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Inquisitor.com’s headlined: “Bill Maher offends basically everyone with tweet about Hamas, slapping women.”
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Known for his acerbic wit and controversial comments on current events, standup comic turned political pundit Bill Maher, host of weekly news roundup HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher has gotten himself into trouble for the umpteenth time, over his Twitter comments about Israel’s conflict with Hamas.
The 58 year old Maher is under fire for issuing the following tweet last Thursday:
While Mr.Maher may have been referring to the fact that Israel waited two weeks before launching its ground invasion of Gaza, during which time it endured endless rocket attacks, and that the country is concerned with harming civilians, his comments were taken as misogynistic and supportive of violence against women.
Reactions were swift and negative. Inquisitor.com’s story about it was headlined, “Bill Maher offends basically everyone with tweet about Hamas, slapping women.”
Other people sent tweets saying things like Maher’s tweet “endorses violence against women, ” and that it was “one of the most offensive, disgusting tweets I’ve read.” And one woman responded, “You’re a misogynist piece of shit.”
The comedian has neither retracted nor apologized for his Tweet. Maher had previously tweeted about the current fighting, “One thing you never hear in the middle east: I just can’t stay mad at you.”
Despite being a consummate, pro-weed, First Amendment liberal, who donated $1 million to President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012, Maher never made a secret of his admiration for the state of Israel, which he recognizes as the only true democracy in the Middle East. On his Friday show last week, he quipped that Israel cannot go 8 and 1 against the Arabs, it must win every single match, or it would be destroyed. His guests on Friday included Jamie Weinstein, Senior Editor of right wing The Daily Caller, but while Maher and Weinstein clashed on everything — they agreed completely on the Israel Vs. Hamas issue.
On Friday, Maher pointed out there are 155 Jewish Nobel Prize laureates, compared with only two Muslims, and suggested Jews love science and Jewish scientists aren’t religious, which is why, essentially, they succeed. He’s been known for his anti-religious crusade, and it is understandable why this would be his line, but he would probably have a hard time squaring that statement with several of the more deeply faithful Jewish scientists in history.
Raised in New Jersey, Bill Maher’s father was an Irish Catholic and his mother was born Jewish. She converted to Roman Catholicism when she married his father.
An avowed atheist, Maher does not like being told that he is Jewish just because his mother was.
