Bill Maher: "People Die in Wars"

[pokerfan]

To hell with civilians. WTFO?

Bill Maher and his panelists took on the issue of Israel tonight, and Maher found it ridiculous that everyone keeps criticizing Israel for Palestinian casualties. He said the harsh truth is that sometimes, “people die in wars,” and Israel doesn’t deserve any sort of special criticism over that.

Maher pointed to big, crazy, anti-Israel protests and how people are being killed in other countries and says no one’s denouncing that with the same outrage with which they’re denouncing Israel. Reza Aslan argued the difference is Israel is killing civilians with American weapons. He also disputed the idea Hamas is using so many Palestinians as human shields.

Maher said this is a war Hamas started, and for Israel to be expected to avoid Palestinian deaths at some kind of exponential rate is ridiculous. He said at least Israel is more targeted, but if the situation was reversed, Hamas would kill everyone in Israel.

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/%E2%80%98people-die-in-wars%E2%80%99-maher-and-guests-battle-over-gaza-civilian-deaths/

[2banon]

1. House-sitting for folks with cable.

I thought I'd check in on the show tonight, it was in progress, and you've summarized what I saw until I changed the station. I've always said that guy is a freaking lying jerk, and he just keeps proving it over and over again.

[billhicks76]

16. I Like The Show But He's Being An Idiot

Its not a war. It's an invasion. And if it was a war it wouldn't be one worth supporting.

[PatSeg]

25. I had hoped he had evolved on the subject

I'd watched him a week ago and his stand on the conflict was pretty unenlightened, but a lot of people didn't really know how bad things were. This week, he was just as insensitive to the senseless slaughter of civilians.

This is not a war as you say, this is a massacre. I really expected better from him.

[Scootaloo]

2. Bill's right. no one's protesting ISIS. And there's a good reason

Reza aslan illustrates one of those reasons. Cenk Uygher made a good one hte other day as well - everyone agrees ISIS are murderign assholes. There's no debate, everyone's on the same page on that. Further, a big difference between ISIS and Israel (one of several, of course0 is that ISIS is in a stance as our enemy What are our protests going to do? You think that Baghdadi guy is going to look at a bunch of Americans protesting and go "oh damn, maybe i should reconsider? Of course he's not. But Israel is our ally. Demonstrations against their actions send the message that the people of then ations htey are allied with have some serious concerns about where that alliance is going.

But of course, Maher hasn't met a dead Arab yet that didn't give his skinny little pecker a half-mast.

[Riftaxe]

6. Very well stated

better then i could have at least.

[nomorenomore08]

12. +2

[billhicks76]

20. Duh !!!

Right. No one supports ISIS so theirs no argument there. Although we kind of did by arming them to attack Syria. The US and Israel's objective is to destabilize the region. Arm all the killers and have them destroy themselves and the economies and infrastructure of Arab countries to they can never be a solid, economically sound power that could compete in the works economic arena. And of course bomb them ourselves from time to time to keep the war profiteers happy and satiated. It's evil.

[JDPriestly]

32. If you are right, then all the countries in the Middle East have to do is

stop destroying themselves and their economies.

Personally, I don't have any sympathy with all the killing, but at least Israel is run as a democracy and grants a voice to minority Palestinians who live in Israel.

The Palestinians did not have to build the tunnels. They could have negotiated in good faith and established peace by now. The Palestinians could prove that they are capable of keeping their extremists, their terrorists under control.

You cannot have peace unless you give peace to your neighbors. That is a common sense rule that every country has to abide by.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Terrorist_attacks_attributed_to_Palestinian_militant_groups

More:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_political_violence

The history is horrible. Every time Palestine picks a war with Israel, Palestine loses land and people. Still the population of Palestine is greater than that of Israel.

The State of Israel has a population of approximately 8,134,100 inhabitants as of the end of 2013.[2] 75% percent of them are Jewish (about 6,102,900 individuals), 20.7% are Arabs (about 1,683,200 individuals), while the remaining 4.3% (about 348,100 individuals) are defined as "others" (family members of Jewish immigrants who are not registered at the Ministry of Interior as Jews, non-Arab Christians, non-Arab Muslims and residents who do not have an ethnic or religious classification).

Israel's annual population growth rate stood at 1.9% in 2013, three times faster than the OECD average of around 0.6%.[3] With an average of 3 children per woman, Israel also has the highest fertility rate in the OECD by a considerable margin, and much higher than the OECD average of 1.7[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Israel

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) estimated Palestinians at mid year 2009 as 10.7 million persons as follows: 3.9 million in the Palestinian Territory (36.6%), 1.2 million (11.5%) in Israel; 5.0 million in Arab countries (46.2%), 0.6 million in foreign countries (5.7%).[6]

According to an article in Guardian (2008) using PCBS census figures, the Palestinian territories have one of the fastest growing populations in the world, with numbers surging 30% in the past decade (2008). There were 3.76 million Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, up from 2.89 million 10 years earlier.[7]

According to the U.S. Census population growth mid-1990-2008 in Gaza and West Bank was 106% from 1.9 million (1990) to 3.9 million persons.[8]

According to UN (2010) Palestinian population is 4.4 million.[9] According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) population density in 2009 was 654 capita/km2, of which 433 capita/km2 in the West Bank including Jerusalem and 4,073 capita/km2 in Gaza Strip.[10] In the mid-2009 the share of population less than 15 years was 41.9% and above 65 years 3%.[10]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_Palestinian_territories

Israel needs peace more than more land. The Palestinians need land. Seems to me a bargain can be made provided both sides enforce the peace.

They have to make peace. They are one family living separated as if divorced. But they still have to live in peace with each other. Neither side has any other choice. Each has to recognize the right of the other to exist and live in peace.

Can you think of any other solution?

And if they are to live in peace then they have to negotiate in good faith. That means Palestinians don't build tunnels under Israel, and Israel gives back land to Palestinians. But first Palestinians have to prove they can keep the peace. By that I mean that they have to prove that they have enough control over the fanatics among them to keep the peace. We will know whether Israel is willing to keep the peace and whether Israelis feel safe enough to live in peace by the government, by the party they elect. It's more complicated, more difficult to discern the intentions of the Palestinians by their elections, etc.

Above all, on both sides the war propaganda has to stop. I don't know whether that is possible.

[Riftaxe]

3. I have no problem with that

Wars suck, and it is a bloody shame more people who comment about it do not get to experience that first hand. It would certainly knock a bit of sense into them, there is nothing glamorous about dead bodies, or being about to die yourself.

How many fucking miles do you want to give Hamas to wage war against civilians? This is indeed where you are hoping we are going, no?

[Comrade Grumpy]

5. Israeli civilian dead: 3, Gazan civilian dead: 1,200+

Impact of war on Israel: Some pockmarks, some burned fields, some nerves, but the beaches are still busy.

Impact of the war on Gaza: Entire neighborhoods flattened, hospitals attacked, UN school attacks, repeated mass civilian casualty attacks, power plant destroyed, half the territory occupied by foreign invaders, thousands wounded, more than a hundred thousand internal refugees. Oh, and the beaches are deadly.

[Riftaxe]

7. So what?

Are we tossed back 40 years where people like you eagerly await body counts delivered on the nightly news. Completely incapable of making your own judgments unless handheld by fox or msnbc?

[enlightenment]

10. "So what?" ?

Gads. You might want to look around for your ethics, because they have clearly gone missing. What a filthy remark.

[Riftaxe]

23. See what I have seen

There is not a trace of "filth" to it, but damned if i can prove that to a prude.

I guess the next generation will have to find out, seems sure as hell the current one is failing hard.

[applegrove]

4. You got the order very wrong. Maher

said Hamas started the war. Then he said people die in wars. The order correctly stated changes the meaning of your whole OP.

[cpwm17]

29. Your right, Israel started it

and Israel is committing mass-murder against a captive population.

Maher consistently shows his hatred for Arabs and he will always support anything Israel does to Arabs.

On his show, he has acknowledged that the Zionists expelled the Palestinians to create Israel. He said he has no problem with that, as he considers an Arab life much less sacred than a Jewish life. So anything Israel does to Arabs is justified, by definition.

He has talked about how he supports Benny Morris' position about the necessity of expelling the Arabs to create Israel, reading from Benny Morris' book on his show. Here's Morris' position:

http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/israel-stands-by-the-damned-of-1948-as-it-seeks-to-finish-the-nakba

Not only did Shavit declare that the Jewish state could not have come into being without ethnic cleansing committed on a mass scale, he insisted that such crimes were necessary to preserve his own existence and that of his entire family in Israel.

His argument echoed that of the Israeli revisionist historian Benny Morris, another leading light of the Zionist left, whose early work exposed the mass expulsions of Palestinians in 1948 and before, but who declared in a shocking interview with Shavit during the height of the Second Intifada that Israel had not gone far enough.

The Jewish state would never be at peace, Morris suggested, until it purged the rest of the Arab demographic contaminants living within its realm.

“I don’t think that the expulsions of 1948 were war crimes. You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs. You have to dirty your hands,” Morris told Shavit. Building on his zero-sum analysis, he continued: “A society that aims to kill you forces you to destroy it. When the choice is between destroying or being destroyed, it’s better to destroy.”

[Bluenorthwest]

40. I do not believe you and call for a citation. Link please.

you claim Bill Maher, atheist, made a claim that some lives are more 'sacred' than others -'Israel. He said he has no problem with that, as he considers an Arab life much less sacred than a Jewish life.'

Show us where 'he has said that'. Prove your contention, show that which you assert to be truth to be the truth.
If you don't, and you won't because you can't, I will assume you have no ethics about claims you make about other people whatsoever.

[cpwm17]

41. On his show a number of years ago

he acknowledged that the Zionists expelled the Palestinians to create Israel. He said he has no problem with that. The rest of that paragraph is my obvious conclusion from these and other extreme racist comments Bill Maher consistently makes about Arabs.

He read excerpts from Benny Morris' book, which he fully endorsed.

I've also heard him say that Arabs only know violence and the only way to deal with Arabs is with violence (or something similar, I can't find it anywhere posted)

Very little of what goes on in his shows is searchable. Hardly any is on YouTube and there are no transcripts anywhere that I can find.

[cheapdate]

8. Well tie me to a pole and hide all of my posts,

but I can relate to what he's saying.

[nomorenomore08]

11. Why? Do you see all Palestinians - children included - as "enemy combatants"?

[cheapdate]

13. No. I find no joy in dead children. Strange, isn't it?

Should I ask if you cheer for Hamas rockets to find their targets?

People die in wars.

[nomorenomore08]

14. First of all, the body count in past and present conflicts has been far from symmetrical.

Second, in this case especially, it would be hard to argue that Israel isn't targeting civilians just as much as Hamas has.

I'm glad you "find no joy in dead children." Neither do I, which is why I'm not about to grant Israel the moral high ground. For as little as my opinion is worth.

[cheapdate]

19. Glad we cleared that up.

I'm sick and tired of this being about whether you're for or against murdered children.

[deathrind]

9. What Isreal is doing is akin to a caged,

...hunt and calling it self defense.

[nomorenomore08]

15. Sadly, you're not too far off the mark.

[TwilightGardener]

17. He makes some valid points.

[Ohio4theWin]

18. U.S. is supporting and funding collective punishment

They fucking targeted a power plant, they are dropping bombs funded by America on the general population.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

21. Maher believes ALL religion is BS and he thinks Islam is the worse....

Muhammad Ali needs to pay him a visit.

[Puzzledtraveller]

28. What is Muhammad Ali going to do?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

31. Remind him that Islam forbids killing....

Maher thinks it's ALL about killing. (Preferably with a really big curved sword.)

But I know what you're saying. He has had many guests tell him he's wrong but he will not accept it.

[MFM008]

22. i stopped watching him

years ago.

[LittleBlue]

24. Same guy who defended the Iraq War?

Bill Maher Defends Iraq War, Bush: ‘It’s A Country That’s Standing, I Thought It Wouldn’t Be’

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/bill-maher-defends-iraq-war-bush-its-a-country-thats-standing-i-thought-it-wouldnt-be/


He's one of those types who "learned all he needed to learn about Muslims on 9/11." Neocon freak.

[cpwm17]

30. Yes he did support the invasion before it happened.

Shortly before it started, I watched him make some wishy-washy statements concerning our unprovoked war, but he clearly really wanted the war. He loves dead Arabs.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

33. He's a typical American who never even HEARD of Islam until 9/11....

It's like an Eskimo getting exposed to Christianity for the first time by having the KKK burn a cross on their lawn.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

26. "Everybody does it" is a piss poor excuse for war crimes and atrocities. It's the My Lai excuse.

[Puzzledtraveller]

27. Bill say's what noone wants to hear.

He is absolutely right on this. IMO.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

34. Like when he jokes about abusing women?

He only says what racist and sexist pseudo liberals want to hear.

[Puzzledtraveller]

35. how did you know?!

[ForgoTheConsequence]

45. How did I know what?

That you wouldn't have an intelligent response? Just a hunch.

[kelliekat44]

36. Yeah, Bill. And so do soldiers. Nt

[oberliner]

37. Reza Aslan argued the difference is Israel is killing civilians with American weapons

But the protests are actually much larger outside of the US, in countries that are not providing Israel with weapons.

[n2doc]

38. If this were a real war, it would be over by now

It is not. In a real war, the objective is to defeat the enemy as rapidly as possible. The IDF prefers to slowly terrorize Palestine in the hopes that they will leave. If they just went in with their full army they could control the whole place in a matter of days. But then they would have to figure out what to do next, as just staying there would leave them exposed to constant attack, just like the US experienced in Iraq and Afghanistan and Vietnam. So they slowly destroy Gaza, and slowly take over more and more land.

[whatchamacallit]

39. Idiot statement

but no surprise, "atheist" Bill Maher has made his bias very clear.

[muriel_volestrangler]

42. Channeling Donald Rumsfeld? 'Stuff Happens'?

If Maher can't say anything intelligent about Gaza, he should avoid it as a subject on his show.

[treestar]

43. Always claiming Hamas started it

But always using the slightest thing they do as excuse for disproportionate response.

[PAProgressive28]

44. Watching right now

Actually I just turned off Real Time for the first time ever. I'm sick of the Israel is NEVER wrong attitude. Sorkin's talking points were embarrassing. Glad Bill's off for a month.