Bad Hasbara - The World's Most Moral Podcast - 134: Where The Streets Have No Shame, with Tadhg Hickey [UNLOCKED]

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

Matt and Daniel welcome returning champion Tadhg Hickey for a deep dive into U2’s statements on Gaza. Dublin’s most famous erstwhile hoteliers attempt statements ambiguous enough to anppear prophetic in case of all possible outcomes, and Bono gets more elliptical than the Mar Vista 24 Hour Fitness during pilot season. Plus! There’s a guy named Larry in U2? Just Larry?Please donate to Palestine Red Crescent: https://www.palestinercs.org/Join the patreon at https://www.patreon.com/badhasbaraSubscribe to Tadhg Hickey at https://youtube.com/@mrtadhghickeySee Francesca Fiorentini and Matt Lieb August 28 in Houston, TX: https://bit.ly/mattfranhtxGet tickets for Francesca Fiorentini, Matt Lieb and friends with Daniel Maté October 13 in Brooklyn: https://bit.ly/mattfranbellhouseSubscribe to the Patreon https://www.patreon.com/badhasbaraWhat’s The Spin playlist: https://spoti.fi/4kjO9tLSubscribe/listen to Bad Hasbara wherever you get your podcasts.Spotify https://spoti.fi/3HgpxDmApple Podcasts https://apple.co/4kizajtSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/bad-hasbara/donationsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Moshwam ha bitch, a rib and cocoa toast We invented the terry tomato And ways USG drives and behind a roll Israeli salad, oozy stents and jopas orange crows Micro chips is us iPhone cameras us Taco salads us Pothalas

All of garden us White foster us Zabrahamas Hasvara suss Oh, everyone, and welcome to Bad Hasbara. The world's most moral podcast and the only damn reason you are still anything close to saying, dear listener. That's right. That's what they tell us.

That's what we hear in the DMs. My name is Matt Leav. I will be your most moral co-host for this podcast. I'm Daniel Mate, as you well know. You already know. You already know. And I'm going to, you know what? I'm zooming out a little bit.

There we go. Big picture. I want us to both look the same. That's kind of you. Yeah. Well, you know, I love you, Doug. Thank you, everyone, for listening to another episode of the World's Most Moral podcast. Shout out to anyone who has given us five stars in a review, loving the reviews that we get and the comments that we get on episodes.

It's been very nice. So thank you. I love you guys. You guys are amazing. And you know what? you keep us sane. How about that? Damn, damn, damn, damn right, actually. There's nothing that makes you more sane than

reading hundreds of comments. Every accusation is a confession. That's right. Every self flattery is a gratitude. That's exactly right. So it's not ego. It's actually humility. Just so you know. Shout out to producer Adam Levin out here on the ones and twos.

And also letting you guys all know, once again, stand-up comedy in New York, me, my wife, Francesca Fiorentini, my other wife, my pod wife, Daniel Mate, we're going to be at the Bell House October 13th, so please come out to that. We've already remarked on how your wife's, your wife's name sounds like a kid's in the hall character, right? Oh, yeah, Francesca Fiore and Bruno Ponce Jones. That makes you. Oh, we've done it.

That's right. I am the Bruno Ponce Jones to her, Francesca Fiore. And also, what's the name, Buddy Love? Buddy Cole. Buddy Cole. Yeah, I got a little bit of Buddy Cole and me too. Buddy Love is, I think, Nuddy Professor. Anyways.

The person who most reminded me of Buddy Cole recently as I went to see Morgan Besicius. I forget that a pronouncing. Yeah, yeah, Morgan from New York. Who's a friend of ours and we want to have him on. So he's got a one-man show right now at the Soho Playhouse called Can I Be Frank? Fantastic. Go see it if you get a chance.

I love him. He's so funny. Yeah. So please come out, see us do stand up, also see Morgan's show, and also see me and Francesca at the Punchline in Houston, August 28th. Those tickets are going fast. Please get those now. If you are in Texas, buy them. Buy those tickets. Don't wait and then get mad at me. Today's episode is brought to you by Palestine Red Crescent. The Palestine Red Crescent Society is an officially recognized independent Palestinian National Society. It is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and operates in Palestine and the diaspora. PRCS is guided by the Geneva Conventions and the movement's fundamental principles, humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality. If you have any money and you would like to donate, please go to Palestine rcs.org.

That's Palestine. Daniel Matthew You're emotionally damaged Jewishly What's your point? I know I'm just letting you know

And because of your emotional damage I would like to know What's this been? Well today I want to give a shout out to Brian Eno Who is organizing a concert For Palestine at Wembley Stadium Next month

And you know when things get to Wembley proportions That they've gotten pretty bad And that public consciousness is changing or on the verge of changing. A Wembley is quite a gauge for how fucked shit is. Once you got a Wembley going on, that's a unit of measurement of fucked. Correct. Yeah.

Yeah. A Wembley is like how many Madison Square Gardens is. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, I would say like five. At least five. I mean, it's huge, right? It's enormous.

It's an enormous place. Isn't a tennis court? no it's a soccer arena a football pitch that as they say okay okay okay that means more sense okay that makes more sense um tennis court would be pretty small I was thinking to myself we could sell out a tennis court I've yeah I was like a tennis court seems tiny for so many people yeah you're thinking of Wimbledon that's what I'm thinking of Wimbledon sorry folks I'm thinking of Wimbledon what you know one of your weird Adam stop stop nudging us all right this is we've been pretty swift so far we're only like seven minutes in i listen at this point we have their patreon pigs they can

wait and also i think we can both say that we are deliberately stagnating our own audience growth in order to just hang out so you know talk about records that's right and also our guest is tag so you know yeah our guess is tight he's down i do this just to make myself laugh i know all right Another Green World by Brian Eno, his first solo album, I think, from the mid-70s. Talking Heads, Fear of Music, Fantastic album that Eno produced. Brian Eno, David Byrne, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, very cool. In the Bush of Ghosts. Yeah, early 80s music with a lot of samples from television and stuff, very cool music.

And what have I got here? What is this? I don't recognize this album. What the fuck is this? He actually didn't produce this by, you two war and I'm not really including it so you don't have to put it on the playlist

but he did produce several co-produced several of their albums with Daniel Lenoir and you know this album contains Sunday Bloody Sunday and New Year's Day so it's the kind of album that would make you think that this is an album that's a band that's hip to what's going on in the world

and has something relevant to say about it sure would wouldn't that be surprising if there was some sort of pivot late in life so that's what's spinning and we will get into the U2 lore in a moment. But first, we got to introduce our wonderful guest. That's right, it's a returning champion. You've already heard his name,

but I'm still going to drag out this intro as long as possible. He is a comedian. He's an activist. He is one of my favorite human beings. He has a new show now, not on our watch, which you can watch immediately, and you should. But first watch this episode of Bad As Far. Ladies and gentlemen, everyone else, welcome back to the show, Tyg Hecky.

What's up, Tom? Hi, guys. A lovely intro. Really nice to see you guys. It's so good to see. Is it spelled now with 2-0s, not on our watch, or do you omit the O? Yeah, 2-0, so it's Nicole Genes, who you guys probably know, the Spanish-Romanian powerhouse, satirist, and all-round great human being. She just came up at it, as we were just chatting and said, wouldn't that be good?

because all the activism at the moment includes the word no. It's like we need to do the shit, no. And we're like, okay, we could kind of, we could jump on that shit. And the double, the double letter is like, no. Yeah, it's like mad. Mother's against drunk driving. You add, you, yeah, it's emphatic. I love that.

I didn't know she was Spanish, Romanian. What a great, I mean, I can say. What an attractive mix that is. She's deeply nuts. Like, she's beautifully insane. Oh, she's great, crack. Trying to manage her, like, not that I should, not that I would, not that I can, but she's just a fucking whirlwind.

Her sketches are very funny. Very funny. She's amazing. She's amazing. So, yes, we'll get into it, but I would love you boys to be involved. We would love it. We would love to be involved. We need to do a show in Ireland.

I think we have talked about this long enough. We've teased it. And at this point, it's time to, like, schedule it. Also, it would be just so sick to get out of the United States. States for a little. Shit is getting so bad out here that I'm like, man, if I were to flee, where would I go? And not flee because, you know, for the fake reasons that Zionists want to flee, I'm not fleeing anti-Semitism.

I'd be fleeing the fact that right now the border patrol just like did a show of force and intimidation against the governor of California. just to, you know, show that they are Trump's loyal troops. And I was just like, oh, I got to get out of here. I got to go to Ireland. I got to go to Ireland. Well, I had a great time in Ireland when I was there March of last year. And Tyg and I, you know, connected in Cork.

And we had a very humorous dinner, which we discussed, I think, on the show. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. With an Iranian philanthropist. That guy's still going on. And he's the best of us, but he's in time. I still have that crazy, expensive. bottle of Irish whiskey that he gave me. I still haven't cracked it open.

Gifted back to him when you come back overseas as he knows. Hell no. I'm keeping that for, I'm keeping that maybe, maybe for, well, I can't share with Matt, because Matt's sober. No, but I'll watch. Yeah.

Well, yeah, but we'll watch you. Oh, we'll paint the tone red. Yeah, with your blood. Me and Matt will go crazy. Yeah. We'll just eat a lot of sugar. You could get me and Matt back on the booze. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you've got to go to Belfast, we've got to go to Derry. You know, it's a tiny country. You could do like four nights, four days, you know, drive around and you'll do really well. I still, I've told you just before, and I'm going to tell you on air right now, I get told by people all the time everywhere I go, oh, I saw you on Bad Hasbara. I love Bad Hasbara. I love that.

You have followers and friends in Ireland, guys. And you have fans here. In fact, at my workout this morning, my trainer, Garnett, shout out to Garnett, said, let's get the direct quote. Let's get... Well, I'm going to modify it slightly. He gave me permission to quote him directly, but I don't want to deal with the comments. Garnett, who's training me in the ways of the samurai and chess presses,

uh, said, is that that guy from, that bald guy from TikTok? Oh, man, that's my negroni. He didn't quite say negroni, but... He is, to be clear, uh,

he is an African American gentleman. Oh, he sure is, yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, yeah. In case, He's like, why does Daniel have a racist personal trainer? I love that he's training you in the way of the samurai.

That is, I mean, I'm not sure. I've got a sword and everything. It's right here. Yeah. Every time on the show, it gets really racist, really early. And I mean, I love it. We can't help it. We just, we're racist.

Answer me this. What does black Irish mean? Yeah. It doesn't refer to African Irish people. as we know. Black Irish? What do you mean? Like, is that a phrase? That's a term used in the United States to describe a certain, yes, type of Irish. A certain, yeah, someone's heritage, someone's lineage. A lot of Irish Americans will say I'm black Irish. Black Irish. Does it mean dark haired or like dark complexioned? Um, like there used to be a thing in the north of Ireland

where you'd call somebody a black Protestant. That means that they're really hardcore Protestant faith. Okay. So maybe, I don't know, though, I'm scrambling here under massive pressure, like, kind of racial tension and stuff. Like, I'm going to the deep recesses of my mind and there's nothing interesting. I figured it was, I'm a feeling, I'm sorry. I have a feeling it's a uniquely American construct in which we just found a new way to racialize the type of ethnic white. We're like, we need other categories. We have the red-haired Irish, but then we have this dark-haired Irish. We've got to call them something different. Yeah, that term needs to be ratified by the African-American community.

Absolutely. I think Irish Americans need a lot of tweaking. What are we talking about today, Matt? Today we're going to be talking about a lot of things. Very Irish-focused. I would say, because we're talking about one of Ireland's national heroes. You all love him, and his name is Bono. So Bono is

Are we pro bono on this show? We're pro bono. We're doing this one for free. So Bono recently came out with a statement that people have been, you know, yelling at us. He haven't cared for him since he's split with chair. Yes, yes. Sonny Bono reference.

Adams always in with the timely reference. He's on fire today. We're talking about cloudy bono. uh yes um so he uh recently came out with a statement he and the band you too came out with a statement that everyone's been yelling at us um to talk about but before we do i want to ask tyke um sort of in the same vein of asking you about the what the black irish are americans americans have uh i think a really warped uh understanding like the things that they think are irish especially Irish Americans are things that people from Ireland are like, I don't know what you're talking

about. So in the U.S., we consider it's like, oh, Bono, he's like essentially the most famous, most beloved Irishmen on the planet and in Ireland. What are the thoughts about Bono in Ireland? What are your thoughts about Bono? How did the streets of Dublin feel? Yeah, what are the streets say? How do the streets of Cork feel about the Irish street you want to take from the Irish

street? So, I mean, he is famous. I mean, you couldn't deny that he's deeply, profoundly, unmanageably famous. And he's, you know, he's good buddies with George Bush and stuff. So that's, I would say, a great indication of how famous you are. He's kind of like, like the ordinary Irish person you've got to understand is very me. You know, like Daniel will tell you, he's been to a restaurant with me. I mean, we would rather drop dead

than to say to somebody, can you stop talking to me right now? Or, like, if you said, could you take my plate, I'm finished with it? Like, you know, my daughter always says, like, somebody could put a burning tire in front of me and a restaurant, and I'll always go, wow, wow.

Like, we're always just, we're just so happy to be here. We're so happy to still be alive. That is actually, that's an Irish-American stereotype that also lives up to its name. I feel like that is one of the, At least in my family is one of the main Irish stereotypes we have, which is that if you're Irish, you can essentially live with pain and not talk about it

until everyone is dead. Yes. It's just like part of it. Exactly. Because he's too kind to decline our invites. Like Adam knows, I've been onto him on the site. Like, I detest this podcast. I think this is my fourth time.

on. Detestation with a smile. That's right. Welcome to Ireland. So it's important to contextualize that that's our first problem with Bono because Bono is outrageously confident and he's brash. And I suppose what I'm getting to is he's Protestant. No, I think he actually, I think he's like Presbyterian or Juana, but that's just a little

sectarian joke between friends. But the main point is that he's got this massive ego and so we struggle with that. Again, Connor McGregor, long before we realized that he was. you know, really unsafe. Individual, individual. Yeah, we kind of struggled with him as well because you were like, could you just be a lot quieter? Like, like, do your fighting,

but like stop making such a big song and dance about it. Right, right. But then the big thing with Bono, though, is that I would say, I would argue, and this is, and I would like to say that I do represent the Irish street. Absolutely. That being part, you know, being Irish, you'd stand up with a little guy.

I mean, we're a colonized people, like, to kind of stand with empire. or to stand with the financial systems of an ongoing genocide is very un-Irish. I would say that. You know, like, if we don't, as Irish people, we don't see ourselves in the dehumanized Palestinians at the moment. We don't understand what it is to be Irish, you know? He's also a notorious spoofer, is what we would call him here, like.

What's a spoofer? A spoofer is a guy who, it's, I mean, I don't want to say lying, but he's a liar. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, he just makes stuff up, right? So he's, like, he's from a very privileged background. And he, I think he famously said to, oh, John Bon Jovi. He told John Bon Jovi on a podcast that he was victimized by kind of loyalists and orange men when he was a kid. Now, all that stuff took place in the north of Ireland.

Like, it didn't happen in any of the kind of the leafy suburbs of Dublin, of County Dublin. You know what I mean? So I think he just thinks I was people. gives dub a bad name. That's wonderful. That's actually very skillful. I'd actually like to pause. That's actually very skillful.

And again, you guys have no idea if I mean that. No idea. We don't know. We don't know. Just so I don't want to know. I don't want to know. Let us live in the line. It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. So to conclude, he's a bit on our she's a bit of a spoofer and we kind of smell that but I would say there's a there's such you know you guys know there's such a massive pro-Palestine it's way beyond sentiment like it's a like I don't know how this government in Ireland is still standing so for such a prominent Irishman to say nothing really for 22 months and then like go okay I'm going to take the mic and pretty much just talk about October 7th and kind of force the rest of his

bandmates to make a pissy statement it was just and he said and he said somehow made it all about him as well. Yeah. It was an extraordinary skill, you know, so I think we're really, we're really quite embarrassed by the guy, all right? And I would say, though, there's some of you two's early albums were pretty good. Yeah. That's what I would say.

And produced by the great Canadian producer Daniel Lenoir. Yeah, yeah, indeed. Beautiful, some beautiful stuff. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting to see sort of the parallels. I mean, we've covered a few of these different, like, I'm breaking my silence statements

from people who and they all have the same sort of grievance which is just like you guys have been yelling at me for a long time to say something and first of all that only makes me not want to say things even more but then it's but then it's also like as soon as they break their silence they want to let everyone know that they first and foremost support the troops or are you know anti-Hamas or let everyone know that October 7th is at the forefront of their mind. It's like, it's like part of the formula that they consider to be nuanced. Yes. They want breath, breath to the IDF.

Yes, yes. Which only like serves to make everybody mad, which I think is, you know, very funny to watch. The tone of the tone of Bono's statement. and, I mean, I would give varying grades to the different members of the group. Right, because they all did it individually. And they credited, do you have the screenshot of the title page of this like little manuscript,

this little pamphlet they put out? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. We have it right here. I found this so fucking funny. On Gaza, the authors are Bono, the Edge, Adam, and Larry. Where's Curly? Where's Mo? but it looks like a pithy little academic

yeah i'm like i'm like a thomas hopper effort like exactly or john stewart mill or con like move over finkelstein yes step aside rachid halliday yeah yeah yeah fuck off chris hedges larry has spoken but anyway i would give varying grades to the different members. I thought the edges chapter in this little tone was superior, say, to Bono's. But Bono is always effect, as opposed to Tom York, who was diffident and pissed off and like, I don't know what you want for me. Bono strikes this magnanimous pose. Of course, I've always felt this way. And don't we all see that we could be looking at this dissident? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Adam is not taking any shit tonight, because I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it.

yeah but like diffident is a word you know I was using that correct yes yes he was doing a joke too we're all doing jokes on the joke podcast we're jokers we're jokers we're jokers but yeah but not spoofers no we don't no um

but bonner is one other quick thing on bono like it like for a guy who's like you know unspeakably successful I thought it did come across a little bit like a guy who's having a look at what way the wind blows as well so we know of his relationship with Israeli banks I mean like If anybody's got access to Google, they'll know that this complete spoofer has skin in the game.

But the way that his words are kind of delivered in this little tome is, you know, I just want to let everyone know that I condemn October 7th again, like, because I'm about to say something a little bit racy about Israel. He's like, he's looking to the future going, you know, you'll have to look back at this statement and then like whichever way the wind blows, pro or against genocide, that would be good for my career. you know please screenshot the relevant parts the ones that hold up the ones that hold up in history a message to my friends at the israeli banks yeah exactly like yeah i love the idea of like you know confining uh some opinions to the dustbin of history is something you can do if you like write a statement that is easily parsable on either side you'd be like okay half of the statement dustment of history, other half of the statement, brave, brave text. But yeah, so in late to 2023, reports indicated that Bono and the Edge were involved in a

business transaction with Bank Lumai, or Louie Umi. Oh, right, that's right. It's Israeli. National Bank. Yeah, Leuomi. It was reported that Bank Leumi, through its subsidiary Leumi, UK, provided a major loan for the purchase of a Dublin hotel called the Clarence, co-owned by Bono and The Edge. So, yes, basically, this is post-October 7th, late 2023, while the genocide was happening and also ramping up.

Not only was he not saying anything, but he was also taking out massive loans from an Israeli bank. Are these things connected? How could they be? No, I don't see how it's possible to connect them. I mean, what I would say is people coming in late, like, no problem. Like, if you're going to come in late, you know, like, I've got many, I'm sure you guys are the same. I'm speaking to Palestinians every day and they say, like, we just want more voices. We can kind of, you know, split hairs afterwards. But I do think if you're going to

like, for instance, Geldorf, right, which I'm delighted to you guys know who Bob Geldorf was. I thought that was just a kind of an Irish, British thing. Like, Bob Gellup No, his, his dislike for Mondays is quite notorious. That's global, is that? Wait, I don't understand the dislike for Monday. He was the lead, he was the frontman of a group called the Boomtown Rats who had a song called I Don't Like Mondays. Oh, okay.

I thought this was some sort of like labored Garfield pun that I didn't understand. No, no, it's such a straightforward guy. Okay, okay. Yeah. Like, if you know the song, it's a really quick gag to get. Yeah. But, like, the thing about Geldof is he waited until, like, there were images of starving children on TV, and I think he just thought, oh, whoa, that's my, that's my thing.

I need to get in on that, like, you know. But at least when he came in, he was unequivocal. Yes. He was calling the Israeli regime liars straight away. And I was like, okay, this guy's, you know, he's got a lot of credence. There's a certain type of person, certainly in Ireland and in Britain that will go, holy shit, Bob Geldof speaking about it. It must actually be a thing. Well, he was the founder of, what was it, live aid or what was that?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. In response to the famine in Africa and off air, Tyge, you had a great line about this about what might have motivated him. to finally speak up, yeah? What was it? I think I just, did I just deliver that line? Oh, I was, I'm so sorry. I was waiting to say something about life. I was so excited to get to your line that I didn't actually hear you say your line.

Boy, if that doesn't capture my flaws as a podcaster, nothing does. Like, I tried to slip it in seamlessly, you know, as if it wasn't pre-planned. Oh, fuck. But let's just go back and do the whole thing again. No, no, no, no. We're leaving that in, Adam. We're leaving that in. Please leave that in and double it.

Off air, Tyge, you had a great line about this about what might have motivated him to finally speak up, yeah? What was it? I think I just, did I just deliver that line? The idea of somebody, like, being silent, you know, for however many months, 22 months, 20 months, whatever. like if you come out if you break your silence with an unequivocal statement to me uh like that is wonderful it's great it's it's there's very few instances in which i don't give someone credit and and one of the instances uh is if you have been doing hesbarra the entire time and then you want to like okay i'll give you a little bit on the starvation like fuck you forever if you've worked

If you've worked for, you know, 20 plus months to stop people from seeing this as a genocide, then Ida, I, then fuck you forever. If you've gone to the trouble of changing the lyrics to some of your most, one of your most famous songs to in concert memorialize the victims of October 7th and fetishize the young, you know, party goers at the Nova Festival. Do we have that, Matt? Yes, we do. We do. Like, so before we get into the statement, this is what Bono said. This is October 9th, uh, at 2020, and he said this at a concert that I think we need to parse.

What's happened in Israel and Gaza, a song about... This is in Las Vegas. Of course it is. Oh, I guess it is. I just said that is a humble brag as well. I was gigging in Las Vegas at the time, like, that's going to make you really likable, buddy. Yeah, was he in the dome?

This probably was the dome show, the sphere. Yeah, the sphere. That's what it is. What's happened in Israel and Gaza, a song about non-violence seems somewhat ridiculous, even laughable, but our prayers have always been for peace. Not that part, it's ridiculous, buddy.

And for non-violence. So I just want to start with talking about that statement that he makes up top. Like in light of what is happening, you know, in Israel and in Gaza, a song about nonviolence seems ridiculous. It actually seems the most not ridiculous. It seems like perfect time. It seems like exactly what you should be doing. The idea that you have to, like, you're making a statement, but you're like, well, I need to do a quick preface.

I need to preface this song about... I need to qualify this statement about this song about nonviolence being the answer with a statement about how like, well, obviously nonviolence isn't the answer right now. Like if he was going to suggest a song about amping up the violence, I mean, that would be a little bit ridiculous right now. I would totally understand if it was like, obviously, it's a bit laughable for me to do a song being like, yay, kill, kill, kill. But I'm going to do it anyway. I'm going to do it anyway. Instead, he's like neutering his own statement and song about nonviolence by being essentially like giving consent to the idea that violence is indeed necessary in this moment, which is truly like, that is a disgusting.

thing to do. It really is. Yes. But our hearts and our anger you know where that's pointed. Our hearts and our anger, we know where that's pointed. I would like to hear you

say it. Like, because you're doing a song about nonviolence. Yeah. And you're like, just so you know. Pointing your heart somewhere like, get your heart out of my face, Bono, will you? The subtext of this song is going to be about how angry I am.

In the name of love, let's bomb those civilians. Yeah, exactly. So sing with us. And those beautiful kids are that. Those sexy little beautiful little. Yes. in the concentration just outside the concentration camp kids and here's the thing about that like it's October 9th I don't fault anyone for uh starting their concert off with being like you know

there was a act of terror that happened to these poor kids at a music festival it's October 9th that's a normal level of political awareness yes that's a completely normal level of political awareness. What I hate is... Two days after September 11th, some, you know... Exactly. Our love to America would have been standard. I'm not saying I would have said that, but... But to me, it's Bono doing the thing that I forget who it was. Forgive me for any country fans out there who are going to yell at me

because I got it wrong, but like Tim McGrath or something, doing a song talking about, we'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way. Basically, like, Bono is doing the country song version. Like, this is... I can't wait. that song. That's amazing. Yeah.

Look, we need to sing this song about nonviolence. But we all know that we're hoping that the gazans get what's coming to them. Yes. Why did they vote for Hamas? Courtesy of the white, white and blue. Some black and tans are okay. Nice. Nice reference.

Yeah, I got a reference. I've seen some TV shows All right Yeah Early morning October 7 Oh yoke The sun is rising

In the desert sky Stars of David They took your life But they could not Take your pride All right Hold on, hold on hold on I kind of like that lyric.

Stars of David took your life. If you make that a complete sentence, you're talking about literally, the Hannibal directives? Well, that too. But if you want to know whose lives the Star of David has taken, like look at the people, the 60,000

or more people who've been obliterated by tanks, missiles, airplanes with the Star of David. Yes. Yeah. I don't, I don't think that's what he was saying, but it's nice to pretend. Stars of David. And as an artist, it's a pretty, it's a pretty big step to kind of, you know, take one of your songs and change the lyrics.

Like that's a massive gesture of an iconic globally known song. I mean, you're definitely kind of pitching your tents on one side when you do that. Yes, surely like. A hundred percent. And the song's about Martin Luther King, right? Is it? I don't actually pride in the name of love. Is he singing pride in the name of love? Is that what song this is?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. So that song is about Martin Luther King. Yeah. Oh, my God. Who said that riots are the language of the unheard. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

And I would say that that extract, no matter what Martin Luther King said about Israel, Martin Luther King died before 19, I guess he died in 1968, but he never. Right. Well, and his, he started changing his tune around that time as well. About foreign policy matters worldwide. Mm-hmm. But if riots are the language of the unheard, then what are incursions into occupied land from with, from, from, from, what are rebellions? What are, what are, what are, what are, what are insurrections, you know, what it's, what are slave revolts. Right, exactly. And let's hear.

Yeah. All right, that's all I can take. Could not take your Jewish pride. Yes, yes, which is certainly what Hamas was doing. Maybe he meant they cannot take your pride parades. Oh, yeah. That's true. That's what they were trying to do.

That's almost certainly what he meant. Honestly, though, that is part of it. That is pride in the name of war. So that, you know, statement obviously got a lot of play from, of course, the Hezbaris, but also from, you know, activists uh palest Palestine solidarity people um as being like again like tone deaf and gross and and whatnot um but i again have always been of the mind because i guess i'm not a huge you two fan uh for me it was radio like us too you don't like the two of us oh i don't like you too

there's something about you know it's like a jewish and an irish too many yeah it's a shit joke It's a setup to a shit joke. Yeah, exactly. You walk into a bar and yada, yada, yada, yada, something happens racist. But the, like, for me, it was Radiohead, where I was, like, the very noticeable silence because I'm such a huge Radiohead fan. And people were saying the same thing about Bono, and I was like, yeah, that's probably weird, too, if you're a big, you know, Bono guy.

But even so, October 9th, 2023, trying to give space for people, you know, if you haven't said anything or you said something immediately after and you have a statement now that you want to put out and clarify, that is okay, that is encouraged. The problem is the statement has to be based in reality and it has to be unequivocal. and it can't do the thing where it exists in both dustbin of history and brave, you know, text territory, right? And it can't center you. Like, you cannot, like, you have, there's a, there's a certain skill to it, there's a certain grace to it saying, I know you guys want me to say something. I'm going to say something without making it all about me. Like, I'm not the lead character in this genocide. Right, exactly.

You know, he somehow managed to kind of make the, I mean, the first paragraph is just, look, I've done a lot of stuff for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for. Africa as well. Yeah, first of all. Yeah, first and foremost, I'm good. All right. So. I am Africa as the song. Like I've started in Africa.

You want me to start the Middle East out now? We've got a fucking new album on the way, guys. Yes. So on Gaza. And, Daniel, I'm going to ask you to read this. Oh, yes. I'll forego the accent. No, you will not, sir.

You will not. Well, we're doing accents that I'm going to read. on on Gaza everyone has long been horrified by what is unfolding in Gaza but the blocking of humanitarian aid and now plans for a military takeover of Gaza City has taken the conflict

to uncharted territory somewhat charted certainly charted out in advance I mean it's been you know maybe it's uncharred territory it's certainly been charted it's been telegraphed from moment to moment it was charted on October 8th

yes Yeah. We are not experts in the politics of the region, but we want our audience to know where we each stand. Okay, pause for a second. Not being experts in the politics of regions has never stopped you before. You went to the fucking subway station in Kiev. That's right.

And play, you know, in unequivocal solidarity with NATO's favorite victims, the Ukrainians. Yes, yes. You know, like anything that forwards NATO CIA foreign policy objectives, you have no problem fast-tracking your advocacy way past the queue of your fucking non-expertise. Right. He's the most famous meddler in geopolitics in the history of music. Yeah, that's right. Like, bar no one, like, but somehow, like, the middleist is obscured itself to him.

It's not, it's not our place to say anything, and that's why we need to speak up. Yeah. I love that this one is the particularly complicated one. Everything else is like, well, no, I mean, I don't know. We got a, we kind of got a guy who tells us, you know, at the State Department, what stuff to do. Yeah. All right. That's the, that's the introductory thesis statement.

And here's Bono. apart from the attack on the Nova Music Festival in October 7th, which felt like it happened while you two were on stage at Spira Lovipin. What the fuck? Wait, is that an actual sentence? Yeah. Wait, what do you mean? It felt like it happened.

I think they were doing a residency there, so maybe it, but what do you mean it felt like it happened while we were on stage? Are you saying that night, like, on October 7th, you were doing a show and you're like, God, I kind of feel like I'm being killed. by Hamas. What do you mean? It felt like it happened while you tour on stage.

If I was at a YouTube hostage? Yeah, exactly. If I was at a YouTube concert in Las Vegas, I would be looking to the skies. Where are the paragliders to come in and disrupt this shit?

Well, any place to do it, it would be the sphere. They are fully spared off. You could actually have video of parallel. That would be a fun thing you do. So apart from that attack, which felt like it happened while I was on stage. Oh, I see.

He's referencing the video that we just played. That's what he's saying. Apart from the time where I did mention this Nova Music Festival thing. And I only did because I felt like I was there, man. He was in it. He was actually being attacked. While you're being attacked, it's a great time to take out your note pad and rewrite the lyrics to one of your most famous.

I have generally tried to stay out of the politics of the Middle East. This was not humility. Oh, we know. No, no, we, obviously it was not humility. Humility is not in your discography. Yes, yes. More uncertainty in the face of obvious complexity. Well, yeah, it is a complex.

I mean, it's like something's happening that might affect this bank deal that he is going on. Bank deals are notoriously complex. There's a lot of paperwork. You think he has time for that paperwork? He's Bono. He's on stage at the Sphere in Las Vegas. He's not Larry. Larry's got nothing but time.

He gets a call while he's on stage from his Israeli accountant. It's very complicated. Don't say anything. They are tax implications. I have over recent months written about the war in Gaza and speaking about in the Atlantic. Oh. Okay. Oh, that neutral.

We love that magazine. place that that that definitely honors complexity in this topic where the editor-in-chief is Jeffrey Goldberg who took a vacation to go torture Palestinians at the Ketsioch prison Yeah, in which their token Palestinian like Journalist or Abdel Fuad Khatibu. Yes, specifically laid the groundwork for the murder and smearing of Anas Al-Shahis.

Yes, yeah, so fun. And spoken about it in the Observer, but I circled the subject. What's he mean by that? What does he mean by a circle of the subject? He means I spoke, I spoke circuitously. I spoke around the bush. But why did he do that?

Like, there's no explanation as to why he would do that. Like, that's, that's an interesting offering to what's like. But why did you do that? Yeah, I mean, because he's, because it was so complicated. I've been concertedly cowardly up until that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that was the right call. Yeah, he is basically saying, as you know, I've, uh, I know I'm in,

notorious coward yeah i'm a notorious coward i've been uh very scaled uh and uh drinking a lot of milk out of a bottle let just say sort of uh you know you know how i be it's also complex it's also complex uh that explains why his his comments are so formulaic am i right uh as a co-founder of the one campaign, which tackles AIDS and extreme poverty in Africa. I love the idea of tackling AIDS. Like a rugby player. We're in the

scrum trying to figure out how to beat AIDS. Let's smash AIDS to the ground. Yeah, it's right. I felt my experience should be on the catastrophes facing that work. You mean my attention. This is bad writing. He's just choosing the wrong words.

I felt my experience should be on the catastrophes facing that work and that part of the world. The hemorrhaging of human life in Sudan or Ethiopia hardly makes the news. Sudan alone is beyond comprehension with a civil war that has left 150,000 dead and 2 million people facing famine. Well, if Ukraine is NATO's favorite, if the Ukrainians are NATO's favorite victims, then the Sudanese, the South Sudanese, especially in recent weeks since starvation in Gaza has been making the news, breaking the sound barrier, are Hezbarist's favorite victims, the Sudanese.

Yeah, it's just a constant what aboutism. You know, it's just like, you know, why don't you guys talk about something else? Exactly, exactly. This is a talking point, isn't it? Like, this is the kind of stuff that we all get online where someone go, oh, you never mentioned any of the other genocides. Why are you getting involved in our genocide?

We want to do our genocide quietly in the corner. Yeah, I do love the, speaking of that. I love the argument. There's other genocides. Yeah. And that's all you need to say, but he spends two fucking paragraphs. circling the subject, right? Yes, yes.

He's doing the full rounds. It's just an all-skate like around the fucking roller rink. Yeah. And that was before the dismantling of US aid in March and the gutting of PEPFAR, life-saving programs for the poorest of the poor that one has fought for decades to protect,

the cuts to which will likely lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children over the next few years. This motherfucker, including footnotes in this thing? Yeah, oh yeah, there's footnotes, though. And also, let's be honest, Let's, let's be fucking clear.

What he's saying there is, don't get your knickers in a twist about all the dead gazz and children. All right. That's what he's saying. He's saying, look, I'm dealing with all these other dead children over here. I'm busy. I'm busy. Like, you guys are talking about, have you heard of all the dead children elsewhere?

Like, it's really disingenuous as well, you know? Yeah, because it's acting like what the ask is. And a lot of people who make these kinds of statements have been doing this. It's asking, like, what the ask of these celebrities is, could you please dedicate all your time and resources to solving the problem when it's not

when what the ask has always been is hey you're weirdly silent about this what do you think are you against it do you have some sort of statement unequivocal statement of support for the Palestinian people and like

it's just weird that you haven't said anything literally especially when you are the most geopolitically involved musician ever. People don't put those demands on people that generally don't stick their o'er in. But if you've made your life's work to stick your o'er in to geopolitics, it's going to be noticed that you haven't said anything for two years, like, you fucking slime bag. Well, at least he recognizes in the next sentence, but, but ellipsis,

and by the way, that's the fourth ellipsis on this first page. You know, people get annoyed when people overuse m-dash, I use m-dashes all the time when I write. It's my favorite punctuation. I've never seen so many fucking trailing off punctuations. But, but, but, it just diffuses any sense of, well, it's certainly not punctual. But the punctuation is not definitive. It's not declarative.

For a band with so many ellipsies, one of them is going to get cut by the edge. That's clever. I honestly think that's clever. Adam doesn't miss. There is no higher. to such things he shrugs and says to you know i guess i can't avoid talking about i guess in the end all you got me you're sort of equal you got me you got me let's do it all right gaza well first of all october's up funny we get to bono on gaza on page two like yeah yeah the images of starving

children on the gaza strip brought me back to a working trip to a food station in ethiopia my wife Ali and I made 40 years ago next month following U2's participation at live aid 1985 another man made famine okay I appreciate that acknowledge I appreciate that as well to witness chronic malnutrition up close would make it personal for any family especially it affects as it affects children because when the loss of non-combatant life en masse by which he means people who aren't men between the ages of 16 and 50 yeah yeah uh appears so calculated elipsis, especially the deaths of children, comma, then evil is not a hyperbolic adjective, ellipsis. In the sacred text of Jew, Christian, and Muslim, it is an evil that

must be resisted. Okay. In the sacred text of Jew, Christian, Muslim, is there any evil that doesn't, it shouldn't be resisted? Yeah. That's okay. Again, I don't think we need to set this up as a grunt breaking claim. Right. But I think kind of what he's saying, he's suggesting, that in the sacred text of Jew, Christian, and Muslim bombing entire neighborhoods and flattening entire swaths of highly concentrated

that's one of those venal sins, you know? Right. Well, that's not a cardinal one. Right, yeah. But we can all agree, you know, in the sacred text of Jew that this is bad in some way. And I like that. Jesus Christ. Look where he

goes next. Oh, I know. The rape murder and abduction of Israelis at the Nova Music Festival was evil. Well, that got a paragraph of its own, guys. That little beauty, that demanded a whole paragraph all by itself. I just want to point out so far, what we've gotten about the starving children in Gaza is that they conjured a memory for him of other starving children. It's effectively, I've seen it before. You see those starving kids?

I've seen it before. I've seen it before. That reminds me of a time where I saw these other starving kids. Anyways, October 7th. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait, wait, wait. Bragging with someone going,

oh man, I was not starving kids when you were playing with your toys. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. Look, they're being starved, and that means that evil is not hyperbolic. Speaking of evil, October 7th, and the Nova Music Festival, which really gets my goat.

Yeah. On that awful Saturday night slash Sunday morning of October 7th and 8th, 23. I wasn't thinking about politics. On stage in the Nevada desert, I just couldn't help but express the pain everyone in the room was feeling and is still feeling for other music lovers and fans like us. Yeah, if there's one thing we know about Palestinians is they don't give a shit about music. Oh, they hate it. That's why they shot up to festivals because they were like, music. That's why they deserve to die because they notoriously hate you too. Yes.

To Bono, like Palestinians are just like the townsfolk in the movie Footloose, who are just like, there will be no dancing. That's a lovely reference. Yeah, and it's still feeling for other music lovers and fans like us, like us, right? When it comes to Palestinians, it's the Kendrick Lamar doctrine, they not like us. Hiding under a stage in Kibbutz Reim then butchered to set a diabolical. trap for Israel. It's a trap. It's a trap. And get a war going

that might just redraw the map from the river to the sea. What the fucking you mean in accordance with Le Kud's charter? Yeah. This is truly insane to commit this to writing. What a disgusting

like just profoundly openly racist sentence as well. Here's what resistance fighters do in Gaza. Yes. They They set, it wasn't that like some atrocious article by one of the Zionists, where it was basically saying they've set Israel this kind of genocide trap. This is, this has been something that they've been saying for a while now, which is that, yeah, essentially that the fault of any genocide,

should there be one, which there isn't. But if there was, it's Hamas's fault because they set the trap by doing it. And it's just so disgusting. It gets worse. A gamble Hamas' leadership were willing to play with the lives of two million Palestinians. Okay, someday in some room with the right people there, I would be willing to listen carefully to a conversation between Palestinians about the ethics and morality of Hamas's and the other groups, plans for that day, the way it was executed, you know, It, it, it, it, it, there is a conundrum there and there were predictable consequences. Fine.

Okay. But not Bono and not like this. Yeah. And not, certainly not with the framing that they set a diabolical trap. Yes. Yeah. As if it is, uh, as, as Israel's, yeah. Right.

Well, I mean, as if, um, the, um, the impetus is on the Palestinians to us, uh, you, you know, to stop their own genocide. Yes, yes, yes. There's no agency for the Israeli government, the Israeli people, the Israeli army. Like, for them, it was like, well, obviously we have no choice but the genocide. You set this trap. You knew we would kill all of you, you fuckers. And as if the genocide in some much slower form wasn't already fucking happening.

Right. And isn't how Israel came to be. And it sets Israel up as kind of morally good. The only way that they're being so bad now is, because they fell into the diabolical, literally diabolical trap. Like, I'm saying diabolical trap for satirical purposes, but it's actually included in this fucking word salad. And also, this guy began this by saying,

I'm no expert on the Middle East, and he's now got a deep understanding of the nuances of the Palestinian resistance psyche. Yes, I mean, it is... And Israel's tragic flaw. Yeah, this is... Yes, it's shit hamlet. It's shit hamlet.

It's Edipus, you know? Yes, exactly. I mean, yeah, this is just... the excuse of uh you know every single uh domestic violence perpetrator i was just going to say yeah mommy made me do it yeah exactly exactly ugh uh to sow the seeds for a global intifada that you two had glimpsed at work in paris during the batter clan attack in 2015 what the fuck was the batta clan attack in 2015 do you know what that is oh yeah yeah yeah it was an It was an ISIS terrorist attack.

What the fuck does that have to do with Intifada? It's because they're Arab. This is like- What is it got to do with you two? You two was not at the Bataklan. It was the Eagles of Death Metal, I believe is the name of the band. It was like sort of Queens of the Stone Age offshoot band who were at the Bataklan. And there was this brutal ISIS attack in which they like gun down a bunch of people.

Uh, number one, uh, ISIS, not the same as, uh, Hamas, as Hezbollah, as, uh, any of these, like, uh, the resistance fighters and resistance movements within Palestine. And also, incredibly fucking racist, incredibly fucking, Lindsay, Lindsey, Lindsey Graham standards, lazy Islamophobia, like, not, not somebody who's supposed to be, oh, lads, this is way worse on a second read. Why are you doing this to me? I know. I know. This is. I skimmed this when I first saw it, and I remember just kind of going, yeah, yeah, yeah, this is what I expected, you know, garbage, garbage. But just like, I missed this. This is why we say I ain't reading all that, because when you read all that, it hurts.

It does hurt. Genuinely, he's so angry, like, you know, for an Irish man to write this, like, anyway, yeah, go on. Yeah, but only if Israel's trap leaders fell for this trap that Hamas set for them, those bumbling, innocent fools. Oh, my God. Yahyazinwar didn't mind if he lost the battle or even the war if he could destroy Israel as a moral as well as an economic force. Get that man's name out of your dirty mouth funnels. Seriously. Oh my God.

Yeah. Let's all take a moment actually. I need I need someone to take the video of Yaya Sinwar throwing the stick with his one arm and change it into him throwing a CD of the Joshua tree. Yeah, right. Yeah, just throwing it out the window. Throwing his iPod. Throwing his iPod after you, too.

He had forced the album onto it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I would dismantle and a top of the wall. Yeah, yeah, Sunoir. Just throws his iPod going. Cotorce doesn't come after Trace, you idiot.

I never asked to download it. Yeah. I just wanted a goddamn iPod. That's what broke him. That's what actually finally broke him. Yeah. You know what? I'm globalizing this interfa.

That's when he realized what the I stood for. The fact that he is doing the fucking globalized the intifada smear, like, it's so fucking infuriating because that is only, to me, I'm like, there's no fucking way that he is like that uninformed. To me,

that is an incredibly deliberate form of him doing Hasbara. What I would say, guys, He's a very smart guy. He might be, like, blinded by his own ego and drunk on the smell of his own farts, but he's razor sharp. He knows, like, this is written, or I would say certainly edited by somebody close to him from the Israeli bank side, like, without a shadow of a doubt.

It's framed, like, with Hasbara, as you guys know. Yes, it's disgusting. It's disgusting. What does it mean to destroy Israel as a moral force? What outs? But just think about that for a second. Let's assume that Israel was the most moral country in the world or something, or had some moral standing whatsoever, or the country's period, are moral forces, you know, like moral forces that have rights to exist. I'm sorry, but what does it mean, go ahead.

You know, well, what he's doing there is essentially he is mourning Hamas, putting Israel in the position of being the unequivocal bad guy in the eyes of the world, as opposed to the secret behind closed doors bad guy that they've been. for their entire existence. But my point is that moral forces are not destroyed by other people's actions. They're destroyed by doing immoral things. Right, 100%. So even if Israel was this moral force and they chose the route they've taken, that's what would destroy them as a moral force, putting aside the fact that they're one of the most immoral forces on the planet.

Yes. Yes, yes, good point, yeah. Yeah, I mean, but to me, I like, I see this. a lot in terms of people, honestly, it's like, please go to therapy, this is what I tell anyone who tells me this, which is their, their image of Israel is being, you know, destroyed by the actions of Israel and they can't put their, you know, their image with the reality, you know, these things, they don't add up. They can't square the circle. When was Israel kind of cutesy in place. I mean, it's weird for, it is weird for Bono to say that. I understand why,

like, you know, my older relatives say that. I get it because they are coming from a different context, you know, where they can look at Israel as like something, you know, amazing, a miracle that happened to us after the Holocaust, you know. They can buy into that, Hasbara, and I, I truly don't fault them. The problem is, is like, Bono, why are you doing the, you know, 70-year-old man at the gym Hasbara. At the JCC gym. Yeah, yeah. In the JCC sauna. Because that's kind of what he is

now, guys. Like, he's pretty much that guy. He's like in terms of age, range and kind of political ideology. You're right. It is just that he's old. When I saw the attack at the Nova Festival, it really got me in my kishkas. Yeah, exactly. Oi, I was schvitsen. Over the next months,

as Israel's revenge for the Hamas attacks appeared more and more disproportionate and disinterested in the equally innocent civilian lives in Gaza as opposed to at first when they seemed so interested. I felt as nauseous as everyone but reminded myself

Hamas had deliberately positioned themselves under civilian targets having tunneled their way from school to mosque to hospital. So I reminded myself of everything that my handlers were telling me. No, I mean, remind myself of the press release have just been saying.

Yeah, I reminded myself the talking point. No, but like, it's straight up is just like, I get, you're taking us through your, like, internal process of denial, and that's not for me. That's for, that's for us, a mental health professional that you really trust. I get that. It must have been really hard for you to not constantly look at your, you know, APEC notes or whatever, but bro,

I don't want to hear it. When did a just war to defend the country turn into an unjust land grab? The country is an unjust land grab, you fucking idiot. I was just going to say, which country are you talking about? When? Which land grab are you talking about? Yeah. I hoped Israel.

Why did this happen? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What the hell? I turned my back for 22 months. I look again. All of a sudden, it seems like they're, it seems like they want a light. You guys did a greater Israel. What?

What are you talking about? I hoped Israel would return to reason. I was making excuses for a people seared and shaped, seared like fine sashimi by the experience of Holocaust, who understood, more ellipsis, who understood the threat of extermination is not simply a fear but a fact. Dot, dot, dot. I reread Hamas's charter of 1988.

footnote, but I, but crucially he didn't reread Hamas's charter of 2017. No, he didn't. He just went for the old one with the old Jewish stuff like yeah. It's an evil read. Article 7. I love that. I love that.

You just like, you know, I just I felt so awful watching this happen that I had to reread the Hamas charter in order to make me feel better about all the dead kids. I had to read the out of day. Yeah. No. Yeah, I know. I got to read the

the old one to go back to the classics i'm no expert on the middle east but give me that outdated hammas charter i read the other he prefers their old shit well i feel the same way but you're your you're fucking discography yeah yeah i'm more of an old school hamas charter guy hamas's early stuff is sick yeah he's just a hipster for hamas their indie label releases yes their first ep oh yes hamas the subpop years i i like i it is insane to me that he's like he read the 88 shorter do you think he read the 2017

he's like this isn't making me feel any better this makes no sense this is making me feel worse this is a diabolical trap for my nuanced compassion can you get me the one that's with the Jew stuff so I can really

feel better about the whole genocide thing but that's got to be on the sound I know. I got to add. But you do it well. But I also understand that Hamas are not the Palestinian people, ellipsis.

It's like a big sigh every time he does that. The ellipsis is just, he wants the profound sentence he just wrote to sink in, which is just so fucking annoying. It's deeply shit writing is that, isn't it? Like, it's really bad. People who have for decades endured and continued to endure marginalization. Okay, fuck off. Fuck off with this word.

They love some marginalization. Big fucking mass murdered, you big prick. I love starting with marginalization. Yeah. A people who have for decades endured and continue to endure microaggression. Macroaggressions. Impostal.

Occasionally massive aggression. Yeah. Oppression, occupation, and the systemic stealing of the land that is rightfully theirs. That sentence is in completely the reverse order. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it also puts your shock at this sudden land grab. It belies it.

Like, if that's what they, if the systematic stealing of the land that is rightfully theirs is their lot in life, then why are you surprised that Israel is using the pretext of their revenge against Hamas for another land grab? Given our own, oh, Tyg, he knows his history, he knows his people. given our own historic experience of oppression and occupation, not to mention the marginalization of my band. It's little wonder that so many people here in Ireland have campaigned for decades for justice for the Palestinian people. Not me, mind you, not me.

Yeah, but so many. I like the Israeli people myself, but, you know. The marginalization of our band to the adult contemporary section of Tower Records. We should be in punk. or post-punk, at the very least. Yeah. Shoe gaze. Is that it?

Please tell me that's it. We know Hamas are using starvation as a weapon in the war. But now, so too is Israel. And I feel revulsion for the moral failure. Really? Because you prefaced it so much to the degree at which the revulsion still seems to be on Hamas. my sweet lord you know like at this point you have the idea that you think you can do a statement that expresses any kind of like disgust at this point is ridiculous to me you have spent the

entire time forgiving Israel for any atrocities they may have committed because hamas set the trap for them fucking disgraceful shit yeah yeah it's it's it's actually quite shocking guys. I just realized that I just skimmed through this. Like, this is actually, it's beyond, it's ridiculous, but it's also just really deeply racist. Yes, incredibly, incredibly. Yeah, I mean, there's more here, you know. The government of Israel is not the nation of Israel.

Okay, well, if by that, if by nation of Israel, you mean it in the way that Tucker Carlson nailed Ted Cruz for misusing, which is to say the biblical nation of Israel. the people, whatever, who knows if Matt and I are actual descendants of those or if we're just converted Khazars, I don't know, I'm not weighing in on it. Twitter tells me I'm not really a Jew and who am I to rule on that? My dick got cut off, so that that's my qualification. I love the Khazar theory stuff because I'm always like, okay, I don't care. Even if that were real and not fake, it's just like, fine, whatever. Stop DMing me. Stop calling me a kike.

It's very easy. But if he means the government of Israel, the government of the state of Israel is not the people of the state of Israel, fuck you, you're wrong. I mean, to me, it's not the culture of Israel. Fuck you, you're wrong. To me, it's like if you want to make that argument, if you want to do the thing where it's like, you know,

and you, the way you do it is by also saying, and also the Hamas are not the people of Palestine, yada yada yada yada like it's not that i truly give a shit if you want to make the milk toast argument in that sense if you want to hold out some hope that you know the israeli people are all just prisoners of their government i personally don't care my problem is is that okay so now we have eliminated the is all the entire israeli people as being culprits of this um most of the Sounds like most of the government and the soldiers. At this point, you are saying, this is a Hamas trap.

Also, the people don't want it. Also, the only person who wants it is who? Who? Who's doing it then? It's Benjamin Netanyahu. And that government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu today, deserves our categorical and unequivocal condemnation. I can't believe you.

Equivocating is all you do. Why didn't you do that business? It deserves it. wanted you to do like i'm not going to give it but it deserves it there is no justification except for all the ones except for the other from other slide now i'm having a hard time not reading this in a bernie sanders accent uh for the brutality he and his far right government have inflicted on the palestinian people a lot if only those right wing centrist's were in power they'd be doing exactly the same thing.

Yes, yes, yeah. Dot, dot, dot, in Gaza, ellipsis, in the West Bank. And not just since October 7th, well before it, too, ellipsis, through the level of depravity and lawlessness, though the level of depravity and lawlessness, we are seeing now, feels like uncharted territory once more.

This is terrible writing. Shockin, shocking. That's why I think he probably did write it himself, actually, but he used, like, some bullet points from his handlers, he called this guy sharp as a knife? I mean, he's, he's, I think, he's intelligent or he's he's canny. Kind of like canny. Yeah, maybe that's a good way.

I think he's smarter. He's also smarter than he's letting on too. I think this is all fucking, like, this is another, I don't know, I'm just a big dumb guy, but I do know that, you know, murder bad. Oh my God, but speaking of Sharp, look at the two sentences

from now. Curiously, those who say these reports are not true, are not demanding access for journalists and seem deaf to the revealing rhetoric. Okay, true. Examples that sharpened my pen include you can't sharpen up I just kind of hate him like I just absolutely hate him

First of all This is if You think this is a sharp statement And second of all I guess if you were to say sharpened my pencil It would sound like you're saying a boner It really puts ink in his pencil Yeah

It puts ink in his pencil Also does sound like a bone Everything sounds like a boner. All right, fine. Especially when your name's Bono. Whoa. Hey, a bono. Hello.

Yes. Israel's hair. It really engorges my keyboard. Yeah. Okay, blah, blah, blah. We don't need to read this. Now he's footnoting genocide statements. Yeah, what century are you in?

I also love. He was just like, yeah, the far right government has inflicted on the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank. And not just since October 7th, but before it. Well, before. this sentence, you were just like, what is this? What's happening? He's delving into footnotes.

I'm an absolute expert. Jesus Christ. Read your previous sentences before being like unequivocal. Oh, my God. Oh, there's some great stuff coming up. I hope we don't run out of time. No, keep on. Keep going.

Is the world not done with this far, far, right thinking? We know where it ends. World War, millennial. millennialism? What the fuck? Melanarianism. Melanarianism. I don't think I know that word, but it sounds,

it's probably smart. See, I told you guys, he's smart. Yeah, he's sharp. Might the world deserve to know where this once promising, bright-minded, democratic nation is headed unless there is a dramatic change, of course. Oh, my God.

We deserve a sit down and be like, excuse me, so where is this heading? Where's this once bright nation-headed? We need to have a meeting with the stakeholders. Parenteat your meeting. Is what is once an oasis of innovation and free thinking now in hawk to a fundamentalism as blunt as a machete? Okay. Oh, yours is just a stupid bitch of a man. Silly little bitch of a man.

Are Israelis really ready to let Benjamin Enyao do to Israel what its enemies failed to achieve over the last 77 years and disappear it from membership in a community of nations built around even a flawed decency? I'm sorry, but like, okay, so just so we're clear, are the Israeli people ready to let Beebe do what its enemies have failed to achieve over the last 77 years? just to be clear you think that the Israeli people are all looking at Benjamin Netanyahu and being like well you know the problem here is that

he's trying to destroy Israel that's that's what you think like the idea as if there's no agency for the Israeli people as if he has not been in power for fucking since I went on birthright

the guy's whole life like yeah yeah yeah yeah Do you, like, I love Bono being like, Israelis, do you even know who this guy is? This fucking BB guy? He's a fucking secret Hamas guy. He's an operative. Are you really ready to let him destroy you? Their heads are just floating in the wind. They know what's going on.

Bono, like, he doesn't mind anything with the Middle East, but he's got to go in and just let them know. You got to let the Israeli people know, hey. A better, a better question would be. Are Israelis really ready to let Benjamin Netanyahu do to Israel what Adolf Hitler did to Germany? Right. I mean, that's straight out. The answer is, yes, that's what they voted for. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And disappeared from membership. I love it. It's like, wait, so just so we're clear, the biggest calamity, the consequence of all this that you can even imagine is that it'll be disappeared from membership in the community of nations. not that it won't be a nation but that it'll be looked at as a bad guy it's like yeah it's a bad guy what do you want

as someone who has long believed in Israel's right to exist and supported a two-state solution I want to make clear to anyone who cares to listen our band's condemnation of Netanyahu's immoral actions and join all who have called for a cessation of hostilities

on both sides Okay. Okay. Oh, my God. Something to get excited about. I've looked at genocide from both sides now. If not Irish voices, please, please, please stop and listen to Jewish ones. Hey, okay. It's us.

We're next. First, the Irish, then the Jews. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Then maybe the Ukrainians. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You should have got a reference. You should have got a call out here. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Listen to the Bad Heads Barra podcast. Yeah. He's got a few Jews in. mind from the high-mindedness of Rabbi Sharon Bruce, Brous, to the tearful comedy of the Grody Patinkin family. I mean, I love Patinkin. Yeah, many Patinkin, good, a little Jew-centric, but that's, I think, strategic. Well, I also think that's the point of him saying this.

Yeah. That's right. Who fear the damage to Judaism, as well as Israel's neighbors. Oh, okay. Palestinians are not neighbors. They're prisoners. Yes. Listen to the more than 100,000.

Israelis who this week in Tel Aviv, excuse me, that is incorrect, there were not a hundred thousand Israelis in Tel Aviv protesting. Yeah, yeah. I'm lucky if there were a thousand. Well, I don't be, would it be fair to say they're protesting to get the hostages back? Well, there have been new protests that have finally been cropping up of people in Israel, Israeli citizens who are protesting against the war, but it certainly was not 100,000. I mean, I don't know. I don't know the numbers, but that is, that's an insane thing. The numbers holding up pictures of Palestinian children are, again, they're low. They're sadly small, but there were 100,000 Israelis in Tel Aviv in 1982 protesting the Lebanon war.

And there was a moral component to that. There was, the horror of Sabra and Shatila, there was still a peace now contingent in Israel, never sufficiently pro-Palestinian, but certainly horrified. at massacres and foreign adventures. And people were prosecuted for that war, weren't they? The Prime Minister at the time, I think, who was prosecuted, I could be wrong?

Monach and Megan, I don't know that he was ever prosecuted. Megan, I just met him. Sorry, sometimes I just haven't said anything in a while. That's so true, and it's so unfair. It's so unfair, guys. My dream is for the two of you guys to be able to speak simultaneously and for me to still be able to understand everything that's being said. I mean, that's my boy who dream.

needs to pipe one of us into each earphone. Yeah, we harmonize. Bono. Bono to your face. Yeah. Oh, boy. Okay. So this is his last page. We're not going to be able to get to, I think, all of the other statements.

The edge is better. The edge is significantly sharper. Okay. I think we're all just here for Larry's, but like we can do. Yeah, I do want to read Larry's. I just want to point that up. Our band stands in solidarity with the people of Palestine who truly seek a path to peace and coexistence with Israel.

Almost the people. With Mahoud Abbas, with Abdul Fad Hatib, with son of Hamas, and with their rightful legitimate demand for statehood. We stand in solidarity with the remaining hostages and plead that someone rational negotiate their release. Could it be Marwan Barguti, who the former head of Mossad, Efraim Ali,

described as probably the most sane and most qualified person to lead the palestates? Where is he now, Bono? Do you want to mention where he is? where he is? Yeah. Where are you now? Would you like to free someone, maybe?

I mean, it's fucking, oh, it's so disgusting. He's got a lot of knowledge for somebody who doesn't have fucking jack shit knowledge of the Middle East. Yeah, I know. You know, he knows your names here. Wiser heads than mine will have a view. We know. But surely the hostages deserve a different approach and quick.

Point the sentence. We urge more good people in Israel to demand unfettered access by professionals. I'm sure he includes the Gaza humanitarian fund 100% foundation to deliver the critical care needed throughout Gaza and the West Bank that they best know how to distribute and to let the correct number of trucks through. The correct number. Well, just the one so that we can get back to the bare minimum calorie count of the past.

You know, like it will take more than 100 trucks a day to take seriously the need. More like 600. Okay, wait. Why did you? When Israel was a moral force, they imposed only a, quote, diet on the Palestinians of Gaza, not anorexia. Anorexia should be a choice, okay? It should be a self-made choice.

Let the Palestinians choose if they want to starve themselves today. Oh, man. I will take... A picturing Bono with a little spreadsheet, like, going through the trucks if they're coming in. Yeah, yeah. More like 600 trucks, but it'll have a side benefit. guys, the flooding of humanitarian aid will also undercut the black marketing

that has been happening to benefit Hamas, which even the IDF has debunked. The band is pledged to contribute our support by donating to medical aid for Palestinians. Good for you. I don't know medical aid for Palestinians. Is that a group?

Have we, has that been one of our sponsors? Probably, right? Or is it, I mean, listen, after the Gaza, a humanitarian foundation was created, which sounds suspiciously a lot, like one of the charities that we shout out every week. I now am like,

I'm going to look up that name to see what it is. They made their sound like it was a fucking Palestine Red Crescent Society, and it was not. Guys, that statement is absolutely gobb smacking. It is. My gob is thoroughly smacked. Thoroughly snacked.

Oh, Larry's so long. So then the edge has a decent one, you know. He's really pissed off, actually. Yeah. I say people can read the edges on their own. Maybe it's good. And, you know, just to finish up. Of course, the bass players is the shortest.

Yeah. Let's see. Oh, is Adam the bass player? Adam Clayton, I think so. Larry Mullen Jr. Well, guys, do you think the other guys wanted to do this? like, do you not think it's just Bono was in the fucking WhatsApp group going

guys I've written this word salad Yeah one of these guys is the Ed O'Brien of the band for sure Who's just like you know I know dog I just can't get Bono to stop taking money From an Israeli bank He just really wants this hotel

And double it and he'll pretty much Kill anybody to get it Larry says Ed O'Brien by the way With Irish lineage that's right the images of the Hamas Ladd massacre

of Israelis Oh you get to do it fuck off Well at least he's a bit speedier He's racing through the atrocity Footage of the Innocent music fans Being slaughtered

Pete and it's a Nova Music Festival We're hiring to watch Does it sound Am I? Yeah it's uncanny man It's lovely Yeah it's really nice

Thank you Nothing was achieved Except more misery For the For even at the hands of the mass and it's allies. So what did Hamas expect?

What happened when they committed Mosh murder and took all the hostages? What did you expect? What did you expect? Israel's response was expected. In the name of the father, I want me lucky charms.

We're going to shoot your da. And we tell you we're going to shoot your da, we're going to shoot your da, we're going to shoot your da. After those attacks, the total obliteration of Hamas was called for by Israel. Israel's response was expected. Oh, yeah, like total obliteration.

Like such easy-going language from a fucking drummer. Yeah. I know. This guy's writing in staccato. I love it. Amos, the obliteration of Hamas was called for by Israel and its allies and was expected. Double-kick drum genocidal.

What's the fucking? Where is he cooking this off? A ground war was expected. Aerial bombardment. And the destruction and destruction was. expected. Let's see, what's next? The indiscriminate decimation of most homes and hospitals

in Gaza with the majority of those killed being women and children was not expected. Wrong. And I wasn't expecting that. Oh, the meanest thing. Imposing famine was not expected. Israel moves in

mysterious ways. Yeah, I never saw that famine coming. Like, October 8th, we're putting a total siege on the place. Nothing's getting in like, whoa, where did this famine come from? What the hell? I was not, I was expecting you to starve them, but not for a famine to happen. It's difficult to comprehend how any civilized society

can think starving children is going to further any cause and be justified as an acceptable response to another horror. To state the obvious, starving innocent civilians is a weapon of wild. is inhumane and criminal. Whar! War! I don't know.

Where is the outrage from within Israel? Outside of a small, if increasingly vocal minority, where is the outrage from the diaspora? Okay, that's actual anti-Semitism. Listen, this is great. Listen, where is the outrage is kind of an incredible thing to ask? when you talk about all of the expected responses. Yes, yes.

If you go in with a total expected response of total obliteration and aerial bombardment and destruction, all expected. But then you're just like, wait, wait, wait, wait. But you did homes and hospitals. I didn't expect you to obliterate all. All that stuff. It's like, well, you see. Yeah. It's called, it's called a negotiation of consent here in which you gave them full consent

by saying like, well, we expect you to just go in and kill a lot of people. That is fully expected. Also, obliteration and decimation are not particularly discriminating activities. Right. Who the fuck obliterates strategically? Yeah. We got a surgical obliteration. A limited annihilation game.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Oh, my fucking God. Beyond some reluctant and muted acknowledgement of a famine inflicted nothing. Silence. The power to change this obscenity is in the hands of Israel. I undoubtedly support Israel's right to exist. And I also believe Palestinians deserve the same right in a state of their own. Separate but equal. silence. It sounds like as well

they're responding to the kind of culture and the discourse from about 18 months ago. Yes. Do you remember when like Israel's right to exist was the talking point like maybe about a year and a half ago and Larry's coming in hot on that now like he's like oh no I definitely think they should exist and you're just like

mate you're a drummer like you're just a drummer. A hundred percent. It is it is every both of the statements that we read and I haven't read the edges or Adams but I assume there's you know at least some

similarity between them but they all have the same thing in which they repeat sort of the prefaces that were required you know not long after October 7th for the last you know maybe a year and a half after October 7th this like expected condemnation of Hamas and condemnation of any violence Netanyahu and any violence that occurred on October 7th.

Just unexpected, you know, statement about the Israel's right to exist. And I'm sorry, but like, your silence is what we're talking about here, Larry. Like, you're talking about silence. This is you guys breaking the silence and coming in hot with the coldest fucking takes imaginable. This whole fucking statement should be renamed. where the streets have no shame. Yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah. But again, like, Larry has got no profile

as a meddler in geopolitics. It wasn't incumbent on Larry to say anything. In fact, nobody knows who Larry is. I didn't know there was a Larry. You know what's the guy. I still can't get over on Gaza by Bono, the Edge, Adam, and Larry. Larry's in for the light relief.

Like, this is a pretty dark stuff. It's me. And tonight, I knew the horse dances the waltz. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Featuring Larry. I think and Larry should be our episode. I love it. On War by Chris Hedges, forward by Larry.

Larry. To Larry. You're killing me, Larry. This is a very specific mattress store commercial in the Los Angeles area. For those of you who know sit and sleep, they will beat. anyone's advertised mattress price or your mattress is free. Oh, wow. We're doing adverts. Are we? Oh, no, but I just, some things stay in your head forever, including the tagline.

You're killing me, Larry. If we're ever going to cover Larry again, we need to get some Hank Kingsley quotes from the Larry Sanders show talking to Larry because he has some great. Oh, man. I mean, truly, it's funny, we prepared more for this episode, but then as the statement was happening, I was just like, no, this is it. This is a full episode. How do you not? I think it was worth it. I think it was worth it because it's,

you know, I'm repeating myself, but like, yeah, it's funny, it's hilarious, it's ridiculous, it's shameless.

But it's also like, he deserves to be really called out in it. Like, because he knows exactly what he's doing. And it's a kind of a framing of the Palestinians that you'd expect from the New York Post or, you know, really lazy,

deliberately racist. And it kind of stir, I think it's a stirring, you know like can we really trust them you know they're all kind of a bit terroristic like it's like oh real dated kind of racist shit

like from this not expert in the Middle East like you know well just to reiterate guys you know along with Connor McGregor like if Bono said he would like to run for president in Ireland he wouldn't get fucking anywhere near it

no yeah and I'm actually quite proud of us that way that we don't we don't have that same kind of glamour to celebrity that perhaps you get in North America or Britain or whatever. We're just like, oh, he's just a faking nuisance of a man. Like, you know, there's a phrase in Ireland actually from, which is

a pox. Bono was a pox. He's just, you know, he's almost like a curse. Like, he's a kind of a curse of a guy. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think that is, you know, the great thing that I've seen. I mean, just in terms of you talking about you know, Ireland and the Irish people is

like you see such a a distinct difference in terms of the Irish values and what Irish people tend to believe and what they're told to believe

and you know like you said earlier on you know I think a lot of people in America have the same kind of feeling with like it's hard to believe that with so many people who are against what's going on in Gaza that all of our leaders are, you know, speaking in a way that is completely out of touch.

I think it's actually surprising in Ireland, you know, and the truth of it is, is you guys are, even the Irish government, nowhere near as insane as what we've got going on over here. So it's, it is really great. We got to go. One other quick thing. great thing is like what's really shameful about it as well is that like if you listened to him I wonder would you think oh this is the Irish perspective like if you didn't really know much about Ireland because he just throw Ireland in a bit like you know it was like oh we know and like

this is the and and you would think from him I mean most human rights organizations you wouldn't have to be a mad lefty like most people would have kind of a brain and a soul would at least accept that it's an asymmetric right conflict right you know like every human rights organization, the UN know that it's an occupier and an occupy. Now, we can argue the toss about the degree of war crimes, but from Bono statement there, you would just assume

that it's two warring sides, and one of them is kind of very evil, and the other one has been lowered into a bit of us. It doesn't sound remotely Irish. It sounds like maybe an Irish, like, orphan who was adopted by Tony Blair. Okay, good. And sent to a, and sent to a NATO

preschool, you know? Well, I got to your last. sir can I have some more oh no now that was very skillful well thank you I got a skillful I got a skillful oh fucking final

10 out of 10 I'm like exhausted my brain was just going sweating as well there's a heat wave in Ireland our first heat wave in like 70 years we all better get we all better get tested for bono nucleosis oh alright don't try to let one up me

come on man I got it I got one Tyg, it is always a pleasure having you on this podcast. You are one of my favorite human beings ever. Where can people find you and where can people watch your new show? I'm all over the internet and all the usual places. YouTube initially for the show, but we hope, and I'm going to say it out now to put myself under pressure,

we're hoping to build our own platform. Like, fuck these guys. Fuck the YouTube's and all these people. I mean, like Medi Hassan Zito model is something that we're definitely look at. If we can try and get some funding to try and create our own model, do our own thing and not be depending on any of these

blood-sucking complicit assholes so I'd say for the season one is going to be on the YouTube going forward if we get funding it'll be all over the place

and we've got like great guests and you guys are going to be in season two come to Ireland we're going to tour let's do it we're going to do it people in Ireland

you're on notice we're going to be coming there don't know when but we're going to I'm sure I'm sure the good people of Ireland will have one or two notes for both

you guys' impressions. I don't think, I think they're very much a dime my impression. I love you, I love it, Adam. Your pots of gold. The Jews are coming. I'm sorry. That's great. That's double racism. I love it. It's kind of a double-age. Double-age

bigotry. I love it. I'm allowed to say that. I'm both. All right. Thanks. Thanks, everyone. Patreon.com slash badhasbarra at gmail.com for your questions, comments, and concerns. Thanks again so much for listening. And until next time, from the river to the sea. This fucking band has a song called The Refugee. Oh, y'all. This Christ. Oh, y'all. Jumping Jackson was us. Push-ups was us. Godmaga us. All karate us. Taking Molly us. Michael Jackson us.

Yamaha keyboards, us, Georgia makes not us, Andor was us, Keith Ledger Joker us, endless bread success, Happy Meals was us, McDonald's was us, being happy us, Bikkim yoga us, eating food, us, breathing air, us, drinking water us, we invented all that shit. Thank you.