Defending Israel’s policies can have a corrosive effect on your politics. Bill Maher, who is thought to be a progressive, defends Netanyahu’s last minute appeal to Jewish voters to get out to the polls so as to counter Palestinians “heading to the polls in droves,” by questioning whether the statement was racist and saying that if the U.S. were in Israel’s position it would do much worse: deny Palestinians vote and maybe “put them in camps.”
A lot of people were angry at the way Netanyahu won this election. They said it was racist that he said, at the last minute ‘Arab voters are coming out in droves to the polls.’
And I guess that is racist, in the strictest sense, he’s bringing race into the equation. But, first of all, like Reagan didn’t win races with racism? Or Nixon? Or Bush? Like they didn’t play the race card? Reagan opened his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi, remember that? Remember Willie Horton?
I heard a lot of commentators here say, it would been as if Mitt Romney, in 2012, on the eve of the election said, ‘black voters are coming out in droves to the polls.’ But I don’t know if that’s really a great analogy. I think that would be a good analogy if America was a country that was surrounded by 12 or 13 completely black nations who had militarily attacked us many times, including as recently as last year. Would we let them vote? I don’t know. When we were attacked by the Japanese, we didn’t just not let them vote, we rounded them up and put them in camps.
And I thought the Willie Horton ad of 27 years ago and the Japanese internment of WW2 were bad things that the U.S. learned from! That is the error in Maher’s thought: he is saying that Israel has a right to recapitulate all the mistakes of the west. There was slavery in the U.S. too; I suppose that justifies the occupation, in Bill Maher’s view.
Thanks to this tweeter, and Max Blumenthal. And to Haaretz, which is on the story. I used its transcript.
You know what was even worse? the responses of the “panel.”
KINGSTON: You know, I think on this race, Netanyahu wasn’t just motivated on his own re-election as much as he is on the survival of Israel. On one side he has the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Authority recognizing Hamas. To the north he has Hezbollah. To Syria he now has ISIS. I think he’s actually very, very concerned about the future of his country and the fact, that as you’re saying, these countries that are all around him have promised to wipe Israel off the map. So he was fighting not just for his own political future but for Israel’s.
QUINN: Well look, I mean, I think the truth of the challenge and the danger for Israel, that’s real and I think it’s really important that we as Americans stand with Israel 24-7 (you just know there’s a ‘but’ coming …). And I think that Prime Minister Netanyahu is concerned about the future of his country. But (bingo!) let’s not pretend it wasn’t politics ’cause the day after the election we went right back.
SCHLAPP (pouncing): Of course it was politics! How do you win an election?!
MAHER: He’s a politician, by the way, in a real democracy that lets Arabs vote. So I’m just saying, a little perspective.
Vile.
RE: “Bill Maher justifies Netanyahu’s racism by saying U.S. has done much worse”
MY INCREDULOUS, RHETORICAL QUESTION: So that makes it all kosher?
“What’s important is to remember, forgetting is even more important.” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke
Rainer Maria Rilke – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainer_Maria_Rilke
Bill Maher is a disgusting PEP (progressive except Palestine) who helps perpetuate myths, in addition to defending apartheid and colonialism.
“Israel surrounded by hostile Arabs” – if I were to break into your house and expel you, I’d probably also find myself surrounded by angry relatives. Suggesting otherwise is adopting the most vile colonial racist views that suggest that Arabs bear irrational congenital hostility to Jews, driven by antisemitism.
“who attacked Israeli militarily many times as recent as last year” – Another perpetuation of myths. The only war Arabs initiated was the 1973 war, which was in itself a limited war to recapture territory occupied by Israel in 1967, hence a continuation of a war that Israel started. Of course the 1948 war that Israel portrays as the original Arab aggression took place outside the partition lines and in response to the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine which going full force. Trying to salvage something of Palestine and protect the victims of ethnic cleansing at the hands of fresh colonial immigrants is hardly starting a war.
Regarding the “as recent as last year” comment it’s another one of the preposterous Zionist spins which present the refugees of 1948 locked under a blockade in an open air prison known as Gaza as aggressors and the occupier – the people who ethnically cleansed them – as victims! This is the bizarre world of PEP’s and Zionists in general.
America the racist? Put African-Americans in camps (12.6% of USA) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States#Race_and_ethnicity); put Hispanics in camps (Hispanics or Latin@s 16.4%? C’mon!
Those people should call him on that! So should everyone else! And we need African-Americans and Hispanics-Latin@s on the Palestinians side. when do we need them? NOW!
Maher defended Israel’s conduct in Gaza, so this is expected. What irritates me are the people who say these Islamophobes aren’t haters who justify violence. Of
course they are. Maher has his progressive fan club, which to my mind means that many self-identified progressives are bigots and haters themselves.