Jessica Methot

Maher's monologue is so full of illogic and factual inaccuracies it's hard to list them all. He conflates antisemitism with criticism of Israel and Zionism, even substituting the words for each other when allegedly quoting someone. He claims Randy Fine has never called for nuking or killing Palestinians, which is a blatant lie or at best very sloppy, since Fine has done precisely those things. And the claim it's antisemitic to focus on Israel is such a tired one. We don't fund and provide diplomatic cover for the atrocities of any other country the way that we do for Israel. We aren't violating the First Amendment for the Sudanese government, nor are we banning the Taiwanese from this country. North Korea isn't buying an election in Kentucky. Americans single out Israel for criticism because (1) its crimes are horrific and have been going on for 80 years; (2) as Americans, we can potentially influence our government's policy of supporting Israel; and (3) no other country exercises this kind of influence over our laws, policies, and politics. It's not that complicated.

Today marks Nakba Day, an annual day of remembrance to commemorate the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians between 1947 and 1949 during the creation of the State of Israel and the year that followed. Inea is a New Yorker and a Nakba survivor. She shared her story with us — one of home, tradition and memory over generations.

The word “Nakba” (catastrophe) wasn’t invented by Palestinians to describe Jewish “ethnic cleansing.” It was coined in 1948 by a Syrian Arab historian, Constantin Zureiq, in his book The Meaning of the Disaster. He used it to describe the humiliating failure of the Arab world — their leaders’ arrogance, their lies to their own people, their military incompetence, and their refusal to accept a Jewish state. Zureiq wrote that the Arabs had “imaginary victories” and put their public “to sleep” with boasts — until the real disaster hit: they couldn’t wipe out the Jews. The original Nakba wasn’t about refugees. That a rebrand from several decades later. It was about the Arab leaders’ catastrophic decision to launch a war of extermination ... and lose. They’ve spent 77 years rebranding their own failure as Jewish guilt. That’s the only real "Nakba" they can’t forgive.

Even the PA has trouble distinguishing Palestinians from Jews.