Fireside Chat Ep. 187 — Deconstructing John Oliver on Israel and Palestine | Fireside Chat

Hi everybody, I'm Dennis Prager. This is the fireside chat with Otto How well known is Otto? You ask probably not asking but I'll ask Anyway, first of all, is he up? What's the story here? Is he awake? No, okay By the way, Otto goes into position as soon as the cameras and lights arrive. It's really adorable to watch So I was in hawaii over the weekend giving some lectures Which was a very moving experience over a thousand people the aloha freedom coalition invited me and It was very moving to talk to so many and spend hours posing for pictures with people of every background It was actually it was encouraging to me. Hawaii is Not one of the more libertarian states shall we put it? anyway The number of people who commented on otto in hawaii even on the street was Was quite remarkable to say the least. Let me go to the middle east and then uh, i'm going to comment on a What would we call him a late night? show a guy who does a late night show john oliver is talked about the middle east and I'm simply going to use his monologue on the middle east By way of answering a lot of the attacks on israel But I I will just say at the outset. It is a bit depressing And it always has been in my life the inability of so many people in the world to recognize evil To not understand that hamas embodies evil It is to truly have what we call a broken moral compass And it's not new A lot of people did not understand the evil that the nazis presented Most people did not understand the evil that the communists represented even to today people will Frequently take umbrage at calling communism evil The fact that it killed 100 million people civilians not not wartime deaths civilians means nothing as stalin said One death is a tragedy a million is a statistic He should know he killed 20 to 40 million of his own people I have long long ago. This was one of this was the first big moral realization of my life I think either high school or college When I said it is wrong to call evil dark Evil is actually very bright You can look into the dark, but you cannot look into very bright light People do not stare at evil They recoil from acknowledging it in the struggle between hamas and israel to not understand That we're talking about darkness and light with all the flaws that israel as any country would have It is light compared to the darkness of hamas To not understand that this totalitarian theocratic Dictatorship tortures its own opponents Its own palestinian opponents are tortured to death Regularly, there are no freedoms in gaza hamas took over Gaza when israel left israel occupied gaza and the whole world said leave Leave and then you will see how things will work out and they did see how things will work out Horrible human beings sending thousands of rockets to kill as many israelis as possible followed the israel leaving of of gaza So imagine if israel left the west bank What would happen you just have another hamas run place to try to destroy israel one final point This is not a normal war This is not a normal antipathy The opponents of israel do not want to defeat israel they want to destroy israel That's a big difference There are 22 arab states, but there's no room for one jewish one the size of new jersey There are 50 something muslim countries, but there's no room in the world for one tiny jewish country the size of new jersey Just think about that for a moment Now let's go to john oliver Who is on hbo? I was not familiar with him until megan brought this to my attention and i'm glad that she did And my column this week Is a perfect he is a living embodiment of it The the title of my column this week is easily found on my website town hall daily wire American greatness and many other sites and real clear politics picked it up, which is not a conservative site They take what they think are the most important left and right articles Anyway, it's certainly all over the internet and it's titled if I can remember it correctly men, yes men give birth america was founded in 1619 And israel is the aggressor That is what the left's upside down world would have you believe those three things And isn't it amazing that all those who say men give birth virtually anyone who does also thinks israel is wrong That goes it so follows a pattern Isn't it fascinating? And israel is the aggressor is as true as men give birth By the way, the left would agree That's the irony it's one of the few things we'd all agree on All right. Let's take a look at john oliver here and I will interrupt to make some comments The citizens of gaza don't have an iron dome to protect them the way that the citizens of israel do it's one of the many Ways, they're at a significant disadvantage. Although and all right, wait, wait therefore what Notice there is no question about the Already we have d literally demoralized the the whole situation The citizens of gaza don't have an iron dome to protect them To protect them against what? Is israel shooting rockets all over? Gaza, like gaza is like hamas is doing to israel thousands Did israel start the war or did hamas start the war? You know what hitler's germany didn't have nearly the same defenses to defend germany As britain had to defend britain by the end of world war ii. Does that make hitler a victim? Does that make the nazis victims? Would he prefer that israel not have an iron dome and then and then what? So in other words, this is part of the left-wing demoralization of morality That it the the weak are necessarily in the right it's it's it's It's truly it's truly pathologic An israeli military spokesperson tried to push back on the idea that there's really much of a discrepancy there Somebody on twitter said that the palestinians don't have an iron dome. I say yes, they have an iron dome It's called don't fire rockets at israeli civilians and we won't fire anything at gaza. That was brilliant That's exactly right their iron dome is don't kill us That's exactly right this spokesman and he's going to make fun of it. I assume otherwise he wouldn't have put it up That spokesman for israel was it was so real The left loathes the real It's this it's like it's a dissection of reality Yes, they have an iron dome. Don't try to slaughter us make peace with us. That's their iron dome then then Everything is possible Here's a question. The only question one has to reflect on If israel dropped its arms Completely it just demilitarized no more army. No more navy. No more air force No more use of arms What would happen the next day? And if the palestinians No more fighting no more terror. No more rockets. No more arms. What would happen the next day in that case? Well, we know if israel did it the next day there would be genocide of the jewish people of israel Whereas if the palestinians, uh demilitarized there would be peace the next day in the middle east That's what everyone Who who dares look at reality knows? Israel has no interest in war Whenever there has been a war in the last 100 years It has always been between two police states Or between a police state and a free state Never between two free states. They don't fight each other And whenever there is a free state police state battle the police state started the battle whether it was pearl harbor Or the the nazi invasion of poland Or what is happening now with hamas? Yeah, but there are a couple of differences iron dome for one sounds much cooler and also it has the significant Wait, what does that even mean? Iron dome sounds cooler than what? He talks well and fast But he doesn't say anything meaningful Okay, we'll continue and system that exists unlike gaza's which is mostly try not to be where the bombs are landing And it's important to note here the vast majority of the palestinians in gaza are not part of hamas, okay So what? Nothing here says matters The vast majority of of germans were not nazis. The vast majority of russians were not communists So what? It's it's it's it's a meaningless point Anyway, how does he know what the vast majority of people in gaza? They didn't vote for hamas I don't know. Maybe they didn't I i'm sure the elections are rigged But maybe they did. How does he know? But the fact that they're not members of hamas To the extent that that is true. So what? It's true for every police state They don't get together and or decides to launch rockets. It's not a co-op board But when israel fires, right, it's not a co-op board Right. So the so the average Palestinian is opposed to what hamas is doing. Does he know? I don't know. Maybe they are but how does he know? Would he would he willingly make a bet if there was an actual free election? Do you think that hamas should try to destroy israel or not? What the vote would be? I don't know what the vote would be. How does he know when israel fires rockets at gaza it endangers all Palestinians there maybe somebody on twitter could point that out to that guy point what out to that guy Point what out I'm, just i'm dissecting it almost sentence by sentence. I just don't know point what out what the guy said is correct Their iron dome is peace He didn't respond at all to what the idf the israel defense force spokesman said to people in gaza It can seem like the only time anyone pays attention what's happening there is when hamas is firing rockets, which is understandably Very frustrating because they've been living under a suffocating blockade You know why they're living under a suffocating blockade because they want to bring in missiles from iran to destroy israel That's why there's a blockade If there were no blockade, what do you think would come in to gaza? Girl scout cookies Checker games What do you think would come in? Everything he has said is nonsense But here's the deal Let's debate John, oliver, I publicly invite you. I am always polite in debates I'll I will give a thousand dollars to your favorite medical charity debate anywhere in the country Providing it is both televised on your show and it is broadcast on my show. How is that? Is that a good deal? You think he'll accept ladies and gentlemen the left never debates So I predict A no, I predict no answer But for those of you who are curious gee who's right Here's a chance Let's have a debate. They can have any moderator they want And in israel and the occupied palestinian territories palestinians are essentially being governed by a form of apartheid Apartheid, what does it mean a form of apartheid do arab israelis not have the same rights as jewish israelis? If he's saying that he's lying That's that's a big charge to say someone is lying not mistaken. It's a lie As for the west bank, that's true. It is governed. That is correct It is governed by israel because when jordan owned it in 1967 It tried to destroy israel and israel didn't let itself be destroyed So it took over the west bank and was very happy to return the west bank but the arabs said in 1967 they went to khartoum and they announced no negotiations. No peace. No recognition. What was israel supposed to do? An assessment echoed by both international and israeli human rights groups. Oh human rights groups. Oh They have a record of Tremendous moral acuity life in gaza is hard Even when they are not being bombed and the u.s government has implicitly co-signed on the brutally hard line israel's been taken, okay The u.s is co-signed When the u.s supported israel for the four years of donald trump The this didn't happen The i'm not saying it is definitely a result of the election of the democrats in the united states But I it's hard to believe it is not related that within a few months of joe biden becoming president The wars began again while donald trump was president The fact is arab state after arab state Actually recognized israel. It was a remarkable thing from morocco to dubai It was quite remarkable even even sudan Now we have war, you know, why weakness invites war strength invites peace That's real life Is it nice the question isn't is it nice question is is it true? This guy basically gave israel a green light to do anything it wanted for the last four years And while biden has had the opportunity to reset that relationship his administration's response this week has been deeply Underwhelming giving a generic statement that israel has a right to defend itself Why is that underwhelming? What is israel supposed to do? He never wants Not no one on the left Who loathes israel has been able to offer an a an alternative to what israel is doing? What would you like israel to do the attempt to to obliterate to murder to slaughter to burn as many jews as possible in israel? Is being taken the iron dome is stopping most of it. What would you like israel to do? They never say what should israel do this is this is disproportionate. What's a proportionate response? If only 10 israeli dies, do they make sure that only 10 palestinians die? Well, what what should israel do? What would america do? What would any country do? If there was an enemy that tried to obliterate its population Exact same line that obama said and that bush said before him israel has a right to defend itself It's just something all presidents end up saying out loud at some point in office Like my fellow americans or what do you mean? Right, so it's meaningless israel has a right to defend itself as a meaningless phrase to this moral giant It's not that israel doesn't have the right to defend itself. It's just that line cannot be used to excuse absolutely everything Okay What again what is inexcusable Multiple children have been killed. Yes. Children are killed. That's correct How could israel avoid killing children when they are in the same building with hamas people? What what is israel to do? The israeli army is known as the most meticulous in in avoiding killing civilians in the world Watch the video. It was tweeted out by israel's prime minister the prager university video. Take a look at it the prager you video On israel is the most moral army in the world It is given by a british colonel the head of british the commander of british forces in afghanistan Was fought all over the world and this man a commander in a colonel in the british army Said the most moral army in the world is israel's But children die, you know many children died when the allies bombed nazi germany If he were alive then he would have spoken about how evil america and britain were for bombing germany Yes, we'll just allow the holocaust to go on a little longer, but we won't bomb germany Eight in a single strike just yesterday and the us is heavily implicated here Not just by serving as israel's diplomatic shield at the un but by constantly refusing to criticize the indefensible What's what was indefensible? That's what i'd like to know that children die How do you how do you retaliate with no children dying when hamas uses children as shields? That is their tactic That is their tactic. What is israel supposed to do? He doesn't even mention that You know the israelis killed 13 people just pretty simple question, you know, including maybe five or six children Do you condemn that you can condemn the killing of children? Okay, do you condemn the killing of children? The deliberate killing of children is evil the non-deliberate killing of children in a war Is a tragedy It's a demagogic question. Do you condemn the killing of children? Does this man think that u.s spokesman thinks it's okay to kill children? It's the demagoguery of this is You can choke on it This is israel targeting children Or is hamas placing children in in a place so they could die hamas? I truly believe hamas doesn't give a damn about the children of gaza They use them so that they can have john olivers of the world attack israel The greatest ally of hamas is the world media including john oliver If anybody is enabling these things to happen. It is the world's left if they knew That the world media was not pro Hamas was not anti-israel as much as it is. They would not embark on these things They don't gain anything militarily What they want to do is give israel as terrible a name as possible and the john olivers of the world are the useful idiots as they used to call the people who Somehow saw moral equivalents between america and soviet and the soviet union God must love these people. He's made a lot of them I'm asking do you condemn the killing of palestinian children? Obviously, uh in these reports are just emerging. Uh, and I understand I was just speaking to the team I understand we don't have independent confirmation of facts on the ground yet So i'm very hesitant, uh to get into reports that are just emerging All he needed to say was I condemn the use of children as human shields Okay, that that's the reality And then say do you sir? How about throwing it back at this pompous guy with the mask on do you condemn the use of children as human shields? Okay I know how this looks but trust me. It is complicated Look There is a real tendency particularly in america to both sides this situation And i'm not saying that there aren't some areas where that's warranted But it's important to recognize there are also areas where it's simply not it is not an issue of both sides Are equally right or equally wrong. We both agree with that. He thinks israel is the villain. I think hamas is the villain Nothing like moral clarity Or clarity in general, you know my motto clarity over agreement This one is perfect. We have clarity and agreement We both think one side is wrong. He thinks it's the israeli democracy. I think it's the hamas totalitarians The people who started the war are wrong Both sides are firing rockets, but one side has one of the most advanced militaries in the world Both sides are suffering heartbreaking casualties, but one side is suffering them exponentially. That's right. They are Because they started Germans suffered exponentially far more civilian losses in germany than in britain let alone in america where they were virtually none This is this is how the left calculates right and wrong. How many died? because their their moral compass is Just broken and it's not like the us is operating from the moral high ground here It's obviously no stranger to drone striking weddings and saying we were just trying to target enemy combatants This country has blood on its hands, too And look if you believe israel's actions are warranted and proportionate this week You're welcome to try and make that argument, but we have got to start having this conversation. Honestly, let's have a debate You're prominent. I'm prominent I have a larger audience than you but you have a large audience But i'm willing to expose you to my millions of listeners and to all those who watch these prager you videos So i'm going to give you a a much larger audience than you'll give me and yet i'm willing to do it Because you invited honest dialogue Okay Enough of that Well time for our question. Do we have time? Sure, let's do a video Yeah, we do great Hi dennis, my name is joe. I'm from long beach, california I'm 21 years old and my question for you today is i'm basically going on a date with a girl I met on the internet So my question is what is your general opinion of online dating? And what is your opinion of the perfect first date? I love it and so nice to get away from politics and evil I Do not know one good argument against online dating It is one of the few things in life That I believe has no downside There is a greater downside in having an ice cream sundae Than an online dating that is how I view it What could possibly be bad about it? It is hard to meet the right person. It is about as hard a thing as there is in life Okay, it's sort of like winning the lottery So if you don't buy a ticket, you can't win the lottery Now I don't buy lottery tickets because I don't think i'll win that's a separate issue But if you want to win the lottery you need to buy a ticket This is a better chance than a lottery of meeting someone. I know so many people who have wonderful marriages who met online What could possibly be wrong with it? You can protect your anonymity You you meet the person the way you want if you want if you want to first meet through zoom meet through zoom Well, I don't see by the way. I don't see anything wrong with that I'm i'm totally in favor of person-to-person contact But if you really want to test the waters and you're afraid especially a woman might feel that way Then zoom have a zoom meeting if I were a single guy his age. I would be I would be on on every sighting available Are you kidding everything? I probably even tinder That'll ruin my reputation. But anyway, of course By the way, I know some terrific conservative people who met on tinder. There's there's no predicting where you'll meet somebody and I I don't If if she said, you know what? I I feel a little queasy about meeting anybody first time at a coffee shop Let's have our first quote-unquote meeting or date On zoom I'd say fine That'd be great I would charm her through zoom That that's how I would look at it And if you can't charm a woman It's a problem that it's so What is there to lose? Anyway, the beauty what you should do, uh is you should say who you really are That's the key what you really stand for. Let's say so. Let us say you are a conservative say it Say I believe in the following That way you've excluded Immediately all those who won't date you because you have those values. That's great. You've saved time and money and effort So that's terrific in and of itself I know people have used my name I like dennis prager that that excluded much of humanity It's just a self-deprecating joke But no, it's not that big a joke. But anyway, uh of course I I Where are you gonna meet? How many people does your cousin know? Oh, i'm gonna rely on friends to introduce me. How many how many single people? Of the opposite sex presuming presuming it's an opposite sex relationship Do they know that they could introduce you to one? I mean two Where are you gonna meet? Seriously, where are you going to meet? Now people who well, let's say you go to church. That's great I always say, you know meet somebody at church, but even there there's still a limited number And and you can't troll the whole place, you know, uh looking for the right person While the pastor is speaking No, it's it's not it's just not it's not that feasible So i'm i'm passionately pro. Uh, internet dating and what is the perfect first date what The perfect first date is where you actually talk some serious stuff Knowing the person's favorite movie Is not important or favorite food or favorite hobby They're nice. They are adjuncts. They're not the real thing I when I dated I got married at 32 when I when I Dated I did talk Serious stuff on the first date if she was turned off then that's fine. Then that was a clue to me I care about serious subjects more than she does and so we're not for each other. That's great Excluding is as important as including But but I mean to talk just I don't say the whole date has to be on, you know, the meaning of life and and discussing nietzsche's views on god I understand that although that's it happened. That's be a pretty impressive date. I gotta say uh, but nevertheless, uh Some of it has to be on that like what matters to you in life so that The first date should should have some substance to it This is who I am this is what i'm looking for in life I mean A lot of people can't handle that stuff. Okay, but if you can handle that and they can't then you know, the person's up for you How are we? We're at 30. I didn't get more questions But I what could I do is very important to deal with this because it's a big issue today What's happening in the middle east? Okay, y'all so We're good That means on behalf of otto I thank you for watching i'm dennis prager and i'll see you next week Thank you for watching this video to keep prager you videos free Please consider making a tax deductible donation