Maher Defends Israel: 'It's a War Hamas Started … People Die in Wars'

On his Friday HBO show, Bill Maher took on the Israeli-Hamas conflict by offering a point of view that antithetical to the view that Israel was the bad actor in that conflict.

Maher argued that it is time to cut off nations dependent on the United States for defense funding, including NATO and Israel.

But Maher took issue with his guest Reza Aslan who charged Israel shouldn’t receive U.S. aid for its role in defending itself against hostile Palestinian groups. Maher pointed out the double standard, where a group like ISIS, which employs brutal tactics on civilians in Iraq, avoids the scorn of the world while Israel is pilloried the court of public opinion for civilians casualties in its conflict.

“It’s a war,” he said. It’s a war that Hamas started and somehow when Israel reacts to this they have to do everything that doesn’t kill any civilians. People die in wars. Now, I’ve said this before on this show, if the situation was reversed, Hamas would kill every single person in Israel. The reason why that is not happening is because they can’t. Because they can’t doesn’t make them good, it makes them weak.”

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