Bill Maher shut down comedian Sandra Bernhard from his podcast after she claimed that conservatives were the root cause of the alarming rise in anti-Semitism in the United States.
The Roseanne star, who is Jewish, was speaking with Maher, an atheist whose mother was Jewish, on an episode of her Club Random podcast.
He maintained that despite protests among left-wing anti-Israel activists on university campuses and in several major cities, he is not afraid.
‘I like being Jewish. I go to Shabbat, I do my thing. But suddenly everyone says: ‘I’m Jewish and I’m being (persecuted).’ ‘I don’t feel persecuted,’ he stated.
Maher responded by saying, “There is an anti-Semitism going on in this country that we haven’t had in a long time.”
Bill Maher shut down comedian Sandra Bernhard from his podcast after she claimed that conservatives were the root cause of the alarming rise in anti-Semitism in the United States.
The Roseanne star, who is Jewish, was speaking with Maher, an atheist whose mother was Jewish, on an episode of her Club Random podcast.
When Bernhard tried to say that she came from the far right, Maher immediately interrupted her.
“No, it’s not like that,” Maher said. “The right has this ‘Jews will not replace us’ nonsense. The left is even worse.’
When Bernhard asked him to explain, Maher blamed liberals’ obsession with identity politics for spreading anti-Jewish sentiment.
‘This is coming from elite universities that see everything only through a racial lens. They are stupids. They don’t know the history. “They think it’s all about colonizers and racists and how horrible America is,” he said.
Maher said that while the United States “has done some bad things,” the left is using Israel as a substitute for “everything bad white people did.”
“This is no more complicated for most of these college students than the Palestinians are brown and poor and the Israelis are rich and white,” he said.
Bernhard then attempted to move on to criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
‘But can we agree and agree that Benjamin Netanyahu is a shitty troublemaker and needs to be removed from Israel? He is no good for Israel. He is no good for the Jews,” he said.
When Bernhard tried to say that she came from the far right, Maher immediately interrupted her.
When Bernhard asked him to explain, Maher blamed liberals’ obsession with identity politics for spreading anti-Jewish sentiment.
‘It has also contributed to global distrust: it should not be the Jews, but the Israelis. He is entirely to blame for everything that is happening right now.
Maher, who has had Prime Minister Netanyahu as a guest on his show, again rejected him.
‘He is not to blame for everything that is happening. “That is the fault of the Palestinian people and the religion of Islam, which is lost in all this,” he said.
When Bernhard asked him to clarify the matter, he said that Hamas is “mainly to blame.”
“This is happening now because for years Hamas accepted aid money and instead of buying food with it and building buildings and hospitals, they bought bombs and built tunnels,” he added.
Bernhard then suggested that Netanyahu had spent years supporting Hamas himself.
‘Correct. Yes you’re right. For strategic reasons that, in retrospect, were probably not wrong. But it was not as if Netanyahu was working against the interests – in his opinion – of his own people,” Maher said.
“He’s working in the interest of one person, himself, because he doesn’t want to go to prison,” he said, to which Maher disagreed, though he did say Netanyahu would likely soon leave office.
Bernhard then attempted to move on to criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Maher, who had Prime Minister Netanyahu as a guest on his show, again rejected
Maher, a liberal media darling, has frequently criticized anti-Israel sentiment on the left following the Hamas attacks on October 7.
He has accused the protesters of being “hysterics who hate America and lack knowledge” and who support Hamas.
“It’s hard to understand the idea of people shouting ‘Death to America’ on American soil,” he said.
‘If you had any knowledge about the Middle East or what apartheid or genocide really means, would you really side with Hamas?’