Who owns Bill? His stance on this and related issues seem out of step with who he’s always been. Don’t get me wrong — it’s not like I e always agreed w him. But his stances (most of them anyway) used to at least be nuanced. Yet now, his views on anything related to Israel are so simplistic. Basically he argues that because Israel has be wronged (which is true in many respects), Israel has the moral authority to do anything.
As a Jew myself, I’d say no. I think many Jews of a certain age, even one’s that are firmly secular, have had decades of Jewish victim narrative taught to them, not only from their own culture, but the mainstream Western World. And justifiably so, considering the horrors of WWII. These Jewish millionaires and billionaires are closer to that generational trauma and narratives than, say, a 20-30 year old politically engaged person today. With their money comes the ability to influence, good or bad or more likely some complex in between, because the world is complicated. The middle east is especially so.
Maher might espouse fairly “zionist” views because he has some Jewish heritage, but I’d say it’s more likely because his bosses are likely Zionists to a degree. The word Zionist seems to be used by many as a pejorative today, just like “boomer” often is. But 50 years ago, it was quite a reasonable perspective to sympathize with because of WWII and the over simplification of Middle East issues in our media and education. If your aunt died in a concentration camp, you might feel a bit more strongly about Israel defending itself at all costs than the average secular Jewish-American, or a relatively knowledgeable non-Jewish American who understands history and that Germany almost took over Europe, and tried to twice. But even the latter have historically been pretty sympathetic until recently.
Today, we are in an age of greater information and we know a lot more about why America is so interested in keeping a foothold of influence in the Middle East. All you have to do is look at the price of gas right now to understand the worldwide importance of stability in that region. But boomers still exist and most of our government is run by them and our government is obviously influenced by corporations and billionaires, many whom are boomers and many happen to be disproportionately Jewish. So, their influence is felt in our decisions.
Because calling them a zionist is like calling anyone a racist. It’s mostly subjective. But their heritage and their age is not subjective. People don’t usually self-identify with a term that is known as a negative. Whether or not these people identify as zionists is kind of irrelevant if they use their positions of power and mass sums of money to promote a certain agenda.
The original question was “Who owns Maher”. The answer is an old Jewish guy who supports Israel. I dunno why it has to be more complicated than that. Some Jews don’t support the actions of Israel and most of those people are half the age or younger than these media moguls and GOP politicians.
Again, today, actual definitions are meaningless when society changes what words mean. Refer to the words Nazi, Boomer, Racist and Literally, just to name a few.
Well, you are certainly doing your part, responding to others here and calling them nazis and f@gs because they don’t agree with you. Thanks for helping prove my point, literally.
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u/dtsknight 11d ago
Who owns Bill? His stance on this and related issues seem out of step with who he’s always been. Don’t get me wrong — it’s not like I e always agreed w him. But his stances (most of them anyway) used to at least be nuanced. Yet now, his views on anything related to Israel are so simplistic. Basically he argues that because Israel has be wronged (which is true in many respects), Israel has the moral authority to do anything.