During the online “Overtime” segment of Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher stated that it has become toxic to support Israel among Democrats and Democrats who are starting to refuse AIPAC money are saying that “Israel is a monster country and it’s a dirty country and this is dirty money, and that gives permission to a lot of people who are actually antisemitic to say, well, you know what, if a Democratic senator won’t take their money, this must be a dirty country.”
Maher read a viewer question on Democrats distancing themselves from AIPAC that asked, “Has it become toxic to support Israel?”
He answered, “I think it has, for the Democrats.”
He added, “I think, when you’re a Democrat, and you don’t take money from AIPAC, which they have forever, what you’re saying is, Israel is a monster country and it’s a dirty country and this is dirty money, and that gives permission to a lot of people who are actually antisemitic to say, well, you know what, if a Democratic senator won’t take their money, this must be a dirty country.”
After Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) said that she stopped taking money from AIPAC in 2022, and it wasn’t due to Israel, but because they were donating to “people who had been involved in inciting January 6,” Maher responded that this was “convenient” for her.
Maher further stated, “To me, what the Democrats are not doing with this is leading. The energy in their party is with the young people, who learn everything about Israel on TikTok. They don’t know shit. And their leaders are not standing up and saying, kids, you don’t know what’s going on here, every war Israel has fought is a war of defense.”
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