Jews shouldn’t need to treat intellectual honesty as heroism. Nor does it behoove us to grab any morsel of sympathy with the hunger of a hostage.
In his typically acerbic style of dry humor, comedian-pundit Bill Maher marked the 78th anniversary of Israel’s Declaration of Independence with a hard-hitting monologue that promptly went viral.
During the closing segment of the May 15 episode of his eponymous HBO show “Real Time,” Maher stated that “everyone must either wish [the Jewish state] a happy birthday or admit they’re antisemitic.”
He didn’t mention that Zohran Mamdani—who openly mourned the nakba, the “catastrophe” of Israel’s establishment in 1948—perfectly fits the latter label. Nevertheless, he went on to let the likes of New York City’s mayor have it.
“Now, it’s everyone’s right in a free country to be antisemitic,” he said. “But enough with hiding behind Israel or Zionism or [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu. If you think, as so many do now, that when it comes to human rights, Israel is the monster country of all time, you either don’t read or you don’t care about your own hypocrisy, because there are so many worse places. But that’s where we are these days. No Jews, no news.”
