Bad Hasbara - The World's Most Moral Podcast - 152: Yo! IDF Raps, with Noam Shuster-Eliassi

Episode Date: October 22, 2025

Matt and Daniel are joined by comedian and filmmaker Noam Shuster-Eliassi to cover zionist influencer encounters in the wild, drive time radio and the Jewish question, and the greatest tragedy to befa...ll Lynyrd Skynyrd since that plane crash.Please donate to the Sameer Project: https://chuffed.org/project/113222-tent-campaign-the-sameer-projectJoin the patreon at https://www.patreon.com/badhasbaraCoexistence, My Ass: https://www.coexistencemyass.com/Bad Hasbara Merch Store:https://estoymerchandise.com/collections/bad-hasbara-podcastGet 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://open.spotify.com/playlist/50JoIqCvlxL3QSNj2BsdURSkad Skasbarska playlist: http://bit.ly/skadskasbarskaSubscribe/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

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Mashwam hot bitch, A ribbon polka dough We invented the terry tomato And weighs USB drives and the iron dough Israeli salad, oozy stents and jopas orange rose Micro chips is us iPhone cameras us Taco salads us
Starting point is 00:00:19 Pothomas us Olive Garden us White foster us Zabrahamas Asvaras Hello, everybody, and welcome to Bad Hasbara. The World's Most Moral Podcast. That's right.
Starting point is 00:00:38 My name is Matt Lieb. I will be your most moral co-host for this podcast. I'm Daniel Matte, your other most moral co-host. The boys are back in their respective towns. That's right. The boys are back at home. Boys are back at home. The boys just want to sleep.
Starting point is 00:00:53 Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. it yeah that's a great love those guitar monies but have you ever listen to that song in full no dude it goes on like that it's way too long same thing with the
Starting point is 00:01:08 the Eddie Money song what's that famous Eddie Money song take me home tonight no the other one he does don't know it he does another one it's also very long it just keeps going it's like I get it the boys are back in town
Starting point is 00:01:23 whatever that it's just too long please give us five Stars in Review. Why would you not? Eddie money sounds like a Jewish gangster name. Doesn't it? It looks, sounds like he worked at like murder ink with Bugsy Siegel.
Starting point is 00:01:38 Is Eddie money? He's going to go collect for the hooch. I'm on my shekels by Thursday. I'm going to send Eddie money after you. It's either shekels or sheck it. You know what I mean? That's what happens. He sleeps with,
Starting point is 00:01:53 he sleeps with the gefilters. That's right. that's good uh five stars review please subscribe on uh youtube subscribe on podcast apps do whatever it is you need to do how you doing matt how was your trip home and how was your trip here uh trip home was great uh trip here trip to new york was was fantastic we had such fun uh doing the live baddest barra at the gutter it was like indeed it was a thousand times better than we thought it was going to be. Largely thanks to producer Adam.
Starting point is 00:02:30 Shout out to him. Oh my God. Producer Adam really came in in the clutch. This guy, he is all business. He was there. He was yelling at the live shows were fine, but I had pizza five times three days. Yeah, no, we did a lot of the same pizza joint, but it was great. One of the times we had pizza, we got to watch Brianna Joy Gray jog in place for about 25 minutes to get her steps in for the day.
Starting point is 00:02:54 Yep, yep. And to be fair, she knew. made a very compelling point, which is that she needed to complete her circle on her eye watch, on her Apple watch. And she had a streak of like several years going. And I was like, well, far be it for us to ask you to somehow break that streak. May the circle be unbroken by and by, Lord. It was, honestly, it was one of the most charming things I'd seen. I was like, I love this. That's a commitment to gamifying your workout routine. But it was really great. And thank you to everyone who came out. And for those who did come out, you got some incredible new merch.
Starting point is 00:03:33 Like this. Yeah, check that out. It's a USB stick that says Bad as Barra, the World's Most Moral podcast. It is very cool. We will be also, you know, selling that on our normal merch store. Which otherwise, the sizes tend to lean a bit on the small side. So I'm wearing a large, which feels kind of like a medium to me. Oh, interesting. I'm going to know I'm going to get myself one at some point that will be quadruple large for you sir Yes very very many many X's
Starting point is 00:04:05 Plus an L because I'm a large boy And for those you don't know On the Patreon right now Patreon.com slash bad as barra You can watch both of our live Baddest Barra podcasts We were able to tape them The tape doesn't look all that bad
Starting point is 00:04:22 Sounds hella good though And it sounds great because there was we got a multi-track live recording which we were able to mix and make it sound good and I think you guys will enjoy it and for everyone else if you're not on the Patreon you'll get a taste we're going to put out
Starting point is 00:04:37 sort of a compendium of the best of not even the best of because everything was great everything was best the half of yeah the sum of the sum of yeah but not the sum S-U-M of right the S-O-M-E of that's exactly right some of all fears
Starting point is 00:04:53 so please go to patreon.com slash badass bar if you want to watch you know bonus episodes I mean I would usually it's like hey you get one of extra one a week you actually sometimes get two to three I mean this week
Starting point is 00:05:08 really the the Patreon hogs were chowing down on the slop just getting fat their nutritionists were mad at us that's right they were like please you're going to kill the hogs and I was like good I'm hungry
Starting point is 00:05:25 So if you want to get eaten by us, Patreon.com slash badassbara. The merch is available at badassbara.com. If you want to go ahead and buy the new shirt, feel free to do that. Today's episode is brought to you by the Samir Project. The Samir Project is a donations-based aid initiative led by four Palestinians in the diaspora working to supply emergency funding to the displaced families of Gaza. The fund was originally formed to purchase and distribute tents in southern Gaza and now supplies cash envelopes on an as-needed basis to allow
Starting point is 00:06:01 families the independence to secure the specific aid they require for themselves. Before you spend any money, you know, on a shirt or, you know, on bonus episodes of this podcast, consider instead spending it on something more worthy like the Samir Project, bit.l-L-Y-S-M-E-R-S-A-M-E-R-P-R-J. Go ahead and click the link. The link is also available in the show descriptions. Daniel, was this spin.
Starting point is 00:06:38 Das spin is das. Just commemorating some recent losses, although this one's not recent. We lost Prodigy of Mob Deep several years ago. But Mob Deep has a new. album out called The Infinite, and this is their first album, The Infamous Mob Deep. And, uh, yeah, I thought you were, I thought you were talking about Keith Flint for a second. You mean the, the techno prodigy guy? Yeah, the other prodigy. Right, no. I love Keith Flynn. He have smacked my bitch up fame. Yes, yes. Well, you know, listen, it's, it's a different time.
Starting point is 00:07:13 It was before woke when you were allowed to smack your bitch. Whoa, what was that cut about? What, Adam, why did, that was a weird. that was an awkward cut at him i wonder what was said go ahead we lost de angelo this week uh fucking devastating i've got a couple of his albums back here uh this is my favorite by him his last black messiah he only put out three albums in like 25 years really and uh yeah he was a very sensitive guy very kind of tortured by his own success including the way that his like looks and body got objectified after after one of his music videos yeah after untitled i feel bad because i famously have called those like those groin muscles i've been calling them de angelo's for like 20
Starting point is 00:07:58 years i mean i prefer that to cum gutters come gutters way worse so i always thought it was more of her out of respect but yeah well that's too bad there'll be time for you to atone for the death of d'angelo and not enough time for me to ever get them that's my body just doesn't work like that no fair right i ran a whole goddamn marathon and did not develop DeAngelo's. You ran a marathon? I ran a marathon. Wow. I know. What happened to me? I never would have expected that. It was like I was like I forget maybe a year sober a year and a half and you know like part of me getting sober was working out a lot and so I was like running every day and I was like, does that happen for addicts? Like I'm going to give up one extreme thing and I'm
Starting point is 00:08:42 going to take on another extreme thing that's coded as healthy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And sometimes it's that's not coated as healthy, but at least it's not heroin. But luckily, I didn't do anything too unhealthy, although the running was hell on my knees. It's not heroin, but it's harrowing. Am I right? It's quite harrowing. What's the other
Starting point is 00:09:02 album? There's a couple more. We lost Robert Redford, so here's the soundtrack, The Spin, Scott Joplin Ragtime music. The Sting. Not the spin, the spin. What's the sting? This one's especially for you. We lost Diane
Starting point is 00:09:18 Keaton this week. Ah, that's right. So I was trying to think what songs or albums do I have that might be Diane Keaton related. Ah, I know what it is. And I was thinking of Father of the Bride, but for my girl, but I don't have that song by The Temptations. You know what it is? I know what it is.
Starting point is 00:09:34 It's Rhapsody and Blue. The movie Manhattan with a score by George Gershwin, and here's a George Gershwin's greatest hits album. Oh, beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful. What hits are on there, by the way? What do they consider hits for him? we got rhapsody in blue
Starting point is 00:09:48 an American in Paris three preludes concerto and F finale and Porgy and Bess beautiful those are literally all bangers that's great just the finale of the concerto and F yeah
Starting point is 00:10:01 not the whole thing that is one of the best finalees of all time so it's you know worth it better than the Game of Thrones finale everything's better than the Game of Thrones finale correct answer and finally
Starting point is 00:10:14 another death the death of good taste and in music and the death probably of irony too. Mike Huckabee performed Sweet Home Yerushalayim recently. We're going to play that in a second. Actually, Sweet Home in Alabama is not on this Skinnerd album. The album is pronounced Skinnerd, but, you know, freebirds on here. And believe me, when I saw Sweet Home Yerushalim, my skinnards were rising. I love it
Starting point is 00:10:48 shout out that's a norm reference for those of you who are new here that is incredible and yes the death of taste the death of irony the death of parody songs I mean how many
Starting point is 00:11:03 deaths is Israel responsible for at this point it is incalculable this is Mike Huckabee playing bass for the world's world's worst dad band and they're playing
Starting point is 00:11:18 sweet home Yerusha Lime we're going to play some right now the you oh that's not how that baseline goes Mike
Starting point is 00:11:28 yeah no first of all he is this guy just read the tabs like 30 minutes earlier I mean he's
Starting point is 00:11:36 sucking ass at this by the way sound boy turned the bass down to turn it yo yo hey
Starting point is 00:11:45 in my headphones, turn it down. Yo, turn me down to my headphones. Turn me down, turn me down. I suck ass. Turn me down on my headphones. You're Zionist for this one, Rick. Ugh. All right, now we get to sing.
Starting point is 00:12:04 Oh, man, you know, genuine American white supremacy sounds so much better. I know. Like the quality of the music out of the, out of the, you know, the proud Confederate South. it's true i mean it's like give me that any day over this yeah i mean at least there's like a i don't know there's a straightforwardness and an honesty to their uh supremacist like ways you know and a class and and sort of a a scrappy yeah underclass resentment you know yeah and whereas like this is just like i mean what is what is jewish supremacy other than doing a parody song you know
Starting point is 00:12:43 I mean. It's like our proud tradition of changing words of one song to another. And listen, I am proud of that tradition. But this is, again, Israel just destroying my image of myself. Here we go. Let's destroy it a little more. Torah scrolls keep on turning. Whoa. Just two days and we are through. Then we start from the beginning. Hashan's holy words begin anew
Starting point is 00:13:17 We all have come to help my son Do you notice, hold on a second Do you notice he's singing the song Down the Octave? I know he's, yeah, it's not a very high song Yeah Big wheels keep on turning Get me home to my can't
Starting point is 00:13:36 Like just You truly don't have a chest voice That goes up one more octave. yeah you're singing this like a shitty canter once more without feeling and we want to help it right here and god's holy city not based uh i'm gonna land is saving lives sweet home jerusalem i'm gonna I'm Meeg one take me on life
Starting point is 00:14:19 Oh please do This is a case where it's like You know Get me out of Zion Give me Babylon You know Yeah give me Babylon I'll be on the other side of that river
Starting point is 00:14:32 By the rivers of Babylon Yeah We thanked the fucking God The fucking Lord in heaven That he took us out of that place By the rivers of Babylon where music sounds normal. Oh, God, that sucked.
Starting point is 00:14:54 The horn player's slumming with that dog shit rhythm rhythm section. I know. You feel bad for like the fact that they've got like everyone's fucking on on guitar and bass. And the horn is the fact that it wasn't like a shofar section is a real missed opportunity. They should have had someone on the Barry Shofar and the Tenor Shofar.
Starting point is 00:15:16 I would have, honestly, that kind of rules. I really like that. That would have made the song. I would have been like, fine. It's acceptable. So that's what's spinning this week on Bad As Barra. And it is time to introduce our wonderful guests. Really excited to have her back.
Starting point is 00:15:35 You know her. She's a previous guest, a returning champion, if you will. Comedian. Noam Schuster. Asi, you're back. Hi. Hi. It's been a while and you still have bad Hasbara to do.
Starting point is 00:15:52 That's right. It turns out this podcast changed nothing. It's a bottomless well or pit, as it were. Well, whatever we just heard now makes the Israeli anthem sound much better. I know. I know. Honestly, I'd rather them just do Hateekba. to the tune of Sweet Home, Alabama, you know?
Starting point is 00:16:17 That would be great. Call on Belay, love. There we go. That works way better. Just sweet home, Yerushalime. Come on, get out of here. So, Noam, you were not at that concert, unfortunately, right? No, but if one day United Hal Salah have to, like, save,
Starting point is 00:16:42 me or something i'll i'll you know i'll i'll sing back with the yeah with the am i right am i right and remember that united had sala was like are they affiliated with like uh what is that group zaka like like were they involved with like october seventh like rescue and then october seventh spin i don't i don't know but like yeah i mean we see them everywhere on like ambulances and stuff oh i see okay so it's a medical type of save. I was wondering if it was that or if it was, you know, the sort of Christian American evangelical thing of saving a Jew, which is just like airlifting one out of Boca Raton and putting them in Israel. Well, I feel like the air we breathe is evangelical. Yeah. Especially in that
Starting point is 00:17:38 particular concert with Mike Huckabee there. Airlifting settlers out of out of court hearings for murdering elderly Palestinians. Yes, yes. And we will actually talk a little bit about that story as well, but first I want to talk about an upcoming documentary that you have coming out, Noam. It's called
Starting point is 00:18:00 Coexistence My Ass. And I have a little bit of the trailer right here that I want to play for people. When I tell people, yeah, I'm writing comedy, they're like, what? And then I have to explain. I was at the UN. I was trying to make peace and I couldn't do it. So now I'm doing it through comedy.
Starting point is 00:18:24 Well, L'A. How am I'm doing, how are you? The other people are you're going to think that all the art will be in the Arabi. We're like, who is this tall lady? Is she Iranian? Jewish, is she Arab? Should I be boycotting this show? Noam Shuster. Noam Shostr. Noam Shostar. Shalom, noam.
Starting point is 00:18:47 Woo. Mazzletov. My parents said... Hey, did you pronounce it like, like me? I enjoy that. Yeah, that's your Ashkenazi side coming up. We say it weird. What can I do? That's how we do. Let's not raise our kids to be normal Israelis. Let's move to the only. place in the country where Jews and Palestinians live together by choice. Dreaming of peace.
Starting point is 00:19:15 Dreaming. My best friend Ranin, she's a Palestinian. She looks like Gigi Hadid. I look like Ahmadinejad next to her. Palestinians know the things that I'm saying. Palestine Comedy Festival. The oppressed doesn't come from an ignorant perspective, never. I'm only staying for seven minutes, not 70 years. The Jewish audience is where we have to.
Starting point is 00:19:38 No, I'm just very. It's not a good time to be leftist in Israel. Not fun, it's like not in general. I just read the news. You're fucked. If end up here, they're going to dieu Kyi Arguezzi. Like if end up here, it's
Starting point is 00:19:56 it means that there are in the Arabian here. In 24 hours, a thousand people were killed in Gaza's trip. The matter of not to un-hade. The matter of my... The matter of my is to show a call of of an endanguot
Starting point is 00:20:12 to work for all people will be shuffeuf, like, Yvriam. There's a thing that's that you're
Starting point is 00:20:21 just to my My name is Noam and this is my show coexistence my ass. So, it looks fantastic.
Starting point is 00:20:37 And I just want to ask you about it in terms of what the title of the show means. I've always thought of my ass as a great example of coexistence. Yeah, one butt cheek meets another butt cheek and they live together in harmony. Well, who wouldn't want that? You know, it's like, yeah, coexistence is something that I've never seen somebody to be like, no, I'm against coexistence. You know, it's like, yeah. So to be honest, it started as a joke, like a real joke, when I was approached by the Harvard Divinity School to propose a project for a fellowship to, you know, come to campus and Trump shut down that program since, so don't worry about it. But I remember when, you know, when the Harvard Divinity School had this opening and I was like, what the fuck?
Starting point is 00:21:33 I mean, everything is so bad and that desperate that they're calling a comedian to develop something at Harvard. And I remember that I really wanted to find a name that will show them what it is that I want to do, which is to basically break down the way I grew up and to unpack this like peace camp that I grew up in. You made the great joke last time you were on the show that your phone corrects the town you grew up in,
Starting point is 00:22:03 Nevis Shalom. and never Shalom. Yeah. I literally grew up in never Shalom. And when I sent coexistence my ass as a proposal to Harvard, I didn't think that I'll receive an email 10 days later saying like, Dear Noam, Harvard Divinity School approves coexistence my ass. Wow.
Starting point is 00:22:23 And so the film, which is, you know, I'm the protagonist of the film. I didn't make the film. There are amazing filmmakers behind this film. Amber Fadis, who is the director, she lived in Palestine, and her previous film is called Speed Sisters, which is about the female race car drivers in the West Bank. And when she was filming it in Palestine, I was working in the UN and I was this like, we're a Jewish girl speaking really good Arabic in, you know, in Romala, and we were hanging out. And we stayed in touch.
Starting point is 00:22:56 And then she saw that I pivoted from the UN to comedy. and we met right before COVID in 2019 when I just started the fellowship at Harvard and she picked up the camera, she thought that she's going to film me in the US trying to make this show and develop this show at Harvard and dealing with the discourse in the US. We didn't know that it will lead to five years of the team,
Starting point is 00:23:20 which includes many more people who are amazing. Rababha Jihya, who is the Palestinian editor of the film, she has family, so in Nevers Shalom that I grew up with. She just won a major editing award at the Woodstock Film Festival, which is really amazing. And Rachel Leah Johnson, Philippe Bel Aish, her partner that made the advocate about the lawyer Laet Semel. It's also like the really, yeah, amazing filmmakers. And it turned into, you know, through my journey and me trying to make this one woman show,
Starting point is 00:23:56 And it turned into basically us documenting, you know, the rise of fascism leading all the way to October 2023 and the genocide. And so the film has laughter, but it also has a lot of tragedy and tears. And my attempt was to break down the term coexistence and to really make fun of it and to make sure the audience knows that coexistence is a side effect. will hopefully happen when we have equality and real justice. But there is no coexistence, you know, when we are actively erasing the existence of Palestinians every day. Right. Right.
Starting point is 00:24:38 Yeah. It's a euphemism and it's almost a PR spin word to, I mean, it's like these, it's one of these non-committal concepts. It doesn't really mean anything. And the ceasefire agreement, I believe the ceasefire agreement recognized the right of Israelis to live in security, and it recognized the aspirations of Palestinians towards self-determination, which means nothing. Right.
Starting point is 00:25:07 And what's interesting about it to me is someone who's not an Israeli and has heard about coexistence in a peace camp all my life. it's interesting to see the piss taken out of it because it is so, I think, central to a lot of liberal Zionism, this belief in the, you know, the aspirational belief in coexistence, not as something that can be attained now, but as something that maybe someday we can do without ever having to, like, move one step towards it. Right. Yeah, or give up our privileges or do something active about it, yeah. And you talked about the last time that you were on the pod, you talked about sort of the sort of like the peace industrial complex that Israel seems to have in spades and not just in the country, but I mean, even outside of it is this like peace industrial complex in which people, entire organization. that are dedicated to the idea of peace but never never ever attaining it it's just the idea of talking about it endlessly a kinder gentler status quo right um in terms of your own uh analysis in the way things have shifted from you since you know childhood in this like coexistence you
Starting point is 00:26:41 know uh focused uh you know at never shalom to now what do you think has been sort of your, what is that journey? Like, what is your main takeaway from it? How did you get to the point where you realized that it was all kind of like a facade? Well, you know, first of all, to be completely fair, I've been enjoying it my whole life. I mean, it's truly an industry. You know, you receive scholarships and Harvard emails you. and, you know, you get to the extent where at some point I was like,
Starting point is 00:27:22 wow, what if this shit gets really solved? Like, I'll be fucked. Like, I'll have nothing. I'll have nothing to do. But I think that, you know, when you grow up and Palestinian friends and neighbors and colleagues and educators and teachers, they become basically part of my DNA. and I'm speaking Arabic and my life, like from the age of seven,
Starting point is 00:27:53 Israeli Independence Day was no longer Israeli Independence Day. It's the day where my best friend's grandfather and her entire family basically split apart and have been through loss and tragedies. And that identity became something so central to the way I understand the world and where I live and where we are. that when the time came, for example, to, you know, the age of 16 where we, where the Jewish Israelis start getting letters to the army, and some kids that grew up with me were responding and going to the army screenings for, that it just hit me,
Starting point is 00:28:34 that, oh, this is not all the kids that grew up in this, you know, people, peace industry and stuff, like, are taking it the same way that I'm taking it, because I grew up in a very political household. Right. My father sat in Israeli military prisons in the first Intifada for refusing to serve, and he was sent in and out of prison. Basically, all of my early memories is of my dad in military prison. And so the active choices that we, as Israeli Jews, who have the privilege to refuse and to do, do something with our privilege in order to break the status quo and to fight with Palestinians. It was central to what I thought this was. And then when around you, you see
Starting point is 00:29:26 that this peace industry is kind of like, it's a feel-good industry. Let's go to Germany and discuss stuff and let's get a scholarship and this. But for me, maybe it's because the household that I grew up in and the type of, maybe it's my Mizraja identity and like, you know, that it made so much sense to me. Our homes were so similar, Palestinian homes and my, you know, my Mizrahi home. Like maybe it was just a sort of naive sense that I had as a child that I'm not just, we're not just kumbaya, we're not just holding hands.
Starting point is 00:30:02 There is a fight here. And it's a fight against a system that is doing wrong to my best friends and the people I grew up with. And so when I saw around me that for other Jewish Israeli kids, it was a seminar and then they go to the army thinking, oh, no, we have to serve in the army to protect Israel. I was like, okay, there is like a totally different fight from, you know, yeah, from what I thought. Yeah. Yeah. And it leaves me curious, what's the response been to the film? You've shown it at film festivals in Europe and in the States. I believe there was
Starting point is 00:30:41 screening in Canada or at least at least one or two you know you're going to have a variety of people in the audience you're going to have Palestinians who are like yeah coexistence my ass like they know that they know that that term coexistence with its peaceful veneer is actually in some ways a very violent term because it you know it extends the continuation of violent circumstances under the patina of gradual incremental change and then I am imagine you've also got some curious, maybe liberal Zionist, North Americans or Europeans in the audience who stand to have some of their illusions busted up by, I mean, one of the things about you is like your demeanor, your comedy, your style, like, you might seem
Starting point is 00:31:30 at first blush like a safe Israeli to identify with and enjoy. And then you say these things that are busting up people's illusions. Have you been surprised at all or please? or not pleased with the response to the film? What's it been like? First of all, it's been really overwhelming. Our premiere was at Sundance in January. And ever since it's been really, and there's still a festival run,
Starting point is 00:31:55 and now the theatrical release that is starting in New York City and is going to be all over the U.S. And hopefully, you know, the listeners can, you know, come and attend and also let us know how the experience was for you. The responses have been crazy and very diverse. There are always people in the audience who can't stand that I say the word genocide, of course. And there are always people in the audience that are saying, but why can't you criticize also the Palestinians?
Starting point is 00:32:27 Why can't you criticize, you know, Hamas? And, you know, my response has been very simple. I have a lot of work on my plate because my country and the majority of my people are complicit and responsible in the genocide and killed more than 20,000 children and orphaned 60,000 more. And I promise you that when my task of criticizing and solving all this, I will criticize everyone else as well. But now I have so much work on my plate. And the one interesting, oh, and we opened the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, which I guess is the biggest Jewish film festival in the U.S. and it was co-presented with the Arab Film and Media Institute in San Francisco,
Starting point is 00:33:12 which I guess it was the first time where there was this kind of, you know, collaboration. So this film is allowing a very, I think, wide range of people to connect to it. And in Poland, we had a crazy, crazy run in Poland. it was an opening it opened the film festival in Poland and there were thousands of young people and then I did like a benefit show for for Gaza like a stand-up show where all the income went to Gaza and after every screening and after every show in Poland just we had lines of young people Polish people who just wanted to talk to me to tell me how much the history of Poland is really restricting them from criticizing Israel.
Starting point is 00:34:06 But through a character like me, they're finally able to criticize Israel. And then they went on in telling me, making sure I know that their grandparents were in the resistance to the Nazis. All of them. Yeah, it's all there. And I was like, I opened the history book.
Starting point is 00:34:24 It doesn't add up that all your grandparents were in the resistance to the Nazis. I love it. It's like, it's like in, you know, going to, Shawshank prison and everyone there didn't do it. And it's like, yeah, everyone in Poland's parents were in the resistance. Well, Norman Finglstein likes to scornfully dispute the sheer number of people who claim to be Holocaust survivors and the kids of Holocaust survivors. He does?
Starting point is 00:34:53 He's like, if there's this many Holocaust survivors, who did the Nazis kill? You guys are denying the Holocaust by claiming to have survived it. Oh, that's. Norm goes crazy. I love Norm. He's a comedian. He is a comedian. He is a comedian at heart.
Starting point is 00:35:14 But I just want to say that, like I said in the trailer, like, Palestinians come to the film and they watch it and, you know, gets a lot of love. And also, it's complex to, like, center an Israeli character during this time. Totally, yeah. It's not, it's not something that was easy for the filmmakers. it's not something that is easy for me. You know, I think, but unfortunately, and I'm saying this with great sorrow, there are so many people out there that while Palestinians were filming themselves, going through a genocide for two years, when an Israeli Jew is saying it,
Starting point is 00:35:50 then they feel the permission to listen, which is horrible. And I say to the audience, like, it's a warning sign for you. Like, why do you need to hear it from an Israeli Jew when Palestinians have been documenting themselves? but well there are Palestinian podcasts too that are saying a lot of things that we say and we benefit on some levels that are unfair and on some levels that are understandable from our identities and I think identity is something ultimately that's best treated as a function like you use your identity you channel your identity you marry your identity with your values and try to accomplish something with it rather than kind of resting in it or letting you
Starting point is 00:36:31 it completely define you and I think you're doing that and and also I mean a perfect example I think of how it is useful is what happened uh in Poland uh you know the fact that these you know young Polish people whose parents totally were not like they're telling you to your face and I've had this happen too. You know, thank you. I need, and it, you know, obviously a Zionist is going to say, oh, this is just tokenism or whatnot. But, I mean, let's be honest, what is Israel, if not tokenizing the entire Jewish people?
Starting point is 00:37:12 But, you know, it's like the, at least in the way it works in the West, does people need for very racist reasons. They need to, oh, if a. jew says it then it's okay um and it's uh you know uh it's complicated and it's fucked up and we you know recognize that on this uh podcast all the time um and it can be hard to find yourself especially you know in it's in the center of a documentary that you did not make being a central uh you know being the center of attention in that and uh i imagine that can be difficult and I'm I'm excited to see the movie just to yeah I'm I would really love to know how
Starting point is 00:38:01 how you know how it was for you after you watch and yeah you know sometimes there are just these aunties in the audience that are like I know there is a lot of politics and a lot of heavy stuff but we just want to know did you marry that guy in the end like all they wanted to know is like so there's always that a little bit of romance goes a long way with the with the general audience I also have to say, you know, having just done my first nine minutes of stand-up comedy ever a week ago today, opening for Matt and his wife, I really salute, oh, thank you, Matt. I wasn't fishing, I wasn't fishing, but I wanted, but just, but pivoting to, to that at any stage in life, especially after you've had a career and so, it's fucking scary.
Starting point is 00:38:47 It's very scary. Yeah. And also, you know, the topic. that I choose to talk about, like a lot of comedians in Israel. I think I spoke to you about it last time. A lot of comedians in Israel when I, you know, before October 2023, because I really don't perform in the same stages here anymore. There are comedians who have, I can tell you the level of disgust that I have from them
Starting point is 00:39:12 using their stage to like promote genocide and genocidal rhetoric and making fun of, you know, starving, starving people in Gaza and stuff. But, you know, before October 2023, there was always like this, these stages where I would show up for a line. I'd be like, oh, here is no. She's going to talk about Arabs and Jews. You know, I'm like the downer. But, you know, and so it's also like a choice. I mean, Daniel, what did you choose to talk about in your nine minutes?
Starting point is 00:39:41 I'm sure it wasn't like your, you know, your new haircut or you don't have a new haircut. I started with a land acknowledgement. I repeated some material from the live show, the second live show, a land acknowledgement for the Brooklyn Zionists who had to flee Brooklyn because of the Mamdanian Empire. I then just did some stuff about stand-up comedy itself. I talked a little bit about my age.
Starting point is 00:40:06 And then I went into about, yeah, four or five minutes about how my dad traumatized me as a kid by raiding my jokes. And the routine ended, with me talking, fantasizing about cannibalizing my own father. So, it was very good. It was a good closure. I finally, I saw him last night, and I had shared the video with my parents a few days ago.
Starting point is 00:40:31 And my dad had assured me, there's nothing you could say on stage that would offend me. So I said, cool, here you go, watch it. And then silence, didn't say anything. And we were hanging out last night with my niece. And just as I was leaving, and my parents are going back to Canada today, so I'm not going see them for a while. I said, Dad, I have to ask. Did you watch? He said, yes, I did. And we're still friends. And that was it. I said, that's good. That's all I need to know. That's all I need to know. And my mom said, I really appreciated what you were trying to do structurally, which I'll take
Starting point is 00:41:04 as a first time out. Structure is important in comedy. It's like, there are all these sentences that people tell you, instead of telling you, like, the joke didn't really land or it wasn't funny or something. The structure is, you know, yeah. But I'm proud of the structure because I really worked on that. I'm not sure I nailed the delivery and I know I didn't nail the audience rapport, like relaxing into being with them and taking, like watching. It's too early. No, no, no.
Starting point is 00:41:30 While watching you, Matt, I really saw the way that you let the audience enjoy enjoying you and you enjoy that and there's a reciprocal feedback loop of vibing. And that's something to work on next time if I ever do it again. Yeah. Yeah. The thing about comedy is failing hard on your face. hearing those crickets and letting them empower you to keep falling and fucking up your own life. That's right. Yeah. And then eventually, you still fail.
Starting point is 00:42:03 Yeah. And that's fun. And then they make a documentary about you where you're supposed to be a vehicle for political change and you still fail. And you still fail. That'll be the biggest failure of your life, Noam, I promise. trying to bring political change to that region. No, but in all honesty, like, I really hope, I hope you watch the film and it makes you like laugh and cry also and think and act and just have better vocabulary. The discourse in the U.S. is so dumb sometimes. Yeah. And I just feel like the filmmakers, they've done such a great job.
Starting point is 00:42:43 It's such a fucking hard task to be documentary filmmakers. And, you know, I mean, Amber has a family in Lebanon and Robab is Palestinian. And, you know, Rachel was with me also in Tel Aviv. She's Israeli-American. And she's, and, you know, they were all doing this while the genocide was happening. And it was super, super difficult. But I think speaking up and having a platform while it's happening since, you know, in Israel, It's just the space, the limited space that we already had is so narrow that it even made it impossible.
Starting point is 00:43:25 Especially since so many Israeli celebrities, including comedians, but also artists and musicians and poets or whatever, are using their platform to go full fascist. And George Orwell said all art is propaganda, but in times where propaganda is being used for genocide, artists who do that are some of the most wretched. people on earth. And we actually have, I think, our first piece of content today, Matt, am I right? Is an example of that. Fresh off the presses just saw it this morning. Yeah, yeah. Just hot off of the Hezbara presses. This is like, you know, you were talking about dealing with, you know, sharing the same stage with these Israeli stand-up comedians who at one point admonished you for being the political comedian. you know and who are now they themselves delving into politics but from a fascist direction
Starting point is 00:44:25 which is always always appreciated and it's interesting to see that kind of proliferation and almost like I mean I don't live in Israel so I don't know if it's popular there but sort of the popularization of kind of using a liberal art to do fascism and what could be more a liberal art to do fascism than using the power of spoken word poetry to do fascism? Oh, my God. So I'm going to present to you all a bit of spoken word, a bit of hip-hop-infused schlock.
Starting point is 00:45:08 Before we start, Norm, are you familiar with the work of Roi Kornblum? No. Never heard of them. And I'm not sure I want to be familiar. Well, you're about to be. Yeah, so sorry, but here is Rory Cornblum. Rowy. Oh, is it, oh, sorry.
Starting point is 00:45:24 Roy Cone. It's Roy, yeah, Roy Cone, yeah, Roy Cone, doing a song, Hey, Jew. And it's not either of the things you're thinking of you. It's not the Pink Floyd, it's not the Beatles, it's its own thing. I didn't even think of the Floyd, that's good. They hate you. No matter what you say, no matter what you do. Go back to the very, very beginning of that because he does a, this is in English and he's doing some puns.
Starting point is 00:45:45 Like, the thing that we're, let's play, and I'll comment afterwards. Okay. Hey, Jew, they hate you. No matter what you say, no matter what you'll do, they'll hate. Okay, no matter what you say, no matter you would do. I think not doing genocide actually would do it. It would go a long way. So to start off, he's, hey Jew, they hate you.
Starting point is 00:46:05 Okay. Yeah, not bad. The thing I find remarkable about this is that on its own terms, he's doing this genre reasonably well, which says maybe something about this genre. It says a lot about spoken word. Yes, it does. But like, okay, fine, that's decent wordplay. Hey, Jew, they hate you.
Starting point is 00:46:23 If you take the semantics out of it. Yeah. And the politics out of it. All right. Here's more. And dress it up as something sophisticated. They'll call it war crimes, the Palestine, or the IDF. They say that we control the banks and the U.S. government.
Starting point is 00:46:36 We turn Christian babies into matzabred. They'll make those lies sound like facts when in fact, they just hate you. ever noticed no slur for jews no n word no f word okay hold on hold on hold on hold on has this sheeney never heard of the word kike i what this you're living up in hymey town never never being called a kike i love the there's no slur for jews i'm just like that proves to me you don't deal with actual anti-semitism that's news that in your fucking bunker called israel maybe there's no slur for jews never again never again will I watch this video never again.
Starting point is 00:47:14 But honestly, I think... Yo, IDF raps. When it comes to a spoken word, I think I don't discriminate whether you're a Jew or whoever, I just hate it. Yeah, that's true. Nobody likes it. That's true.
Starting point is 00:47:26 It's like, honestly, this could be, you know, something, a left wing and pro-Palestinian, and I would still just be like, I can't, I can't, I can't do it. I just can't. And it is a curse for every group, but for us, it's just Jew.
Starting point is 00:47:41 Say it with the right tone, and it's a curse. Here, I'll show you in this verse. Hey, Jew. Hey, Jew. You see? What? Nope, didn't get anything from that. I didn't feel the hate when you say.
Starting point is 00:47:54 Literally nothing. I love that. The point he's making there is just like, you know, the idea of it being hateful, the way you say it. It's like, yeah, you can make that point, but it also sounds like I can sort of interpret anything as anti-Semitism. That's right. You know, I can kind of make it up whenever I feel like it. That's how projection works. I want to tell him, like, I actually thought of the Beatles when you said, hey, Jew.
Starting point is 00:48:21 Right, yeah, yeah. When you say, hey, Jew, I think of, you know, Pink Floyd, go, hey, Jew, out there on your own, getting lonely. Well, that's anti-Semitic. That's right. I'm sorry, that is Roger Waters doing it. And you know John Lennon would have been anti-genocide. Oh, yeah. I imagine so.
Starting point is 00:48:42 Although shit, who knows, dude, Tom York, come on. Though there was never any Palestine in between. Then it would create a justification for glorifying a nation that would kill without hesitation if you're gay, lesbian, or just a man who looked at the Quran with a wrong facial expression. No, for the sake of what, what, what, what, what, what? He's saying the Palestinians will kill someone who looks at the Quran wrong? It's just like just how can, and Noam, can you answer this question? I always look at the Quran in a loving way
Starting point is 00:49:13 I gave the Quran side eye once and I felt I felt the anti-Semitism around me what always blows my mind is like seeing an Israeli saying something like this where he goes like
Starting point is 00:49:30 if you look at the Quran wrong they'll kill you you know which is like it's the whole like oh Muslims are all all ISIS Muslims are all religious fanatics. Arabs are all religious fanatics who will kill you for being gay and whatnot or for, you know, yeah, looking at the Quran wrong. This is something in the United States that we have. We have sort of a blanketed, almost like ignorant Islamophobia.
Starting point is 00:49:59 I'm not excusing it, but it's an Islamophobia kind of based on the fact that, at least both in popular culture and in terms of population, we don't have, you know, a lot of Arabs or a lot of Muslims, at least in comparison to the amount of PR that maybe other religions get. In Israel, you are, your neighbors will be Arabs. You will know some Muslims.
Starting point is 00:50:32 Your bus driver, How is it that someone can, is he knowingly doing propaganda? Is he knowingly lying when he says that? Or is there just a portion of Israeli society that is just ignorant to, I don't know, their own neighbors? Well, let's hypothetically say that an Israeli bumps into a, you know, Palestinian Muslim person. and this person is his doctor, his pharmacist, his, you know, then we will do, then there will be like this self-explaining of like, oh, no, but he's not like one of those things I have in my head.
Starting point is 00:51:21 Yeah. Or maybe just in the capacity of whatever we have right now, but when the day comes, when he will have to, be against me, he will be against me, right? And if it's him or me, it's going to be. And so segregation, segregation in that sense, you know, can take a very dangerous form where you can literally live with someone, next to someone, with someone, but have, you know, zero human, you know, you've had a zero opportunity to humanize them to the fullest level.
Starting point is 00:51:58 Yes. in terms of, you know, in terms of every aspect of life. Yeah. Which is another limitation of coexistence, right? Right. Because there is, there actually is coexistence within 48 Israel. There's even coexistence in the West Bank. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:52:14 It's a kind of coexistence. Both are existing. They interact sometimes, and it's not always murderous or outwardly hateful, but the profound indifference and ignorance and ultimately the conviction that anyone who treats you like a human being must be the exception that proves the rule and as you said the day may come where it's going to be either me or him
Starting point is 00:52:36 and you goddamn right it's going to be me that survives so I'm prepared to throw him under the tank it's just like I look at this and I just it's just so it mirrors so exactly like white supremacist anti-black racism in the United States the way we do the same thing you know, like the, wow, you know, I had a good experience with a black doctor, you know, where, you know, people dehumanize Palestinians in the same way. And it's just like, I'm just watching this. And the fact that it's coming from this liberal art form. That's where to me it's hilarious. This liberal black-coded art form. Yes. This anti-oppression art form.
Starting point is 00:53:24 Yeah, so it's like, just like imagine watching like a confederate spoken word poet is very funny to me. Yeah. You should hear some of the songs of the Zionist hip-hop band. Oh, I've heard them. I've heard them. Yes. They are not great. Yeah, here's a little bit more of this schlissela.
Starting point is 00:53:47 Israel does come me genocide and occupation. Show me another place where citizens are playing. for their government's action. Back up a little bit, Matt, because he's making an argument here. He's doing a, let's say, hypothetically. So just back up slightly. Okay, sure, sure, sure.
Starting point is 00:54:02 Yeah. Now, for the sake of argument, let's say Israel does commit genocide and occupation. Show me another place where citizens are playing for their government's action. Russia invades Ukraine, but no one hates Russians. Everybody knows Putin's to blame.
Starting point is 00:54:14 Iran execute women for not covering their hair. No one hates Iranians. The truth is, most don't even care. And Turkey, they commit a genocide de facto. Did the world gave them a hard time? No, they gave them a sitinato. So it's not genocide they care about. It's not the women or the children.
Starting point is 00:54:29 They don't want to mourn the victims. They just want to hunt a villain. And in the court of world opinion, Jews are always guilty. And strangely enough, the judge is never Jewish. The human mind is a brilliant thing. When it feels hate, it builds a story to it. Then it tricks itself that the story came first. I'm sorry.
Starting point is 00:54:45 Wait, we don't control the courts. The judge is never Jewish. The judge is often Jewish. Shame. The judge. Of the court of world opinion, I believe we're talking about. I don't know. My name Danielle means my God is my judge.
Starting point is 00:54:59 That's right. And the Hebrew certainly thought God was Jewish. Dude, just that argument alone is so wild. Like, okay, let's say we are committing a genocide. So, why are you mad at me? Yeah, you can be mad at the government and the fact that I am pro the genocide happening. But I don't understand why you're not mad at it. everybody else. I'll tell you why. Let's say for the sake of argument, Mr. Roi, that you're
Starting point is 00:55:28 right that we don't blame people from other countries, which we do. Okay. I've never seen a Russian person sitting there doing one of these corny ass slam poetry things about how Ukrainians don't really exist and Ukrainians will like bite your face off if you like say Kiev instead of Kiev. it's it's wild to me it's wild that it's just like you know maybe it's because i'll just be going about my business and then someone with a bullhorn will yell israeli propaganda at me like like the reason for you know i think a lot of the outcry beyond people of conscience just being like you know genocide is wrong is because people can't even give a half, you know, a half statement of condemnation towards Israel without being accused of
Starting point is 00:56:25 anti-Semitism. Bill Nye was just called an anti-Semite because he said, well, I don't want to really talk about, you know, politics and stuff, but I just think when one country levels another country, that's not good. And some guy... That's Bill Nye, the race science guy. Yeah, Bill Nye, the race science guy. Yeah, no. And he got called... It called... it got called thinly veiled anti-Semitism by some guy at the free press. And I'm like, what? There's literally nothing you can say without someone doing a goddamn four-minute spoken word, like slam poem about how you're bad.
Starting point is 00:57:01 But listen, you know, the Jewish people and Israelis, they've just been through only two years ago, the biggest massacre since the Holocaust. And you're asking, you're asking them to, look at... I don't think they lost Eurovision. It wasn't a mass. They didn't use, they didn't lose Eurovision by that much. I wouldn't call it a massacre. But, but Daniel, you're asking them to reckon with what they did when, when, when, um, when, when they, you know, I mean, if we don't have that excuse that everybody hates us because we're Jewish, it means we have to sit and acknowledge that
Starting point is 00:57:44 we did something wrong nobody likes to do that yeah no that nobody wants to do that yeah yeah you do that yeah exactly no you make you make a good point if you don't blame it on just oh they they just hate us because they ain us um then you have to sit and go why did this happen why did October 7th happened? Why, you know, why are people angry and not allowing us, you know, to play soccer with them or why, you know, you have to answer all these very tough, introspective questions. And that's hard to do when you have, I don't know, like slam poems to write. You know what I see how he finishes this off. Let's see, let's see how much we can get through before a gun in mouth. Here we go. No, first comes hate, but wait. What is it?
Starting point is 00:58:35 it's only fear wearing armor and when fear meets lack of self-awareness what is eight eight is the number after seven points outwards that's how fear turns to hate He just said when hate meets lack of self-awareness Did he say that? He literally just said that
Starting point is 00:58:53 Go back a little And when fear meets lack of self-awareness It points outwards That's how fear turns to hate and hate turns to ideology Oh my God When fear meets self-aware lack of self-awareness, it points outward. Bars, motherfucker, bars.
Starting point is 00:59:09 That's the most self-aware thing he said, except he's not aware of it. Except for he's not aware of that. Oh, God. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to self-awareness. Self-awareness leads to hate of others.
Starting point is 00:59:24 Thank you, Yoda. Yoda doing slam poetry. Yeah. All right, let's try. Antisemitism is a college degree, and they'll probably call it human rights. Now, who am I to argue with that? Just a Jew.
Starting point is 00:59:34 And so are you. And we are supposed to be all a going, a light. But I guess electricity ain't cheap. Because all we've been doing so far is hide. We hide our religion, our tradition. We tuck our star of David necklaces inside our t-shirts. And that's how they win. They made every Jew have a little anti-Semite within. We got to pull him out. We're going to say, I'm a Jew and we got to say it out loud. Be proud of who you are. I'm sorry, what in the last two years has convinced you that people are hiding the fact that? that they are Jewish, the amount of people who are pushing this total bullshit, usually it's in, like, we talk to New Yorkers who are scared about Mamdani, so they are, you know, pulling off the, the muzzas from their door frame. And I'm just like, I have never seen so many people wrap themselves in the fucking Star of David. There's never been more visible, you know,
Starting point is 01:00:30 Jews or celebration of Judaism or being Jewish than there has been in the last fucking two years. And it's all just Zionism. It's all not actually celebration of being Jewish. And now they're recruiting, go ahead. No, what did he say about the electricity,
Starting point is 01:00:48 not being cheap? Like, there is a stereotype about us anyways, way, that he does you have to be. Right, right, where the landlord's turning off everyone's lights. Well, he said we're supposed to be an ore le goyim, right? A light into the nation. But electricity Antichity ain't cheap. And for those listening but not watching, there's this whole thing happening. It's like fucking Jonathan Demi's Talking Heads movie Stop Making Sense. It starts on a blank stage, but then the set is assembled around him as he goes. And someone put like a lamp, a floor lamp behind him at some point. And when he said that, electricity ain't cheap, the light bulb came on. And when he said, we're tucking our Star of David's into our shirts, someone came and put a big fucking... Star of David on him. Star of David around him
Starting point is 01:01:30 and he's wearing some kind of like fur-lined jean jacket Yeah Like some Israeli stereotype Am I right? This is sort of the RSI look Am I right? Noam?
Starting point is 01:01:42 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is, all right, only got a little bit more. In every country, every city. Okay, let's go through this. Let's do it.
Starting point is 01:01:50 We can do it, guys. In every country, what? Every street, every person you meet, let them know you're Jewish and you don't give a shit if they hate you. Because hey, June, We love you, and that's all that matters. Did he rives street with the Israeli pronunciation of sheet?
Starting point is 01:02:08 And you don't give a white sheet. You don't get a sheet. I have a feeling like if he sees me on stage, being proud of being a Jew that is like against the genocide that Israel is committing, he's not going to want me to be so proud. He's telling people to go up to people, like to walk around any country. And to any person they meet, walk up to this person, and apropos of nothing, say, hey, I'm a Jew. And I don't give a sheet if you don't like it. And this person in Italy is just trying to have his ice cream. He's like, okay, be a Jew.
Starting point is 01:02:42 Like, who cares? Yes. You're not the center of the universe. Yes, my God. Yeah. Oh, my God. This guy's on the phone with his best friend, trying to tell his best friend. No, I think these anti-Semitic stereotypes about Jews being pushy.
Starting point is 01:02:58 and self-righteous aren't true. Sorry, someone's trying to talk to me. What's that? You're a Jew and you don't give it? Okay, thanks. I stand corrected. I stand corrected, sir. I know.
Starting point is 01:03:10 Well, hey, Jew, let's try some slam. Take a black form and make it Nazi. Wider. Whiteer, yeah. Make it whiter, exactly. Oh, man. I can't believe you made me watch this. Like, I live here and I've avoided it.
Starting point is 01:03:26 but this isn't for your but this isn't for israeli consumption he did it in english for a reason that's right it's they're they're getting an israeli a proud israeli looking israeli to make this content for jews outside right continue to permission them to feel paranoid and self-reachings who else was like i know i know that's the thing is like like really who are who is watching this and the answer maybe maybe amy schumer he got three of you Amy Schumer or Chelsea Handler maybe yeah and Deborah Messing and oh and oh and what's the name of the freaking which one freaking fucking Robert Michael Rapaport wow yeah he's crazy yeah that guy's a psychopath oh oh and I owe you a story I think about um oh shit what is fucking, I never remember
Starting point is 01:04:28 these people's names. I'm very excited for a story. What's the name of when you're a power game? Oh yeah, Daniel Ryan Spalding. Oh my God. Do you, if you have a story about that, do you have a story about Daniel Ryan's folding? I do, but are you ready? Like, do you want me to?
Starting point is 01:04:46 First, we're going to do a real quick commercial break and then when we come back, we'll hear a little bit about that, but everyone please stick around. We will be right back. and we're back as bad as barrow world's most moral podcast and we're here with noam schuster eliasi noam yes you teased before the break something about daniel ryan spalding uh everyone's favorite power goy i mean power gay white power guy uh can what what happened do you have an experience
Starting point is 01:05:25 with him what on earth makes just a guy just dedicate his life like to oh my gosh i it was my wedding day in new york city yeah okay i am in a beautiful dress i am holding a bouquet of flowers my relative who is not politically aligned with me at all she's coming fresh from ohio from Yomatsmote Independence, Israeli Independence Day, would start David on her manicure. Like, cool. And we're, and you know, she made a surprise. She came to my civil marriage ceremony in New York City. We're a bunch of friends, you know, some like really cool anti-Zionist activists that you guys know, like we're just like walking a group of us from the the city hall towards like finding somewhere to eat. I'm holding the book
Starting point is 01:06:22 your flowers and then I spot him. I'm like, and I look at my cousin and I'm like, oh, it's that guy that does like, and my cousin is like, that talks about that spent the last two years going yummy, yummy, yummy Israeli, you're like, that's his brand. And literally my cousin goes, oh my God, I love him. And I go, ew, at the same time. and we both run towards him for completely different reasons
Starting point is 01:06:54 she wants an admiring selfie with him and I want to open my camera to make like to insult him on video be like dude what the fuck are you doing if people are wondering what this is this is a henna oh yeah I was going to say yeah you got a henna tattoo it's like a henna yeah it's a yeah that's got to be some kind of like gay
Starting point is 01:07:19 fantasy a woman in a wedding dress with a bouquet of flowers running towards you to curse you out my my cousin went first so he thought oh these two Israeli women are coming to like adore me and admire me and so my cousin takes like oh my god like takes a selfie with him and i'm like and then i open my camera and i'm like daniel why are you spreading lies and proper And then he turns off my camera phone so that I and he becomes red and he's like, Susan Serendon wants you dead. I am protecting the Jewish people from a genocide that people want to do against you and you're mad at me. Susan Serendon and all the celebrities want you dead. I love Susan Sarandon.
Starting point is 01:08:19 Susan Sarandon wants you dead. I'm like Susan Sarandon doesn't want me dead. I don't think she wants me dead. The idea that Susan Sarandon is who you have to worry about. How can you be mad at me when Susan Sarandon's the one at your window at night, scheming? I am, I am the, he's like saying this, like, big spiel about how he's the, he's speaking up for my people when everybody. but he's turning their backs against us and blah, blah, blah. And he almost, like, he turned so red.
Starting point is 01:08:56 And so, and I was just looking at him. And I was like, dude, it's my wedding day, relax. Oh, yeah, yeah. And my amazing, beautiful partner, I see him across the road, like, with my friends, just looking at me and admiring from afar. They're like, you see why I married her. Oh, man, find someone who looks at you. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:09:18 The way that man looks at you when you're cursing out Daniel Ryan Spaulding. Seriously. What a great story. I wish every leftist single person, somebody that looks at them while they're raging against. Or at least, you know, I wish them all the opportunity to yell at these people in person,
Starting point is 01:09:43 especially people like Daniel Ryan Spalding who are, you know, I mean, his whole thing, the fact that he's mad at you, like, I'm saving you, Jews! Well, someday, someday, if you have kids, and if your kids are inclined to wear wedding dresses on their wedding day, no matter what gender they are, you can pass that dress down and say,
Starting point is 01:10:11 your mommy, your EMA, yelled at a, at a power gay Nazi in this dress. And I'd like you to do the same. Daniel, I will tell this child that their mom returned that dress to the store and got full refund and just wore it for one day. Come on. Even better. Even better.
Starting point is 01:10:40 Even better. It's much better than passing a dress. I'll pass the tradition of returning. that's right that's the real right of return yeah sorry I had to play that when we keep receipts it's to get a refund
Starting point is 01:11:02 oh boy okay so moving on to other subjects one thing you know first just out of the bat talking about those celebrities I just want to just show this one thing Amy Schumer recently posted this She voted and who does she vote for
Starting point is 01:11:23 Rhymes with Duomo So Amy Schumer voted for Andrew Cuomo Which I mean talk about Full Circle right I mean she literally went from Girl boss You know girl power to I will literally vote For a 13 times sexual harasser
Starting point is 01:11:43 In order to stop a Muslim candidate who's critical of Israel. Shout out to Curtis Sliwa, who was the best thing about that mayoral debate. I mean, Zoran did very well. Yeah. But fucking Sliwa running interference for him just as well as Brad Lander ever did. It was so fucking great.
Starting point is 01:12:00 Slewa was just like, all right, quiet Zoran, I hate him more. I hate Cuomo more. But yeah, so that's a lot of fun. I mean, we're going to get into American politics now. We, obviously,
Starting point is 01:12:16 we had a ceasefire agreement that Trump was able to get through people are screaming at all of the left for not celebrating the ceasefire in the streets ceasefire in my ass, am I right? Yeah, yeah. According to people here, he brought world peace. It's like it's peace, it's changed the world.
Starting point is 01:12:41 I know. I saw some Israeli comedian woman, what's her name, I might have that wrong. She did like this close-up selfie video. Oh, my God. I am ready to suck Trump. I'm ready to blow Trump.
Starting point is 01:12:57 And if you know me. And you see on the reflection of her sunglasses, her kid, her like toddler is like right there. And she's like, if you know me, that's a very rare gift. Oh, stop! I don't like it. It is, listen, it's a sick society. Very sick.
Starting point is 01:13:16 But, you know, Trump is obviously doing the rounds, trying to get his Nobel Peace Prize, all that shit. Meanwhile, of course, what's actually happening is egregious. In fact, recently, I think this was yesterday, and we're talking about this on Monday, October 20th, but I believe this was yesterday or a couple days back. It was reported that Netanyahu reactivated his genocidal war on Gaza, his army. conducted more than 100 airstrikes since the morning and killed more than 30 Palestinian civilians.
Starting point is 01:13:53 Netanyahu also activated his collective punishment of the civilian population, blocking all humanitarian aid to Gaza. Now, this happened due to a Israeli bulldozer in Raffa, I believe, that blew up. And they said, Hamas did it.
Starting point is 01:14:08 Hamas came out of the tunnels and did an act of terror breaking the ceasefire. It was then revealed that soon after the explosion in Rafa, I'm told by, this is according to Ryan Grimm, I'm told by a source familiar, the White House and Pentagon knew that the incident was caused by an Israeli settler bulldozing, an Israeli settler bulldozer running over unexploded ordinance, contradicting Netanyahu's claim that Hamas had popped up from the tunnels. After Netanyahu said he was blocking all aid from entering Gaza in response and unleashed a bombing campaign,
Starting point is 01:14:45 the administration conveyed to Israel that they know what happened. Netanyahu then announced he would reopen the crossings in a few hours. Good boy. So, you know, ever since the ceasefire, there's been, I mean, there was a bus that was bombed, killing a bunch of Palestinian civilians. And then, of course, in the West Bank, settler violence continues. Ceasefire is a really fun word. That means nothing.
Starting point is 01:15:12 our boy jasper nathaniel has been documenting that i'm not sure we'll get to that today but yes egregious incident of uh you know man that video just yeah heartbreak haunting it's haunting the way he the way they were ambushed by the settlers the way the idf pretty much set them up and then that brutal beating of an elderly palestinian woman who i hear is now in stable condition and now in stable condition she was in the i i see you for a for a brain bleed um because she was beaten by an Israeli settler who, I mean, like this kind of just status quo racist violence is, you know, it's like we've gotten to the point now where people want to move on from this, but find that they can't because Israel continues to kill with impunity. And in terms of who wants to move on from this, I've found that other than the Trump administration just wanting to collect a metal, the people who really want to move on from this seem to be the Democratic Party in the United States. Last week there was- MoveOn.org. You know what I'm saying?
Starting point is 01:16:31 Yeah, that's what they move on. Exactly. So last week there was a few different interviews. The Democrats are doing podcasts now, which, you know, God bless them. Finally, they're trying to find their Joe Rogans of the left. Podcasts and book tours, baby. Yes. That's the way into ordinary Americans' hearts. Exactly. It's what the Democrats do best. But this time around, they're actually finding that they're being interviewed by people who are asking them, I wouldn't even say tough questions.
Starting point is 01:17:05 I would just say real questions. And they are failing miserably at them. know, in ways that have been, I don't know about you, Daniel, or you know them, but have been infuriating to me. And I just want to play a few of these interviews that happened. Let's start with Cory Booker, who went on, I don't know the name of the podcast, but it's like this white middle-aged lady, and it's called Just Like, I'm Tired of This Shit, or something like that.
Starting point is 01:17:37 And she's actually pretty based. Like, she's doing a lot of real. great work because she is open about her criticism of Israel in the Israeli government. And she talks to Cory Booker, who is a senator, who we all know as guy who will do a 25-hour filibuster and then vote to send more weapons to Israel and take a picture of Netanyahu. And so here is her interview that she did last week with him. He's a war criminal, Benjamin Netanyahu. Do you think he's a war criminal?
Starting point is 01:18:11 Again, these are questions that a lot of people think are the important litmus tests that are loaded and hot. My urgency is to be an effective leader in bringing an end to this crisis. And I get these questions all the time that, to me, undermine my urgency. I think the thing that Democrats get so frustrated with, where we are right now, where you see like the Zoran Mondanis and the grand platiners rise up, because you we can they can go on podcast and you can say do you think benjamin net you know who's a war criminal and they just say yes and that's the end of it it's not all of the rhetoric answering it's like it's not what you're doing what happens to democratic politicians they go through this like prism and then we can't ever get like the answer to yes or no conversations like you do with burning and others and that's the frustration for the democratic phase with leadership yes do i he ends with Do I think Netanyahu is worse than Trump, yes, which literally the only prism in which a Democrat can look at anything political?
Starting point is 01:19:17 Well, here's actually, there would have a great easy answer sort of by a kind of political transitive party, excuse me, transitive principle to get an answer to is Netanyahu a war criminal? Just simply ask him, do you think Netanyahu is worse than Barack Obama? Right. If the answer is yes, well, Barack Obama is a war criminal, so Benjamin Yahu, Mityahu must be that and then some, by the transitive property. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:19:44 Yeah, and I'm just like, you know, I'm watching this, and there's a few of these pivots that these politicians are doing on the Democrat side, which is like questions like these are litmus tests. These are traps set by people who want to make me look bad, and they don't understand the real politics. of this, which is that in order to be an effective leader, I have to play ball with, you know, I have to be careful with what I say, to which I would answer, like, if you had ever done
Starting point is 01:20:22 anything effectively, I don't think I would be in the position of criticizing you all as much as I am. If the Democrats ever actually did something, like, let's say, listen, the reason I need to take APEC money. The reason I need to take money from the Israel lobby is because I have to throw Palestinians under the bus because I'm the person that's going to get you health care. I'm the person that's going to codify Roe v. Wade. I'm the person that's going to make it illegal to fucking just send out ICE agents to round up people like Nazis. They don't actually do any of these things. The quid pro quo does not
Starting point is 01:21:06 exist. So instead, it's just like, well, if you're already ineffective and not doing anything at all, you might as well stand for something that you believe in. You know what I mean? The next time my partner asks me if I was sexting with another woman,
Starting point is 01:21:22 I'm going to say, look, my urgency here is to reduce the conflictual conversations between you and me, and you are undermining my urgency with that question. And that That's just one of these litmus test questions. Yeah, exactly. That frankly is just, it's just what's wrong with the politics.
Starting point is 01:21:38 You are making me a less effective husband. Every time you are asking me, you know, where I was. Okay? And I think you need to understand the pragmatism of good husbandry. Anyways, yeah, I don't know, you know, how much. exposure you get known to like American politics in terms of like especially from our
Starting point is 01:22:09 I don't know you know quote left to the democratic side but you know when you see someone who is in a position of power in the American government who refuses to call Benjamin Netanyahu something as simple as a war criminal which is something that he is
Starting point is 01:22:28 literally being accused of of by the International Criminal Court. Yeah. Like, what does that tell you about our positions, about, you know, the future of, you know, anything? You know, I get a lot, too much, actually, exposure here. The similarity with our, like, ridiculous opposition is, it's, it's amazing.
Starting point is 01:23:00 Yeah. It's really, really, really amazing. Yeah, that's right. Because you guys also have a fake controlled opposition there too. Yeah. Yeah. You know, when Trump was here, the head of the opposition, the head of the opposition during a government that is responsible,
Starting point is 01:23:21 you are the opposition to a government that is responsible for October 7th. It happened under their watch. You have it all laid out. It's just there for you to grab and be the most, like, fighting opposition. And you know what he used his time to talk about? No. You know, you'll appear like the... Right.
Starting point is 01:23:42 It's like a copy paste of these Democrats who want to be like right-wing centrists than actually be in opposition. Yes. He talked about the campus demonstrations. In, like... In America? Yeah. God.
Starting point is 01:24:00 Just, just, Israel just is the 51st state of the United States at this point. Just annex Israel already. You have the opportunity, you have, you have, you have, Trump is there. And you know then what Trump said. What? Yeah, after like Keri Lapid, the, the, the chair of the opposition, Trump looks at Netanyahu and said, oh, baby, yeah, you have a nice,
Starting point is 01:24:30 chair of opposition be nice to him baby you see like even Trump was referring to the fact that he was not opposing anything yeah if there's one thing Trump can recognize it's obsequiousness it's people playing ball
Starting point is 01:24:46 yeah and going along and pretending to oppose BB this is this guy's nice he exposed his soft underbelly to me and he and then Trump goes and I brought you I brought you a ceasefire
Starting point is 01:24:59 BB you can be to the opposition he's nice I felt like I was having a seizure when Trump is giving his speech in the Knesset yes seriously when when Trump when he looked at the at the president and told him that he can pardon BB champagne cigars who cares parted like oh god honestly I love that shit I love when Trump does that because he's always exposed whether he means to or not he's exposing something that should exposed. Yeah. You know, he's like, he's saying the thing you're not supposed to say. And I'm sure he either believes it or he's just going on ADD impulse. My favorite part of that Cory Booker
Starting point is 01:25:40 thing is the thing that politicians do, like, and Kamala does it too. I don't know if we have the clip of the book event that, that was interrupted, but it's a very, it's a very democratic politician thing. Someone will ask a question. And the first words out of the Democratic politician's mouth, whether it's Vodajic or Kamala or Obama, it was like, Well, these are questions. Yeah. Those words you just said to me, they had a question mark at the end. It wasn't interrogative.
Starting point is 01:26:07 These are questions. That was a sentence. These are definitely words. Yeah. That was English. Yeah. The idea that you're just like, well, listen, sometimes people ask me questions and gosh darn it, you just did. That's all they have to say.
Starting point is 01:26:24 Basically what Kamala was doing in this answer, she was like listing a bunch of stuff that like accumulate to a genocide and then she said, but is it a genocide? A court will say, not me. Right, right. Who am I to say anything at all of substance? Am I a leader? Yeah, exactly.
Starting point is 01:26:44 The court will decide whether the policies that I vociferously supported and decried anyone for being hateful for opposing are a genocide or not. The court that, as Rui said, doesn't have a Jewish judge. Exactly. Exactly.
Starting point is 01:27:00 This court is adjourned. It's bad. That was good enough. But yeah, I mean, there's tons, you know, more of this. I want to also play Gavin Newsom, governor of this great state of California. He recently went on Van Latham's show. And Van Latham is a really funny guy and a good political commentator. but mostly just hilarious dude
Starting point is 01:27:30 who has a great podcast and he was able to get Gavin on and he asked him some real questions and I have to say I've never like I already don't trust Gavin Newsom but then watching him squirm his way through questions about APEC I think discussing me beyond anything I've seen him say thus far
Starting point is 01:27:51 so let me play a little bit of this is Gavin talking about APEC APEC I will not vote for a candidate that takes $1 from APEC. It's interesting. I haven't thought about APEC. And it's interesting, you're like the first to bring up APEC in yours. Like, are we, I'm sorry, we're sitting here for the first time going, APEC, what is it?
Starting point is 01:28:17 I've never, that's weird. I've never even thought. I never even thought about that before. That's weird, man. I want to see how many times you can, I want to see how many times you can use the word interesting in one answer. Oh, check this out. Just interesting.
Starting point is 01:28:31 Why did I say that? Not relevant to my day-to-day life. Okay. Which is just interesting. Listen, it's interesting you say that. J-PAC, perhaps more, but A-PAC less and less. Okay. Fair enough.
Starting point is 01:28:43 Which is just interesting. What's interesting about it? That it's just interesting, as you bring up A-PAC, that it hasn't been part of, I'm just reflecting quite openly and honestly, hasn't been part of the day-to-day. So what's actually disgusting about that is, number one, what's interesting about it to him is he is 100% implying that Van is asking a
Starting point is 01:29:03 lazy anti-Semitic question. It's really interesting you would bring up APEC. It's very, very fascinating that you would think that that has anything to do with politics in California. And then he goes on to say, well, maybe
Starting point is 01:29:19 if you were talking about JPEC, which is, of course, in California, is our well-funded, Israel lobby. J-PAC is the California A-PAC, essentially. I mean, you know, like these groups, A-PAC at this point is a blanket name for the Israel lobby. A-PAC is multiple different organizations and an organization, but the Israel lobby spans everything. So at this point, I forgive anyone who calls the Israel lobby A-PAC. It's interesting that you ask about A-PAC. I mean,
Starting point is 01:29:53 I think about J-Pag all the time, but they're funders and supervisors and the people who give them their marching orders and the umbrella organization to which they belong. I want to channel my best Peewey Herman. Well, it's still happened, the governor, that you just said our secret word. Interesting. And the chair is flapping up and down. Oh, that's great. I love how he said that it's not part of the day to day.
Starting point is 01:30:19 Like, you know, I mean, they pay in advance like what. Exactly. It's not a day-to-day paycheck. It's a one-three. Yeah, every couple of years, I get an influx as soon as there is, let's say, I don't know, a fucking election coming up. I mean, he's sitting there pretending that APEC is some weird question that anyone would ask right now in the middle of a genocide. He continues to talk about the weirdness of asking any questions about this in this next clip in which he's asked about a possible weapons ban. And here is that...
Starting point is 01:30:57 Are you in favor of halting military assistance to Israel? I mean, the timing is a curious one. And the precipice of a phase one deal that was announced today in a ceasefire. So, like, starting off with that, oh, it's interesting timing that you would ask about this when Trump, who I hate, by the way, just took care of this for me. Yeah. And this is your point, Matt, right? That Democrats love blaming Trump for everything that goes wrong.
Starting point is 01:31:23 Yes. Right? But when it comes time to him giving them cover, saying, oh, he's the, you know, he's given them the pretext to say, let's not talk about this anymore because our dear fearless leader has taken care of it for us. It's no longer a problem. And it's, it's, it's extra disgusting because of the fact that they, they're, you know, they are given this opening, even in a completely cynical person, I would accept the like political posturing where you're going to say. because Trump is bad, and I hate everything he does, you could take this opportunity to show yourself as the political opposition to this. This ceasefire is bullshit, which it is, the status quo, even if it was a dream come true,
Starting point is 01:32:12 it would just maintain the status quo of an apartheid state. You can take that position now because, I mean, literally as soon as Trump became president, Did you notice one-by-one celebrities started talking about, you know, Israel doing a genocide or being bad in some way? Including some far-left members of the Democratic Party. Yes, yes. All of a sudden, it became a little bit more politically feasible. You are in that moment now. You are in that moment.
Starting point is 01:32:41 And instead, what does he do? He deflects a question about a weapons ban to Israel by saying, well, why would you ask that when we're about to have peace? like can you just like he's almost mad that he didn't schedule the interview for after the peace agreement was signed so that peace just me yeah he just means you can continue arming israel but nobody will make like yes you know fuss about it that's peace to the exactly exactly and it's very curious that's very curious you would say that no it's very interesting yeah just interesting the subject of a movie called coexistence my ass when yeah coexistence is is is the best thing ever.
Starting point is 01:33:21 Well, with, you know, Gavin Newsom being such a handsome guy, I'm going to start calling him Curious Gorge. Oh, I like it. It's not a day-to-day thing, like the weapon. It's not like Israel is, you know, it's not like America is giving Israel weapons, like on a day-to-day basis. Yeah, yeah, I know.
Starting point is 01:33:39 It's on a minute-to-minute basis. Well, it's funny you say that because listen to the rest of this time. Even if this is over, but I get it. Yeah. So, look, no, I'm not prepared to say that I would support. a blanket exemption for military support of Israel. An exemption?
Starting point is 01:33:57 That said, I've been very vocal in my opposition to BB Nut and Yahoo. When it gets into the nuances, and I know there was a bill in Congress on this, but a blanket restriction, I would have a difficult time supporting. But to eliminate support across the board is something, to me, is a bridge too far. conditioning in a thoughtful way with a flexibility of criteria, flexibility with conditions that are changing on an hourly or daily basis or weekly basis as a relation to not just what's happening in Gaza, but what's happening in Lebanon? What's his fetish with the daily basis stuff?
Starting point is 01:34:41 You know, if we, he's just, you know, he doesn't think about Israel on daily basis, but he does think about like day to day being able to arm Israel based on the flexibility you know you got to be flexible enough to give Israel weapons on an hourly basis from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. today we're going to send them a day's worth of weapons. You never know. For 4 p.m. at the 6 p.m., we're going to reduce it. It's during their slavstunde, the two from four. You can't have that much noise. And on the seventh day, God banned weapons to Israel. Yeah. It's just, oh, God, man.
Starting point is 01:35:22 I just like, I cannot stand that level of like democratic, focus grouped cowardice where you're just like, listen, I believe in respecting the nuances of giving guns and ammo to Israel at any time they ask for it. Just be honest. Just be honest. And this last clip I'm going to play is from the Breakfast Club from, you know, potential VP who didn't make it. Josh Shapiro out of Pennsylvania, he would ask. Hey, Jew, they don't want you to be the vice presidential candidate. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:36:00 They hate you. They hate you. They hate you, they hate you for being from Pennsylvania. They say they prefer a populist from Minnesota. That's right. I just love. You know why they hate you? Because Netanyahu also lived in Pennsylvania.
Starting point is 01:36:16 Okay, so here is Josh Shapiro talking to Charlemagne, the G-slash-D. There it is right here. The article in the New York Times about Democrats pulling away from APEC. So clearly it's having some impact on them politically if they feel like they got to... I don't know. I think it's become a political issue. You've used it as a political issue. You've questioned federal representatives.
Starting point is 01:36:41 when they're on here. I think it's a little bit of a shortcut and a little bit of a lazy question. I think the better question is, how do you really feel about Israel, how you feel about a two-state solution? How do you feel about the war? How do you feel about...
Starting point is 01:36:53 Am I reading too much into it? Well, listen, most popular black radio host in America. That's a lazy question. You know, I'll be honest, I cut out the part where you said, I hope this doesn't offend you at the beginning, just to get to that explanation. quicker but I love that he's like what I'm sort of a shiftless kind of layabout question
Starting point is 01:37:19 listen I hope this doesn't offend you but this is a type of question that someone would ask if they had an extra muscle in their cap that made them jump higher you know what I mean this is some question and don't be offended by this but like certain people when I measure their skulls ask this question that question's been gorging itself on chicken for way too long. Yeah, yeah. This question is sort of a, like, the fact that he just calls him to his face lazy.
Starting point is 01:37:51 And also, listen, there are such things as lazy questions. It is not necessarily racialized to say a question is lazy to anyone. The idea that it is lazy to ask someone a question about APEC is, I'm sorry, him being racist to cover. And lazy.
Starting point is 01:38:11 Because he doesn't want to work at the answer. And his answer seems to be thus far. Why ask you about APEC when instead, you know, you could ask people, maybe they just truly believe in Israel's right to do all this, which is like, it's such a funny, like, deflection. Because it's like, that isn't the question. The question is about whether or not you or anyone who is taking money from a lobbyist is somehow now compromised
Starting point is 01:38:41 because they are taking money from a fucking lobbyist. And it just, he's like, no, you should ask me another question. Like, do I believe in Israel's right to exist? Can you ask me a less uppity question? Yeah. Hostages or hungry kids or what have you.
Starting point is 01:38:59 I think demanding answers on those questions is more important than... That's a different fucking question. Hey, what about this lobbying group? that lobbying group? Well, what do you say? What about this lobby or that lobby that might be influencing you, Josh Shapiro to make Palestinians go hungry and to threaten the possibility that the hostages were ever going to be returned at life? And Charlemagne doesn't miss a beat. He's asking, he is a great interviewer, and he's asking all of these
Starting point is 01:39:30 questions right off right after. Well, what do you say to the critics who argue that U.S. foreign policy on Israel is often shaped not by national interests, but by the lobbying scrimp of these people? I think that's a fair conversation to have. That's the conversation he is trying to have. That's a question. That's definitely a question. How is it lazy just a second ago?
Starting point is 01:39:53 And now you're like, well, that's a pretty good question. Of course, he's going to butt this whole thing. I think it's just a little lazy to say, oh, it's got to be because of that interest group. Maybe someone actually believes those views, or maybe someone feels strongly about that particular way. Is it possible for... Those famously lazy academics, Steve Walt and John Meersheimer.
Starting point is 01:40:12 Yeah, I know. An elected official to get million of dollars from, you know, corporate donors, or even lobbying interests and still really work for the people over those people? Yeah. Look, I mean, you've asked me a few questions on that. And clearly, I know you're bothered by that. I think we're all bothered by the amount of money in politics. But I think...
Starting point is 01:40:33 I love that projection, by the way. Clearly, you're very bothered by, you know, the money in politics. We're all bothered by it. It's like Josh Shapiro, clearly you are very bothered by being asked questions about taking money from the Israel lobby. And his deflection is essentially, it doesn't matter. I would do this for free. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:40:59 It's like Daniel's, it's like Daniel's what you said before about the sex thing. it's like you say to your partner, you're clearly very bothered about me sexting with other. That's right. And it's this other move that these especially Democratic politicians love to do, which is to say, you're clearly bothered, perhaps suspiciously so, by this specific thing.
Starting point is 01:41:26 And we're all bothered by some generalized, like, zoomed out version of it. So in the case of the sexting, it would be like, you're clearly very bothered by this baseless accusation. of me sexting with another woman. Look, we're both bothered by the overuse of our phones in this relationship. You know, like, we're all concerned that there's too much texting generally going on. We're not spending enough time together in person. And too much screen time in society in general.
Starting point is 01:41:52 That's right. Listen, we all have problems. God damn. And, you know, it's just like sitting there, you know, Charlemagne asks another great question, which is like, is it possible to take the money from these lobbyists to represent their interests while at the same time representing the interests of your actual constituents? And Josh Speer goes, yeah, that's what I do, you see? I make both things work.
Starting point is 01:42:22 I have a constituent base that is democratic and is a majority against sending weapons to Israel. That's one part. And then I have this lobby that's given me money to keep sending. weapons to Israel. I take the money from the ethno-nationalist advocacy group, but really it's no tzit-seed attached, you know? I like it. I like it. Did you hear that C-C-C-C joke, Noam? Yeah. It was like no strings attached. Yeah. Yeah, I liked it. Sorry, I wasn't listening. I'm sorry. No, no, it's okay. I'm also tired of us. Can you repeat? No, no, no need. No need. You can go, but you can watch the episode, Noam. This is a live recording. You miss it the first time.
Starting point is 01:43:04 You snossed, you lost. It's late. It's late where you are. It was kind of a lazy joke, honestly. It was kind of lazy. Well, you're clearly bothered by the fact that you made a lazy joke. And I wasn't paying attention. You're clearly bothered by the fact that I wasn't listening to you.
Starting point is 01:43:23 Look, we're all bothered by hearing loss. Yeah, we all have sufficient hearing loss. All right, let's just play a little bit more of this. The voters, I'll just speak to Pennsylvania. They're smart. They know who's on their side. They see it. I got voters who sometimes show up and vote for Republicans,
Starting point is 01:43:40 sometimes vote for Democrats. But overall, I think voters are a lot smarter and they can see through that. This guy totally went to the Barack Obama School of Oratory. 100%. He is just doing an Obama impression. That means you're a lame politician if people sometimes vote for Republicans
Starting point is 01:43:58 also vote for you anyway. And beyond that, also, like his main point there, is just like, you know, basically Charlene's asking if that money dictating policy, if that matters to voters, and doesn't that affect, you know, your own decision-making politician? And he's going, listen, guys, voters are smart. They can see through when someone is just serving the interests of the lobby. and when someone is like me really good at dodging questions
Starting point is 01:44:35 about serving the interests of a lobby and I love because that is just dripping with disdain in my opinion his like condescending voters are smart enough to know the difference and he's just patting himself on the back for the fact that he continues to fool his own constituents
Starting point is 01:44:55 who again after poll after poll actual democratic voters a vast majority are like do not look at Israel favorably and would approve a weapons ban I mean it's just fucking
Starting point is 01:45:11 it's just fucking ridiculous you're gonna finish up taking the money is just that when you take the money and you're beholden to them that's what I would tell elected officials you don't have to be beholden to them yeah I can tell you there's there's not one donor or one group or whatever
Starting point is 01:45:26 that I go oh, man, I got to please them, so I'm going to do something that I disagree with. I wouldn't be able to live with myself. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. People are going to, people will always assume it's APEC, though. APEC is the boogeyman in all of politics. It's code for a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 01:45:42 Yeah, I just wonder. Oh. Just to his face. It's code. To his face, calling him anti-Semitic, saying that anyone who asks him about APEC is anti-Semitic. And also him sitting there going. It's code is code for you're an anti-Semite. Yes.
Starting point is 01:46:01 It's code like the initials. Like A-PAC stands for something. Yeah, exactly. What could it be code for? Oh, God. Hey, Jew. Yeah, hey Jew. They hate you.
Starting point is 01:46:13 All because you want to support Israel for money or not. I mean, I can't imagine like what it's like to be either Van or, Charlemagne to have to sit there and kind of parse through the like like I see this and I clearly know exactly what the fuck these people are saying like they're both telling their interviewer your line of questioning is racist or or is anti-Semitic and like just to be either one of them and have to like sit there they may not know off the bat like is this motherfucker calling me a fucking anti-semitic? Mike, because I asked him about a lobby group that he does take money from. Like, you know, I'm not sure if they're sitting there as infuriated as I am, but I'm watching this with fucking, like, clenched fists, especially him sitting there going, like, it's not like, you know, everyone's, you know, sitting around going, oh, there's this one lobby group that is, I really got to, you know, please.
Starting point is 01:47:20 And it's like, how many different politicians were on record in Walt and Meersheimer's book the Israel lobby and have been on record on American news talking about the amount of pressure from A-PAC and from various different Israel advocacy groups. Like,
Starting point is 01:47:40 who are you fucking kidding? It's infuriating, and I think, Matt, you and I have this in common. When Democrats do this shit, it extra gets our goat because of the hypocrisy and the sanctimony and the evasiveness and the key and easy-to-overlook role they play in making this possible, not to mention the fact that it's Josh Shapiro's party that was
Starting point is 01:48:03 the primary party to the beginning of this genocide. Noam, because time zones are anti-Semitic and they hate you, it is very late where you are and we should probably let you go and maybe call this an episode. What do you think, man? I think that's been an episode. I really, I missed you guys. It's so much fun talking to you. And this place and your place is so horrible that we can just have material and go on for days and weeks, day by day, like the other guys. That's right. We have the flexibility. You know, every hour, every day we get a little another weapon to use against Israel.
Starting point is 01:48:48 Well, I'm really, I'm excited to see your film next week here in New York City at the IFC Center. Yeah, and people can go online on coexistence myass.com and there's like a bunch, so many cities and so many screenings and yeah. Do not type in coexistence in my ass.com. That will take you to a very different website. Yeah, that'll take you to my personal website. So don't click on that. But we will have a link to the movie, to the trailer, to where people can get tickets and also to your social media. Always a pleasure talking to you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm looking forward for next time. Me too. Maybe one day will be good Jews and we'll do good Hasbara. Yeah, yeah. That would be so sick. Just to do good Osbarah, just to watch some good Hasbara would be nice. Just someone with a new fucking argument would be great. And I mean, you are doing, I mean, no, you're not, you're doing
Starting point is 01:49:47 bad as Barra, but thank you for being good Jews. Oh, thank you. That is so nice. And thank you for coming on and thank you to all of you out there listening. Patreon.com slash badassbara. Baddusbara at gmail.com for all your questions, comments, and concerns. All right, everyone.
Starting point is 01:50:07 Thanks again so much for listening. Thank you. Until next time, from the river to the sea. This podcast will be slam poetry free. Jumping jacks was us. Push-ups was us. God, ma-ga, us. All karate us, taking Molly us, Michael Jackson us, Yamaha keyboards, us,
Starting point is 01:50:30 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, Bequem yoga us, eating food, us, reading air, us, drinking water us. We invented all that shit. Cheers.

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