I’m waiting for Bill Maher to roll out an inaccurate commentary that rips conservatives, but he hasn’t done that lately. The liberal HBO host has been chiefly directing his firepower toward those on his side of the aisle for their historically illiterate and illiberal tendencies. The HBO host has been riding an asphalt roller over the far left for their pro-Hamas advocacy that’s now infested the highest echelons of American academia. He rightfully torched the college presidents who couldn’t condemn or say that chants for Jewish genocide constitute harassment. The comedian also noted that these institutions are factories for breeding a “bunch of f**king idiots,” along with brainwashing its student bodies into thinking that antisemitism is a requirement for leftist activism.
Maybe we should have seen this coming from the 2012 Democratic National Convention, where, yes, the Democratic delegates booed God, but also the resolution recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The warning signs were there, but Hamas’ October 7 attacks and Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip to eliminate the terror group have ignited a wave of antisemitism not seen since the National Socialist German Workers’ Party rose to power. Maher has had enough of these people who chant “from the river to the sea” and used simple history lessons to shut down this narrative, along with this message to the pro-terrorist TikTok crowd: grow up.
Maher noted that after World War II, Germans in Poland, Russia, and Czechoslovakia were purged and driven back to Germany proper for reasons that don’t need mentioning. In North America, Mexico lost most of the Southwestern United States, including California, in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. And Jews across the Arab world have been ethnically cleansed. The HBO host's point was that the Palestinians aren’t unique. They’re not the only people who’ve been displaced, and they should quit their whining and grow up.
Israel has nuclear weapons, the largest tech sector besides Silicon Valley, and a thriving economy. They’re not going anywhere, so get over it. And this isn’t about land either. The Palestinians had a chance for a homeland in 1947, 1993, 1995, 1998, 2000, and 2008. They turned down all the offers because the Palestinian Authority and Hamas agreed on one action item: destroying Israel. There can be no peace or negotiations when one side views killing everyone sitting at the opposite end of the table as their central bargaining position.
Later, in his New Rules commentary, Maher said that Arabs tried to destroy Israel in 1947, 1967, and 1973—they all lost. While Palestinians whine, they could take lessons from those who’ve been displaced. Mexico doesn’t chant from the Rio Grande to Portland, Oregon. They “got real” and built the 14th largest economy because they knew the United States wouldn’t return Phoenix. As for the colonizer argument, well, read about the first Muslim empire that exploded out of Saudi Arabia following the death of the Prophet Mohammed. As Maher noted, there’s a reason why a sword is on their national flag.
In less than ten minutes, Maher expertly dissects almost every central talking point peddled by Palestinian activists and their bountiful allies on America’s college campuses. It doesn’t take a seasoned academic to do this—just read any history book. And that’s the funny part. Maher isn’t a historian by trade. He’s a stand-up comic and was able to torch the most common pro-Hamas nonsense we’ve seen splashed on the front pages of newspapers.
And when you do read about the history of any civilization at any period, you’ll know that it’s riddled with pervasive brutality and filled with misdeeds and past injustices. Get over it. History is violent, with numerous accounts of what we would now call ethnic cleansing. The irony is the pro-Palestinian crowd is too stupid to know that’s what they’re promoting with their rallies against Israel: a complete genocide.