Bill Burr and Bill Maher presented their views on the current conflict between Israel and Hamas in the latter’s Sunday (May 12) installment. Random club podcast, and things got a little complicated.
Maher was the first to mention the ongoing protests dominating college campuses across the United States, telling Burr: “Don’t you realize that college campuses erupted with kids demonstrating for Hamas? “They are with the terrorists.”
Burr responded by saying that the protesters were demonstrating “for the Palestinians.”
Maher responded, “Well, it’s pretty much the same cause,” before asking, “Why?”
After Burr noted that he is “on the side of the children,” Maher said, “that’s easy to say,” adding that “nobody wants to see dead children.”
“It’s easy to say ‘I’m for the kids,’” he continued. “Who is not for children? It all comes down to really tough decisions…”
When Burr intervened and told the host, “Oh, stop talking like you’re a general,” Maher continued, “Israel was attacked. They’re the only country in the world that gets attacked, and as soon as they fight back, it’s like, ‘Well, we gotta stop this shit now.’ Don’t attack them. There is a very simple solution to all these problems in the Middle East. Stop attacking Israel.”
Burr then mocked Maher and told him he “just figured it out.”
“There you go, that’s fantastic,” he joked. “Let’s go to Russia and Ukraine. How do you solve that, Bill? Let me hear your tough decision on this.”
He old dads The star proceeded to question how war “is still legal.”
“With all the shit that’s been canceled, why is it still legal?” Burr asked, prompting Maher to ask her guest if she would “like a real answer to that.”
“Because for something to be illegal, you need to have the ability to enforce it,” Maher said. “And you can’t enforce the law against war or else you’ll have to go to war with the country that’s going to war. And we don’t want to go to war with Russia over Ukraine. What would be the point of making it illegal? Oh that’s really going to stop [Vladimir] Putin? No.”
Burr went on to criticize Maher for “solving” the Middle East conflict, telling him: “Can’t you sit down and talk about it? Why can’t Putin do a podcast with the boss… like you just solved the Middle East on a podcast? Why can’t they work out what they’re doing in a podcast?”
Maher, laughing, said to Burr: “See? That’s why this is not your thing. This is my thing,” but Burr backed away and told the Real time host who “is not [his] stuff.”
“You’re like that guy who has a fantasy football team and thinks he’s a fucking general manager. That’s exactly what it is,” Burr told Maher. “Why am I listening to you like you did something? What have you done in Washington? Nothing.”
In any case, as pointed out Fox News, the two comedians were able to drop the topic fairly quickly. After all, the presenter’s comments are not surprising; Maher previously shared her views on the state of the conflict between Israel and Hamas on her HBO show, denouncing the rise of anti-Semitism in November and accusing activists of being narcissistic.
