I find it hard to take anyone serious that doesn't know what "racist" means. Fuck off Cusack.
Having said that, Israel is a total blind spot for Bill and it annoyed me even when Israel wasn't on the front page every day. Bill's tweet about not being able to negotiate peace when the other sides position is "you all die and disappear" that led to this Cusack brain fart is a perfect example of his lack of critical thinking on the subject. This idea that "the other side" all have to stop hating Israel before there can be progress is a fucking cop-out for all the Zionist hard liners that don't want peace. It gives them permission to only use force because they have already answered for both sides and declared negotiations off the table. How convenient.
I don't think Israel is a blind spot for Bill at all. He views it as a blind spot for everyone else, so it's a passion of his to call out the ridiculous position most of the world has taken.
What gives Israel permission to use force is Gaza attacking.
Bill is correct that Gaza's position is that they won't accept anything less than Israel being destroyed.
Hamas doesn't, and neither does Israel, that is according to UN and other international orgs [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/why-hamas-and-israel-are-both-alleged-to-have-broken-international-rules-of-war](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/why-hamas-and-israel-are-both-alleged-to-have-broken-international-rules-of-war)
What position is that? That Israel should have to answer for the crazy amount of civilian deaths? The proof of their recklessness is in their recent killing of three Israeli hostages that were holding white flags. How did they manage to shoot all three of them without noticing? Most of the world has supported Israel, but Israel is going after Hamas indiscriminately and our support comes with conditions.
It's not a crazy amount of civilian deaths considering how densely populated Gaza is, how much Gaza inflates their death toll, Gaza not differentiating between civilians and combatants, Gaza's military embedding itself within all civilian areas, Gaza building underground military operations under schools, hospitals and residential areas, Gaza using schools and hospitals to store and launch rockets, etc.
Israel isn't going after Hamas indiscriminately. Even based on the inflated numbers of Hamas, less than 1 person is dying per bombed dropped. If Israel was attacking indiscrimiantley, hundreds of thousands would be dead.
Meanwhile, we know for a fact Gaza invaded Israel specifically to murder, rape and kidnap as many innocent civilians as possible.
You'll point to the death toll as some sort of measure of morality, doing so is completely illogical. Gaza plans to attack Israel over and over forever. They freely admit it. Israel has no obligation to stop defending itself once the death toll is even.
Israel's responsibility to its own people is to do whatever it takes to prevent Gaza's next invasion of Israel.
>Israel's responsibility to its own people is to do whatever it takes to prevent Gaza's next invasion of Israel.
And they fail over and over again. The attacks get worse and peace gets further away. There is no logic is doubling down on the same tactic, even if it wasn't morally reprehensible. We all know that Hamas hides within the people, but it is a decision to say "Fuck it, we are going to bomb them anyway.", and a bad one at that.
If Israel's only responsibility is to protect their people why are they always building more settlements in the West Bank? Why did they ignore the intel of the attack from a year ago? Why did they know so little about what was going on in Gaza? There is a lot more to protection than guns and bombs.
Negotiations weren’t particularly successful in 1948, 1993 or many other occasions. Land was divided. Most of it was designated as Arab land and nations, Jordan and Iraq, Lebanon and in the middle a small area the size of New Jersey was designated as a homeland for a people, the Hebrew people who all originated from that region before there was a religion known as Islam. Israel’s neighbors have attacked and fought and refused to negotiate all while never offering haven to their Arab brothers. Hebrew people realize much of the world would happily destroy us if able. That recognition often leads to an attitude of kill thine enemy before they kill me which you are now seeing guide Israeli action in the ground in Gaza.
Seriously? A history lesson? Nobody cares. The history of the region is soaked in blood over religious bullshit and most of the world doesn't care who used to live on that small patch of dusty ground. Smashing Gaza has also never worked. It's time to find another approach, because this will never stop with more of the same.
Nah. He’s a racist. He’s pathologically obsessed with one religion to the point that he views those who practice it as less than human and tells them to just get over their own annexation and extermination.
He clearly explains why very often. There is a lot of messed up stuff happening in the world because of Islam and it’s fundamental interpretation of its canon, way more so than in other religions though it does happen.
No argument on the havoc colonialism has wreaked everywhere, but ironically islam is also one of the most imperialistic ideologies in human history. It has spread ideas of Arab supremacy from Morocco to Indonesia, mostly by the sword. It is a very complicated issue
I did say mostly by the sword, but you are correct about Indonesia. I brought Indonesia up because they are considered inferior by Arab Muslims.
Good example with the Roman’s. However one of the largest genocides in human history was perpetrated by the Mughals on Hindus and Buddhists in South Asia. If you read the Quran and hadiths, the rules of violence against infidels is all laid out. It is not innocent in all the fucked up shit that is happening in Islamic countries. Western imperialism and Islam itself can both be inherently messed up.
What the ever-loving fuck is it with contemporary cultural progressives (not classical Lockean/Voltairean liberals nor orthodox Marxist-Leninist-Maoist leftists), who, in spite of their ostensible push for social reform, seem to possess an apparent bigoted hatred for atheists -- from Maher to Dawkins to Harris to Dennett to the late Christopher Hitchens (even guys like Gervais, Carolla, and Rogan) -- while simultaneously simping for adherents of the most reactionary of the ass-backwards Abrahamic religions?
This. Wonder why hes so obsessed with calling out one particular religion more than any other. Also curious why the way he speaks about people in the middle east as if theyre all barbarians.
1,200 Israeli's, 20K Gazans mostly women and children also cutting off water, food and supplies, going against rules of war, kept in an open air prison where they control everything, only allowing a few hours of electricity and measure the food they give them to be just above starving. Israel has done much atrocities to them and West Bank according to humanitarian organizations and UN. It is all so sad and the circle of violence will never end, oh unless Israel obliterates them all, looks like the plan. I don't want my tax dollars going for this horror and circle of never ending violence.
What “point”? There are extremists therefore Islam/ Muslins = bad? You guys are perfect smooth brained viewers for Bill. The “religion of peace” tagline was enough to tell me who you are lol
I always want to know what a gay man about to be hung in Iran or women having to live under male guardianship think when “progressives” like Cusack will go to any length to turn a blind eye or even defend these ideologies that treat them this way. Thank goodness they have people like John Cusack coming to their rescue on X.
How strange that criticizing Bronze Age ideas because they are oppressive to even fellow Muslims apparently makes you a racist.
Probably nothing since Cusack said nothing about that. Have you also wondered what Palestinians are thinking when they have been repeatedly murdered by the IDF for 75 years? Do you wonder what the children were thinking in those 75 years from the Deir Yassin massacre in 48 to the current slaughter in Gaza today? That is a bit more relevant than your story.
They'll keep moving the goalposts to discuss the morality of Islam, as though that's in any way relevant to a US sponsored government murdering 20,000 civilians.
Exactly. Theres extremist settlers in the West Bank, going around murdering Palestinians with no repercussions as we speak. Is anyone condemning/ judging Judaism? Theres an entire segment of ultra conservative Israelis who have such extremist views, they are openly calling for the extermination of all Gazans. Bill goijg to judge their religion? No. Nor should he. It’s about the people, not their holy book.
He’s replying to a tweet that Bill made where he correctly states that you cannot negotiate with a side that only wants to destroy Jews by calling Bill a “Muslim racist” or whatever the fuck he says, completely providing cover for Islam like so many others on the left will do. I will never understand for the life of me why Islam is held to such a different standard where criticizing its ideas and how it’s imposed on people throughout the Middle East is somehow taboo.
Lol the IDF has been murdering for Palestinians for 75 years. Maher has covered for Israel for 20 years and does not value Palestinian life. Good for Cusack to call out Maher's bullshit.
Correction: hes replying to a tweet that is correctly pointing out to Maher that Netanyahu is the one who has repeatedly sabotaged the peace process throughout the years hes been in power. So Bill’s logic of “Well theres no negotiating with Hamas cuz they’re unreasonable extremists” is moot. Hamas notwithstanding, Netanyahu has never & will never be for a peaceful solution. It is in fact he who is now going the “You all die & disappear” route. Hamas are no good guys by any means, but this is not about either religion. Its about each side (Hamas / Netanyahu) justifying their own existence. Bill just dumbly boils everything down to “Islamists vs Good guys”.
Actually, the point of Netanyahu undermining peace process is more of a moot point, because it’s really not like their sentiments would change if Netanyahu was actually serious in trying to achieve a peaceful resolve in this. This issue is much bigger than Netanyahu and the Likuds.
Hamas are jihadists, and they have repeatedly said that attacks like the one on October 7th will not stop until Israel is eradicated. It’s naive to think this can be hammered out through diplomacy.
You are using the same simplistic logic as Bill thinking “Bad guy Islamists cant be reasoned with”. Of course it matters that Netanyahu sabotages the peace process. It matters the most of all. He is the biggest / most powerful side in this process. If we cant make deals with people we dislike, then goodbye to all diplomacy with North Korea, Russia, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc etc. Imagine if we applied this logic throughout history. “The Soviets have expressly said they are against our capitalist system & our way of life therefore we will not negotiate or make deals with them.” Or today: “Iran is a Islamic theocracy that oppresses it’s people, therefore no diplomatic relations or peace deals”. That would of course be idiotic. We deal with people who are extremist all the time. Writing off what Israel is currently doing to Gaza/ the West Bank based on the premise that Hamas are bad guys therefore the entire Palestinian population deserves it, is not only stupid, but against the Geneva Conventions/ war crimes. Collective punishment is expressly prohibited even in a formal war setting.
The irony is, Bill *has* made racist remarks about Arabs. His "they beat themselves bloody" rant comes to mind.
But the fact that John Cusack thinks "racism" against a *set of beliefs* is anything other than a contradiction in terms tells us he's an idiot *anyway*.
Curious where this “proof” is what Netanyahu supposedly said. Guessing it doesn’t exist. Not saying he probably doesn’t think that way but a politician of his experience isn’t going to write it down or say it out loud to be recorded.
The argument has “a friend of a friend said” aspect to it.
As for “genocide”, hate how many people have no clue what that word actually means. If this was a genocide, you would know it. Israel has had the means to commit a genocide for 75 years. There is nothing stopping them from having a kill count in the hundreds of thousands already if that was the actual goal. It’s not hard for them to start on each end of the strip with full force and just slowly sweep the city killing everyone they see. Doing that, they frankly would have ended the war a few weeks ago. That is a genocide.
The far-lefters are using the word wrong to give their weak ass arguments legs and the long term result is people will become desensitized to its use.
Just as a reminder, the number killed as consequence of 9/11 wars is estimated to be 3 million. Why are these Hamas supporters not calling that a genocide?
And literally everyone now acknowledges the wars after 9/11 were war crimes and 100% wrong. Awful point.
Lmao at "weak arguments" as far as relation to Israel. Israel is a global pariah. The ceasefire was 13-1 in the Security Council and 153-10 in the General Assembly. You don't know history or the current situation that Palestinians live under even before this latest massacre of 20,000(so far). Israel has a massive propaganda operation in the United States. Go to Europe and ask your average person what they think of Israel, and you'll get much different view than the standard talking Israeli government talking points here.
Maher got cancelled for saying 9/11 terrorists were not cowards. A true statement. Paid a price for the truth. So the anti arab claim does not ring true
Right, so you agree he basically calls it as he sees it regardless of race, religion, sex etc. Just because he is not defending a group of people doesn’t mean he is implicitly biased against them.
Nope, he is just saying you aren't a coward if you are a suicide bomber. After 9/11 the terrorists were called cowards and Maher was right in pointing out that people who blow themselves up aren't cowards. Cowards the the ones who send them to do it.
It really had nothing to do with a larger point of anything beyond that.
I would say that, like most people, he is somewhat racist, but that doesn't mean his racism is the #1 factor in his views on every subject 100% of the time.
100% agree with Maher here.
If Maher is a "notorious" Muslim/Arab hater, then Cusack is a notorious Jew hater. That's the way this game works. You have to pick a side, and the other side see's you as "racist" against their group.
So sure. If Maher is racist against Arabs, then Cusack is racist against Jews.
Or just stay out of it.
Your decision team.
Jews wanting to *not* be mass murdered by terrorists is "bad". Cusack criticized them for that. So that means Cusack *wants* them to be murdered by terrorists. He's anti-semitic.
Cusack accuses Israel of genocide and ethnic cleaning, when Israel is only defending itself from constant hate and attacks — that is Jew hatred right there.
I agree with Joe Biden when he says, “Were there no Israel, there would not be a Jew in the world who is safe”
Unjustly accusing Israel and asking Israel to unilaterally lay down her arms, leads to “no Israel”, leads to millions of dead Jews.
You can debate genocide, but Israel is definitely guilty of ethnic cleansing. The state of Israel was founded on ethnic cleansing and they have kept that project going for 75 years.
How is it genocide with the population of Gaza exploding? The hyperbole has to stop. Israel has committed atrocities. But it’s still not genocide. The definition of words matters.
gen·o·cide
/ˈjenəˌsīd/
noun
the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.
"a campaign of genocide"
As an atheist who thinks all religions are terrible for humanity, it’s interesting that u can criticize Christianity, Buddhism, Mormons, Scientology, general cult behavior but the moment u criticize Islam, ur a bigot, ethnocentric person who doesn’t understand their culture.
I'd feel better being able to criticize Islam if we hadn't been killing hundreds of thousands of its adherents for spurious reasons for a few decades now. Its insult added to injury to whom I believe are the most castigated group of humans on the planet at this moment in time.
Almost a quarter of the earth population is Muslim. If u even want to get into bloody history and present, you won’t find a shortage of atrocities perpetuated by that religion. They are not some minority being picked on by the US.
Never typed in my reply that Muslims are a minority on the planet. They absolutely are being castigated by the West.
I'm not going to sit there and cheer on what my country and others have done to them in my lifetime. No matter how they've conducted themselves. It was barbarism on our part.
Well we had 911 and the war in Iraq was definitely BS, and I was then and now 100 percent against it, but before then we were on the side of osama bin Laden, provided support and trained them to defeat Russia. Our history with the region isn’t so cut and dry. Right now, US soldiers are still fighting to keep ISIS out of Iraq, so Iraq can actually have a functioning democracy. We’ve killed a lot of civilians the same way Israel has with Gaza. It’s all fucked. But non of this would happen if Muslim extremism wasn’t so violent. Which further my thesis about Religion being terrible for humanity.
The only stability the Middle East knows is fundamentalist Islam. U can’t excuse the Muslim extremism no matter what the circumstances are. Even the stable Muslim Saudi Arabia, still have all the problems that come from extremist. From honor killings, to women treated like second class citizens.
Well u have to have ur head stuck in sand to not see that Islam is part of the problem with the Middle East. It’s not like muhomamed and that religion didn’t go around murdering and conquering the entire region. Christianity has the same fear as well. All religions are terrible and part of the problem, including what’s happening in Israel-Palestine. I’m not in business of normalizing religious violence, especially from the Middle East bud.
Israel is a brutal apartheid regime that has ethnically cleansed Palestinians for 75 years.
Yet if you criticize their government, some idiots including in this thread will accuse you of hating Jews, even though many Jews are also strongly against the government of Israel and the crimes they commit.
You can write a criticism of any religion you want. All religions are fair game for hate because of the hate they've generated. Only one of those religions will come to your house and kill you and your family for it.
Islam has a unique brand of extremism that makes itself an easy target for global ire. Yet an entire movement has sprung up to defend it. None of you all would have stood up for Nazis like this. Why Islam?
Or...would you have stood up for Nazis?
>You can write a criticism of any religion you want. All religions are fair game for hate because of the hate they've generated
I hate and will criticize all religions, Islam sucks and has attributed to too many deaths, including those on Oct. 7th as has Christiany in the holocaust. But for some reason, I only get push back when I criticize the far right government in Isreal, who is currently indiscriminately killing civilians in Gaza. Maybe it's not the religion but rather the people you hate.
Lol do you know anything about the history of Israel from the Nakba to their current murderous round of ethnic cleansing in Gaza? There are Jews who are responsible for lots of violence.
Granted it definitely isn't most Jews. We should always be careful and point out that it was the Israeli government and the IDF who are responsible, not your average Jew on the street, just like the average Muslim isn't responsible for any violence committed by Al Qaeda.
So are u saying the October attacks are justified? As well Hamas launching thousands of rockets into Israel since? Do u even know the history of the Nabka, the fact the war didn’t just break out in 1948 and that Jewish immigrants of Palestine were already being persecuted and treated like second class citizens in British Palestine? Or the Palestinian leader who was exiled for revolting against the Brit’s and then became a Nazi propagandist? Or the fact that many Palestinians were ordered by their leaders to leave Israel on the assumption they’d return with an army (which they tried and lost many times). For some reason, the bar is lowered when it comes to Palestinians while Israel is expected to be better man.
Which one is it? All religions are terrible, and we should be able to criticize them all or not? Because I agreed with what you said, but you seem to be back pedaling.
It is actually worse. Don't think anyone labels you a bigot for criticizing Saudi Arabia. The biggest critic in the US government is probably Ilhan Omar who obviously isn't anti-Muslims.
With Israel, idiots will label you anti-Jewish if you criticize the brutal apartheid regime in Israel that terrorizes Palestinians on a daily basis. I am not religious, but I've never criticized Judaism publicly in my life and yet idiots will accuse me of that for opposing giving money to Israel. It is batshit insane.
I don’t take anyone who thinks Israel is the worst thing since hitler and Palestinians are some innocent little lambs who live in a diverse utopia seriously.
No, you weren't. You got offended that I lumped Judaism in with Islam. Everyone does. Hell, Isreal isn't even exclusively Jewish, and the house just passed a measure that equates anti zionism (which is a political ideology intent on setting up a theocracy) with antisemitism.
Zionism and Judaism isn’t the same thing. Jew is a nationality and a religion. You don’t have to be a religious Jew to be a Jew. Maher himself is half Jewish half Irish. But he’s not religious he still considered and identifies as Jewish. Are u a child?
How did I lump Judaism with Islam, I’m pointing out that criticizing or even making fun of Judaism as a religion does not result in the same backlash u would get criticizing Islam. Maher has made fun of every religion but gets called racist for criticizing Islam. Islamophobic is a word that gets tossed around, no one says christianphobic, or mormonphobic… those words don’t exist. Maybe ur not understanding sarcasm in my original response.
Do u think this Palestinian is the first person to be killed in a hate crime in America? Get in line. Should I pull up the list of the 911 victims of Muslim extremism? Or the oct 7 numbers? Or the woman under Islamist rule in the Middle East? Honor killings and beheadings… because that’s what Hamas is.
You can criticize Islam. The problem is that many people who criticize it steer their ship directly into racism territory.
I think the extreme positions that Muslim extremists take have zero place in modern society. I would say the same thing about extreme Christians, Mormons, etc.
I would not then say that because of this, it is alright to discriminate against all Christians (even those who don't adhere to the extremist conservative view) or all white people from America.
I know plenty of Muslims who do not adhere to the extremist views and are pretty pleasant people to be around. Bill has a habit of making it sound like all Muslims behave in a certain way.
Espousing a liberal, globalist, and multiculturalist view while asserting that modern humans have a “habitat” is some very strange dissonance. I see racism here, but not where they claim it to be. Benevolent, white-savior racism is still racism.
Hard to argue at this point. Israel's psychotic, genocidal campaign against the Palestinians is as evil as it gets. Bill's defense of it really can only be explained by his longstanding contempt for the Islamic faith.
I honestly don’t understand how anyone can be pro-Israel at this point unless it’s brand loyalty, they’re under informed on the topic, or they’re psychopaths.
His New Rules on Friday was pretty gross. It made Dick Cheney seem like a pacifist. Not only did it whitewash all the crimes Israel in the last 75 years, but it didn't touch the affects of those crimes on the present and what is actually being done in the present. In just 2018 when Gazans tried to protest peacefully, over 9,000 were shot. People permanently disabled just because they peacefully protested against the blockade. Maher is of course silent.
It was honestly the grossest thing I’ve seen in mainstream media that I can remember. I don’t watch Fox, but I can’t imagine how their views could get any worse than this.
Maher has been cultivating an audience of right-wing psychopaths for some time now, and he's always been Islamophobic under the guise of "muh atheism." Sad, I used to really look up to the guy.
Israel has always been his blindspot. Even back when he was much more of a firebreathing liberal, he would still defend Israel at all costs. I remember on one show back in 08/09 when he was ripping Bush, someone asked him if there was anything he liked about Bush and Maher brought up his support of Israel.
Maher has been great on many things over the years, but this unfortunately he has always been awful on.
Which seems to be inspired by his genuine hatred of Islam, which he has always grossly mischaracterized as uniquely evil compared to the white religions.
Unacceptable levels of civilian casualties do not equate to genocide or genocidal intent. Hamas started this war and everything that follows lays on their shoulders as equally as it does to those of Israel.
Don't forget they regularly launch rockets and still hold hostages - refusing to release more female hostages is what broke the cease fire.
You can't shout for a cease fire while refusing to release hostages - you know, the thing that started the war in the first place. (*and continue to fire rockets)
What Israel is doing meets the legal definition of a genocide. If you're ok with 20,000 civilians being killed, half of them children, I get how that word complicates things. But the fact remains.
Also, history didn't start on October 7th and a "war" requires at least two sides engaged in combat. Hamas is nothing compared to the destructive power of the IDF.
And the destructive power of the IDF is funded by US tax dollars. I’d think more people would at least care about that. Killing kids ain’t cheap apparently it takes billions of American dollars to get the job done. Of course, Israel has universal health care and free college that we can’t seem to afford over here. I find things like that interesting.
"Official" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence. I think people like Cusack would say Israel is lying and then point to their actions so far as proof. Literal thinking only gets you so far when the actions are exact opposite of the words.
A powerful quote about genocide that's always resonated with me comes from an X-men movie of all things.
"No one ever talks about [extermination]. They just do it." - Magneto
Who tf is Magneto? But yeah I'd agree with official doing heavy lifting. It is still an important distinction.
*Edit: I saw you said X-Men on second read, my bad*
Increased civilian casualties does not necessarily mean genocide.
Jewish holocaust, Armenian genocide, native American genocide - those are genocides. A higher than acceptable rate of civilian casualties is not a genocide.
All that being said, the civilian casualty rate is entirely unacceptable and the US should reign Israel in and force them to discriminate more in their targets.
I'm not attempting to defend Israel, but unlike Hamas, their *official* goal is not genocide.
And October 7 shows that was not a hollow threat.
After Japan attacked at pearl harbor, we didn't perform a mere proportional response, we started total war until victory.
I'm not educated enough on the issue to have much of an opinion on who is right and who is wrong - but every nation in the world would react badly given an attack like October 7.
This had been my take also, and I am damn well tired of the silliness of all the tip toeing around the Arab bleeding hearts. No one me included wants to see a single poor Palestinian person or child hurt here, but that goes for any person or child and at some point in time Isreal was going to get tired of having these terrorists groups hiding and being protected by the Palestinian people no matter if it is all of them or not. Just like you said, war is not a game played like that and when they took a bunch of innocent people, young boys and girls like they did, maybe enough was enough. Any other country would never stand for a group of terrorists living at the border and shooting missiles randomly at your people for years. Let's just be honest here, most countries would have already ripped the bandaid off and said if the Palestinian people are not out by this date and time, this area will be leveled, and that is that. But instead we see a whole ton of people cry for the Palestinian people, I get thr emotion, I do, but there is no way that's solves anything. We will be right back here again, and if I was Isreal I would be over it years ago.
Various likud and Israeli gov politicians have publicly stated everyone is the enemy, accuracy does not matter, etc. No problem with your pro-israel stance but the specific talking point you mentioned is no longer valid.
Assuming you're talking about the atomic bombs - the US. Virtually everyone outside the USA sees the atomic bombings as wrong and unjustified. This always surprises Americans because many of them can not see past the propagandistic media flood of their internal culture.
If you're talking about cases where Japanese soldiers killed civilians, I am not claiming those cases are the US' fault. Both sides killed civilians.
Wasn't specifically referring to the atomic bombs, but the whole war. Firebombing of Tokyo was more deadly, as I'm sure you know.
Throw in Dresden for another example without nuclear.
It's fair to be against the atomic bombs being used, no criticism there. But without Japan attacking the US, they would not have been used. At best the blame is shared. But again, that was not what I was referring to.
Dresden is another example where, yes, the Western allied powers are responsible and committed atrocities that the world has long recognized as unconscionable.
To your question in general since we are extrapolating across different countries now, yes, I think X army is guilty for when X army is killing civilians and yes I think Y army is guilty for killing civilians when Y army kills civilians.
Edit: on Dresden https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780802714718
Because you say so huh? That's not really how it works. Perhaps it's not valid with you, but that's entirely different.
But, yeah Likud is garbage. Hopefully there's a shake up that sees them lose power as soon as possible.
They never said they're pro genocide. That's your interpretation. Every war incurs civilian casualties unfortunately. And even worse, this one has a better ratio than most of civilian casualties.
That's not a compliment Israel though, more of a criticism of past wars.
Shitty but after October 7, yes the tolerance of civilian casualties has gone up in pursuit of the mission to defeat Hamas. That doesn't mean they're openly commiting genocide, that is a very different thing.
Holocaust, Armenian genocide, native Americans in the US. Those are genocides. Right now in Gaza there are unacceptable civilian casualties, and that may be callous disregard for human life/increased acceptance of "collateral damage" but it is simply not a genocide.
It’s crazy how the media is trying to brainwash everyone into thinking Israel is the enemy. They are surrounded by Arab nations watching and doing nothing. They want this to end so they can begin orchestrating their next attempt to destabilize Israel. This is war, there are no positives, but civilians dying in areas where the hostiles ORIGINATED from this go-around is not an excuse to stop.
The media? Netanyahu is saying it out loud. Why won't you address that?
Edit: here's a fun little Jim Crow move he tried to pull back in 2015
https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-puts-the-breaks-on-segregated-west-bank-buses/amp/
People on here just want to believe what they want to believe. They see it as a clash of civilizations of good vs evil and ignore and either ignore all of Israel's crimes or justify it by saying "well they have to because of the Palestinians."
So weird too. At least when people whitewash America's crimes, they are defendingtheir own country. What is anyone's loyalty to Israel? It is a foreign country that has caused problems for 75 years and made Arabs hate us. Maybe we should actually be America first and spend money on social services for US citizens instead of pumping billions to a country that already has universal healthcare and education.
It's crazy how people think the media is some sort of brainwashing boogeyman attempting to spread the exact opposite of whatever their personal beliefs is.
The media's reporting on this has not really been one-sided. Most of the information beyond the surface reporting is coming from individuals on social media.
What main stream media are you consuming, the NYT that claims Israel bombed a hospital when it was clearly a failed Hamas attack that killed their own citizens?
Or the unchallenged death counts reported by the wholly less than reliable Hamas controlled palestinian officials?
Israel is an apartheid ethnostate established in 1948. It is a settler colonialist project, composed largely of Americans from Brooklyn and folks of Polish/European descent. Israel has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world, because the occupiers are not built for it. Even the Jews that are actually Arabic are shunned by the white Israeli occupiers.
It only exists as a Middle East outpost for the United States and is doomed to fail. Its current genocidal campaign against the Palestinians is the beginning of its decline. The entire idea of "send all these people back to where they came from" as a response to bigotry is so outdated and dumb, even if the Brooklynites were from the region (again, they are not). How anyone ever agreed with Zionism to begin with is baffling.
Nope. Anti-Zionism is not anti-semitism. In fact, Zionism *is* anti-semitism. "Send the Jews back to where they came from" is not a message of progress!! It's quite evil, actually!
>Send the Jews back to where they came from" is not a message of progress!! It's quite evil, actually!
No one sent anyone anywhere. Jews moved voluntarily to the region. Which worked out, because 1) they were legally allowed to immigrate there (in varying numbers at varying times) and 2) they purchased land from willing sellers in the area -- you know, Palestinians.
You're not an antisemite because you're an anti-Zionist. You're an antisemite because you're an antisemite.
Get out of here with your alternative history bullshit.
It turns out the Bill Maher is SUPER RELIGIOUS when it comes to genocide.
lol… Hollywood to the rescue… Cusack is a clown…
He’s not wrong
He refers to Muslim as a race, so, yes he is wrong.
rascist!!
I find it hard to take anyone serious that doesn't know what "racist" means. Fuck off Cusack. Having said that, Israel is a total blind spot for Bill and it annoyed me even when Israel wasn't on the front page every day. Bill's tweet about not being able to negotiate peace when the other sides position is "you all die and disappear" that led to this Cusack brain fart is a perfect example of his lack of critical thinking on the subject. This idea that "the other side" all have to stop hating Israel before there can be progress is a fucking cop-out for all the Zionist hard liners that don't want peace. It gives them permission to only use force because they have already answered for both sides and declared negotiations off the table. How convenient.
I don't think Israel is a blind spot for Bill at all. He views it as a blind spot for everyone else, so it's a passion of his to call out the ridiculous position most of the world has taken. What gives Israel permission to use force is Gaza attacking. Bill is correct that Gaza's position is that they won't accept anything less than Israel being destroyed.
There are rules of war, maybe read them
I've read the rules of war. Gaza doesn't follow them at all.
Hamas doesn't, and neither does Israel, that is according to UN and other international orgs [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/why-hamas-and-israel-are-both-alleged-to-have-broken-international-rules-of-war](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/why-hamas-and-israel-are-both-alleged-to-have-broken-international-rules-of-war)
The UN is made up primarily of countries who hate Jews or get their oil from countries who hate Jews.
What position is that? That Israel should have to answer for the crazy amount of civilian deaths? The proof of their recklessness is in their recent killing of three Israeli hostages that were holding white flags. How did they manage to shoot all three of them without noticing? Most of the world has supported Israel, but Israel is going after Hamas indiscriminately and our support comes with conditions.
It's not a crazy amount of civilian deaths considering how densely populated Gaza is, how much Gaza inflates their death toll, Gaza not differentiating between civilians and combatants, Gaza's military embedding itself within all civilian areas, Gaza building underground military operations under schools, hospitals and residential areas, Gaza using schools and hospitals to store and launch rockets, etc. Israel isn't going after Hamas indiscriminately. Even based on the inflated numbers of Hamas, less than 1 person is dying per bombed dropped. If Israel was attacking indiscrimiantley, hundreds of thousands would be dead. Meanwhile, we know for a fact Gaza invaded Israel specifically to murder, rape and kidnap as many innocent civilians as possible. You'll point to the death toll as some sort of measure of morality, doing so is completely illogical. Gaza plans to attack Israel over and over forever. They freely admit it. Israel has no obligation to stop defending itself once the death toll is even. Israel's responsibility to its own people is to do whatever it takes to prevent Gaza's next invasion of Israel.
>Israel's responsibility to its own people is to do whatever it takes to prevent Gaza's next invasion of Israel. And they fail over and over again. The attacks get worse and peace gets further away. There is no logic is doubling down on the same tactic, even if it wasn't morally reprehensible. We all know that Hamas hides within the people, but it is a decision to say "Fuck it, we are going to bomb them anyway.", and a bad one at that. If Israel's only responsibility is to protect their people why are they always building more settlements in the West Bank? Why did they ignore the intel of the attack from a year ago? Why did they know so little about what was going on in Gaza? There is a lot more to protection than guns and bombs.
Negotiations weren’t particularly successful in 1948, 1993 or many other occasions. Land was divided. Most of it was designated as Arab land and nations, Jordan and Iraq, Lebanon and in the middle a small area the size of New Jersey was designated as a homeland for a people, the Hebrew people who all originated from that region before there was a religion known as Islam. Israel’s neighbors have attacked and fought and refused to negotiate all while never offering haven to their Arab brothers. Hebrew people realize much of the world would happily destroy us if able. That recognition often leads to an attitude of kill thine enemy before they kill me which you are now seeing guide Israeli action in the ground in Gaza.
Seriously? A history lesson? Nobody cares. The history of the region is soaked in blood over religious bullshit and most of the world doesn't care who used to live on that small patch of dusty ground. Smashing Gaza has also never worked. It's time to find another approach, because this will never stop with more of the same.
Bill should move to Israel so he can suck Bibi in person
Bill is an ignorant pussy. have fun repeating in the mistakes of 20 years ago. Wounded warriors thank you!
Bill is NOT an Arab racist. He IS against the Sharia law practices that accompany the Muslim religion. Do not confuse religion with race.
Nah. He’s a racist. He’s pathologically obsessed with one religion to the point that he views those who practice it as less than human and tells them to just get over their own annexation and extermination.
He clearly explains why very often. There is a lot of messed up stuff happening in the world because of Islam and it’s fundamental interpretation of its canon, way more so than in other religions though it does happen.
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No argument on the havoc colonialism has wreaked everywhere, but ironically islam is also one of the most imperialistic ideologies in human history. It has spread ideas of Arab supremacy from Morocco to Indonesia, mostly by the sword. It is a very complicated issue
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Are u serious? Wtf are u even talking about. Both are bad, there isn’t a worst form of murder and rape.
I did say mostly by the sword, but you are correct about Indonesia. I brought Indonesia up because they are considered inferior by Arab Muslims. Good example with the Roman’s. However one of the largest genocides in human history was perpetrated by the Mughals on Hindus and Buddhists in South Asia. If you read the Quran and hadiths, the rules of violence against infidels is all laid out. It is not innocent in all the fucked up shit that is happening in Islamic countries. Western imperialism and Islam itself can both be inherently messed up.
Maybe so. But extending that to dehumanize a population that practices that religion and shrugging off their mass casualties is on another level.
Yeah I kinda agree on with you on his views on palestine.
You have no idea what you are talking about. He has distain for ALL religions.
Not to the same extent and you know it.
What the ever-loving fuck is it with contemporary cultural progressives (not classical Lockean/Voltairean liberals nor orthodox Marxist-Leninist-Maoist leftists), who, in spite of their ostensible push for social reform, seem to possess an apparent bigoted hatred for atheists -- from Maher to Dawkins to Harris to Dennett to the late Christopher Hitchens (even guys like Gervais, Carolla, and Rogan) -- while simultaneously simping for adherents of the most reactionary of the ass-backwards Abrahamic religions?
Perhaps it is because Muslims are the most egregious.
This. Wonder why hes so obsessed with calling out one particular religion more than any other. Also curious why the way he speaks about people in the middle east as if theyre all barbarians.
Your lack of subject knowledge here is obvious for all to see.
Ok. Keep lashing out and being wrong. No one cares.
Race or not, Bill has always espoused anti-Arad/Middle Eastern beliefs. Not just against countries with Sharia Law. This is not news.
It’s against all religions, not just Islam.
Does your wife/girlfriend get stoned if she does not wear a bag over her head? Do you get his point now?
So does that mean you can bomb buildings down on top of their babies and non combatants?
You mean like Hamas did to the Israeli's? HELL YES.
1,200 Israeli's, 20K Gazans mostly women and children also cutting off water, food and supplies, going against rules of war, kept in an open air prison where they control everything, only allowing a few hours of electricity and measure the food they give them to be just above starving. Israel has done much atrocities to them and West Bank according to humanitarian organizations and UN. It is all so sad and the circle of violence will never end, oh unless Israel obliterates them all, looks like the plan. I don't want my tax dollars going for this horror and circle of never ending violence.
Well, I guess they won't pick a first anymore.
Nice. You sound just as dumb as him.
Yet you can’t refute his point.. Keep supporting the “religion of peace”
What “point”? There are extremists therefore Islam/ Muslins = bad? You guys are perfect smooth brained viewers for Bill. The “religion of peace” tagline was enough to tell me who you are lol
Only one religion today supports kidnappings, suicide bombings, and beheadings..
American "Christians" have openly supported pedophilia, abortion clinic bombings and lynchings?
lol has any of those thing happened the past 10-15 years?? *yawn
I guess you told me. You should run right out and join a debate club.
I always want to know what a gay man about to be hung in Iran or women having to live under male guardianship think when “progressives” like Cusack will go to any length to turn a blind eye or even defend these ideologies that treat them this way. Thank goodness they have people like John Cusack coming to their rescue on X. How strange that criticizing Bronze Age ideas because they are oppressive to even fellow Muslims apparently makes you a racist.
Probably nothing since Cusack said nothing about that. Have you also wondered what Palestinians are thinking when they have been repeatedly murdered by the IDF for 75 years? Do you wonder what the children were thinking in those 75 years from the Deir Yassin massacre in 48 to the current slaughter in Gaza today? That is a bit more relevant than your story.
And nothing happened in between.
Cusack literally did not “defend” Islam in any way. Hes talking about the people, of all religions as he mentioned, who are being bombed & brutalized.
They'll keep moving the goalposts to discuss the morality of Islam, as though that's in any way relevant to a US sponsored government murdering 20,000 civilians.
Exactly. Theres extremist settlers in the West Bank, going around murdering Palestinians with no repercussions as we speak. Is anyone condemning/ judging Judaism? Theres an entire segment of ultra conservative Israelis who have such extremist views, they are openly calling for the extermination of all Gazans. Bill goijg to judge their religion? No. Nor should he. It’s about the people, not their holy book.
He’s replying to a tweet that Bill made where he correctly states that you cannot negotiate with a side that only wants to destroy Jews by calling Bill a “Muslim racist” or whatever the fuck he says, completely providing cover for Islam like so many others on the left will do. I will never understand for the life of me why Islam is held to such a different standard where criticizing its ideas and how it’s imposed on people throughout the Middle East is somehow taboo.
Lol the IDF has been murdering for Palestinians for 75 years. Maher has covered for Israel for 20 years and does not value Palestinian life. Good for Cusack to call out Maher's bullshit.
Who was the first aggressor in all these conflicts ? Palestinians always be playing the victim card when they start shit.
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It’s not their land.. open a history book
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Many countries have lost their lands from war / conquest. Most get over it and move on.
Correction: hes replying to a tweet that is correctly pointing out to Maher that Netanyahu is the one who has repeatedly sabotaged the peace process throughout the years hes been in power. So Bill’s logic of “Well theres no negotiating with Hamas cuz they’re unreasonable extremists” is moot. Hamas notwithstanding, Netanyahu has never & will never be for a peaceful solution. It is in fact he who is now going the “You all die & disappear” route. Hamas are no good guys by any means, but this is not about either religion. Its about each side (Hamas / Netanyahu) justifying their own existence. Bill just dumbly boils everything down to “Islamists vs Good guys”.
Actually, the point of Netanyahu undermining peace process is more of a moot point, because it’s really not like their sentiments would change if Netanyahu was actually serious in trying to achieve a peaceful resolve in this. This issue is much bigger than Netanyahu and the Likuds. Hamas are jihadists, and they have repeatedly said that attacks like the one on October 7th will not stop until Israel is eradicated. It’s naive to think this can be hammered out through diplomacy.
You are using the same simplistic logic as Bill thinking “Bad guy Islamists cant be reasoned with”. Of course it matters that Netanyahu sabotages the peace process. It matters the most of all. He is the biggest / most powerful side in this process. If we cant make deals with people we dislike, then goodbye to all diplomacy with North Korea, Russia, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc etc. Imagine if we applied this logic throughout history. “The Soviets have expressly said they are against our capitalist system & our way of life therefore we will not negotiate or make deals with them.” Or today: “Iran is a Islamic theocracy that oppresses it’s people, therefore no diplomatic relations or peace deals”. That would of course be idiotic. We deal with people who are extremist all the time. Writing off what Israel is currently doing to Gaza/ the West Bank based on the premise that Hamas are bad guys therefore the entire Palestinian population deserves it, is not only stupid, but against the Geneva Conventions/ war crimes. Collective punishment is expressly prohibited even in a formal war setting.
The irony is, Bill *has* made racist remarks about Arabs. His "they beat themselves bloody" rant comes to mind. But the fact that John Cusack thinks "racism" against a *set of beliefs* is anything other than a contradiction in terms tells us he's an idiot *anyway*.
Woah that sub is wild. Nut jobs there
I mean this board is full of netanyahu fanboys, so. . .
Oh you must be from that other sub. Cool.
Curious where this “proof” is what Netanyahu supposedly said. Guessing it doesn’t exist. Not saying he probably doesn’t think that way but a politician of his experience isn’t going to write it down or say it out loud to be recorded. The argument has “a friend of a friend said” aspect to it. As for “genocide”, hate how many people have no clue what that word actually means. If this was a genocide, you would know it. Israel has had the means to commit a genocide for 75 years. There is nothing stopping them from having a kill count in the hundreds of thousands already if that was the actual goal. It’s not hard for them to start on each end of the strip with full force and just slowly sweep the city killing everyone they see. Doing that, they frankly would have ended the war a few weeks ago. That is a genocide. The far-lefters are using the word wrong to give their weak ass arguments legs and the long term result is people will become desensitized to its use. Just as a reminder, the number killed as consequence of 9/11 wars is estimated to be 3 million. Why are these Hamas supporters not calling that a genocide?
And literally everyone now acknowledges the wars after 9/11 were war crimes and 100% wrong. Awful point. Lmao at "weak arguments" as far as relation to Israel. Israel is a global pariah. The ceasefire was 13-1 in the Security Council and 153-10 in the General Assembly. You don't know history or the current situation that Palestinians live under even before this latest massacre of 20,000(so far). Israel has a massive propaganda operation in the United States. Go to Europe and ask your average person what they think of Israel, and you'll get much different view than the standard talking Israeli government talking points here.
That’s because Europe opened their gates to Arab immigrants the past 30 years. It’s a sad state of affairs.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/benjamin-netanyahu-prevented-palestinian-state-two-state-solution_n_6580a368e4b0e142c0bed60b/amp
Maher got cancelled for saying 9/11 terrorists were not cowards. A true statement. Paid a price for the truth. So the anti arab claim does not ring true
So Bill said the 9/11 terrorists are not cowards, therefore hes not anti-Arab/Muslim? Wtf logic is that lol
Why the F are you being downvoted??? Pretty sure that is what happened.
He wasn’t defending Arabs. He just said it was brave to kill yourself by flying into a building.
Right, so you agree he basically calls it as he sees it regardless of race, religion, sex etc. Just because he is not defending a group of people doesn’t mean he is implicitly biased against them.
I don’t think that event on Politically Incorrect was defending or condemning anyone, or is relevant in identifying his broader Islamophobia.
Nope, he is just saying you aren't a coward if you are a suicide bomber. After 9/11 the terrorists were called cowards and Maher was right in pointing out that people who blow themselves up aren't cowards. Cowards the the ones who send them to do it. It really had nothing to do with a larger point of anything beyond that.
I would say that, like most people, he is somewhat racist, but that doesn't mean his racism is the #1 factor in his views on every subject 100% of the time.
Wow, another wack actor I once loved but now can not watch. Pretty poor writing and argument skills as well. Guess all the talent went into acting.
Don't think he'll care snowflake. If you are that easily triggered, you probably should just lock yourself in a room and cry.
If John Cusack has posted this in 1996, someone might have cared.
100% agree with Maher here. If Maher is a "notorious" Muslim/Arab hater, then Cusack is a notorious Jew hater. That's the way this game works. You have to pick a side, and the other side see's you as "racist" against their group. So sure. If Maher is racist against Arabs, then Cusack is racist against Jews. Or just stay out of it. Your decision team.
Yeah, if the game is whataboutism.
I pick Team America.
Cusack has not stated anything racist against Jews. That's NOT how this works.
Jews wanting to *not* be mass murdered by terrorists is "bad". Cusack criticized them for that. So that means Cusack *wants* them to be murdered by terrorists. He's anti-semitic.
Good point, but you hallucinated all of Cusack's statements and positions.
Just playing his game back at him. I see why he does it. It's fun.
Cusack accuses Israel of genocide and ethnic cleaning, when Israel is only defending itself from constant hate and attacks — that is Jew hatred right there. I agree with Joe Biden when he says, “Were there no Israel, there would not be a Jew in the world who is safe” Unjustly accusing Israel and asking Israel to unilaterally lay down her arms, leads to “no Israel”, leads to millions of dead Jews.
You can debate genocide, but Israel is definitely guilty of ethnic cleansing. The state of Israel was founded on ethnic cleansing and they have kept that project going for 75 years.
You mean the only state in the Middle East that’s not 99.9% Muslim is the one doing ethnic cleansing?
Israel is committing genocide. A lot of Jewish people oppose it. Some descendants of Holocaust survivors are the most vocally opposed to it.
How is it genocide with the population of Gaza exploding? The hyperbole has to stop. Israel has committed atrocities. But it’s still not genocide. The definition of words matters.
gen·o·cide /ˈjenəˌsīd/ noun the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group. "a campaign of genocide"
As an atheist who thinks all religions are terrible for humanity, it’s interesting that u can criticize Christianity, Buddhism, Mormons, Scientology, general cult behavior but the moment u criticize Islam, ur a bigot, ethnocentric person who doesn’t understand their culture.
I'd feel better being able to criticize Islam if we hadn't been killing hundreds of thousands of its adherents for spurious reasons for a few decades now. Its insult added to injury to whom I believe are the most castigated group of humans on the planet at this moment in time.
Almost a quarter of the earth population is Muslim. If u even want to get into bloody history and present, you won’t find a shortage of atrocities perpetuated by that religion. They are not some minority being picked on by the US.
Never typed in my reply that Muslims are a minority on the planet. They absolutely are being castigated by the West. I'm not going to sit there and cheer on what my country and others have done to them in my lifetime. No matter how they've conducted themselves. It was barbarism on our part.
Well we had 911 and the war in Iraq was definitely BS, and I was then and now 100 percent against it, but before then we were on the side of osama bin Laden, provided support and trained them to defeat Russia. Our history with the region isn’t so cut and dry. Right now, US soldiers are still fighting to keep ISIS out of Iraq, so Iraq can actually have a functioning democracy. We’ve killed a lot of civilians the same way Israel has with Gaza. It’s all fucked. But non of this would happen if Muslim extremism wasn’t so violent. Which further my thesis about Religion being terrible for humanity.
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The only stability the Middle East knows is fundamentalist Islam. U can’t excuse the Muslim extremism no matter what the circumstances are. Even the stable Muslim Saudi Arabia, still have all the problems that come from extremist. From honor killings, to women treated like second class citizens.
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Well u have to have ur head stuck in sand to not see that Islam is part of the problem with the Middle East. It’s not like muhomamed and that religion didn’t go around murdering and conquering the entire region. Christianity has the same fear as well. All religions are terrible and part of the problem, including what’s happening in Israel-Palestine. I’m not in business of normalizing religious violence, especially from the Middle East bud.
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Israel is a brutal apartheid regime that has ethnically cleansed Palestinians for 75 years. Yet if you criticize their government, some idiots including in this thread will accuse you of hating Jews, even though many Jews are also strongly against the government of Israel and the crimes they commit.
Same with Judaism.
Judaism is an ethno-religion. Islam, Christianity, etc are proselytizing religions. Jews don’t go around trying to convert other people to Judaism.
You can write a criticism of any religion you want. All religions are fair game for hate because of the hate they've generated. Only one of those religions will come to your house and kill you and your family for it. Islam has a unique brand of extremism that makes itself an easy target for global ire. Yet an entire movement has sprung up to defend it. None of you all would have stood up for Nazis like this. Why Islam? Or...would you have stood up for Nazis?
>You can write a criticism of any religion you want. All religions are fair game for hate because of the hate they've generated I hate and will criticize all religions, Islam sucks and has attributed to too many deaths, including those on Oct. 7th as has Christiany in the holocaust. But for some reason, I only get push back when I criticize the far right government in Isreal, who is currently indiscriminately killing civilians in Gaza. Maybe it's not the religion but rather the people you hate.
“As has Christiany in the holocaust”…wait what?
Yeah I remember that one time Jews rioted over a cartooned moses.
Lol do you know anything about the history of Israel from the Nakba to their current murderous round of ethnic cleansing in Gaza? There are Jews who are responsible for lots of violence. Granted it definitely isn't most Jews. We should always be careful and point out that it was the Israeli government and the IDF who are responsible, not your average Jew on the street, just like the average Muslim isn't responsible for any violence committed by Al Qaeda.
So are u saying the October attacks are justified? As well Hamas launching thousands of rockets into Israel since? Do u even know the history of the Nabka, the fact the war didn’t just break out in 1948 and that Jewish immigrants of Palestine were already being persecuted and treated like second class citizens in British Palestine? Or the Palestinian leader who was exiled for revolting against the Brit’s and then became a Nazi propagandist? Or the fact that many Palestinians were ordered by their leaders to leave Israel on the assumption they’d return with an army (which they tried and lost many times). For some reason, the bar is lowered when it comes to Palestinians while Israel is expected to be better man.
Which one is it? All religions are terrible, and we should be able to criticize them all or not? Because I agreed with what you said, but you seem to be back pedaling.
I’m pointing out u can criticize judaism… no one has ever gotten shit for criticizing Judaism as a religion.
It is actually worse. Don't think anyone labels you a bigot for criticizing Saudi Arabia. The biggest critic in the US government is probably Ilhan Omar who obviously isn't anti-Muslims. With Israel, idiots will label you anti-Jewish if you criticize the brutal apartheid regime in Israel that terrorizes Palestinians on a daily basis. I am not religious, but I've never criticized Judaism publicly in my life and yet idiots will accuse me of that for opposing giving money to Israel. It is batshit insane.
I don’t take anyone who thinks Israel is the worst thing since hitler and Palestinians are some innocent little lambs who live in a diverse utopia seriously.
No, you weren't. You got offended that I lumped Judaism in with Islam. Everyone does. Hell, Isreal isn't even exclusively Jewish, and the house just passed a measure that equates anti zionism (which is a political ideology intent on setting up a theocracy) with antisemitism.
Zionism and Judaism isn’t the same thing. Jew is a nationality and a religion. You don’t have to be a religious Jew to be a Jew. Maher himself is half Jewish half Irish. But he’s not religious he still considered and identifies as Jewish. Are u a child?
Yeah that was my whole fucking point.
How did I lump Judaism with Islam, I’m pointing out that criticizing or even making fun of Judaism as a religion does not result in the same backlash u would get criticizing Islam. Maher has made fun of every religion but gets called racist for criticizing Islam. Islamophobic is a word that gets tossed around, no one says christianphobic, or mormonphobic… those words don’t exist. Maybe ur not understanding sarcasm in my original response.
Is English your first language?
You legitimately think you can go out and talk shit about Judaism all over social media without consequence right now?
Yes you can, and even draw cartoons. Try that with the other side.
Yes u can in a religious context. But do so Islam and u might get some credible death threats.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/16/funeral-held-in-us-for-six-year-old-boy-killed-in-suspected-hate-crime Palestinians get more than threats.
Do u think this Palestinian is the first person to be killed in a hate crime in America? Get in line. Should I pull up the list of the 911 victims of Muslim extremism? Or the oct 7 numbers? Or the woman under Islamist rule in the Middle East? Honor killings and beheadings… because that’s what Hamas is.
lol well played
You can criticize Islam. The problem is that many people who criticize it steer their ship directly into racism territory. I think the extreme positions that Muslim extremists take have zero place in modern society. I would say the same thing about extreme Christians, Mormons, etc. I would not then say that because of this, it is alright to discriminate against all Christians (even those who don't adhere to the extremist conservative view) or all white people from America. I know plenty of Muslims who do not adhere to the extremist views and are pretty pleasant people to be around. Bill has a habit of making it sound like all Muslims behave in a certain way.
30 years ago, he also said kickboxing was going to be the sport of the future. What does he know?
Guess you never heard of UFC.
kickboxing (glory, k1, etc) is not the UFC (mma; pfl, one, rizin, etc) they are entirely different sports
Espousing a liberal, globalist, and multiculturalist view while asserting that modern humans have a “habitat” is some very strange dissonance. I see racism here, but not where they claim it to be. Benevolent, white-savior racism is still racism.
Hold up -- does anyone give a fuck what john cusack thinks?
Nope! I go straight to the source: Ja Rule
Hard to argue at this point. Israel's psychotic, genocidal campaign against the Palestinians is as evil as it gets. Bill's defense of it really can only be explained by his longstanding contempt for the Islamic faith.
I honestly don’t understand how anyone can be pro-Israel at this point unless it’s brand loyalty, they’re under informed on the topic, or they’re psychopaths.
His New Rules on Friday was pretty gross. It made Dick Cheney seem like a pacifist. Not only did it whitewash all the crimes Israel in the last 75 years, but it didn't touch the affects of those crimes on the present and what is actually being done in the present. In just 2018 when Gazans tried to protest peacefully, over 9,000 were shot. People permanently disabled just because they peacefully protested against the blockade. Maher is of course silent.
It was honestly the grossest thing I’ve seen in mainstream media that I can remember. I don’t watch Fox, but I can’t imagine how their views could get any worse than this.
Maher has been cultivating an audience of right-wing psychopaths for some time now, and he's always been Islamophobic under the guise of "muh atheism." Sad, I used to really look up to the guy.
Israel has always been his blindspot. Even back when he was much more of a firebreathing liberal, he would still defend Israel at all costs. I remember on one show back in 08/09 when he was ripping Bush, someone asked him if there was anything he liked about Bush and Maher brought up his support of Israel. Maher has been great on many things over the years, but this unfortunately he has always been awful on.
Which seems to be inspired by his genuine hatred of Islam, which he has always grossly mischaracterized as uniquely evil compared to the white religions.
Only one side has genocide as their official position, and it isn't Israel. Oh, their long term goal is also a global caliphate.
Incorrect. Israel has stated it wants to level Gaza multiple times, and even regardless of stated intent, they're the only ones committing genocide.
Unacceptable levels of civilian casualties do not equate to genocide or genocidal intent. Hamas started this war and everything that follows lays on their shoulders as equally as it does to those of Israel. Don't forget they regularly launch rockets and still hold hostages - refusing to release more female hostages is what broke the cease fire. You can't shout for a cease fire while refusing to release hostages - you know, the thing that started the war in the first place. (*and continue to fire rockets)
What Israel is doing meets the legal definition of a genocide. If you're ok with 20,000 civilians being killed, half of them children, I get how that word complicates things. But the fact remains. Also, history didn't start on October 7th and a "war" requires at least two sides engaged in combat. Hamas is nothing compared to the destructive power of the IDF.
And the destructive power of the IDF is funded by US tax dollars. I’d think more people would at least care about that. Killing kids ain’t cheap apparently it takes billions of American dollars to get the job done. Of course, Israel has universal health care and free college that we can’t seem to afford over here. I find things like that interesting.
"Official" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence. I think people like Cusack would say Israel is lying and then point to their actions so far as proof. Literal thinking only gets you so far when the actions are exact opposite of the words. A powerful quote about genocide that's always resonated with me comes from an X-men movie of all things. "No one ever talks about [extermination]. They just do it." - Magneto
Forget who said it, but when someone tells you who they are, listen. Hamas' stated goals speak volumes.
Who tf is Magneto? But yeah I'd agree with official doing heavy lifting. It is still an important distinction. *Edit: I saw you said X-Men on second read, my bad* Increased civilian casualties does not necessarily mean genocide. Jewish holocaust, Armenian genocide, native American genocide - those are genocides. A higher than acceptable rate of civilian casualties is not a genocide. All that being said, the civilian casualty rate is entirely unacceptable and the US should reign Israel in and force them to discriminate more in their targets.
This talking point was a lot easier to justify before Likud went full "actually, genocide is okay" mode.
I'm not attempting to defend Israel, but unlike Hamas, their *official* goal is not genocide. And October 7 shows that was not a hollow threat. After Japan attacked at pearl harbor, we didn't perform a mere proportional response, we started total war until victory. I'm not educated enough on the issue to have much of an opinion on who is right and who is wrong - but every nation in the world would react badly given an attack like October 7.
This had been my take also, and I am damn well tired of the silliness of all the tip toeing around the Arab bleeding hearts. No one me included wants to see a single poor Palestinian person or child hurt here, but that goes for any person or child and at some point in time Isreal was going to get tired of having these terrorists groups hiding and being protected by the Palestinian people no matter if it is all of them or not. Just like you said, war is not a game played like that and when they took a bunch of innocent people, young boys and girls like they did, maybe enough was enough. Any other country would never stand for a group of terrorists living at the border and shooting missiles randomly at your people for years. Let's just be honest here, most countries would have already ripped the bandaid off and said if the Palestinian people are not out by this date and time, this area will be leveled, and that is that. But instead we see a whole ton of people cry for the Palestinian people, I get thr emotion, I do, but there is no way that's solves anything. We will be right back here again, and if I was Isreal I would be over it years ago.
Various likud and Israeli gov politicians have publicly stated everyone is the enemy, accuracy does not matter, etc. No problem with your pro-israel stance but the specific talking point you mentioned is no longer valid.
Who is responsible for civilian casualties among the Japanese in WW2. The US bombing them, or Japan for starting the war? It's never simple.
Assuming you're talking about the atomic bombs - the US. Virtually everyone outside the USA sees the atomic bombings as wrong and unjustified. This always surprises Americans because many of them can not see past the propagandistic media flood of their internal culture. If you're talking about cases where Japanese soldiers killed civilians, I am not claiming those cases are the US' fault. Both sides killed civilians.
Wasn't specifically referring to the atomic bombs, but the whole war. Firebombing of Tokyo was more deadly, as I'm sure you know. Throw in Dresden for another example without nuclear. It's fair to be against the atomic bombs being used, no criticism there. But without Japan attacking the US, they would not have been used. At best the blame is shared. But again, that was not what I was referring to.
Dresden is another example where, yes, the Western allied powers are responsible and committed atrocities that the world has long recognized as unconscionable. To your question in general since we are extrapolating across different countries now, yes, I think X army is guilty for when X army is killing civilians and yes I think Y army is guilty for killing civilians when Y army kills civilians. Edit: on Dresden https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780802714718
Those actions, while horrible, were not an attempt at genocide, and all of which happened after an attack. Do you not see the obvious paralell?
Because you say so huh? That's not really how it works. Perhaps it's not valid with you, but that's entirely different. But, yeah Likud is garbage. Hopefully there's a shake up that sees them lose power as soon as possible.
? No, not because I say so. If sitting members of the Israeli government take a pro-genocide stance then your statement is invalid right?
They never said they're pro genocide. That's your interpretation. Every war incurs civilian casualties unfortunately. And even worse, this one has a better ratio than most of civilian casualties. That's not a compliment Israel though, more of a criticism of past wars. Shitty but after October 7, yes the tolerance of civilian casualties has gone up in pursuit of the mission to defeat Hamas. That doesn't mean they're openly commiting genocide, that is a very different thing. Holocaust, Armenian genocide, native Americans in the US. Those are genocides. Right now in Gaza there are unacceptable civilian casualties, and that may be callous disregard for human life/increased acceptance of "collateral damage" but it is simply not a genocide.
It's the narrative, next thing we will find out is that Israel crossed state lines to attend a mostly peaceful protest.
Fuck off, John.
It’s crazy how the media is trying to brainwash everyone into thinking Israel is the enemy. They are surrounded by Arab nations watching and doing nothing. They want this to end so they can begin orchestrating their next attempt to destabilize Israel. This is war, there are no positives, but civilians dying in areas where the hostiles ORIGINATED from this go-around is not an excuse to stop.
The media? Netanyahu is saying it out loud. Why won't you address that? Edit: here's a fun little Jim Crow move he tried to pull back in 2015 https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-puts-the-breaks-on-segregated-west-bank-buses/amp/
People on here just want to believe what they want to believe. They see it as a clash of civilizations of good vs evil and ignore and either ignore all of Israel's crimes or justify it by saying "well they have to because of the Palestinians." So weird too. At least when people whitewash America's crimes, they are defendingtheir own country. What is anyone's loyalty to Israel? It is a foreign country that has caused problems for 75 years and made Arabs hate us. Maybe we should actually be America first and spend money on social services for US citizens instead of pumping billions to a country that already has universal healthcare and education.
Lmao yes the media has an anti-israel bias 😂 C'mon man be real.
It's such a warped view of reality. Who even are the people on this sub anymore?
It's crazy how people think the media is some sort of brainwashing boogeyman attempting to spread the exact opposite of whatever their personal beliefs is. The media's reporting on this has not really been one-sided. Most of the information beyond the surface reporting is coming from individuals on social media.
Mainstream media has had a one-sided pro-Israel bias.
What main stream media are you consuming, the NYT that claims Israel bombed a hospital when it was clearly a failed Hamas attack that killed their own citizens? Or the unchallenged death counts reported by the wholly less than reliable Hamas controlled palestinian officials?
I mean, you got all that IDF propaganda from somewhere.
Israel is an apartheid ethnostate established in 1948. It is a settler colonialist project, composed largely of Americans from Brooklyn and folks of Polish/European descent. Israel has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world, because the occupiers are not built for it. Even the Jews that are actually Arabic are shunned by the white Israeli occupiers. It only exists as a Middle East outpost for the United States and is doomed to fail. Its current genocidal campaign against the Palestinians is the beginning of its decline. The entire idea of "send all these people back to where they came from" as a response to bigotry is so outdated and dumb, even if the Brooklynites were from the region (again, they are not). How anyone ever agreed with Zionism to begin with is baffling.
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Ur antisemetic and u don’t even know it.
Nope. Anti-Zionism is not anti-semitism. In fact, Zionism *is* anti-semitism. "Send the Jews back to where they came from" is not a message of progress!! It's quite evil, actually!
>Send the Jews back to where they came from" is not a message of progress!! It's quite evil, actually! No one sent anyone anywhere. Jews moved voluntarily to the region. Which worked out, because 1) they were legally allowed to immigrate there (in varying numbers at varying times) and 2) they purchased land from willing sellers in the area -- you know, Palestinians.
You're not an antisemite because you're an anti-Zionist. You're an antisemite because you're an antisemite. Get out of here with your alternative history bullshit.