Bill Maher, as he wrapped up a heated debate on Israel and Gaza with The Young Turks’ Ana Kasparian on the latest episode of his Club Random podcast on Monday, asked her to name a Middle Eastern city she would rather live in than Tel Aviv.
“You can pick one city, any city… you could live in Karachi, you could live in Cairo, you could live in Oman, Jordan; you seem to love Lebanon, I mean, Beirut’s nice when the bombings [are] not happening and the assassinations have stopped,” Maher said sardonically.
The veteran comic was challenging Kasparian to name a place better than Israel when it comes to western values, including women’s rights and free speech. Maher said the Middle East countries surrounding Israel have been stunted by Islam — and would make them hell to live in for an American like Kasparian.
“Where do you think you’d be comfortable in that dress?” he asked.
“I’m sure it would not be comfortable in this dress in any of the various Middle Eastern countries that have been destabilized—” Kasparian started to respond.
“Destabilized?!” Maher shot back incredulously. “You’re not really blaming it on whitey, are you? You’re blaming Islam on whitey?”
“I’m not blaming Islam on whitey,” Kasparian said.
“But what you’re saying — we destabilized, that’s why you can’t wear that dress?!” he followed up.
They then started talking over each other, with Kasparian saying America “funded terrorist organizations” in Syria during Barack Obama’s presidency.
“You’re saying you can’t wear that dress in Syria because of whitey destabilizing?” Maher continued.
“I didn’t say that. You’re putting words in my mouth,” Kasparian said.
“Great, that’s what it sounded like,” Maher said. He then pressed her again on why she can’t wear the short-ish sleeveless white dress she was wearing on the podcast in Muslim-majority cities.
“You want me to talk about jihadism and Islam,” Kasparian started.
“Why won’t you?” the Real Time host asked. He continued, “It’s not just Jihadism that is preventing you from wearing that dress. Are you saying every Muslim is a jihad? I don’t think they are.”
They then got back to which city she would prefer to live in. Kasparian would not answer it, saying “I would figure something out.”
Maher said “Come on, you’re gonna get killed for that, for good reason,” after Kasparian did not pick between living in Tel Aviv and Karachi. Kasparian said her “harsh” criticism of Israel made her skeptical she would be safe living in Israel.
Finally, after some more bickering, she said, “I’m sure a woman of my age who grew up in the western world would probably feel the most comfortable in Tel Aviv, I will concede that,” Kasparian said.
“Wow,” Maher said, before letting out a big sigh.
And in related news, Maher earlier in the podcast said Jimmy Kimmel and his wife were “mad” at him, after Maher criticized her for warning her relatives not to vote for President Donald Trump.
You can watch the whole argument above.
