Comedian Bill Maher criticized people who think Palestinians will negotiate in good faith to end the war between Israel and terrorist group Hamas during Friday’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
The fact that Palestinians aim for the complete eradication of the Israeli people means negotiating is futile, Maher asserted. He cited various historical instances where despite losing land in conflicts, other groups chose to move forward and accept the situation rather than advocating for genocide and ethnic cleansing.
WATCH:
All wars end with negotiation, but it’s hard to negotiate when the other side’s bargaining position is “you all die and disappear.” pic.twitter.com/x72h9Zlqjy
— Bill Maher (@billmaher) December 16, 2023
“Wars end with negotiation, and what the media glosses over is, it’s hard to negotiate when the other side’s bargaining position is ‘you all die and disappear,’” Maher stated.
“History’s sad and full of wrongs but you can’t make them unhappen because a paraglider isn’t a time machine,” Maher stated. “People get moved, and yes, colonized. Nobody was a bigger colonizer than the Muslim army that swept out of the Arabian desert and took over much of the world in a single century. And they didn’t do it by asking. There’s a reason Saudi Arabia’s flag is a sword. Kosovo was the cradle of Christian Serbia, then it became Muslim. They fought a war about it in the 90s but stopped. They didn’t keep it going for 75 years.”
Maher also provided numerous historic examples of potential peace agreements over the years between Israelis and Palestinians that the Palestinians turned down, arguing they could have resulted in better situations than what exists today.
“East Jerusalem could have been the capital of a Palestinian state that today might look more like Dubai than Gaza,” Maher stated. “[Former Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser] Arafat was offered 95% of the West Bank and said ‘No.’”
Then, using a map as a visual, he showed how the “from the river to the sea” chant is a call to either kill all the Jews or move all of them out, which he said is unrealistic.
“If I give you the benefit of the doubt and say your plan for a completely Jew-less Palestine isn’t that all the Jews should die, what is the only other option?” Maher asked. “They move. You move all the Jews … To where are we moving this entire country, Texas? Sure they have room, and I guess we could put the Wailing Wall on the border and kill two birds with one stone. Or we could just get serious.”
Jason Cohen on December 16, 2023
