that Israel had identified 8,900 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist combatants killed during the war. That number does not include other terrorists or Hamas-linked individuals whom the IDF was not able to positively identify.

Maher responded by saying that Israel doesn’t “have a good choice. You have the bad choice and the even worse choice. Israel has been attacked by Hamas. First of all, the entire Arab world rejected them for 75 years. They kept trying to make a deal. They kept saying, ‘No, we want it all.’ That’s what ‘From the river to the sea’ means.”

Kasparian appeared to blame Israel for Hamas’ attacks, calling Israel’s sale of electricity to Gaza prior to October 7, 2023, as a form of “control” over the Strip, and she lamented the security blockade imposed after Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007.

“You know what? We’re going to leave, but we’re going to control their electricity – what goes in, what comes out,” Kasparian said.

When Kasparian noted that Israel possessed nuclear weapons, Maher said that highlights the difference between Israel’s restraint and Hamas’ lack thereof.

“If Hamas had a nuclear weapon, how many seconds would it take before they used it on Israel?” Maher asked. “Three seconds.”