On June 17th, there was a debate over whether anti-Zionism is antisemitism. It’s part of Canada’s Munk Debates series, which featured British journalist Douglas Murray and international law attorney Natasha Hausdorff arguing that anti-Zionism is antisemitism in sheep’s clothing pitted against former Al-Jazeera presenter and commentator Medhi Hasan and Gideon Levy, an Israeli op-ed writer for Haaretz, who disagreed.
Hasan also had a show on MSNBC, so from the start, you could expect anti-Israel lunacy. Murray masterfully shredded the other side, exposing the hypocrisy as well. One interesting point Murray brought up revolved around a hypothetical movement that called for the abolition of Pakistan. Both Israel and Pakistan were states created around the same time. Would we accept the position that one could call for the annihilation of Pakistan while also saying they have no issues with the Pakistani people? Of course not. That’s the point.
“There are two ways to go into Gaza: One is with the IDF, the other is with Hamas. You can probably go in with Hamas… I can’t”
— AG (@AGHamilton29) June 19, 2024
😂😂😂
Quite the highlight reel for @DouglasKMurray.
pic.twitter.com/84RfkOLtIX
Douglas Murray just dropped the quote of the year at the Munk Debate:
— Rabbi Shmuel Reichman (@ShmuelReichman) June 19, 2024
“There is no law of war that says you're allowed to start a war, and then complain when you lose it." pic.twitter.com/ySrdHoLqT5
Mehdi Hasan calls his Munk debate opponent a liar, and the crowd proceeds to boo him:
— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) June 18, 2024
"Natasha [Hausdorff] lied when she talked about UNWRA and terrorism."
Do you know how much of an asshole you have to be to get Canadians to boo? pic.twitter.com/ojTqyC79qE
It didn’t seem like the debate went well. Hasan got booed by a bunch of Canadians, and his side didn’t sway anyone in the audience in the post-debate poll. They lost support. Before the two sides duked it out, 61 percent felt that being anti-Zionist is antisemitic, compared to 39 percent who disagreed with that statement. After the debate, 66 percent agreed with the Murray-Hausdorff camp, while 34 percent remained supportive of antisemitism. Those people are sick in the head.
Yet, it’s easy to see how Murray and Hausdorff could hold their standing and gain ground, given how the latter exposed Hasan over botching the Balfour Declaration of 1917, where the British called for a national homeland for the Jewish people:
Natasha Hausdorff exposes Medhi Hasan for cherry picking a quote from the very first paragraph of his opening statement during the 'Anti-Zionism vs Anti-Semitism' Munk debate:
— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) June 18, 2024
MH: "A man who referred to Jews as an 'alien and hostile' people."
NH: "Balfour, we heard him quoted to… pic.twitter.com/bDF9S6OjbM
Also, let’s not forget that Murray has a history of roasting and outright embarrassing anti-Israel writers for their detachment from reality on this issue:
Video of the day@DouglasKMurray chews up and spurs out an uninformed journalist who has a lot of opinions about Israel and Gaza but doesn’t know that Gaza has a border with Egypt.
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) March 21, 2024
9 minutes of bulldozing by Douglas Murray pic.twitter.com/tkYV0Zc1k5
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