Piers Morgan Uncensored - "Ed Sheeran Is a COWARD" Macklemore DROPPED From Tour Over 'Free Palestine' Speech

Episode Date: September 16, 2026

As Middle East tensions escalate on multiple fronts and Congress votes again to end the Iran War, political friction has spilled over into pop culture. Rapper Macklemore has been dropped from Ed Sheer...an’s stadium tour after shouting "Free Palestine" on stage - a move triggered by Patriots owner Robert Kraft banning him from Gillette Stadium.  With supporting acts quitting in protest and Sheeran facing intense backlash, Piers Morgan dives into the chaos, asking who is really to blame and whether silencing artists ever actually works. Joining him is The Young Turks’ Ana Kasparian, Democracy-ish host Wajahat Ali, former Republican congressman Joe Walsh and Yemen-born journalist and activist Luai Ahmed. We’re also joined by  former Israeli Prime Ministers Ehud Olmert and Naftali Bennett. (00:00:00) Introduction (00:03:55) Macklemore and the Ed Sheeran controversy (00:12:40) Backlash directed at Ed Sheeran (00:19:03) Macklemore’s antisemitism and ‘Jewface’ caricature (00:26:22) Israel’s declining popularity in America (00:26:55) Mecca drone attack and the Houthis  (00:34:34) Wajahat Ali is challenged over Rula Jebreal monkey interview  (00:39:34) Ex-Israeli PM Ehud Olmert joins the show (00:40:53) Ehud Olmert and Piers discuss the Haaretz piece on Benjamin Netanyahu  (00:42:15) Ehud Olmert on Charlie Kirk’s claims of a “stand down order” on October 7th   (00:49:22) Ehud Olmert reacts to Ed Miliband justifying the UK’s West Bank sanctions (00:53:44) Ehud Olmert reacts to Doron Spielman calling him a “self-hating jew” (00:55:42) Ex-Israeli PM Naftali Bennett on the Haaretz Netanyahu controversy (00:57:13) Polymarket: Who will be the Prime Minister of Israel after the election? https://polymarket.com/event/who-will-be-the-next-prime-minister-of-israel-after-the-next-election (01:00:10) Naftali Bennett on the Macklemore controversy (01:01:45) Piers’ tribute to Bonnie Greer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Free Palestine. I said free Palestine. If you're offended by that, you are the problem. He didn't just say free Palestine. What did he say? Free Sudan. What did he say? Offensive.
Starting point is 00:00:14 Wow. I don't know why he dressed up like that. It does look bad. So I'll admit that. Yes, you do, Anna. Yes, you do, Anna. This is a generational fumble by Israel. Israel has lost the plot.
Starting point is 00:00:25 They've lost the youth. They've lost the culture. It's over. Until one and a half minutes ago, I never heard of this Macamore guy. Several Republicans defied the president last night as Congress voted again to end the Iran war. It's a powerful gesture. It's also a sign of things to come as Democrats prepare to seize the House in the midterm elections. But the fact is that Congress doesn't have the power to end this war.
Starting point is 00:00:49 Increasingly, Trump doesn't either. Saudi Arabia says the Houthis launched a drone at Mecca last night. their rebels have also seized control of a key strait in the Red Sea. Today, Iran has ruled out peace talks until every one of its demands are met, and all of this, after the Pentagon defied the president by admitting its running out of key weapons, albeit not the 40,000 heavy bombs, the US is selling to Israel in a controversial new $3 billion deal. And with Middle East war and chaos seemingly expanding on all fronts, it's no surprise, perhaps, the celebrities are in open conflict about it too.
Starting point is 00:01:25 Billionaire Robert Kraft banned the rapper Macklemore from supporting Ed Shear and on stage at the Gillette Stadium, which Kraft owns. After Maca Moore said this at a previous show. The reasons why I wanted to come on this tour was because I wanted to stand up here on stages and stadiums across America and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart, free Palestine. I said, Free Palestine. Well, Macabour now won't be saying it on stages across America at all because Ed Sheeran's promoters decided to fire him from the whole tour. And that tour is now in complete chaos
Starting point is 00:02:15 because every other supporting actors quit in his defense, including Ed Sheeran's own band. Just about everybody involved in this saga has made a pretty farcical mess of it. Firstly, there's nothing much controversial about saying the words, free Palestine. And don't just take it from me. This is Jesse Waters on, Fox News. So what did he
Starting point is 00:02:34 said? It was bad. He said, free Palestine? Is that all? He went on on the... No, there went on. A genocide. Okay. Okay, well, all I heard was free Palestine. I don't think that's hate speech. But, you know, if Rob Craft doesn't want you there, he owns
Starting point is 00:02:52 the venue. You're gone. Who cares? Well, it's a fair point. It's hard to argue with the guy who owns the stadium. But if Robert Kraft's intention was to silence or diminish Maca Moore, it's only had the opposite effect. More people are talking about him now than at any point in his life. Don't be surprised if he heads off on his own free Palestine tour
Starting point is 00:03:10 and for that tour to then sell very well indeed. Ed Shearing himself is now taking a lot of flack for denying all responsibility and he probably deserves some of it. It wasn't a massive surprise when Mackamore made his speech. He's been one of industry's fiercest public Israeli critics ever since the Gaza war began. If you book a rattlesnake, well, don't be too surprised when it's starts biting things. The fact is that Ed Sheeran will survive this furorri as one of the
Starting point is 00:03:37 world's biggest musicians. Malcolm Moore will emerge more popular than he's ever been. Robert Kraft will remain a billionaire. The only people who won't see any benefit from any of this are the people who spent their hard-earned cash on tickets to the shows and, as is often the case, the actual people of Palestine. Join me to debate all this is Anna Kasperin, host of an executive producer of the Young Turks, Rajahat Ali, host of Democracy-ish, former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh and the Yemen-born journalist and activist Luey Ahmed. Welcome to all of you. And Louie, welcome to you making your uncensored debut.
Starting point is 00:04:13 Let me start, if I may, with Anna Kasperim. Welcome back to Uncensored Anna. This whole Mackle thing, look, I think he did it as a deliberate stunt. I think he knew what would happen if he did this. And it's worked for him. It's made him very, very famous, very quickly and very, very popular. popular with those who agree with him. I didn't personally have any great issue with the stuff he was saying. It didn't seem overly inflammatory on this occasion, although he has in the past said a lot of inflammatory things. So I then come to Ed Sheeran, like I said in the monologue, Ed Sheeran knew who he was booking as one of his support acts. He can't be that surprised, as he's now trying to pretend he is, about what then happened. And he's now taking enormous flack from absolutely everybody. And Robert Kraft, I would simply say, well, if Macomore was saying pro-Israeli stuff on stage, would he have banned it?
Starting point is 00:05:09 Answer, no. So there seems to be double standards all over the place here. What is your view? Well, let me start with Robert Kraft. While it's true that he owns the stadium and gets to decide who can and can't be there to perform, the fact of the matter is he also has all sorts of conflicts of interest that led to the decision he made in the first place. He had some pretty deep ties to Jeffrey Epstein. If you can recall several years ago, I believe it was about seven years ago, he was embroiled in that
Starting point is 00:05:41 prostitution ring scandal where he was caught soliciting prostitution at one of those massage spas in Florida. He's a huge donor to APEC and in fact has even received some sort of award from the state of Israel. So it doesn't surprise me that Robert Kraft is going to Robert craft. I think that his whole being is far more disgusting than anything I've ever heard McElmore say. But I think what this whole incident shows to everyone is that it doesn't even matter how tame your comments are, even if you're not being critical of the Israelis, and you're just focusing on the humanity of the Palestinian people, simply saying free Palestine will make the unhinged Zionist come after you as if you're some sort of a Jew hater or anti-Semite.
Starting point is 00:06:31 So you can't, they don't even give you an inch. They don't give the Palestinian people an inch. They are not seen as human beings. And you know, the bigger issue that you're seeing in Israel right now is the general public. And this is based on polling peers that's like really depressing. Because at the beginning of what was going down in Gaza, I kept trying to remind my audience, you know, you can't conflate the Israelis. government with their population. Well, the civilian population of Israel has literally said in polls that they don't see Palestinians as human, which is why they don't see what's happening in Gaza as a genocide. So there's like a mountain between people like McLeod more who understand the humanity of the Palestinian people and Zionists who just don't even see them as human beings. Okay, Joe Walsh, welcome back to you. What's your response to that?
Starting point is 00:07:23 Look, this is, Pierce, this is freedom and free speech at work. Everything Anna said about Robert Kraft, all true, but Robert Kraft, even if you think he's a detestable human being and a pro-Israel, Zionist, whatever, he still has free speech rights in this country. If he wants to boot McLemore from his venue, he can do it. Look, McLemore, and let me, Let's be clear. McLemore didn't just stand up. But why is that, why is that a, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. Why is that a free speech right?
Starting point is 00:08:02 I mean, when people have tried to frame this as a free speech debate, I think what is inarguable is that Robert Kraft has tried to censor McElmore's right to free speech. I'm not quite sure that by doing that he's exercising his own free speech right. He's actually censoring someone's right to free speech, isn't he? He's exercising his freedom. He owns the venue. Look, Pierce, McLemore has a right to say whatever he wanted to say.
Starting point is 00:08:30 And people have a right to be offended by what he said and protest what he said. And then the promoters have a right to say, McLemore, you're gone. And Robert Kraft, a venue owner, has a right to say, I don't want him playing. And by the way, Ed Sheeran's all hit the rest of his opening acts. They have every right to say, well, shame on you, Ed Scherner. Sharon, we're not going to be your opening act anymore. This is a hot emotional issue. I hope nobody on this panel would deny any of those people the right to say and do what
Starting point is 00:09:07 they all did. They're all exercising their freedom, no matter where you stand on this issue. And I'll defend McClermore's right to say what he wanted to say. Every bit as strongly as I'll defend Bob Kraft's right to have whoever he wants to have play at his venue, period. I think the problem is the owners, sorry, just to respond real quickly. They're going on. I think the problem when you're talking about free speech in this context is the power dynamics
Starting point is 00:09:37 at play. So it's easy to say, well, everyone's practicing their First Amendment rights. Everyone's engaging in free speech. But when we live increasingly in a society that the World Economic Forum previewed for us several years ago saying that you will owe nothing and rent everything, Well, if the general public, especially under these economic conditions, don't own things and thus are unable to find avenues in which they can speak freely, because everything that is owned is owned by people like Robert Kraft, well, how do you square that circle? How do you deal with the issue of free speech under that context? Well, Anna, just a real quick response, then your answer may be some sort of an economic solution. But for the time being, billionaires in America, have free speech and artists, artists and musicians in America do as well. Again, everyone should,
Starting point is 00:10:34 and Pierce, I just want to say one more thing. MacLmore can do and say whatever he wanted to say. He didn't just say free Palestine. He did more than that. He has a right to do all of that. And you're right, Pierce. Ed Sheeran should have known what he was going to do, but he didn't just say free Palestine. a reason why a lot of folks got upset. Free Sudan. What did he say? On just two quick ones. Wow.
Starting point is 00:11:03 No, no, no, hold on, Anna, anti-denocide. Maybe not offensive to you, but offensive to some people. You'd acknowledge that or no? So what? If you're, I don't care. So free. Okay. Persecuted is more like, oh, you're offended by that.
Starting point is 00:11:17 I think the problem is the people who are actually offended by that. If you are offended by allowing people to live in freedom, where their humanity is recognized and respected. If you're offended by that, you are the problem. That is the main point here. Okay, good to know. So what. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:11:34 All right, let me bring in Wajah. Welcome back to Uncensor Wajah. I mean, look, I still come back to the fact that Robert Kraft was exercising his right as a owner of the venue to stop somebody performing. He obviously has that legal right. The contract was with him. But that's not exercising a right to free speech, what he did. To me, is exercising the right to suppress somebody's right to free speech, which was McElmore in this case.
Starting point is 00:12:02 I listened to everything McElmore said in these on-stage comments. None of it seemed to me particularly outrageous. I've got a lot worse on my show, including from some of the panelists today. And yet I would respect your right to say these things. I do think Ed Sheeran's boxed himself into a very difficult position because he now looks like he's rolled over to the billionaire boss and he probably would have got more kudos and more support from people had he said, I'm not going to let you do this
Starting point is 00:12:35 and if he doesn't play, I don't play. Because what he said in his speech was, look, I have my own views, sort of hinting he might agree with Macklemore, but I don't want to say them because I want to be nonpartisan and so on, to which my response would be, well, if you are that wedded to a non-partisan show, why would you want McElmore as your support act, given all the outrageous things McElmore has previously said, including fuck America, fuck Trump. You know, he released a record in the aftermath of October 7th,
Starting point is 00:13:06 in which he supported the pro-Palestinian protests campuses on American universities, which, you know, I know you will have a view about that, and I will too, but there were genuine incidents of young Jewish Jews. being terrorized to a degree, and he put out a record supporting all the protesters. So this is not a guy with no skin in the game here. He's very clear about where he sits, and he's been very inflammatory with some of the things he said.
Starting point is 00:13:32 Not, I have to repeat, I don't think, in these particular instances. But Ed Sheeran knew what he was getting. You know, if it looks like a duck, it's going to quack. Yeah, this is the greatest example of the stric sand effect. I think the stric sand effect should be really. label the Shearin effect, and for those who don't know what that means, is that when you want to cover up something, instead of covering it up, the efforts that you take actually make into a big news. So now, all the efforts that were taken by Israel's defenders and the pro-genocide
Starting point is 00:14:02 supporters have resulted in the world now listening to Macklemore's songs and listening to his speech where he says Free Palestine, and has resulted in N. Shirin losing not just at Macamore as opening act, but all the opening acts and even his own touring band. And the touring band was very blunt in their comments, speaking out against the Zionist lobby that has pressured Ed Sheeran and talking about the occupation of Palestinians. So literally the exact opposite effect that they intended has resulted as a result of Robert Kraft, the billionaire, putting his thumb on the scale and censoring McElmore. What they should have done is said, let McElmore say what he's going to say.
Starting point is 00:14:46 We know what he's going to say. No big deal, whatever. But instead, Robert Kraft, who has given millions of dollars to APEC, millions of dollars to Israel, has received the million-dollar Nobel of Israel, is one of the biggest friends of Israel, a donor to...
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Starting point is 00:15:24 BetMGEM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. In the Epstein Files, a donor to Donald Trump got together his other band of billionaires and said, hey, we're going to make sure McElmore is kicked off of this tour. Ed Shearhan, who's worth more than $300 million, Pierce Morgan, he should have said, go after yourself, Robert Kraft. I read the room. I'm not going to allow you to bully me, regardless of whether I agree with McElmore or not, I know this is going to be terrible optics.
Starting point is 00:15:56 I'm Ed Sheeran. Someone else will put me in their stadium. I'm going to make a bunch of money. Ed Shearin was a coward. Ed Shearin said, I'm apolitical, but all the data shows that Ed Shearin was very political and supported. Wait for it. Ukraine!
Starting point is 00:16:09 So he had no problem supporting Ukraine. but on this he's both sides. He made that decision. As this is happening, Pierce, you know who's also touring right now in the United States of America? Kanye West, you know the guy who said, hail Hitler?
Starting point is 00:16:23 You know the guy who had dinner with Nick Fentez and Donald Trump? You know the guy who's an outright anti-Semite? Robert Kraft and all these stadium owners like, hey, Kanye, you go ahead and be anti-Semitic. That's A-O-K. So this has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. Robert Kraft, by the way,
Starting point is 00:16:38 has given over $100 million to fight anti-Semitism, this is just to crush anybody, anybody who simply says free Palestine. And I listen to McElmore speech. I'm like, maybe he did say something like, I don't know. I listened to the two-minute speech. I'm like, this was a very thoughtful speech.
Starting point is 00:16:54 Even in a speech, which he didn't play, he takes time to say, I'm not speaking against the Jewish people. I'm speaking about Israel. They did. They did. Yeah. And he said, I'm against apartheid, against genocide, for human rights.
Starting point is 00:17:06 And then they crushed him for this. Now, everyone's listening to this. and they're saying, what's wrong with this speech? So if you're a billionaire, Robert Kraft screwed you. If you're a hardcore pro-Israel Zionist, Robert Kraft screwed you. And if you're Ed Sheeran, buddy, grow us fine with that $300 million. Okay. Louis, welcome to Unsensor. What's your view of all this?
Starting point is 00:17:30 Thank you so much, peers. There have been plenty of other artists, artists who are 10 times bigger than McElmore, like Lord and Harry Styles, who have screamed free Palestine from their stages and no one cared. Lord literally had the Palestinian flag on her stage and no one cared. And the reason for that is that Lord and Harry Styles are not anti-Semitic. They never bought prosthetic noses to make fun of the Jewish people and mock their suffering and their pain. Macklemore, unlike Lord and Harry's styles, hasn't had a hit in over 10 years and he's trying to get another hit with Free Palestine. When other artists talk about Palestine and freeing
Starting point is 00:18:11 Palestinian, it doesn't come with that tone of anti-Semitism that comes with Maclemore. So if Pierce Morgan goes on a stage in front of 100,000 people and says, I don't like Israel, no one will care because we know what he means by that. He's against the violence and the settlements. He's against the war, et cetera. But if, say, Dan Bilzerian goes on a stage in front of 100,000 people and says, I don't like Israel, it means something completely different because we know where Dan Belzarian
Starting point is 00:18:38 stands. He wants to eradicate the Israeli state, as he says, So who says what is important. And when children go to a concert, they want to listen to Ed Sheeran's songs about love and heart and music. They don't want to listen to music about politics, about genocide, about apartheid, which is why the Jewish artist Pink was the, who wrote an art, a post about this, is what led to all of this controversy about it. She's saying, if my Jewish children, if my children want to go to a concert, they don't want to be preached about genocide and apartheid from an artist who couldn't even. spell or pronounce Kuwait. So we need to be hearing about politics
Starting point is 00:19:17 and geopolitical analysis from people who are experts who know about it, not from artists who sing about thrift shop and club songs. We live in a democracy. I think that's a good point. No, it's not a good point. I totally reject that point. Okay.
Starting point is 00:19:33 I want to actually hear people's political opinions. Hang on, hang on. Hang on. Anna, Anna, Anna, Anna, Anna, Anna, I'm hanging on. I'm here. Let me put my... I'm hanging. Let me explain to you why I think it's a good point.
Starting point is 00:19:43 If you actually look, I think McElmore is very disingenuous actor in all this. Because if you look at the footage of that 2014 concert in Seattle, when he was accused of being anti-Semitic, he wore a costume with a huge hook nose and dark hair and beard. I've looked at this carefully. You know, he may as well have come out and just said, I'm Shylock, right? Now, he apologized, said he didn't mean to offend anybody, but realized it could look like a Jewish caricature, I respect all cultures and all people.
Starting point is 00:20:14 To which I say bullshit. You knew exactly what you were doing. You knew exactly what you were wearing. And it was a genuine display of overt anti-Semitism. So once you know that's what he's capable of and then capable of lying about it, I think he's a disingenuous actor who probably now, because his career has been on the way
Starting point is 00:20:33 and sees an opportunity to become a pro-Palestinian hero. And it's not because he doesn't care about what's happening in Gaza. I'm sure he does. I would agree with him about much of what he says about what happened in Gaza. But the idea that we can frame him as an innocent player in this is ridiculous. Look, I think focusing too much on one person is kind of like missing the forest for the trees. I don't know why he dressed up like that. It does look bad.
Starting point is 00:21:01 So I'll admit that. Yes, you do, Anna. Yes, you do, Anna. Okay. Okay. Okay. But here's the real issue. There is a broader problem with, okay, Joe, Joe, I don't, I'm sorry.
Starting point is 00:21:13 I don't listen to Maconores music and I don't watch his concerts. And I didn't know that that was him dressed that way. No, don't apologize. Let me finish my point. Let me finish my point instead of interrupting me. Okay, great. Okay, I want to make a broader point about how there is a multi-state effort to censor Americans who have a problem with what Israel is doing in Gaza and the West Bank and Syria
Starting point is 00:21:37 and Lebanon and dragging us into war with Iran. So anyone who is critical of Israel now in pretty much the majority of our states will be rejected, banned from receiving any public money, any public grants. So that is the government's way of punishing American citizens for exercising their freedom of expression. And that hasn't been challenged at all. That hasn't been challenged at all. What are you laughing at? Like, you think that's funny?
Starting point is 00:22:06 That's not funny. No, you're saying you're kind of trying to make it seem like saying free Palestine and talking about Palestine makes you a brave person and you're going to get punished. That's not true. Everybody is screaming free Palestine. I just said that Harry Stiles and Lord, two of the biggest artists, artists who are 10 times. Can I finish, please? Address the point I made, not a point I didn't make. I made a point about the government coming after American citizens for being critical of a foreign country, which I think is wrong.
Starting point is 00:22:34 My government isn't going to come for me. If I'm proof of that. What is your proof of that? What is your proof of that? What is your proof that the government goes in? Why didn't they go after Harry Stiles and Lord? 40 states. Laws, laws that have been passed in over 40 states. In fact, Ron DeSantis traveled to Israel to sign the floor of a version of that bill.
Starting point is 00:22:51 Why weren't Lord and Harry Styles punished? All right. Why weren't Lord and Harry Styles punished by the American government after screaming free Palestine on their stage? You're answering my question with a question that has nothing to do with what I asked you? So do you think it's okay for the government to punish American citizens for their speech? No.
Starting point is 00:23:10 Is it okay? No, I don't think that any government, all right. I don't think, I don't think that governments should punish people for their speech, especially they're criticizing governments. By the way, Anna, again, all four of us should agree with this, right? When, Anna, this is an important distinction. It's a free speech issue when the government tries to suppress speech. And the government should never try to suppress speech. and the Trump administration is constantly suppressing speech.
Starting point is 00:23:38 I'm very pro-Israel. The Trump administration has denied visas to immigrants coming here who are critical of Israel. That's utterly un-American and wrong. In the private sector, you can suppress and do whatever you want. That's called freedom. But, Anna, you're right, not the government. Thank you, Joe. All right.
Starting point is 00:24:00 Wajah, Wajah, yeah. Yeah, facts matter. 12 years ago when McElmore did that, he apologized. The ADL, the anti-defamation leagues, eight foxmen, all right? Not a dove. Pretty much a hawk, right? Very, very astute when it comes to anti-Semitism, said, we accept his apology. That was 12 years ago. McElmore, two years ago, wrote that song. People were being canceled and are still being canceled. It did not help his career. He literally just got booted off a lucrative tour. As this is happening, I'll remind you, Robert Kraft has said nothing about Kanye West selling out the same stadiums and singing, Hail Hitler.
Starting point is 00:24:39 As this is happening, I want to remind you that two Israeli Jewish filmmakers of the documentary Naza that just got a 24 and a half-minute standing ovation in Venice Film Festival. Do you know what Israel is doing to them right now? Israel's cultural minister is trying to revoke their citizenship. Susan Sarandon can no longer work in America. Susan Sarandon, Academy Award-winning actress, says that she has to work in Europe right now because she got banned for saying free Palestine. You know who also is trying to be getting banned right now?
Starting point is 00:25:06 The Hulk, Mark Ruffalo, thankfully, 170 Jewish-American Hollywood celebrities have come out and said, you cannot ban Mark Ruffalo for being anti-Semitic because he's talked about Larry Ellison's relationship with Oracle and Israel. And then furthermore, what's been happening as a result of this? Again, I want to bring you back full circle. It's Robert Kraft, a billionaire, who is a friend of Israel and Israel.
Starting point is 00:25:30 Israel's occupation, who has put his thumb on the scale and has literally announced, I got all the other stadium owners to kick McElmore out. What Ed Sheeran should have done is said, F yourself, but check it out. If people were so offended, people would have booed. I saw that clip, people applauded. Furthermore, his own touring band and all the opening acts are with McElmore. I want to say this. This is a generational fumble by Israel and Robert Kraft and anyone who's pro-Israel.
Starting point is 00:25:59 What you're witnessing in real-time peers, this is fast. What you and I are witnessing is what happened in the 80s with the global turn against South African apartheid. Israel has lost the plot. They've lost the youth. They've lost the culture. It's done. No matter how many pro-Israel apologists come on the show, I want you all to know. It's over. You've lost the youth. People have become radicalized because they've seen a genocide on their phone for the past two and a half years. And no matter how much, if you will power, You exercise against them, to crush them. What's going to happen from here on out now, Pierce, is you're going to see more and more people wake up, which is what happened right now. The stricent effect should be called the Sheeran effect.
Starting point is 00:26:43 Okay. I mean, look, there may be some truth to that because Israel's popularity has been consistently plunging, and we've got to a place I never thought we'd get to in America in my lifetime, where there is significant majority negative opinion of Israel, and that should be of great concern to all Israelis and to Jews around the world, frankly. But I don't think this Israeli government cares and it has a lot of people in it
Starting point is 00:27:10 who I view as psychopaths who are doing more and more things to alienate public opinion from Israel, which I find extraordinary, but that is happening. Louie, let me just ask you about this development in Saudi Arabia, where Saudi Arabia claims its air defences intercepted and destroyed a hooty drone
Starting point is 00:27:28 attempting to fly over the holy city of Mecca. Now, the Hootis have denied targeting Mecca. They said their operations targeted Saudi oil facilities and military bases, and they claimed to have shot down a Saudi fighter jet. But at the same time, they've also seized control of parts of Yemen's Red Sea coast overlooking the Bab al-Mandab, which is one of the world's other most important shipping waterways. So we could have simultaneous straitial. straight closures here with the Strait of Hormuz and the Strait of Bab al-Manda.
Starting point is 00:28:04 And the particular issue here will be, of course, for Saudi's ability to get its oil supplies out. This all feels to me like a very significant escalation in this Iran war, a war that I have criticized from day one and think was extremely ill-advised. What is your view? So it is definitely an escalation. So the Houthis took over Yemen in 2014, who have been financed by the Islamic regime in Iran since 2009 before the Arab Spring. Now, the Houthis took over the coastal cities, and they took up Bab al-Mandab in the past week. And there's a very important reason that they did that.
Starting point is 00:28:44 There's a reason why they waited for 12 years in order to take over the coastal cities, and they haven't really tried their best to do that in the past 12 years since they took over Yemen. And the reason that they did that is because of the Islamic regime in Iran. We saw in this past war that the Strait of Hormuz was the winning bargaining chip in the war that Iran could say we will lock the Strait of Hormos and then President Trump would listen to them and fold because of the Strait of Hormuz. So the Islamic regime and the Houthis figured out if we could lock from the Persian Gulf the Strait of Hormos and from the Red Sea Bab el-Mand-Dab, we would be able to suffocate and choke the international economy even more than we can, right? now. So it is really just to give the Islamic regime and even more carts to play with in the
Starting point is 00:29:34 upcoming wars because we know very well that the Islamic regime and the proxies that they finance are not looking for peace. Their main goal is to, like it says in their in their slogans, death to America and death to Israel. They want to eradicate Israel and they will not stop until they get there. So this move by the Islamic regime in Iran in Yemen of taking over the coastal cities and taking over Babel Mandab is to get a. an extra strait of Hormuz from the Red Sea? Yeah, I mean, Joe, just quickly on this, it just seems to me that the actors in that region have worked out.
Starting point is 00:30:10 You don't need to have a nuclear weapon if you can control a strait through which large amounts of global energy go through on tankers. And the Houthis have clearly just looked at what the Iranian regime's been doing with Strait of Hormuz and thought, well, we fancy a piece of that action with Bab al-Mandab. If they were to get control of that, that's 4% of the world's energy stop right there. Again, on top of the 20% of the Strait of Hormuz.
Starting point is 00:30:37 This becomes, you know, I don't think we've even seen the real repercussions yet of the closures of Australia of Hormuz, but we will do. And, of course, there's also a political dynamic here of the midterm elections, where with gas prices raging as they are, and this is obviously going to make things worse, you know, I don't, again, I'm at a loss to understand why Donald Trump did this or why he's. He isn't trying everything to get out of it now as fast as he possibly can. I think, and I don't know. Yeah, you've emphasized this, Pierce, not as much as I have. Trump's utterly mad up here. You said it. He started a stupid illegal war.
Starting point is 00:31:15 He and his 17-year-old Secretary of Defense didn't anticipate any of this. And they can't get out of this stupid illegal war. And the ramifications for the region, it's like they did. didn't even think through any of this, and now they don't know how to get out. And hell yes, this war pierce more than anything, I think what it's done economically is going to hand the House and the Senate to the Democrats. Pierce, can I say? Yeah, I think it's quite likely.
Starting point is 00:31:50 Yeah, well, very quickly, yeah. I mean, I think people need to realize it's not going to be good news I'm about to tell you. from the southern Iraq, they fired missiles, the 800-mile east-west pipeline of Saudi Arabia is damaged. That affects 4% of the world's oil supply. As mentioned, now the Houthis control Babel-Mandab, which is at the tip of the Red Sea, which connects Europe and Asia to the Red Sea.
Starting point is 00:32:14 You already have another choke point, which is the straight-off rumours. What does that mean? Too long, didn't read. Give me the cliff notes. What that means is we're going to see record gas prices, record diesel prices. We've already seen food shortages, energy shortages. We've seen this rocked the Asia-Pacific economy.
Starting point is 00:32:30 Now in America, folks, you better fill up your gas. And I'm saying this with not as alarmist, but being as serious as I possibly can, buy your tickets for November and December today. We're seeing a record level of diesel gas prices hit right now. And then what we're going to also see is death by 1,000 cuts. Because now Iran has all the choke points. And guess what? Suppose Saudi Arabia fixes up this 800-mile pipeline.
Starting point is 00:32:52 What's to stop them from attacking it again? So we are now stuck in this quagmire, thanks to Nenjahu and Donald Trump, leaning us in this stupid, illegal war without an exit strategy. The war is lost. The war has lost peers. All Donald Trump has to do is say, I'm done. Thank you very much. I'm out.
Starting point is 00:33:13 But he won't do it. And as we know with Israel, they're pursuing the greater Israel plan, which is they've openly said, We want the West Bank, we want Gaza, we want Lebanon, and we want Syria. The world is going to burn because of Nahu and Trump. Smotrich said it. Okay, I think it's pretty... Smotrich said that. Smotrich said that.
Starting point is 00:33:35 Smotrich said worse about a fact. Smotrich talked about the greatest... Smotrich and Bengvir. Do you know what percentage of Israelis vote for Smotrach and Bengvier? Less than 10%. So when you say they, you're talking about 10 million Israelis. but you're saying Smolrich and Benzger, which are two crazy nuts. 70 to 80% of its release.
Starting point is 00:33:53 Yeah, but the truth is, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. The truth, Louie, about Ben, Ben Giver and Smodrich is they may only represent 10%, but they vocally create more noise than the rest of the cabinet put together in that Israeli government, and the noise they create is psychopathic. These guys are talking in constant genocidal language, constant ethnic cleansing language. It's very clear they see all this as a great opportunity to get all the Palestinians out of Gaza and the West Bank. And I think they do Israel and Israelis a massive disservice. And I feel that very strongly.
Starting point is 00:34:29 And when people try and diminish their influence or their importance, they hold important positions in that government. And they are the ones commanding all the airtime. And they're commanding it with stuff which makes more and more people hate Israel. So I just don't understand why smart Israelis don't realize this is what's happening. and stop it. But maybe they would in their own election, which of course is coming up too. Two huge elections.
Starting point is 00:34:53 We've run out of time, unfortunately. I did want to ask, though, with Jahat, one thing is I haven't had you on since you had. The Palestinian journalist, Rula Gibriel, on your podcast, The Left Hook. And she said this. Hakeem Jeffrey, by the name. His name is Hakeem.
Starting point is 00:35:11 Hakeem in Arabic is an Arabic name, which means healer. He's not a healer. He's a divider. He is bought and paid by APEC monkey with all the respect. And I don't mean it in a racist way. He is just basically an errand boy. And we're done and tired of that.
Starting point is 00:35:29 Americans deserve better. Now, if someone like Ron DeSantis has said that with Jaha, I think it would have taken you less than 10 minutes to call him up on the use of what was clearly a very racist term. But 10 minutes later, this is what happened. Someone mentioned this, and I know you corrected yourself, but I just want to address it, you know, using monkey to anyone black is it has terrible racial connotations, but I think you caught yourself and said you didn't mean it with any racial animosity. I didn't. I mean, I honestly, you know, there's these three monkeys. One, I cannot see, I cannot hear and I cannot speak.
Starting point is 00:36:17 it's remind me of these three monkeys. Yeah, but I know you didn't mean to, and then you caught yourself and you also said, you met no racial connotations, but you're talking about, you know, essentially what we're seeing is, but I just wanted to address that also because I know someone brought that up,
Starting point is 00:36:33 and I also want to be fair to you, I know what your intention was, and you caught yourself also. So we're just clarifying, thank you. Thank you, Rula. Now, what struck me with Jaha, was you bent over backwards to get her out of the mess
Starting point is 00:36:47 that she had created with this comment, And, you know, I am reminded of what she herself said about Ronda Santis, when he talked about, don't monkey this up by electing his African-American opponent, Andrew Gillum. She said Republicans never failed to fall back on disgusting, blatant racist rhetoric as opposed to running on issues. Trump will continue race-baiting all the way till November. Now, she didn't give Ronda Santis the kind of pass that you gave her. why did you give her such a pass?
Starting point is 00:37:21 Why didn't you condemn her blatant racist rhetoric? Which, by the way, is her words about Ron DeSantis, when he also clearly didn't mean it as a racist term, but used exactly the same phrase. Ron DeSantis doubled down, never apologized. Rula speaks for herself. She has apologized unconditionally, and then we were invited on Joy and Reid,
Starting point is 00:37:40 where she doubled down and apologized for her sentiment. I actually addressed it because, regardless of intention and context in America, that word, especially with black men, as you know, has a racist history. So even though she meant it, and I was listening to her, and my 1,500 people were watching, were listening to her, she was talking about democratic complicity, democratic leadership and complicity in this ongoing genocide and occupation. Just today, as you know, Donald Trump said, he's going to send a $2.8 billion weapons package
Starting point is 00:38:08 paid by U.S. taxpayer dollars to Israel, which includes 40,000 missiles. So she was talking about the complicity, but regardless of intention and context, out-of-pocket comment. And she apologized for it profusely. And let me tell you this, Pierce. The same week she said that, you know who actually spoke out against black people and Muslims and Palestinians?
Starting point is 00:38:27 Donald Trump's senior advisor, Laura Lumer. Let me tell you something about Democrats. You're going to like this because I'm going to make fun of Democrats. Democratic leaders had more smoke for me on Twitter, and I'd even say that comment. Then they had against Laura Lumer who attacked energy and they had more smoke for me,
Starting point is 00:38:44 I'd even say the comment, then they had for Elon Musk who did the pro-ugenics anti-Semitic tweet and they had more smoke for me than Representative Randy Fine who has said the worst things against Angie Nixon and Muslims and guess who did a tweet supporting Andy Fine Akeem Jeffries. This is, I've got to say, this is masterful deflection but the bottom line is she herself.
Starting point is 00:39:05 Hang on, hang on, she herself, we know this from her post on X when Ron DeSantis also inadvertently used the word munger, to talk about his African-American opponent in terms of don't monkey miss up. He said to voters clearly didn't intend to be remotely racist, but she gave him no pass. She gave him no 10-minute wait, and she gave him no get-out and said, I just want to be fair to you. I don't think it was a 10-minute wait. He fell back. She accused him of disgusting blatant racist rhetoric.
Starting point is 00:39:38 My only question, Ajah, is, do you agree that the term that she used was also disgusting blatant racist rhetoric? at racist rhetoric? Yes, which is why we called it on real time, and which is why she speaks for herself. She unconditionally apologized. Ron DeSantis didn't. Okay. That's all I wanted to get from me.
Starting point is 00:39:56 I appreciate you all coming on on our censor. Thank you very much. They are both former Israeli prime ministers, but it's fair to say that Neftali Bennett and Ehud Olmott had very little in common politically. What they do share is the belief that Benjamin Netanyahu's time in power must end. I'm going to hear from both of them.
Starting point is 00:40:13 And joining me first is Ehud Olmut. Welcome back to Uncensored, Mr. Omet. Hello, hello. Mr. Morgan. There's an extraordinary story, which is still bubbling away after it was published first by Heretz last week, in which it appears that Benjamin Netanyahu was specifically told in a private phone call from the Prime Minister of the UAE
Starting point is 00:40:39 10 days before October the 7th that Hamas were planning a huge attack and that Benjamin Netanyahu did nothing with that information of any significance and clearly did nothing to stop what then happened 10 days later. You told CNN when you spoke to Christian Amampur, after the story was published, I have no doubt that what Harats published is absolutely accurate. Netanyahu was warned. So let me just start by asking you, how is it you have no doubt?
Starting point is 00:41:14 What information have you had in addition to the Heretz reporting that makes you think that report is accurate? I know this information from as long back as almost three years, shortly after the massacre on the 7th of October started. And I heard it in a way that there's no doubt about the authenticity and the accuracy of this information. Unfortunately, for obvious reasons, I can't share the sources, as you would understand, as a senior journalist, but I have no doubt. I knew it all the time. I didn't spell it out publicly for different reasons, but I have no doubt about it. I was waiting to see when it would come to open by some journalistic investigations such as how arts conducted, which I fully trust.
Starting point is 00:42:16 Well, Prime Minister Netanyahu has, of course, emphatically denied it. He says he's going to sue Horat. He has used this threat before with other media, and it remains to be seen if he'll actually go through with this. But I want to play you a clip. This is from Charlie Kirk. This was talking about October the 7th, and obviously before he was assassinated,
Starting point is 00:42:39 but it seems very relevant in the context of this report. Let's take a look. So I've been to Israel many times. The whole country's a fortress. When I first heard this story, I still had the same gut instinct that I did initially. I find this very hard to believe. I've been to that Gaza border. You cannot go 10 feet without running into a 19-year-old with an AR-15 or an automatic machine gun that is an IDF soldier. The whole country is surveilled. The last nine months, Israel was on the brink of civil war.
Starting point is 00:43:09 It's not an exaggeration. This judicial stuff, there were hundreds of thousands of Israelis taking to the streets because BB Netanyahu is basically redefining the Israeli constitution. That's not an exaggeration, right? He said the judicial branch has too much power. There were protests planned this week against Netanyahu, where they anticipated tens of thousands of people to take to the streets. That's all gone, Patrick. Netanyahu now has an emergency government and a mandate to lead. I'm not willing to say, to go so far that saying that Netanyahu knew or there was intelligence here, but I think some questions need to be
Starting point is 00:43:41 asked. Was there a stand-down order? Was there a stand-down order? Six hours? I don't believe it. Israel's the side of New Jersey. When I took a helicopter ride from Jerusalem to the Gaza border, it's 45 minutes. Six hours. They're live-streaming the killing of Jews. Did somebody in the government say stand-down?
Starting point is 00:44:04 That is a legitimate non-conspiracy question. So obviously, in light of what this Heretz report has said, and in light of what you've said about independently understanding this to be true. What Charlie Kirk was saying there, I'm sorry. Yeah, I said, I didn't understand. I just got the information in a way
Starting point is 00:44:29 that made it absolutely clear that this is authentic, accurate, true, and there was no doubt about it. As I said, I didn't share it to the public at that time for different reasons. No, I understand. It's not that I understood that I thought about something that only indirectly was referring to when I got to the conclusion. No, I just heard it.
Starting point is 00:44:57 Simply. And there was no way I would doubt it. Right. But in relation to what Charlie Kirk said in that clip we just played, do you believe that there are important questions to be asked? about whether there was any kind of stand-down order. Can you explain why it took so long for Israeli forces to respond to the terror attacks of October the 7th? I'm afraid I couldn't do it.
Starting point is 00:45:27 I mean, this is something that I keep thinking about over the last three years, almost on a daily basis, which I can't comprehend. This is so unbelievable, something that is against everything that we were, taught to believe that we are supposed to do, particularly at that period and at that time, in the south border of Israel. But I don't think that there was an order of sending down given by the highest command of the army.
Starting point is 00:46:00 I mean, they, you don't want to suggest that the highest command of the Israeli army and the security services and the Air Force and so on, we have partners to manipulation. or to a conspiracy that was activated or manipulated by the Prime Minister. I think there is something else there. For a long time, the concept of the Prime Minister, which was forced on all his surroundings, including, of course, the High Command of the Army and the Security Services,
Starting point is 00:46:41 where that Hamas is a potential partner. Hamas is not the enemy. The enemy is the Palestinian Authority, because if you talk to the Palestinian Authority, you must talk about political concessions, you must talk about territorial concessions, you must talk about a solution. But if you don't want the solution, the best possible partner is Hamas. And the question is, therefore, how do you manage Hamas to cooperate with you so that it will work out? And the way that Netanyahu thought, and I said it and indicated it and spelled it out publicly before October 7th was to buy them through the money that comes from Qatar. He believed that if he will
Starting point is 00:47:28 buy them his money, I'll tell you what. Netanyahu believed that what can be done with him, can be done with others. If he can be bought, they can be that, except that they are not Netanyahu. They truly, genuinely believe that they have to wipe out Israel, and therefore, they manipulated Netanyahu, and Netanyahu fell into this threat because he wanted to fall into Israel, because he didn't want to make any move that could have changed the parameters of the relations between us and the Palestinians. And therefore, the first question that Netanyahu asked, on the morning when he was awakened up and he was told what's going on in the border, he said, why do they have to shoot? Why do they shoot?
Starting point is 00:48:23 And the question reveals his state of mind. What actually the question says, why do they have to shoot against me? I'm the partner. I'm cooperating with them. I'm giving them money. I'm giving the millions and millions and millions. I allow them to prosper. I allow them to take over Gaza. Why do they have to fight with me? So the conspiracy is not a direct manipulation of giving an order of standing down. It was the basic fundamental error, not error, a state of mind that we don't want to make peace with the Palestinians, and therefore we have to cooperate with someone that is not likely to make peace, but can be bought with all.
Starting point is 00:49:12 kinds of concessions and money and bonuses that can be given to them. He was the one that released 1100, more than 1100 murderings of Hamas, and on top of them, I refused to do it when I was prime minister for much less than what Bibi did. And Bibi the biggest fighter against Hamas and terror and so forth, gave them, released 1,100 of the worst murderers. One of them was Iq Yesinua, who then did what he thought that he needs to do against Netanyahu and against the state of Israel. Last week, we also had the British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announcing sanctions against the Israeli settlers on the West Bank in the House of Commons in London. And he quoted you in his justification saying, Ehud Oma, the former Israeli Prime Minister, has described what is happening.
Starting point is 00:50:11 I quote, he said, a violent and criminal effort to ethnically cleanse territories in the West Bank. What did you feel about the Foreign Secretary of the UK using you as one of the justifications for what he was doing? I don't think that he needed me to justify what he wanted to do, but he definitely wanted to rely on the Israeli and the former prime minister of Israel, who thinks that what we are doing is obnoxious, is outrageous. is disgusting, is a war crime, and this is what we are doing there. I mean, not we, the settlers, but the settlers are doing it, hundreds of them, and thousands of the settlers that are not active in the actual terror
Starting point is 00:50:55 of Jews in the West Bank are supporting them, and the ministers in the cabinet provided or help them to get the weapons that they use and give them an inspiration, and the Minister of Defense of the State of Israel will not use administration, detention against Jews, only against Palestinians, then providing the Jewish terrorists with enough space to take the risks of doing what they do, and the Prime Minister sees everything, hears everything, looks at everything, and done nothing. So I called it by its name. I just say that this is something, the concerted effort, which is aimed at at pushing all the Palestinians living in the West Spain away in order to allow the
Starting point is 00:51:50 afterwards the annexation of these territories into the state of Israel. And it has a name. And I think that this is not something that we could ignore. And I can't complain that a Jew foreign minister of great Britain, the last person you could call an anti-Semite, a son of a family of survivors from the Holocaust, called it by its name because something had to be done. I wasn't surprised.
Starting point is 00:52:20 I wrote in a couple of places. I was not surprised when I heard Ed Milibon because I knew that at some point, Great Britain and Friends of Israel, all of these countries, Great Britain, France, Canada, and all the others are traditional friends of the State of Israel, supporters of the State of Israel in so many different occasions. I can testify that in times. of difficulties when I was Prime Minister in the event of the war in Gaza, in Castile operation in 2008, 2009. The day after the operation in Gaza, I invited Gordon Brown to the state
Starting point is 00:52:57 of Israel. One day, one day, 24 hours after the ceasefire, he came to Jerusalem together with the presidents of France and Germany and Italy and Spain and others to support the right of Israel to fight against terror in Gaza. They are not enemies of Israel. But what we are doing in the territories now goes beyond anything that can be tolerated, accepted, and forgiven. And therefore, the question that we have to ask is ourselves, how did we bring Israel to the point where the best friends that we have across the world are sanctioning now the state of Israel? By the way, they didn't sanction the state of Israel. They drew a very clear distinction between the state of Israel and the people of Israel and the Jewish terrorist
Starting point is 00:53:44 and the territory. So I wish that the Israeli government would have done this. Unfortunately, the Israeli government is not doing it. So at some point, these people, these leaders, they, Bernard, the new prime minister of Great Britain, Ed Miliband and others say, well, if Israel doesn't act against its own terrorist, we should do something in order to make sure that we can't tolerate it and can't accept And I can't complain about it. Final question, Mr. Omet.
Starting point is 00:54:14 I had the Prime Minister Netanyahu's spokesman, Doran Spielman, on the show a few days ago. And he said this and referenced you, although not by name, but it was you he was talking about, obviously. Take a listen. If there's anyone that's taken Jews and put them on the front stage against Israel, his name is Pierce Morgan.
Starting point is 00:54:35 That's been your strategy of the entire time, Pierce. You put self-hating Jews, including former prime ministers, I went to jail and every self-hating Jew you can find in the book. And then you say the policies of Israel are Ben Gvere and Smotrich, trying to say that we're being hijacked as a population as opposed to understand what's happening here. You are.
Starting point is 00:54:52 We're not. So apparently you are a self-hating Jew, Mr. Omen. Oh, what can I tell you? It's funny. It's, you know, what can they... If they come to the point where they call the former prime minister of Israel, was fighting the Palestinians in Castile operation and was criticized by some because of the intensity of the measures that we took against Hamas at that time. There was fighting against the enemies of Israel in the north part of the country against Hezbollah in 2006 and so on and so forth, to say that I am a self-hating Jew.
Starting point is 00:55:34 I think these guys are self-hating Israelis. They are contributing to the demise and the deterioration of the status of the state of Israel across the world. They made you, you, an known friend for years and supporter of the state of Israel, a critique of what they are doing, not because you are self-hating, but because you can't see what you see and ignore it. And that's what we feel, the same thing. Ehudarment, always good to have your own sense. Thank you very much indeed.
Starting point is 00:56:10 Thank you. Well, joining me now is the other former Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett. Naftali, welcome back to Uncensored. Great to be here, Pierce. We spoke to another former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and we were talking about this bombshell report in Heretz, which he says he has independently verified that Benjamin Netanyahu was warned by the Prime Minister of UAE
Starting point is 00:56:33 that there was going to be a catastrophic attack by Hamas on Israel 10 days before October the 7th, and he did nothing about that warning. Do you believe that report is true? And if so, what should the consequences be for Benjamin Netanyahu? Well, I think there were many warning signs, and I think the entire leadership of Israel, the political and military leadership of Israel, failed miserably in this whole horrible event. We, you know, it didn't start then. It started in 2009 when there was this idea of feeding Hamas with cash in order for it to not attack us,
Starting point is 00:57:18 but it grew, and this monster grew to huge proportions and attacked us. All of this must be investigated in a national inquiry. Unfortunately, the current government is dodging that and running away from it, but it won't be able to do it because in the next government that we form, we're going to set up a national inquiry and investigate the whole thing, and we will know the truth. The polymarket at the moment, this is all related, I think, because there's a huge election coming in Israel. They've been asking who will be Prime Minister of Israel after the next election. More than $37 million is in that market.
Starting point is 00:57:53 So the former IDF chief of staff, Gaddi Eisencott, is in the lead on 53%, Netanyahu at 30%, and you're on 10%. Obviously, these are quite fluid, these markets at the moment, as are the general odds about this election. Are you still confident that you could end up winning this election? I'm working hard on it, and I'm really going through all of Israel, every single city and town and making the case that Israel needs drastic change and we need to fix Israel. And I put together a very powerful team of doers, of people who, who ran organizations, CEOs, I guess by far the most talented team that Israel has seen, and I'm going to make the case and hopefully we'll win.
Starting point is 00:58:42 One way or another, we have to remove the current government who has brought this huge failure upon Israel. It's not just a failure. I think the way this government has conducted itself, particularly through the likes of ministers like Ben Gavir and Smoddrich, as we were discussing with the panelists earlier, they have brought enormous global opprobrium against Israel and against Israelis. And of course, you know, consequently against Jewish people around the world,
Starting point is 00:59:12 many of whom I've spoken to who feel incensed about what this government has been doing and saying supposedly on their behalf. And, you know, I'm just curious, if you were to win in the election, what would you do about that? How does Israel regain public support? You know, I never thought, Naftali, honestly, that I would be alive to see a day when Americans, by a significant majority,
Starting point is 00:59:37 had a negative opinion of Israel. This is truly unprecedented. What would you do to fix that? I would embark on a renaissance, the Israeli renaissance, a renaissance between Israel and our neighbors and the world. We have ministers that are causing ourselves as of foolish statements and actions,
Starting point is 00:59:59 but I also have to be very clear. clear, it's a combination of this and movement that's been working for the better part of 20 years with billions of dollars and infiltrating colleges, universities, media, with anti-Semitism and anti-Semitism and anti-Israel ideology. And the combination of that and a very, very miserable government that we have has brought upon us this situation. It's going to be hard to fix, but we will fix it. We can fix it. We know how to do it. What is your view of this big story overnight about McElmore, the rapper,
Starting point is 01:00:41 who was effectively fired from Ed Shearhan's tour of America after Robert Kraft, the billionaire who owns a big stadium in which Ed Shearer was due to perform with McElmore, said he wouldn't allow him to perform there. Many people think it was a very heavy-handed thing to do to somebody who made, you know, if you look at what he said on stage, it didn't say. seemed that inflammatory to me. It didn't go down badly with the audience. By firing him, it looks like you've now got Israeli sympathetic billionaires in America prepared to flex their financial muscle to suppress free speech. And again, it's turned Maclemore into a martyr.
Starting point is 01:01:25 All the other support acts have quit, including Ed Sheeran's support bad. It makes Ed Sheeran look, as many people have said cowardly. I'm not sure who wins. out of all this. What is your view of this story? Until one and a half minutes ago, I never heard of this Macamore guy. So it's hard to comment. I would only say that free speech
Starting point is 01:01:46 indeed allows people to speak up as much as they want, but it doesn't force you to have to host in your private property people who are working against everything you believe in. Okay, Naftali Benner. I think you'll hear about Macamore a lot more now, I can tell you. and that will be a direct consequence of him being banned.
Starting point is 01:02:07 Sometimes the best thing to do is to let these people say what they want to say. But I appreciate you joining me again. Thank you very much. Thank you. Well, shortly before we came on air, the very sad news broke that Bonnie Greer has died at the age of 77. She was born in Chicago, but Bonnie became a titan of British popular culture, and it's easy to understand why. She was a gifted playwright, a best-selling author, a crusading campaign,
Starting point is 01:02:28 and the sharpest of cultural critics. I spar with her many times on this show. and on other shows, everything from woke insanity to Megan Markle. We often disagreed sometimes passionately. But what I loved about Bonnie Greer was she's always prepared to give as good as she got. And when we did Question Time for the BBC last year, having had a big old ding-dong on the show, afterwards we had a few glasses of wine and a great laugh together.
Starting point is 01:02:55 So today, I'd like to end the show with a clip of Bonnie doing one of the many things she did so well, which was, in my view, defending the indefathing. but she always did it from her own principal position. That's the first thing about woke. It's very important to me that you get that right where that came from. You need to read my book. I don't need to read your book. You do? I've read the whole book about it.
Starting point is 01:03:17 I lived it. Okay, I'm from Chicago. I know what woke is about. I don't need to read your book. Well, you just said I need to do more about it. No, I don't. No, I don't. No, I don't.
Starting point is 01:03:26 I know where I come from. But when I tell you I've already done, you see it, you don't need to listen to it. That's your point of view. And don't denigrate the word woke because it comes from a very special, sacred place. Don't do it. Clean it up. I don't need to read your book.
Starting point is 01:03:37 I don't need to read your book. Bonnie. I'm going to send you my book for free. I don't need to read it. I'm from Chicago, brother. I don't need to read it. 300,000 people have bought it. I'm giving you all nothing.
Starting point is 01:03:48 I'm going to give you. I'll even sign a copy for you. I'm going to read one for you. I never did find out if Bonnie read my book, but she was a wonderful character. Like I said, she always expressed herself from a position of personal principle. We didn't agree about much,
Starting point is 01:04:02 but we'll miss her greatly. and unscensored as many other people will too. Rest in peace, Bonnie.

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