Bill Maher came back from his long winter vacation Friday to predictably say stupid things on HBO's Real Time that only a liberal would utter or appreciate.
One such was telling Palestinian journalist Rula Jebreal, “What's happening in Israel is kind of what would happen in America if the Tea Party took over” (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):
This followed Maher comparing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party to the Tea Party.
Maher of course sees this is a slam at both, but since conservatives here and in Israel have a natural kinship and affinity for one another, most would take it as a compliment.
Alas, Maher’s biases prevent him from understanding that.
But he wasn’t done with inanities, for moments later he told Jebreal that in the West Bank, “Jewish women there are having babies at a rate of five per woman, and the Palestinians at 3.5 children per woman. They're literally trying to out fuck them.”
When Jebreal seemed embarrassed by this, Maher said, “I'm sorry to be so blunt about it.”
“No, no, you can be as vulgar as you want,” Jebreal marvelously replied.
Unfortunately, Maher wasn’t just being vulgar. There’s much debate about what the actual birthrates are in this region.
Ben Moscovitch, an expert on the Middle East and Israel, told the International Business Times in 2011, “[T]he birth rate of Arab-Israeli citizens is higher than that of Jewish Israeli citizens. The Jewish population in Israel today is approximately 75 percent, down from 80 percent in the mid-1990s, according to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics.”
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics? Maher doesn't care about such things as statistics.
He never has in the past.
As his employers at HBO don't seem to either, why should he start now?
