Bill Maher, Zionist Crank Who Cannot Even Get His Audience To Laugh

The first thing you need to know about Bill Maher is that he considers this anecdote to be reflective of his intelligence and erudition:

“I watch the History Channel like most guys watch Pornhub.”

The History Channel? The place where mock documentaries on aliens building the pyramids reign. But that’s Maher. He has a myopic idea of his acumen. An intelligent person would be embarrassed to admit they watch a cable channel rather than read books as the basis of their learning. But, not Maher.

In fact, Maher styles himself as the expert on an infinite number of subjects, from vaccines to the economy. “This is my thing” is his smug response to anyone who disagrees with him, complemented by a charming habit of attributing either ignorance or malice, if not both. For Maher, anyone who does not agree with him on Israel must be an ignoramus who gets the information from Instagram — you know, unlike that cable network dedicated to high philosophy.

This is coming from a show host and a lackluster comedian who once hosted a quack doctor who said that goat milk can treat AIDS, and Maher was credulous to the extreme.

More than anything, Israel and Islam are fixations for Maher that neatly go together. Maher has helmed the long-running anti-Muslim show in the country, Real Time with Bill Maher, on the premium network HBO. Maher conveys a deep sensitivity toward any perceived slight against Jewish people, but unleashes on Muslims regularly (and, to a lesser extent, Christians). Islam, the religion, is inherently violent; the predominance of the name Mohamed in the UK is frightening; and Palestinians are snakes who have spurned Israel’s generous statehood offers.

And Israel is the frontline of Western Civilization against barbaric Muslims, and every liberal is required to support Israel, no matter how illiberal, genocidal, and entrenched in apartheid it is, because, hey, Tel Aviv has a pride parade for Jews.

Maher talks down to any guests who even mildly push back on anything related to Israel. When a GOP Congresswoman expressed reservations about the Iran War, Maher offered the perverse rebuttal that Americans should happily support the war because they’d prefer to live in Tel Aviv over anywhere else in the Middle East. Never mind that most Americans could not move to Israel due to its Jewish-only immigration policy, but could reasonably move to, say, Istanbul, Beirut, or Dubai — as many have. (Cities are a matter of taste, but these are vibrant, cosmopolitan places, much more than Tel Aviv. But Maher thinks every Muslim city is a burqa parade.) But it’s also completely irrelevant. Americans live in America and judge their interest from their home perch, not from Israel or anywhere else. But Maher is Israel First. And, for him, Israel is not a real place, but a fantasy land out of the propaganda film “Exodus” that portrayed a deeply human and ethical Zionist movement.

Maher’s Zionism is so fierce that it has made him a believer in the Bible. The prominent atheist who attacks religion as “stupid” has taken to citing the Bible as a justification for Israel’s land grabs. Even when he cites history, it is selective. Maher has stated that the right of return of Palestinian refugees, who are still alive, after less than 80 years, is unreasonable, but Jews’ return and takeover after 2,000 years makes perfect sense.

As public opinion shifts more and more against Apartheid Israel and in support of Palestinians, Maher is having a meltdown on his weekly show. Too glib and bad faith for introspection, or at least an ‘agree to disagree’ attitude, Maher is lashing out. Instead of recognizing that Israel’s far-right turn and widespread devastation in Gaza have reasonably, even if one does not agree, turned people against it (do they even show him such stuff on the History Channel?), Maher accuses people of ignorance or being blinded by the so-called left-Islamist alliance. In the past, notably, he has avoided and even at times criticized the pretext of antisemitism to shut down criticism of Israel — even coming to the defense of Rep. Ilhan Omar.

But, as bitterness grows, he has finally adopted the most common of Zionist smears. His latest monologue was his jumping the shark moment when he stated that opposition to Israel is ’cause people hate Jews. Even his audience, usually quite sycophantic, refused to cheer along. At one point, Maher pathetically pleaded with them to “laugh.” Zionism is the mirror of antisemitism, both immoral and deranging.

P.S. In this aforementioned monologue, Maher presents hate-filled Rep. Randy Fine as less offensive than bona fide antisemitic ’cause he has not called for nuking Palestinians. In fact, Fine has done precisely that. One mark of Maher’s show is how utterly unprepared he is to host a show on politics and current affairs, even. being confused about commonly known facts. There is a clear lack of depth of reading, even among newspapers. But there’s always the History Channel. Also, his guests are increasingly of the pseudo-philosopher type, like Douglass Murray, as capable people steer away from a smug buffoon who has lost his grip on reality.