HBO host Bill Maher rejected claims by podcast guest Sandra Bernhardt, who tried to argue that conservatives, not liberals, are to blame for today’s rise in anti-Semitism.
former Roseanne The cast members were guests of Maher Club Random On her podcast, she spewed the common Hollywood myth that conservatives and Republicans are the real anti-Semites in America.
Bernhardt said he is proud to be Jewish but insists he doesn’t feel scared on college campuses or in big cities.
“I like being Jewish. I go on Sabbath. I do what I want. But all of a sudden, people are like, ‘I’m Jewish. [persecuted]”I don’t feel persecuted,” she insisted.
But Maher was quick to push back against her argument that anti-Semitism needs to be reduced, especially on college campuses.
“There is an epidemic of anti-Semitism in this country that we haven’t seen in a long time,” he replied.
Bernhardt also blamed all anti-Semitism on conservatives, a charge Maher vehemently disagreed with.
“No, it’s not,” Maher interjected. “The right wing makes this nonsense claim that ‘the Jews won’t replace us.’ The left is even worse.”
Maher went on to explain that the deepest-rooted hatred comes from America’s “stupid” college campuses.
“This is an opinion coming from an elite university that only sees everything through a racial lens. They’re stupid. They don’t know history. They think it’s all about colonialists and racists and how America is terrible,” Maher told Bernhardt.
He added that the left uses Israel to spread racial hatred and blame Israel for the sins of “white people.”
“America has done bad things, but dragging Israel into the mix as a stand-in for every bad thing white people have ever done is no more complicated to most college students than Palestinians are brown and poor and Israelis are rich and white,” Maher said of uneducated students.
Maher also slammed leftists who claim Israel is “colonialist,” saying “none of that lines up with the facts.”
Bernhardt then tried to blame Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu entirely for the current military action in Gaza.
“But can we all agree that Benjamin Netanyahu is a disturbance maker who needs to be kicked out of Israel? He’s not good for Israel. He’s not good for the Jewish people,” she exclaimed. “He’s also fostered global distrust — not of Jews, but of Israelis. He is fully responsible for everything that’s going on.”
Maher again disagreed, blaming the Palestinian people rather than Netanyahu.
“He is not to blame for all that is happening. It is the fault of the Palestinian people and Islam, but that is being forgotten in all of this,” Maher lectured Bernhardt.
“What’s happening now is because Hamas has been taking aid money for years and instead of using it to buy food and build buildings and hospitals, they’ve been using it to buy bombs and dig tunnels,” he added.
When Bernhardt pointed out that Netanyahu also supports Hamas financially, Maher agreed that she was right, but disagreed that that equated to moral support for Hamas.
“Yes, you’re right. For strategic reasons, in retrospect it was probably not wrong. But Prime Minister Netanyahu felt that he was not acting against the interests of his own people,” Maher explained.
Bernhardt ended the show by arguing that Netanyahu was acting only in his own interest and trying to stay out of prison, to which Maher replied: “I don’t think so either.”
Maher acknowledged that he has recently become more critical of the left than he used to be. On Monday, he told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria that he’s not getting older, but that the left’s ideas have just gotten stupider.
“I haven’t changed,” he said. “Sure, people have told me you’re making fun of the left more than you used to. That’s because the left has changed. Now the right has changed too, and it’s even worse. I mean, the right doesn’t believe in democracy anymore. I mean, they’ve cast their lot in with a sociopath named Donald Trump, who thinks elections only matter if we win. Well, that’s even worse.”
Also, ABC’s scenery Last week, he told hosts that he would lose credibility if he refused to criticize those to his left.
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