Bad Hasbara - The World's Most Moral Podcast - Bad Hasbara 59: Le Bonfire of the Vanities, with Samira Mohyeddin

Episode Date: October 31, 2024

Matt and Daniel are joined by historian and journalist Samira Mohyeddin to discuss “crisis vultures,” whether the Obama oratory can sell a Kamala Harris pro-Israel candidacy, and to decide whether Ta-Nehisi Coates or Elica Le Bon has a better grasp of the Palestinian plight.Please donate to Gaza Great Minds: gazagreatminds.org/donate/Find Samira Mohyeddin online at https://patreon.com/OnTheLineMediaSubscribe to the Patreon https://www.patreon.com/badhasbaraSubscribe/listen to Bad Hasbara wherever you get  your podcasts.Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/5RDvo87OzNLA78UH82MI55Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bad-hasbara-the-worlds-most-moral-podcast/id1721813926Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/bad-hasbara/donationsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Hello, hot bitch, We invented the cherry tomato And weighs USG drives and the ironed Israeli salad, oozy, stent, and javas orange crows Microchips is us, iPhone cameras us, taco salads us Bothobamos us Olive Garden us, white foster us Zabrahamas

As far as us Hello and welcome to Bad Hasbara, the world's most moral podcast. My name is Matt Lieb. I will be your most moral co-host. And I'm Daniel Matte and I'll be the other one. Hell yeah, so excited for all of you out there in the Bad Hasbara sphere to join us. I'm especially excited for those of you who are watching because Matt, you are looking. What? Harif, as we say in Hebrew.

Picante. as some other language says. Kind of spicy. I'm getting George Michael Circa 1987 vibes. Yeah, well, so this shirt that I'm wearing, it's a button down like denim

acid wash denim. Acid wash denim. So it's like light. And it's also missing a button. And because of that, it is a deep V now and it's showing just a little bit of chest hair. Now,

I don't want to, you know, encourage everyone to just switch from their listening device to their watching device. But if you want to get horny, now's the time to check out the YouTube channel. And I don't want to suggest, I don't want to recommend that people do anything rash,

like just switch their sexuality permanently and irrevocably just so they can admit to themselves how desirous they are of you. But if you feel it, like I'm feeling it, we may need to be speaking to our therapist this week. Absolutely. And having some conversations with our intimate partners. 100%.

Because Matt Lieb, he's not just a snack he's a snack bar man dude i'm a i'm a whole freaking uh vending machine that's what i am not just one snack but we're talking sour patch kids Hershey bar snickers and welch's fruit snacks for the for the for the health conscious yes exactly uh a a two pack of pop tarts nice spread and thank you to Francesca Furentini catering company for the for the loan. For the loan.

I'm out on loan from my wife Patreon.com slash Can we still do Borat humor now that that guy's doing Borat again? I can and I will. We are reclaiming Borat. I don't care that he is a piece of shit.

It doesn't matter to me because I, you know, much like do I make you horny baby was sort of reclaimed ironically um so is this my wife is it's no longer it's no longer his it's ours that's what i say correct yeah you can't have it anymore um join the patreon patreon patreon.com slash bad hesbarra we uh put out a bonus episode last week uh with asa win stanley of the electronic intifada which uh it was a truly one of our best episode and it is behind a paywall. So if you want to hear just how good this show can be,

go to patreon.com. You can't have it, unless you pay just a little bit, just a little bit. And here's the thing. What's nothing wrong with paying a little bit of money? And shout out to producer Adam Levin out here on the ones and twos, which I know what that means now, because you explained it to me.

You explained it it. and um you has you has beard it to me and so now i know it has something to do with uh oh you you you has beard i can't grow beard um so yeah you can you can listen to his explanation on the bonus episode we did with asa uh and also today's episode um is brought to you by a sponsor that was actually chosen um or suggested uh by a twitter follower of ours um Today's episode is brought to you by Gaza Great Minds. We provide safe, tent classrooms and quality education to Gaza's children affected by the war. We also provide much needed professional psychological support by fostering resilience and hope.

We empower youth, reignite joy, and contribute to rebuilding a resilient community. We will work against the odds and logistical challenges. just to bring hope and smiles back to their faces. So that's Gaza great minds.org slash donate. Please donate to them because they are doing really good work within Gaza and they need all the help that they can get. Gaza great minds.org.

Daniel, what's the spin? Well, today, on this particular day, I got a few things spinning. I just got back from San Francisco. And boy, are my arms tired. Yeah. Remember that? Yeah.

I'm sorry. Yeah. Sometimes I interrupt. Yeah, you do. Sometimes I interrupt with joke. I'm sorry. Go ahead. It's great.

Don Rickles. I got Black Alicious, the Bay Area rap group, just representing San Francisco hip-hop. I've got Duran Duran here, 7 and the Ragged Tiger, because we're going to be speaking about someone. on this particular episode, who I thought might be the illegitimate daughter of Simon Labon, their lead singer, and I think a number of people have made that leap

just based on the... Based on last names. Based on last names, but it is not true, but anyway, good album, it's got the reflex on it, and, yeah, you know, Duran Duran. Now, these guys have some problematic members, but Radiohead electioneering on the OK Computer album because we are a week out from this.

From the election. From the election, and they go forwards, we go backwards, and somehow we will meet. And just on the similar tip, I've got Stevie Wonder here fulfilling this, the first finale, for the song, You Haven't Done Nothing, which I will just now recite, and I mean this, to go out to every single member of both of the major parties. We are amazed, but not amused by all the things you say that you'll do, though much concerned but not involved with decisions that are made by you, but we are sick and tired of hearing your song,

telling how you are going to change right from wrong because if you really want to care our views you haven't done nothing so I love it I'm just watching both political parties like try to outdo each other at how just how distasteful and craven

they can be it's like a competition for who can be the worst possible candidate to lead people. It's a competition of like who can showcase their

absolute disdain for the lives of Palestinian people and just mudslinging, two people mudslinging the same pile of mud. The incredible thing about it is they each give the other such opportunity, if you

thought that humanizing a group of people that a lot of people in the world care about might help win you an election. The other side is giving the other one so many opportunities to dunk on them and Trump had that moment with a few imams in Michigan endorsing him whatever and that was a pretty good

win for him but then he has to go and have fucking Giuliani at his rally at MSG talking about how I don't trust two-year-old Palestinian right and they're just they're they're outdoing each other in monstrous ways they're they're they are both monsters they they are both absolute genocidal maniacs and you know what i love democracy because those are those are our choices um unless you vote third party uh in which case uh you know those aren't your choices so uh that's what's going on with the uh music spin. I love

hearing your musical choices. At some point, I'm going to have to showcase some of my records. Hell yeah. I mean, I don't physically have records, but, you know, I mean, I got a couple that they just kind of sit there because I don't have a record player. Yeah, you've got Bonthos

in Harmony, the explicit mix, Bone Thongs in Harmony. Feel free to sing along to every word of this. Yep, yeah. And I've got the Batman Forever soundtrack. track featuring love thugs in harmony. We could pair that with my Prince Batman album in 1990.

I love it. I wish when I missed the times when our artists mostly just did songs for Batman movies. Shit sucks now. Before we introduce our guests, I want to start off with a clip. Now, usually these clips that I play at the beginning are like some of, you know, just the most abhorrent has bars that I find online. But this one is different. This one was just a moment in which I just felt if you need a smile,

if you want to see resilience, then you're going to love this. There was one of many buildings that were bombed out in Lebanon. It's a weird thing to smile that, man. Well, no, that's not the smile. You got to just wait. You got to let me, you know, I just want to, for record, not smiling. at that. I'm smiling at the results of that. Wait, wait, wait. What I mean by that? There was a building that was bombed out under the auspices of having rockets, as they all do. You know, that's the thing about buildings is you have to bond them because there's rockets always. And there was an interview done in Arabic that I have to show you guys. And I, you know, I did the translating myself. And so here is that.

Israel always claims its targets are resistance centers or sites with rocket launchers. As we know, you were the last one out of the building. What's actually in there? There are rockets. Take a picture of them. Here I am. I am the rocket. This guy. guy is that is the coolest motherfucker i have just straight up so excited for the set up to this bit and his body language too as he sort of like strokes and so it's just like i am yes it's straight up he's just going like yeah they found some guns gun number one gun number two bro just incredible oh my god dude it is uh

You know, if you want to talk about what Gallo's humor actually is, that is an example. You see, it is when it is his building that is bombed out. It's not when you do the bombing. That's the difference between a Zionist and someone who actually is, what do you call it, funny, you know? You've never heard an Israeli in a bomb shelter or, you know, one of these bunkers make a good joke. no no never never just it's just it's usually just uh laughing at the death and destruction that they're creating that's all they do they don't do they don't do jokes uh they do um cruel commentary and then they laugh because they think it's a joke um but yeah dude that that was just i just

love it the dude is so let's not go off on hingecliff let's absolutely not go off on tony hingecliff He says, let's not go off a Hinchcliff. Oh, I got it, got it, yeah. Hinch Cliff Hanger. Yes, yes, yes. But, yeah. I don't know who that guy is, but he sure made himself look fucking stupid this week. Yes, he did.

Yes, he did. And you know what? God bless him for it because I love that he's making a name for himself as the world's biggest fucking asshole, which he is. And he may just very soon get invited. You might be the first invitee to the White House under a Kamala Harris presidency to thank him for the assist i know wouldn't that be fucking funny if this fucking election turned on tony fucking hingecliff killed tony christ that would be great um but yeah no anyways shout out to that guy uh i mean serious swag body banging too like he you know where's the lie the dude is

hot as shit big ass muscles looking good as fuck where's the rocket right here that's what i'm gonna say now whenever someone asked me where the rocket is no one ever asked me that though um okay it is time maybe we could start a new segment hey matt where's the rocket and i just point to my body where's the cruise missile matt yeah where's the scud yeah right here i just keep showing my dick every week every week another pretext for you to show your copy god damn we keep getting demonetized i just think it's funny sex work is work sex work is work it's funny when i show my dick uh All right.

So our guest, and we have a great guest, is a fantastic journalist and founder of On the Line Media. Ladies and gentlemen and everyone else, please welcome to Bad Hasbara Samira Moyden. Hello. Hello. Looking good. You know, we're living.

We're living good. I'm missing a button, but it's making me sexier. How are you? I'm good. I'm better than missing a limb. Oh, that's good. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, a button is replaceable. Limbs, not as much. Anything going on in Canadian politics that can rival the madness down here?

You're up in Toronto. I mean, what isn't going on here? Foreign interference is a biggie. Mm, yeah, yeah. And, you know, the Center for Israeli Jewish Affairs asked for the Canadian government to strip Francesca Albanese of her diplomatic immunity when she scheduled. to be here. Sorry, when you said foreign interference, by definition,

I thought you just meant Russia doing something random and untrue. By definition, there's only one foreign. Yeah, foreign interferer. Yeah, yeah. When Israelis do it, it's just called constructive, you know, international, it's not, they're not isolationists. They're not isolationists. Right.

They want to get involved. Yeah, exactly. That's the thing about voting, dude. You don't boo, vote. And by voting, you just, uh, you know, try to rig elections in your paper. Don't boo metal. Don't boo metal in elections.

Wait, so they're trying to make it so that there's no diplomatic immunity for Francesca Albanese. For the UN Special Rapporteur. Yeah, they're asking the Canadian government to strip her of her diplomatic immunity. Because they might want to take legal action. I was going to say, because they might want to

give her a parking ticket? Like for what? Like what? Like, what did No, they want to take legal action against her for hate. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, there's one thing that she's known for. It's all the hate-crimining and murdering that she's doing, you know. And Zionists can't tell the difference between disliking something and hate. Like, I have a strong dislike for things on principle.

Yeah. That's a good kind of hate to have. Yeah. And they hide behind this. I mean, it's their whole thing. Their whole thing is that, you know, you can't make fun of me. That's illegal. That's literally, that's how they roll.

It is, it is how they have been rolling for a while. And you know, no one's really stopped them. Well, Francesca's, you know, she's really taken a lot of hits and she, you know, she's paid the price. Yeah. I think it's hard for her to travel. Yeah, it's very difficult. And she's just being lamb blasted. her new report just came out

about the genocide. So I think she's doing a bit of a tour. She was in New York, that she's going to Washington. From Washington, she's coming to Toronto. And so they're trying to sort of stop her at every little turn, you know? Yeah. It is, you know, it's great that this is, at this point, the international community and the entire,

architecture of the international community is just going to be torn down because we really, really like an apartheid state. We just think we need this. It has to stay. So if that means there are no human rights, then there are no human rights. And that is one of the long-term attrition style consequences of this past year, right? Like people have been saying it that like it's not just that Israel gets to do this, but because they did this and because we stood by it, funded it, supported it. And, you know, now we have to tear down any laws that would prescribe it, you know, and they're delegitimizing the rule of international human rights law entirely as an entire edifice.

They're carpet bombing that whole apartment block. Yeah. And it's just a big war on the United Nations in general. Yeah. So tell me, tell me about yourself. I love long walks by the beach. Same, same, same, same, same. So you're based out of Canada. Toronto, yes. Toronto is so that's not in Canada.

It is in Canada. To Torontoians, it is Canada. I'm from Vancouver. When Torontoians say Canada, what they mean is Toronto. And there's a center of the universe, right? That's why you guys think of yourself. Center of Canada. Center of Canada.

I mean, it is right there in the middle of it. So you... Winnipeg's right there in the middle. Oh, yeah. No one knows what the fuck Winnipeg is. I'm from America. Canada is... Shai Davidae was just in Winnipeg.

People know where Winnipeg is. That's right. Shai Davidae, our friend of the show, friend of the pod, was recently in Winnipeg. And you showed up. Is that right? No, I showed up for Toronto. He was doing across Canada.

Oh, he's going across all the provinces. He is. People are paying money to have hors d'oeuvres and drinks with Shai. They're paying money to watch him stomp his foot like a child. It's called Kovitch on the couch. Kvich on the couch. Kvich on the couch? Yeah.

As we said in the Asa episode, stop trying to make Kvetch happen. Yeah, straight up. So when you went to, this event. You ran into somebody who I was unfamiliar with that I want to play a clip of. And maybe

you can tell me more about this person that you ran into. And set the stage also just what was this event and what vibe were you expecting based on the advanced, you know, Shy Davida is coming to time. So we set up first to the clip. Yeah, please. Yeah. So this was

last week, it was October 21st. Shai Davidae was coming to the University of Toronto for a quote-unquote Zionist rally, organized by a group called Tafiq. This is one of those many groups that have popped up since October 7th in Canada. And they brought him here. And so he was coming to give a talk. They had asked people to bring their university-age students to the University of Toronto, which Shai-Davidai calls a cesspool.

of anti-Semitism. And while he was there, he was comparing the University of Toronto to the University of Berlin and warning the 50 pensioners who had come to hear him talk about what was happening. And so I went there to cover this big event.

I was expecting a huge turnout. But that isn't exactly how it turned out. You're telling me that the college kids that were called upon to march with the Zionists, they didn't show up? No. That is so sad.

It's, you know, they were probably busy. They were in class. They're good students. Unlike the Arabs who never go to class, you know, the Palestinians. That's right. So what happened to these youngsters?

You know, like these Gen Ziers, we used to have like a punk rock ethic, a rock and roll ethic, you know, and a rock star comes to town like Shadavidai, you cut class, you go, you know, you roll a dube and you post up and you you bring a blanket and you have yourself a day

and you it's a moment to remember and these kids are so they're so stuffed shirted and and buy the book and so I got a study. I'm too busy to do a rally for more genocide. I'm too busy to go out and listen to some skinny whining

child of a warlord. Child of a warlord. stomp his feet and bitch and moan about how he's not allowed to harass students. We were hoping for some stomping, some stomp and shy Davidae, but we didn't get that. He didn't do his greatest hits. We are not okay. Now, for the Canadians in the room, there's a good stomping Tom Conner's joke to be made, but it would be a little too niche for math.

Something off the good old hockey game, the good old, not the good old. I would say a bit on the nose, but I can't say that. Sure. But here is some video that you took during this event. So, just so I'm clear, did that woman just look at you and say, it's the D word? It's the D word? Wow. And she doesn't mean stopping the dam.

Yeah, the thing in the dam, yeah. Wow. Isn't that just because you were wearing a T-shirt says, I'm not. I'm a shy Davy Dyke. It's so. I'm proud of it. I'm a dyke for Davy Daven. And she in that part is asking you, would you wear that in Tehran?

She was obsessed with my sartorial choices that day. What were you wearing? I was wearing this beautiful Hugo Boss vest and a button down and the jeans. and my Doc Martins. And, you know, it just goes to show that people have no sense or clue of what Tehran is like, what people wear, or anything about the country. She just thinks that, you know, in Tehran, you would be wearing all black and walking around, you know, only your eyes showing. Yeah, that's the whole thing.

Yeah, so this is, for those who don't know, that's Suan Levy, the Toronto Sun, which is kind of like a paper that you would line your cat litter box with it's like a murdock rag is it is it is it owned by murdock like the other son it's not but um it's it yeah it's basically like the new york post okay or the other son not not nearly as good on the headline game i mean let's be real the creditors do you know the post got great puns yeah i mean post would run davidike no problem immediately i should be why aren't i working for the new york post honestly why don't I write, my puns are basically New York Post headline caliber and maturity

level. If you want to make actual money, you need to get out of this podcast game. All right, let's continue. Yeah, would you walk down the street or not? You're not judged. You're all about it. Would you walk down the streets of Duran? Would you show up or not?

Good? Looking like a butch. Yeah, would you walk down looking like a butch? Yeah. She looks, she's pretty butchie herself. She's kind of butchie herself. And you told us off air that she's, in fact, married to a Jewish woman? She is Jewish herself. She's married to a Jewish woman. So she thinks that you can't be homophobic if you're gay.

I love that. I love that. That's great. But to her, you can be a self-hating Jew if you're a Jew. Right. I love it when they say something that is clearly just self-hating. Like that is, that's a self-hating lesbian, if I've ever seen one. And, you know, the idea that she is allowed, she's allowed to do that.

because she has preconceived notions about Tehran. I have to say, I wasn't expecting this gay bashing when I went there. You know, this is supposed to be the progressive crowd, the ones that tell us that we would get thrown off roofs in Gaza. So I wasn't expecting that. Yeah, yeah, just the roofs part. Yeah, exactly. So in terms of that, I do want to ask you about how this last year has been for you regarding that kind of turn. Now, obviously, you know, with this podcast, we talk a lot about the American liberal Zionist who has since October 7th lost their fucking minds and have gone straight into just like being ethno-fascists and crying about it at the same time.

Is that more or less what's going on in Canada? Very much so. But I think to sort of point out the difference, I think that in America, there's more room to be anti-Zionists than there is here in Canada. Interesting. I wouldn't have thought that. There is. That's the sense that I get just from watching the media, from watching the protest, from people talking here. And I should point out that Toronto is a, I think it's the third largest diaspora of Jews outside of Israel in New York. So this really is a ground zero for pro-Israeli work. And they do a great job of shutting people up, of targeting people.

there have been noted WhatsApp groups of going after people who are anti-Zionists, making sure they lose their jobs, their livelihoods, their book deals, their whatever's, right? So you do get targeted in a severe way here if you are anti-Zionist or even if you're just reporting the facts and the truth. That is not something they like either.

Yeah. Well, just as an example of that, I mean, if you think of someone like Peter Beinart in the American scene, American Zionists don't like him. they try to ignore him he's inconvenient for them but they can't really deny him either like his bona fides in the jewish community as a practicing orthodox jew as a longtime liberal zionist before he realized the internal contradiction of that and freed himself from that i don't see people trying to shut him

down as some kind of dangerous radical or extremist who doesn't belong they may minimize his importance but they don't uh demonize him in the same way But in Canada, a friend of mine right now in Victoria is organizing, you know, invited him as part of a group that invited him to come and speak at YuVic and at a local congregation caused a massive uproar in that tiny little parochial community of, you know, bringing this Jew hatred to Victoria and capo this and just incredible. The vitriol is really awful. It's really awful, and it's comparable we were asking Asa about in our last episode to the situation of the British Jewish community, I guess. The smaller the community is, and the more monolithicly, I don't know, uptight the rest of the society is, the more conservative and line-holding the Zionist vibe tends to be.

And I remember growing up in Vancouver and just, yeah, it's as bad as it is here in the United States, it's much, much worse in Canada in terms of a stifling environment. I try to be sort of, I try to be flippant about it and like laugh about it. But it is, I do at times feel threatened physically. I mean, it happened at that rally. They all surrounded me. And recently the Israeli, I don't know if you know this, but the minutes. of Diaspora Affairs has put

me in the top four most anti-Semitic people in the whole of Canada. This is a place that has functioning neo-Nazi groups, but I was put on that list. So it does, they target and they target really, really awfully.

So, I mean, who are the other three? The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs. Do you know this ministry? No, I didn't know about it. So this ministry is the same ministry that in June of 2024, a New York Times investigation showed paid $2 million to a Tel Aviv marketing agency called Stoic to create hundreds of fake social media accounts to target people online

and target U.S. black lawmakers to tow the Israeli war machines line. So they're not a very sort of, you know, a well-esteem ministry. And what does that even have to do with the diaspora? I mean, first of all, it's fucked up that there would even be one, even if it did what the name says, which would be like, we're going to manage all the people who are unquestionally loyal to us all over the world and who make our war crimes possible. But now it's just about managing it, like, it's the minister of externalities. It's like everything outside of here, we're managing. Ministry of the world. I don't know. Nothing cabal like about that.

Yeah, I like the idea that the diaspora they're referring to is literally everyone else who exists. It's like, you know, what's going on in the diaspora. It's like 6.8 billion people. This meeting of the ministry of managing everything outside the wall will now come to order. Yeah. Just call it the fucking protocols. Like, these guys are just, they're just trying to. mimic as best as they can

like freaking early 20th century anti-Semitic screeds. They're just like, let's just do that. Sounds like a good idea, actually. But yeah, so, you know, you have been attacked by this ministry.

Top four. Top four, baby. Top four is pretty sick. Like, were you a little jealous of the other three? Like, what the fuck? Well, they didn't number us like one, two, three, four. Oh, okay, okay. It was just top four.

And the things that they pointed out, if you go to, it's a 12-page PDF. I'm on page eight. And it looks like it was put together by like a C-minus high school student. And the things that they point out where they call me anti-Semitic are a quote from the, that Israeli podcast, two nice Jewish boys. Yeah, famously nice podcast. What did you say? Please don't. No, I just quoted them.

Just quoted them. I didn't even say anything. I just quoted them, and I said Radio Rwanda. Yeah. Then, for those who get that, right? And then the second thing is a photo of me, and I think it's, I can't remember the second thing. Was it you trying Sabra hummus and going, ugh? No, no, and it wasn't chocolate hummus either.

It was, I can't remember. Was you calling Gallagadot mid? No. No, it was something really ridiculous. This lesbian does not even appreciate feminine nudity. It was like a lesbian for hesby, no. Lesby for hesby. That was something I was recently called.

I loved it. Lesby for hesby. I can't remember. It's ridiculous anyways. The point is that it's not in any way anti-Semitic or even like remotely anti-Semitic, you know. And so... Probably coming on this podcast is the most anti-Semitic thing you ever do. Probably.

I'm going to get really dunged for this. But the other four people were an Ontario member of the provincial parliament who has been calling for ceasefire and dared to wear a kaffia inside the legislature. Her name is Sarah Jabba. Another person that used to work for the Ontario government or did contracting work. And then an organ, oh, and then a real estate agent who I forget his name, who again was quoting people. so it's a ridiculous list but all to say that this has now spread everywhere you know and the uh it took

about a couple of weeks for one one Canadian media organization media rights organization to reach out to me to actually cover this right no one else would touch it and and how were they how were they covering it oh they just got the bare their bare bones from me, and they said, you know, this is very concerning. So they condemned it. This is the Canada Freedom, Canada Press Freedom Project, which is tied to... I thought you were going to say the Canada Land podcast,

such intrepid supporters of press freedom and... And Palestinian, right? Palestinian rights. No, Jesse hasn't been on this one. But, yeah, I mean, it's another way of showing the chilling effect of this, right? People are so fucking scared. They're so shaking in their boots. of having having themselves be sort of mentioned as being anti-Semitic, right?

The scary thing about this, because I'm somebody who studied genocide studies, is that anti-Semitism is real. But the way Israel has conducted itself in the past year, they have made a mockery of anti-Semitism. And that's really fucking dangerous, you know? Yeah, no, I mean, that's exactly right. They've made it possible for people to say things like anti-Semitism isn't real and have a leg to stand on because all they ever hear about that's in terms of anti-Semitism is just criticism of Israel. And so that they just naturally come to the conclusion that it is just, you know, like it's a smokescreen for,

you know, trying to penalize people who are critical of Israel, and that it's not a real thing, which is incredibly dangerous. And there are genuine anti-Semites out there sharing ostensibly pro-Palestine content. But these are not the accounts that upset the Zionists. No, and they don't get on their lists, right? They don't get on their list. But just to come back to what Daniel was saying about the environment here in Canada, like on November 7th, the UN Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, is coming here.

And Sijja, who is the Center for Israeli Jewish Affairs here in Canada, went into Parliament and gave a speech saying they want Canada to strip her of her diplomatic immunity because they're thinking of pressing charges against her for hate. So this is the level of insanity that we're dealing here with in Canada. Absolutely crazy. So, Samira, you. You are, correct me if I'm wrong, you are someone who is Iranian. Is that correct?

That is correct. Sick, sick, sick, sick. Now, a lot of what I've noticed in the past year with regard to people who are both Iranian and critics of Israel is that you're not only attacked by, you know, these run of the mill, Israeli has bars or, you know, Jewish American or Jewish Canadian has bars. you know, Zionist institutions, but also by a very new to me, a specific brand of Iranian diaspora who are, have taken it upon themselves to be pro-Israel and in favor of war with Iran, essentially. It's a new Persian version. Yeah. They're more, yeah, they're more Catholic than.

And you being gay complete the trifecta for that. I mean, how could you, right? Yeah. So have you been in the crosshairs of some of these people? Ooh, big time. Yeah. How far back does this go? What is this unholy alliance of Iranians?

Because it seems to be a kind of any enemy of their enemy is their friend. I have to tell you that, I don't know if people know this, but the IDF has a Farsi page on Instagram. That's great. You have to follow it. I'm obsessed with it. And the propaganda that they put towards Iranians in the diaspora and inside the country is really effective. Very, very effective.

And the way that it's framed is that Jews and Iranians have thousands of year old relationship. It goes back to King Cyrus, who freed the Jews. You know, streets in Israel are named after Cyrus. So that is sort of how it's framed, right? And it's very anti-Muslim. Yes. Which, if you don't know, sort of, you know, Iranians live under an Islamic Republic. It is a theocracy.

And the government in Iran, last time they did a huge poll, not the government, but this polling agency in Holland, they have about 20% of the trust of the population in Iran. I'm no fan of the Iranian government. But I also... 20% is pretty good for it, Theocracy. It's pretty good. You don't need 10% to...

No, and when you have all the guns and everything else, you're good to go. However, the other thing that gets coupled in here is that when the revolution happened in 1979, the first person who came to visit Khomeini was Yasser Arafat. And so there is this photo of Arafat embracing Khomeini. He's like nuzzled right in Khomeini's neck. I love this.

And that is what has stayed in the minds of Iranians, right? So I always explain it like this, that Iranians are taking out their mullah trauma onto the Palestinians. Right? They blame the Palestinians for everything because Iranians don't like to take. responsibility for fucking up their own country. We either blame the U.S., the Brits, or the Palestinians. It wasn't the million or so Iranians who were on the streets yelling death to the Shah, right? Wasn't us. So that's sort of the framework in which Israel pushes this propaganda and says, you know, your government doesn't care about you. We care about you.

You know, we're not going to come and fucking bomb you into oblivion. And so you have a lot of these Iranians who the moment you're critical of Israel will say, you support the mullahs, right? That's the binary. You mentioned an anti-Muslim settlement. There's also adjacent to that anti-Arab, right? Oh, absolutely. Well, in Iran, the two go together. That's in their brains.

Because quite literally, you know, Iran is not an Arab country. It's a Muslim country, but it's not Arab. Exactly. And what is, so what is that dynamic? What, what is that, that attitude towards. So the idea is, it's, it's dirty nationalism, right? I mean, if you want to look at it, it's a very perverse form of nationalism to say, we are Persians. So it's a very Persian, chauvinistic, you know.

Iran actually has a lot of Arabs living in the South, right? In Khuzestan in those areas, we have a 10% of our population is Arab. So they get, they get shat on. And then, you know, the focus is on Persian Jews, Persian Christians, Assyrians, you know. Iran is actually a very multicultural, multilingual, multi-religious country. But these chauvinists who make up about 45 percent, Persians are about 45 percent of the population in Iran, they are stuck in 1400 years ago when the Arabs came and invaded Iran, right? and they Arabized our culture and they took our language and blah, blah, blah.

So they are sort of stuck in that time period. And that's basically what it is, right? It really is a very ugly form of nationalism. But what I find interesting is the fact that they, I mean, it's one thing to, you know, go after anyone who you suspect of being like, you know, in favor of the Ayatollahs and, you know, for whatever reason, not saying that, you know, that's, that's right, but is saying that, like, I almost understand it. What's strange to me is this activation that I've seen in the last year of people who are making

a name for themselves as being the, the Persian Zionist, and we've seen a few of them, and one of them is going to be the focus of the show, the, uh, the, uh, um, the bastard daughter of the lead singer, Duran Duran. Elica LeBahn. Now, this is someone who we have talked about on the show, at least indirectly. We read one of her articles once. It was something she put out for, it was the Jewish Chronicle, I think it was. And it was an entire article about how hating Gal Gadot was anti-Semitic and how, you know, thinking that,

she's not a good actress, you know, or thinking that, you know, she, she can't, she can't play Wonder Woman effectively is the same thing as being Hitler. And what I found interesting about it was, first, I, you know, I didn't know who this person was. And then I found out that she's in this very special genre of influencer, which is being the, the Persian Zionist. And so you have had some experience with Mrs. Elyca. Is that correct? I've had a lot of experience with Elyca. And going back to your Le Bonn thing, you know, I thought that this was the daughter of Yasmin and Simon Labon. Because Simon Labon of Durand-Duran is married to an Iranian woman named Yasmin. So when the whole woman life freedom thing was going on, I mentioned Elyca, this is back in

2002 and I said Simon LeBond's daughter said this she jumped into my DMs and said I'm not his daughter this isn't my real name so park that like I forgot about her a year went by and then October 7th happened and I started covering you know what was happening in Gaza and she kept coming into my DMs and saying you know you and I need to speak we need to get on the same page about

what's happening here blah blah blah and I kept a voice her because I was seeing all of the sort of Zionist rhetoric. But I have to point out here, when October 7th first happened, Elica Laban was very independent Jewish voices. You know, let's

come together. We need this to end. She was sharing a lot of that type of stuff, right? Then she noticed that wasn't getting her a lot of followers and she went full Noah Tishby, you know. Yes. And so... I actually have some of Elica's old

tweets, which I found on a subreddit called Who is Erica Laban? Which I think is fascinating that people are just like, who the fuck is this person? Like some sort of Hasbara industry plant. But before she was a Hasbara industry plant, she wrote this. To people who say hashtag Free Palestine advocates are anti-Semitic because other instances of Islamic suppression are overlooked, first, that is a logical fallacy,

and our government isn't actively aiding that genocide. That's the jurisdictional hook, our money, our tax order equals our business. So that was... As recently as June 22. 2020. Yes. Another one. She was ahead of the curb on calling it a genocide.

Uh-huh. That had not become... What happened? Another Elica, let's see. The desecration of occupied Palestine is proof that people can be propagandized to believe anything that affords them comfort. Is that? Right. Oh, you don't say. Is that true?

Yes, you don't get it, they cry from their warm homes while children are torn limb to limb. Yes, I don't. Lim to limb. Explain it to the decapitated seven-year-old, hashtag free Palestine. Is this Nostra-Labonis? I mean, she's seeing the future. I mean, not that there wasn't, again, not that this started October 7, but she, but it was not in the public conversation. Like you would talk about Palestinians being killed, murdered, displaced, but torn limb from limb, decapitated? Yes. Well, she has spoken about this, though. She has said that, you know, her eye, October 7th opened her eyes. And she said that to me on the phone.

I'll get that. So she had been begging to speak to me. Finally, she said, you're a historian because I have my master's in modern Middle Eastern history. She said, I need to. ask you some questions. So I finally said to her, look, I have 15 minutes between this time and this time. Call me. Let's talk. She got on the phone with me and after two minutes said, there is no such thing as a Palestinian because when they do 23 and me tests, it doesn't come back Palestine. And I very quickly realized I'm dealing with a wildly dumb individual.

Yeah, that is a super idiot. And the combination of super confidence and super idiot is so scary. love you. She was like, does she think that states are, are DNA inventions? Like, like, what does she think that? Does she think that DNA is like encoded, like engraved with like a little, like a little border? Like bespoke, like a little monograph. It's got a tiny little dot where the capital is. Listen, Elyca, her real last name is Mojada. She's an ambulance chaser. She got her law degree from Pepperdine University. I don't know if she's ever used it. She works for this like basically law. firm in and I don't know how any lawyer can behave like this online but away from that I hung up on this girl after about 10 minutes and she went nuts she just lost it okay and then I started looking

into who is this girl like she told me this isn't her real name so I just started googling her it isn't hard to find this information yes and I realized that this isn't her last name the other thing I realized is that her dad was a professor at one of the most conservative universities in Iran. And you don't just get to be a professor there. You have to go through some serious checks, you know, and pass the Islamic Republic smell test. And so here she is, you know, shitting on people, calling them, you know, lovers of the Islamic Republic, et cetera, while her dad was writing op-ed pieces in favor of the Iranian government in the New York. Times with a known

FBI, like with a known agent of the Islamic Republic, which the FBI charged and kicked out of the country. He was exchanged in that hostage exchange. So I showed all this to people. Yeah.

And she accused me of doxing her, putting her family at risk, blah, blah, blah. And then wrote to me saying No, you're dead naming her. That's the thing. That's what you're doing. Her last name is now Laban. which is French for La Good. The amazing thing is that she wrote to me, sent me a text on WhatsApp,

saying the FBI is coming after you. I'm working with the attorney general. Now, I don't know if Dum Dum Elika knows this, but that's actually an offense. That's an offense that could strip her of her license to practice law. Not to mention stripper of her FBI access clearance. She gets called into the office the next morning. Yeah. So this is who you're dealing with, right? This is who Dr. Phil is talking to.

She, she DM'd me as well. I realized recently. It happened back in, right around the turn of the year, January 1st. And I did some kind of Instagram live. And she wrote to me in a very similar tone of like, hey, I just want to reach out and make you aware that some of your talking points are tanky talking points. That's the word she used. and it's harming liberation movements in the least now when any anytime anyone uses the word tankie it's not going to go well with me because that's that's one of these conversation ending words that's been used to slander anyone who's and censor right but but it's anyone on the left anyone who's to the left of the democratic party and anyone who opposes the u.s security state my brother in particular has gotten called a tankie why because he has reported it on the unreported OPCW cover-up story

because he questions the CIA line on Syria and Ukraine and whatnot. He gets called an Assadist and a Putinist and on this country. So I'm just not willing to engage in any conversation that starts from the premise of, well, that Tanky is a useful term. And I said that to her, and she basically said, you know, I'm not Jewish. I'll never tell you how to speak for or against Israel. It's none of my business. But I just ask that while you condemn what you perceive as an oppressor, please don't uplift or sanitize or whitewash our oppressors. I never said anything about Iran. I have nothing

nice to say about Iran. We have family friends whose father died brutally in an Iranian prison who had to raise considerable amount of funds to try and get their mother out of there. The thing is, I don't know anything about Iran. So I don't talk about Iran. But she came at me with this concern-trolling kind of attitude of let's have a conversation about how you can do better at like doing your Palestine activism without uplifting the Iranian regime. And I just sounded very, very strange. Elika or Alika, I don't even know how you pronounce her name. Elika is a jargonish. She uses word salad.

She uses words like Orientalism when she can't even define it. She is a great A-Moron. And I hope she watches this. Elika, you're an idiot. Because, and I'll tell you something else with the fillers and all the makeup and the cleavage. She goes on Instagram and people watch her and she speaks really fast. And she talks like this. And she says things that you want to hear.

She tells you that you don't know enough and that she cares about you. And it really fulfills the lowest sort of basis and appeals to that. Yes. The lowest forms of humanity. Yes. Let me play a little bit of. of Elika, just so people who are unfamiliar with sort of, you know, the way she speaks and the kind of content she does so that people can have a sense of it. Here's one of her more

recent clips of her talking, talking about Tanahasi Coates and his... I mean, who is she to talk about him? Well, this is here, so here's this. If you haven't seen this clip of Tanahesi Coates on the Trevor Noah podcast, watch this. Well, I, 20 years old, born into Gaza, which is a giant open-air jail, and I grow up under that oppression and the wall comes down. Am I also strong enough? When I say, this is too far. I don't know that I am.

You know, I don't know that I am. Tarnassee Coates is representing as an authority on this matter, going on TV, talking about it on podcasts, even having written books. You do not become an authority on this matter without having done extensive research. And if you did the research, you would have come across the facts to debunk your position. It's absolutely amazing. The most projection I've ever seen in a single clip. Like, the idea which is, she's just like, I can't believe this person.

Who is he? He comes out of nowhere. And he all of a sudden he's talking about Palestine. He hadn't done the research. in my research that I've done in the last seven months from when I was at one point hashtagging Free Palestine to now, I've learned every single thing he says is a lie.

The audacity. You know, Hunter S. Thompson has a great line, and I always think about it from this time. It is the rise of the new confident dumb. We are in trouble. We are in big trouble. Yes. I mean, it is just like,

Like, that video goes on for eight minutes in which her version of debunking, which, by the way, debunking what, his proposition that he doesn't know what he would do if he were born a Gazzin? Like, how do you debunking that? Debunking his empathetic imagination. Yes. His capacity to put himself in the shoes of other people. Also, this is a man who went there. What are you talking about? Who are you?

The audacity of an author who has written many books. You know, by the way, I have to point out that Elica now has a book deal. Perfect. It's perfect. That means every single line she says in there is a projection of her own shortcomings. The other thing is that Elica was when this started on October 7th, she was trying to push a reality show about herself. During the woman life freedom movement, she was trying to shop around a reality show about her activism. Elyca couldn't even find Iran on a map five years ago.

Okay? Like these people are, they're crisis vultures. Yes. This is what she's doing now. This is what she's pedaling now. In a couple of years, something else will happen and she'll move on. You know, it used to be BLM. I don't know how far back you go, but that was what she was working on before.

It was BLM. Yes. And, you know, I will say that I don't know if she will actually switch over because she's clearly found her lane here. But here's, you know, so this is just a tweet from hers. You know, let's talk about the red herring fallacy and how it's used by bad actors to distract from their primary motivations. And I saw that. And I just put them. I see the resemblance, actually.

up the previous tweet, just look at her face. Just look at the puckered lips and the big eyes and the red, red, red, red cheeks. I was like, I'm looking at a red herring. It's, it's mean, but. I mean, look at it. That is the reddest of herrings. They look very similar. Um, but yeah, it's like, she's clearly found this lane and it's so funny because, uh, you know, you do look back. You don't like, you don't even have to look back that long. These tweets were from 22, where she's talking about decapitated seven-year-old Palestinian girls and, you know, and occupied Palestine and talking about this as a, our government actively aiding that genocide. And it makes us responsible. Yes. And it's like, you know, I love that. What does that say about you, though, that you put this out. And then October 7th happens and you see what Israel is doing in Gaza and that doesn't move you. I mean, she says, so fake. She's as fake as her lips. She's so fake.

Let me ask you something, though. Because this woman life freedom thing comes up and something in me does kind of freeze up or go silent because I don't know enough about it. And I know I've got my prejudices. And my prejudices are when the CIA

is pushing something, when Hillary Clinton is pushing something, when Cheryl Sandberg is pushing something, when Gal Gaddaad is pushing something, when Hollywood liberal celebrities are telling me I really need to care about the plight of these people over there in that country that we sanction and that we fucking up, you know, overturned their government more than half a century ago and everything has been fucked up since. The official enemy, anytime I'm being told I need to get

on board some kind of global solidarity movement against an official enemy. I get very, very, very suspicious and very reticent. I don't, I just kind of want to go quiet because I know that I'm being played, even if there is merit to it, but I want to grant space to the possibility that, like, it's more complicated than just, oh, like, I don't want it to be, in my case, you know, the friend of my government is my enemy. So, or the opponents of my government's enemy are people I should just dismiss. So this woman, life freedom movement, what do, I mean, this is a big question for a friend to ask any one person, but

what's your perspective on, like, what do we, what do we owe a movement like that? What kind of solidarity, what kind of sympathy? What are the, how do we, how do, how does those of us who have that kind of skepticism I'm describing navigate this so that I'm being, I want to, because I want to be fair. Yeah, let's put it

this way. Three days ago when Iran bombed, I mean, Israel bombed Iran, Elon fucking Levy, the biggest prick in the world, uh, tweeted out, a photo of the female Air Force pilots, Israeli Air Force pilots, and wrote woman life freedom under him. Now, that's disgusting, right? And I always, and it made, I actually wrote, you know, this is the moment the movement officially died. Israel has done a great job of co-opting this movement.

There are murals of Massa Amini all over Tel Aviv. There are three huge murals. of Masa Amini. Now, why the fuck would Israel care about this? Are we really supposed to believe that one of the biggest killers of women in Gaza is thinking about women, life, and freedom? No. But as Iranians, we get fucked all the time.

I mean, it goes back to 2009 and the Green Movement, right? The moment that the world or America says anything about Iranian struggles against theocracy, our movements die. And they die because they get co-opted, the language gets taken up, you know. But woman life freedom is a thing. You know, women in Iran have been fighting for a very long time for their autonomy. And more than 500 protesters

were killed in 2022 on the streets of Iran. These were young kids. This is Gen C. They had no hand in bringing this government to fruition. And they are fighting for their rights. But the way that some people in the diaspora. And I mean in the diaspora, I'm not talking about people inside Iran, because that just isn't the case, right? I'm talking about the diaspora, have joined hands with Israel is truly appalling. Truly appalling. And they are under the illusion that somehow Israel is going to save them from the clerics. It's just not going to happen. Yeah. Yeah, it is. It's interesting because, you know, I think I feel very similar to you, Daniel, in which like, as soon as when that movement was happening, you know, my first thought was, oh, that sounds good. My second

thought was like, why do I think that? My third thought was like, maybe I should ask someone who knows about it. Because, you know, I have this tendency to, from just childhood programming, to automatically believe that, you know, any, like, whether it's Iran or an Arab state, you know, if there are women, you know, protesting, they're protesting for their rights and it's because there is a problem of, you know, patriarchy and misogyny and whatnot. But then I have to check in with the racist part of myself. That has been programmed. And the imperialist part, the part and imperialist part that's at the receiving end of imperial propaganda your whole life. Exactly. And so, so it does cause me to take a step back and rather than immediately react.

And it's, you know, it's, it just... But look at the way it fell apart. It just crumbled like a house of cards. You know, and I've had a lot of talks with experts, you know, political experts on Iran, et cetera, who said, you know, all of these sort of very frivolous things were happening, you know, women in Hollywood were cutting her hair. Members of the EU parliament were cutting their hair. I mean, Iran had the world behind it. What happened? Yes, the regime there quashed brutally.

this movement. But at the same time, there was no political work being done on the outside. It was just Iranians getting together, yelling, you know, death to this, death to that. But there was no political work being done. Well, there was a little political work. They said, let's team up with the Zionists and see if we could do resume change. Even that, even that, it's, it's superficial. Right. Yeah. It's not, It's not real. Yeah. And it seems so interesting to me because it's like if that is your issue as someone who is like, you know, an Iranian in the diaspora and, you know, if that is your goal is to reinstate the

Shah or whatever the fuck or, you know, that one, that prince guy, there's a guy who was like a prince. Who went to Israel, who went to Israel, went to the wailing wall, you know. And like that was a huge moment in the Iranian. in the Iranian psyche. They were like, whoa, he's there. You know, his father never stepped foot in Israel. He actually voted against.

Iran was one of the first countries to vote against the establishment of the state of Israel in 1947. But if that's your, if that's your, you know, your geopolitical goal, it's so strange to me to see someone like Elyke-Laban because it doesn't seem to in any way really be connected because she is what she is doing is not some like 4D chess in which she eventually gets Iranian regime change. I mean, I could see how she would think that, but it's just being straight up a tool for Zionism. That's all it is. She's actually a huge, like racist, anti-Muslim. There are videos of her on YouTube talking about how, you know, pretending that this isn't all about

Islam. Islam is what, you know, does this to women and it's a disgusting religion under the guise of violence and all. Like, this is how, how she speaks, right? This is, and this is back in 2022. Again, you know, with the word jargon and the word salad and jargon is shit, just bullshit rhetoric. But that doesn't, you know, people, I mean, she has an audience. She has an audience among really ignorant, ignorant Iranians, who, who, most, you know, people, you know, people, I mean, she has an audience. Mostly live in Orange County. Let's point that out. You know, this is a very niche market, you know, of L.A. Iranians.

Yeah, the second you make Palestine about Islamic fundamentalism, I'm out. Yeah, exactly. The minute you bring that in, it's, and she was, yeah, haranguing me and browbeating me in my DMs, that I minimize the threat of jihadist Islamic, okay, now you're just talking war on terror, gobbledygook. Exactly. And you're justifying the genocide. of an entire multi-religious people on the basis of your beef with exactly that's why I say this is all about Iranians vomiting their trauma onto the Palestinians well no wonder they love Zionists it's it's it's so juvenile you know that's that's just the way it is you know and also

I should point out it's also because they are a generation this is a people who grew up under a government that was constantly browbeating Palestine to them and they do believe that all of our money is going to terror while they don't account for the fucking sanctions like your inflation

it isn't just that your money's going elsewhere it's fucking sanctions by the US so this is something that they're just sort of beating over the head with it not not sympathizing with the plight of Palestinians is in a way there reflexive way of saying fuck you I won't do what you tell me.

Bingo. And that's the juvenile... I can certainly sympathize with the juvenile impulse to not to say, fuck you, I won't do what you tell me. It's just in this case... Yeah. Yeah, I mean, but it's like, but I mean, I'm naming in myself, just like their government was cynically selling them Palestine solidarity and probably

some anti-Semitism, too. I mean, you know, Arab governments will keep their people in line with a whole lot of different rhetorical and ideological dogmatic tactics and demonizing the Jews and blaming Israel for everything. It definitely happens. I've spoken to my Arab friends. This is a thing, right? But just like I was saying, okay, well, American media, American security state wants to keep us in line by demonizing all of our enemies. And I need to make sure that in resisting that, I don't just reflexively reject every single thing. Right.

And say, oh, no, women in Iran had it great. Now, that would be idiotic. That's exactly right. I mean, also, you know, as kids, we were brought up in Iran since the age of four, we were yelling, death to America, death to Israel. That was sort of like the morning ritual, you know. And during the Iran-Iraq War, we would throw in a death to Saddam. But, like, he's gone now.

So, you know, these were the things we were brought up with. So, kids. You love me from the river to the sea with a great big hug and maybe also bombs. Exactly. So this is the pushback that Iranians have, right? Yeah, yeah. Whatever the government says, we will do the opposite. Thank you.

I won't Jew what you tell me. Whoa. Boom. Brip, rep, rep, rep. You're emotionally damaged. So we're going to continue this conversation. But first, we need to take a little break so that all of our. Our wonderful sponsors can sell you guns.

I don't know. It's programmatic ad. So please listen to these and sit around. We will be right back. And we're back. This is Bad Hasbara. And we're here with Samira Moyedin. How you doing, Tamara?

I'm good. So before we move on from Elyca, there's just a little bit more that we need to talk about because I find her transformation into this, you know, Zionist influencer to be so fascinating, especially from where she came from. Whereas we played... Manchester. What's that? So from Manchester.

Yeah. Well, yeah, she's from there. But also she... My grandmother was from Manchester, actually. I have Manchester in my 23 and me. Oh, if you look on, if you look on my DNA strands, if you look really closely with a high-powered electron microscope,

it says, Mancunian, isn't it? Yeah. I had 20% scouse. Yeah. If you look at real. Liverpool, Adam. If you look really closely, you'll see an oasis album cover in your DNA. So, yeah.

No, but before. Before, you know, she was doing free Palestine tweets before, you know, the, uh, her activism, she, um, uh, she was a musician. She was a singer. And, uh, I, you know, auto tune singer. Yeah. Oh, yes. And, uh, I, I went online to see if I could find her music. And I saw she made her own Vivo page. Uh, this is the Elica LeBahn Vivo page, which if you don't know, you know, vivo pages are like official music video pages. Those are like, uh, usually. Uh, usually. it's a you know it means you're signed by like a major record label usually but this is 53 subscribers hey listen i'm not i'm not going to say here and judge three point six thousand views man yeah it's not bad let's get into some of what has been going on in uh recent days with this election that we have coming up we have a great uh you know election in america big party big party everyone is they're they're really um they're very excited to elect one of two genocidal maniacs.

And there's a competition right now for who can be the most disgusting. But one has a track record. Yes, yes. One has a track record. And one, you know, also has, but a different type of track record. Basically, it's a choice between two people that I think Americans are absolutely loath to put in power. So I want to ask you, what is the feeling like in Canada? Like there was a time when people, like when an election was happening,

they would go like, I'm going to escape to Canada. Is that even possible anymore? Is Canada just also bad? We are taking everybody in. But, you know, we have our own bloody problems here with the right and Pierre Pallièv, who's the progressive conservative, one of the most Orwellian-named parties ever. And we have the Israeli lobby really doing its thing here

in trying to get the progressive conservatives elected. So they're calling Trudeau anti-Semite. They're saying he doesn't pay enough to, quote-unquote, Jew hatred in Canada. And so that's sort of what we're dealing with. but you know i always get people together to watch the elections down south because we just love watching you guys fucking burn yeah i i imagine so it is a fun time right now and i have to tell you a lot of people here want it to go full steam ahead with trump and just have it all crumble

let all the illusions fall apart yeah accelerationist logic yes it's tempting it's tempting yeah it's That's the thing about, you know, I think in 2016, I could have understood the accelerationist thing. But, you know, now it just seems so clear that acceleration happens either way. And I'm not really sure what we're accelerating towards anymore, other than just kind of a reinforcement of what we've been seeing, you know. It's very scary, actually. Yeah. We're all really freaked out here. No, yeah, of course, of course.

But it's, yeah, it's just, it's been fascinating to watch both politicians just be, just decide that there is no room for any kind of empathy for Palestinian people. There's no room for anything other than the official Israeli line, which is, which is completely insane. And you're seeing kind of like, you're seeing just, I don't know, I mean, let's start with like, here's some Giuliani for us over at Madison Square Garden during this Trump rally the other day, in which he gives this insane speech that somehow is not a deal breaker for anyone anymore. Here we go. September 11 was our darkest hour. October 7 was Israel's darkest hour. They are our best friend.

I worked for Ronald Reagan for eight years. Ronald Reagan said, we have to be there for Israel always because they are always there for us. He also said, Mr. Began, stop this Holocaust. Yeah, yeah, yeah. With one phone call. Yes. Somehow, you know, Ronald Reagan, anti-Zionist superstar by today's standards. But also, I'm just like completely like, just this framing of Israel is our best friend. In what way? I don't understand this other than they are a colonial outpost.

It's like they're a friend because they do the job that we ask them to do. Like, there are our clients. It is just so strange. Hamas is not there for us. Iran is not there for us. They want to kill us. And the Palestinians are taught to kill us at two years old. Okay, well, hold on a second. Hamas is not there for us.

That's a new talking point. Yeah. Like, where are they, when we call them in the middle of the night, do they answer? No. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When we have just broken up with our girlfriend and we need a shoulder to cry on, does Hamas ever pick up the phone? No, what are their fingers broken from all the torture?

Come on. Yaya was never there. Never there for us. He'd ever once called to check in with me on my birthday. They never come to our Congress and lecture us and try to get us into World War III. Yes. It is just so funny. You know, Hamas and Iran have not been there for America.

When we've needed them most to, and by be there for America, I mean, not self-destructed and allowed for us to do regime change. Also, you've declared them your mortal enemy. What do you fucking want? Why would they be there for you? It's so fucking strange. And it's also, he's also

speaking to people as if you know, people in the Trump crowd or America in this election needs to decide huh. Do I want to put my faith and trust in the Palestinian resistance group Hamas or the country of Iran? like as if like there's it's a battle for our loyalties right yeah yeah

that's a great paradigm it's what americans a lot of americans understand right right yeah who's going to be my brother who's going to be my bro who's going to have a beer with me yeah most people in that audience are living in that sort of black and white world they don't like Hamas because you couldn't have a beer with them I think a lot of people in that crowd actually don't give a fuck about this shit I think a lot of people in that crowd are very uncomfortable with this topic, bored of it. You could get someone up there talking about how Kamala is committing a genocide and they would cheer.

You get someone up there talking about how Kamala is not supporting Israel enough and they would cheer. Yeah. They just, they're fighting a different battle. They know their job. Their job is to cheer. Cheer, just cheer, yeah. Yeah.

And I don't, I don't think Giuliani's, like, hitting it out of the park with what they really give a shit about here no no absolutely not but it's just so it's so uh clear um how this type of dehumanization is like it's it's it's normalized it's completely normalized from here on in yeah and uh we'll we'll continue they won't let a palestinian in jordan they won't let a Palestinian in Egypt and harris wants to bring them to you They may have good people. I'm sorry, I don't take a risk with people that are taught to kill Americans at two. I'm on the side of Israel.

That kills two-year-olds. I mean, this is a big talking point, right? He knows what he's saying. A lot of pro-Israelis say, why doesn't the world want them? Yeah. That's a huge talking point for a lot of Zionists. They say, look, even Jordan doesn't want them. Egypt doesn't want them. Why should we want them? That's a huge talking point.

It's also a huge Nazi talking point during the fucking Holocaust and in the history of like, like, look, nobody will take them. Exactly. He and anti-Semitism. Great. So, point to the Republicans for making it difficult for me to even in a reactionary, petulant fuck the Democrats kind of way, hope that they went. I mean, this kind of talk. And Trump's, he's a weak Palestinian and just the use of Palestinian itself as a kind of. slur is so nakedly, ugly, and thuggish and violent, that for a second, it makes me miss the decorum and etiquette and woke bigotry and politeness of the Democrats. But then we go over to, I don't know, Barack Obama and we get to see how he expresses his absolute and utter contempt

for the lives and the hearts and minds of Arab people and Palestinian people, and then I'm like, hmm, I kind of miss the Republicans. Yeah, I know. Yeah, here we go. If you're a Christian and you care deeply about the abortion issue, I understand that, but does that mean you'll support somebody who seems to violate pretty much every precept of the Ten Commandment?

If you are a service member and you're somewhat conservative, And you're used to vote in Republican, I can understand it. But somebody who genuinely does not believe in duty and honor and does not understand why anybody... This guy used to be the greatest orator of our time. And now he just sounds like Bill Cosby's, like, less jovial younger brother. If you... Like this shit of thinking... If you got the pudding on the spoon, why not?

putting in your mouth let me be clear J-E-E-L-O All right Yeah and this this this sort of concerned Dad concerned uncle

Schick is so hollow Doesn't he go on to say though about the Muslims? Yeah yeah yeah yeah I was going to have a cut to that point But no I love the buildup Because that's really what he's building to That's really who he wants to talk to

Yes yes all right here we go if you do that if you're a Muslim American and you're upset about what's happening in the Middle East what's happening don't name it

yeah what is happening in the Middle East which is massive yeah yeah somewhere in let's say Asia ish in somebody who passed a Muslim and repeatedly suggested

that somehow you weren't part of our American community. If you're an African American. All right. I can't sit here and watch them pretend to think.

He's like the uncle who's like, come into the genocidal fold. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, listen, let's be clear about this. If you're a Muslim who's mad about whatever you people are mad about, why be mad at us when there's another guy over there who's also bad?

Remember when he did that bad thing that it's got nothing to do with this? And also, what he's doing here is he's making it sound like Palestine is a Muslim issue. Yes. And that's a despicable move for a politician to do on the eve of this election, which he fucking knows his party is on the verge of possibly losing, not just because Arabs or Muslims care about Palestine, but because a whole generation, the base is horrified. Yes.

A huge percentage of the base is horrified. And you're asking a huge percentage of your base to essentially, like, suck it up, suck up the genocide and vote for Kamala. And it's like, pretending like that's not a big ask is so fucking insane to me. Like, as if that is, it is like, this idea of like, oh, come on, man. Like, there's other issues going on. It's like, someone's got to run this genocide. Do you want it to be it from a guy?

Yeah, and you want it to be someone who's nice or someone who's mean. Yeah. Yeah. And then he takes another. You don't want to have a psychopath running a genocide, dude. you? Like, these guys are just, they're absolutely so tone-depth. And it's because it's because they refuse to move outside of this, the Israel's party line. Like, they go like, no, we're not moving outside of support for Israel because they've made this calculation. I don't know what

this calculation is or what it's based on, but the calculation is that people don't care about this. And our moneyed interest will care. about this. APAC will care about this. So, you know, we're just going to be pro-genocide, but do it with, you know, some tears in our eyes, which is like, I think, I think what Daniel said is really important, though, that they, they sort of frame this. By definition, Samira, if I said it's important. Yeah, yeah. I think what I said was really important, too. But the way he pointed out that this is made into a Muslim issue. If Kamala Harris loses, guess who's going to get all the shit? No. Right?

that's right it's the community that has been under attack you know since 9-11 but really you know getting stabbed and getting shot and all that since a year ago so there that's the community that's going to be blamed right he presumes to lecture go gargle a glass of flint water you folks the motherfucker yeah yeah no and and it's it's like we're we're sitting here watching as they're both in this competition for who's going to be the most tone deaf and uh yeah it is interesting too another thing that Daniel said that I think is really important which doesn't happen that often actually Samir is you know for I understand why there is

sort of like just on a purely spite base level you know wanting to see the Democrats go down because you know because literally how dare they and I think what ends up happening is we've kind of a little bit forgotten what the maga side of zionism looks like and and we've conflated the two a little bit and it's not that there are any different ideologically like your your blue maga democrat Zionists and your maga Zionists are the same they believe in the same thing which is genocide and ethnic cleansing boy oh boy are their manners different yes their manners are one's very civilized

Civilized genocide. Yeah, one's doing a civilized genocide and one is being open about it. You can't take the other one anywhere. Yeah, exactly. The other one is literally, you can't go into a single restaurant without them immediately being like, I'm going to kill someone if I don't get some fucking soup. But like, it was interesting seeing that kind of play out recently on CNN. Mehdi Hassan went on CNN for one of their bullshit pamela.

where everyone, you know, yells at each other. And the, I can't even, I don't remember the name of this guy. He's some. Godersky. Yes. Rudy. Is it Rudy? Is that his first name?

Or am I getting that? From the 1776 project. Yes. Yes. And, yeah, he went on and they had this exchange, which is just fucking insane. And I will play it for you. If you don't want to be called Nazis, stop doing... You don't call an anti-Semite more than Amos's table.

And people were sitting there and... No, by me. I never called you an ISIS-Semite. I mean, I'm not saying her saying... I'm a supporter of the Palestinians, I'm used to it. Well, I hope your beeper doesn't go off. The thing is, is that I just say I should not. You should not. No, I said, I should be killed.

No, I did not say that. I'm sorry. No, I did not. The biggest pussy boy. Yeah. Did I do that? Yeah, me? What are you talking about?

Like, the immediately being scared, the immediately like, what? Stop. Huh? Like, this guy went from being, like, tough guy going like, hey, yeah, I hope you fucking die. And then everyone going like, whoa, what is, what is he clearly had that joke in his back pocket.

Dude, he forgot he wasn't in the world's most genocidal group chat and was like, oh, shit, I forgot I'm on CNN right now. Yeah. And you see the reactions. like everyone else where they are just like Jesus Christ, bro and he's just flailing

this whole time. Guys, let me just stop. You said you're home like Beepard of the Palestinian Hamas. Guys, let me stop. Are you? Are you?

Okay. Palestinians are not Hamas. Like his immediate I'm sorry, I thought they were. Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. What I, okay, so what it happened was,

I heard Medi say the 14 words, death to Jews. I love Hamas. And I didn't know that he didn't say that. So I was talking about beepers. I just want to make that clear that I would only wish death upon Medi Hassan if he had said all those things. I mean, I don't know about you guys, but I've gotten the pager beeper thing a lot.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So that happened. Are you carrying your pager? Do you have your beeper? Yes. It's a meme. And I think like it's funny because the people who were.

defending this. I was like seeing, obviously, you know, the usual suspects on social media being like, it was a joke. Or, you know, he's not wrong. He shouldn't have apologized. And they'll have like the little beeper, you know, emoji in their and their username. And then you just ask them, oh, what does the beeper mean? What do you mean by that? And they are still cowards about it. They will not say, because at the end of the day, they don't have the courage of their convictions here. They are just people who they wish so badly that they

could be brave enough to say I just want you to die because everything you believe in is abhorrent to me. Yes, and it's disgusting and it's vile and it's great that he got called out and kicked off. And at the same time Yes. It's CNN. It's fucking CNN.

Yes. It's Abby Philip. It's a fucking Abby Philip. It's Abby 40 beheaded babies Philip. Do we have Sanchez's tweet that we can show. Oh, no, but we can read it. Yeah, I've got it in front of me. I can read it out. Yeah, please. All right. So Sana,

friend of the show, pointed out, you know, with a much-needed, zoomed-out perspective here. She says, this moment's going viral, but this is literally what has been said to Arabs and Muslims for the past year whenever they've gone on camera to varying degrees. The reason why Abby Philip, who has spread

and allowed violent, violent Islamophobia to go unchecked, while repeating Israeli lies herself for the past year, checked him is because he's a Trump supporter and Hassan isn't a Palestinian and he supports the Dems. Whatever else you want to say about Medi and I've had mixed, mixed things to say about him over the years, he's a stalwart, diehard supporter of the Democratic Party. And he's occupied an interesting place in the past year of like a heartbroken Cassandra type warning the Democrats that they're going to lose the election over this genocide, definitely calling

out Biden and Kamala in strong terms, but still he is a reliable CNN friendly ally to the Democratic Party, and that's what Sana's pointing out here. That's the decorum breach. You know, that that, that this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, All these libs are so upset about how could he say that to him on CNN? Jake Tapper will sit there and Dana Bash will sit there and they will justify Israeli atrocities and say, well, not all of them were civilians or, well, at least the Israeli army isn't raping Palestinian babies. That's what Dana Bash said, yeah. Like the fact that this gives CNN a pretext to act morally outrage. Oh, a line was crossed.

We don't do that here. Yes, you do. That's all you do. You just don't do it like this uncouth, a hundred percent, who didn't go to liberal finishing school. Yeah. Mehdi did say, too, in that clip,

he said, good job, CNN. Yeah. I don't know if you heard him. He said, good job CNN. You put the brown guy to get killed right off the bat. Yeah. Props to him for that. Yeah, he did say that.

Yeah. And I think it's like, it kind of serves, it's the election in microcosm, I think. It's just like the, the idea that, like, they would be outraged at this moment because they have a partisan reason to be. And, you know, it kind of backs up what people have been saying forever, which was just that like, if Trump had been president when October 7th happened and all of this was going on as it as it has been, which it would have, liberals would actually be sitting here pretending

to give a fuck. At the very least, they would use it as a cudgel against um against trump and people i wouldn't be having dnc uh fucking uh what is it k hive uh accounts like trying to drag me uh for being you know uh pro palestinian which they automatically assume is anti kamala like i wouldn't be having that kind of shit happen you wouldn't be seeing kind of the way in which they've not even like Zionists online but people who are just

DNC stands are just like I'm going to I'm going to just be a Zionist for the sake of supporting Kamala like that is the shit that I've been seeing you wouldn't see that yeah and AOC recently went on and on a stream I think with Tim Walts when she was like

I just don't want four more years of resistance bullshit under Trump and I I'd be like, fucking give me four more years of resistance bullshit undercom. Like, yeah. Like, be you at your best consistently. Yes. Not until it's politically expedient to shut the fuck and pal around with these motherfuckers.

Right. I don't want, it's like, I just want four more years of not doing anything. Yeah. No, but that's the thing. I don't want to be in opposition to anyone. I want to build power, which means chum around and go to Met Gallas. When I was saying people here wanted to crumble, people I've spoken to. here in Canada have said they feel like if Kamala wins, then it's the idea is that everything's

okay now, right? Resistance needs to stop. If it's Trump, it'll keep going. Which, I don't know, the accelerator is a good thing or a bad thing. And from the faction of the Democratic Party who said in EOC's words, they were coming into power to bring the ruckus, not to the Republicans, but to the Democrats. It's especially galling. Right. Because you should never. tire of resisting these motherfuckers. Yes. It is, and it's ridiculous to claim that somehow, you know, the next four years of Trump, at least with regards to this issue in particular, will somehow be more egregious than what's going on. How do you get more egregious than this? And this is where I think like, I see a lot of

people where I do not fully understand where their humanity is in which they, if you're not going draw a line at a fucking genocide then i really don't think you believe in anything there are no lines you have no lines if this isn't you have no lines if this is okay with you you have no lines i don't know you guys need to be a little more trauma informed a little more self-care informed these people have genocide fatigue oh okay and at a certain point you just need to sort of step back and get some episodes i do feel like the news is trauma dumping on me um you know like i'll watch the news and i'll be like you need to stop watching it yeah well like i'll watch it and then And again, I'll see a crying Palestinian, and I'll be like, this is called trauma dumping.

And it's actually a form of abuse, child with no hands. Yeah, the news makes absolutely no space for my issues. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, it is it is just, it is egregious watching, watching this go down. It's the impolite Zionist versus the polite Zionist. And the, you know, the third party choices.

are so appealing because just anyone who is against genocide, you're just like, sure. And, you know, the idea that, you know, oh, well, this is going to help Trump and all of that stuff. And it's like, well, it's actually not the job of the voter to vote because they want to help the candidate or because it's not the job of the voter to vote pragmatically. It's the job of the voters to vote. It's your job as a candidate to get them to vote. vote for you. And if you are making a decision to abandon a block of voters, you have to live with that decision. You can't be mad at people who are not going to vote pragmatically or as part of harm reduction. I just, I hate this idea that we, we are still replaying 2016 in which

we're going to be mad at. And in this case, like you said, it's going to be Arabs who bear the brunt of this if Trump wins. And not just the brunt of it from Trump. from the Democrats, they will be blaming. And anyone who's pro-Palestine will be blamed for this in the same way that, you know, they would have blamed BLM or they did blame, you know,

BLM or they, you know, they blamed Bernie in 2016. Like, this is, it's just, it's just revolting. And I wish I was Canadian, so I didn't have to. Well, yeah, because in Canada, we have a third party. We have a third party.

And it helps everything. Yeah. How's the old NDP doing there, Samira? How's the New Democratic Party? I have to say, like, that we have some really great NDPers here. Heather McPherson is always sticking up for the Palestinians, calling out Israel in the parliament and just trying to get. And we just got some dental.

We got some dental here. Some dental. We got some free dental. Well, you have for free health care and now you have free dental? No, no dental dams. No, for people over the age of 65 and under 18, there is now dental care. Oh. I just want to go to a dentist so bad.

I guess I couldn't even if I was Canadian. But yeah, no, the NDP are, you know, doing what they can. Yeah. And we also have the block Quebecois. Don't forget about them. Oh, I don't know them. Is that like the French separatists? Yes.

A separatists? Hell yeah. Are they good or bad? They sort of, you know, get in there and they make, they keep everyone in check. Oh, okay. They're the power brokers between all the parties. I like it. Yeah.

Well, badass. Yeah, it is, you know, one thing with this, you know, election season and this issue is just getting into electoral politics to me has always been, a little disgusting is one of the reasons we haven't discussed it too much on the show and it's because of the fact that it all seems so fucking hopeless and I don't want to sit here and tell people how to vote because I look at this and I go like honestly do whatever you want to vote your heart I don't know like do what you were going to do anyways

just I just I can't sit here and and judge anyone for any choices that they make. It also just feels like, you know, I've never voted in the U.S. election, but it just always feels to me like it doesn't matter. I know. It doesn't matter which of the,

particularly when it comes to this issue, what difference does it make? Which one is committing the genocide? The genocide has been going on. We're hitting 400 days now. It's maniacal. And it doesn't matter if it's Trump or Kamala you know Kamala has made her position very well known yeah we didn't play her clip

from this past week of at the town hall of her saying look anyone who's seen the the photos of what's happening her and Obama both describing sort of vague happenings over there there's just events happening there's shit's going on there's things going on there's yeah there's there's items and there's events and there's there's scenes and anyone who who has seen that, you know, it's horrible. And if you know anyone in your family who has been killed or who has died, that's terrible. But I also know those folks are all really care about the price of groceries. Yes.

And this is in response to a direct question or saying, what are you going to do to stop the deaths of innocent Palestinians? I mean, this is the choice that Americans have, you know, on Tuesday. The other thing is it's always... Grocery prices or death. It's always framed as just that troubled region, you know, things just. happened there you know the middle east they always be fighting exactly and that's just sort of they throw their hands up they're like oh i don't know i know it's our bombs but yeah and yeah so i look at all this and i will say you know to the at least the third party voting people at least at least they're

voting you should be lucky to get that any any democrat who's complaining about uh people voting like Cornell West or Jill Stein, I'm just like, you're, you should be thanking your fucking lucky stars. If you care so much about like upholding democracy, democracy is at stake, you should be thanking them for fucking voting. Because the idea that anyone right now would think it matters is wild to me. I would have voted for Cornell West. His wife is Iranian. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. If I could vote in the States, I would probably probably write in a Sinwar.

Joe Biden Tulsi Gabbard ticket. Oh, God. You know, we need to bring them together. Tulsi, God. Yeah, Tulsi Biden 20, 25. Yeah, with Tulsi at the top of the ticket

and Joe as vice president. I think he needs another going vice president. Yeah. He's still president. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, it's so wild. What's he doing? Who's making the decisions?

This dude is just on an ice cream bender for the last three months. Now I can do whatever I want. Ice cream every day. Look at my son's dick. They did him, dirty. I imagine he's looking at that laptop. Just like, look at that hog.

That's my son. That's my son. He's very proud of his hog. Anyways, that I think has been a podcast. I think we have discussed all that needs to be discussed. Samira, thank you so much for coming on Bad Hasbar and talking with us. Thank you. It was a pleasure being bad. Where can people find your work?

Oh, well, that's nice. I write for different publications, but they can find me sometimes at the Globe and Mail. They can also find me on Patreon. Patreon.com slash on the line media. Hell yeah. We will have links in the show notes. So please check that out, subscribe, and do all of the things. Samir, you were wonderful.

Please come back. Thank you. Of course. Patreon.com. slash bad hasbara and email us bad has barra at gmail.com at some point we will do a mailbag episode in which we read some user mail because we have some great stuff and there's also very recently I think we must have been put on a zionish group chat because I'm getting lots of emails that are very much written by very old people who are very mad at this show for for doing Hamas propaganda.

we will read those as well uh they are fantastic but please email us bad hesbara at gmail dot com all right everyone thanks so much for listening and until next time from the river to the sea fuck all the other candidates vote for me right in matt leave do it jumping jacks was us push-ups was us godmaga us all karate us taking molly us Michael Jackson us Yamaha keyboards Us Georgia makes on us Andor was us

Keith Ledger Joker us Endless Fred success Happy Meals was us McDonald's was us Being happy us Bequam yoga us Eating food us Breeding air us

Drinking water us We invented all that shit Yeah.