Bassem Youssef_ Israel-Palestine_ Gaza_ Hamas_ Middle East_ Satire _ Fame _ Lex Fridman Podcast _424(M4A_128K)

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If I hate you, that's great. But if I have
a story to support that hate, ah, that's even better.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
One of your favorite words, Jehan.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
That's my favorite hobbies. It doesn't matter now who do
you vote into power? They would not listen to you.
They would listen to the people who paid them to
be there. When the military came in, people were walking
to me like pointing their fingers. Don't speak about don't
speak about the army. We love you now, but don't
you do it like that? So I called John Stewart

(00:30):
just like I don't know what to do, and he
said the most interesting thing ever, and say, if you're
afraid of something, make fun about the fact that you're
afraid of it.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
The following is a conversation with Bosum Yousef, a legendary
Egyptian American comedian, the so called John Stewart of the
Middle East, who fearlessly satirized those in power even when
his job and life were online. Is a beautiful human being.
It was truly a pleasure for me to get to

(01:04):
know him and to have this fun, fascinating and challenging conversation.
This is a lex Treatment podcast. To support it to
please check out our sponsors in the description and now,
dear friends, here's bowsome yousef. Your wife is half Palestinian,
and I've heard you say they've been trying to kill her,

(01:26):
but she keeps using the kids as human shields. So
have you considered negotiating a ceasefire?

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Well, the thing is, every day, every minute of the
day in a married life, is a negotiation. Everything can
blow up into a full scale war starting from a
simple sentence like good morning, what should we do with
the kids today? What should we do with that piece
of furniture? Any sentence can lead you to heaven or

(01:53):
to hell in the same time.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
So you do negotiate with terrorists?

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Oh yeah, yeah, you must. Yeah. And for her, I
am her terrorists.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Too, equal terrors on both sides. I'm more serious. Not
when you found out about the attacks of October seventh,
what to your mind?

Speaker 1 (02:08):
If I'm allowed to use the curse word, I was
like as many as possible, I was like, oh shit.
Part of my stand up comedy is I describe a
situation where I was in a restaurant with producers and
there was a bombing two blocks away in Chelsea, New York,
twenty sixteen, and of course, this is the like damn,

(02:28):
what's gonna happen to us now? And there's like two
different reactions. Is like the White reaction, which is like,
oh my god, I hope nobody has heard. It's terrible.
I hope everybody's okay. And there's the Arab re action.
What's his name? What's just his name? What is the name?
You know, because you know what's gonna come. It's kind
of I was scared what's gonna really happen in that area?

(02:50):
And it's like, oh my god, it's gonna be horrible,
and the way that it was reported. I didn't know
how to handle this, so I basically I went into
hiding for a few days, three or four days, and
I talked about Piers Morgan team talking to me two
times three times. I was like, no, I can't. How
can you defend that, How can you defend the rate

(03:10):
that you can't diated babies or whatever? And then I
started kind of looking in the news a little bit,
and then I started seeing people coming on the shows
and saying things that I know, as an Arab, as
a Muslim, as someone from that region, that it's not true.
But I don't know how to what to say, how
to say it? So I said by the third time

(03:31):
when they asked me, I said, like, fine, put me
on and I went there. It was more of a
figures speaking a suicide mission. And because it's a lose
lose situation, I can. I can lose stuff in Hollywood.
I can. I even I remember my mager is like, Bessie,
be careful. I mean, are you sure you want to
do it? My managers was like, please don't do it,

(03:53):
Please don't do it. And on the other side, if
I don't perform well whatever well means I'm gonna be
rejected by my own people. So it's a it was
a lose lose situation because whatever I say it will
never be enough, and whatever I say will not be
good enough. And I was going into there and I
felt that I was going into a trance for the

(04:16):
thirty three minutes that I was on the on that interview,
for the first time, I blacked out. I blacked that,
and a lot of people ask me, is the ear
piece was that a bit? When the earpiece kept falling,
It's like no, it was really falling off and it
disconnected and I had to save it because I cannot
see them all I can hear I can just hear them,

(04:37):
and I could expect it at any time. Okay, by
some thank you. It was like I was fighting for
every second to say words, to put stuff in there.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yeah. For people don't know, this is your conversation interview
with Piers Morgan, and you can see I can say
I was just like the less of the camera and
I was just like a real dream or not.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
Man. Yeah, hello, we like helo like hi.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Then at any moment your career and everything everything, yeah, yeah,
So what was the drive that got you to actually
do it, to overcome that fear?

Speaker 1 (05:10):
Multiple things. First of all, I don't want to say
it's just my wife's family, because my wife's family has
always been there, but this time was different, the bombing,
the attack. They usually one of those people that they
are away of everything when whatever happened has that they
are always in safe places. But this time it seems
that there was no place safe. And already we heard

(05:31):
about like two or three of the of the cousins
and the uncles already lost their home. So this was
too much. So I wanted to say something for those
people because I know that you know, I made I
made one of the jokes that I made about like, oh,
you know, it hasn't her cousin. He's a loser. He's
a doctor. He's a doctor, and he every time a

(05:55):
hospital was bombed, we were worried about him. So I
wanted to say that because I felt that these are
this is a family that I've never seen in my life.
I've never she actually hardly saw an uncle or too,
because you know, they cannot leave. But I said, like,
I need to speak at least I do something for
those extended family that I have never known. But also

(06:18):
because when when when Peters Morgan team called me a
couple of times, he said, okay, let's let's see what's
going on in the show. And I just watched the
stuff and the lies and the one sided reporting that
made my blood boil. And then I thought, like, why
am I What am I afraid of? I'm afraid of

(06:38):
if I say something, I can lose my curios Like
wait a minute. But that was the reason why I
left Egypt, I said, wait, I left each I came
to the United States. I came to the land of
the free, where I can say anything I want, and
yet I have limitation of what to say. I mean,
I thought we left that shit behind. I mean, what's happening?
And I understand, I understand the connection of like how

(07:00):
sensitive it is when you speak about Israel and all
of the already made accusations, But as a as an Arab,
as a Muslim, I don't react the same when you
talk about Saudi Arabia or Iran, or Egypt or any
of them. It is like, hey, you want you wanted
this some of these countries. I'll do that with you.
Because I have strong opinions about what I'm and I
already been expressing them. But when I talk about that's

(07:23):
why I and I feel And there's a lot of
hush people who come to my show and they understand that,
they understand that the separation, but that kind of grouping,
of blackmailing people and saying and not saying what they
have in their mind. It is that kind of like
and one of the things that kind of like push
pushed me to go on the show.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
The thing that was bothering you was that what was
being said or how it was being said.

Speaker 1 (07:46):
Both because there are lies, which is usually in the media,
but there was the total disregard of humanity you talk
a lot about in your show about human suffering, and
I felt that here the human suffering was not equal.
I felt that's why I came up with this, like
what's the exchange rate today? What's the exchange rate today?

(08:10):
There's there's of course, it's terrible to see anybody die.
But what I feel that like is it isn't our
life not worth anything?

Speaker 2 (08:20):
You had a chart it came to crypto from an investor.
You analyzed it from an investing perspective, of course in
the dark line, and you were saying that a certain
year was a good year from the fourteen twenty fourteen,
it was a good year for investment purposes. And also
to refer to the family member that you call the loser,

(08:42):
you were saying that you called him, had a conversation
with him, and he keeps saying that he's not using
anybody for human shields, and you call him a loser.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
What do you You can't even give a liar he lied,
because I have to believe. But this is the one
thing is like, It's also one of the things like
how it was said it was tough that I've been hearing.
I don't know what what turned on in my head,
But it's not that I've been hearing all my life
from the media. Israel warns civilians before bombing them, and
that's okay, But that's not okay. Israel is trying to

(09:13):
minimize the civilians but killing them anyway, and that's okay,
but that's not okay. So it is kind of like
the indoctrine nation that we've been hearing as if it
is okay, and then suddenly it's not.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yeah, there's a kind of several layers of bullshit, almost
sometimes hiding the obvious horror of the situation with kind
of politeness and all this kind of stuff, just the
basic value of human life. That said, it's a difficult situation.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
It is. It is.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
What would you do if you're Israel? BB called you flawsome,
big fan, big fan of your comedy. First of all,
would you hang up right away? Would you hear him out?

Speaker 1 (09:54):
I'll definitely hear him out. That's like, wait a minute,
that's material, man. It's like I was sitting with my family,
just like I have on my phone.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
It just shows up that way. I mean, what would
you do? What would you do in the situation?

Speaker 1 (10:13):
To answer this question, we need to understand how Israel thinks.
There is an incredible speech given by Gideon Levy, the
famous Israeli reported heirs, and he describes a situation where
he was in the West Bank and there was a checkpoint,
and in that checkpoint there was an ambulance with a
Palestinian patient and it was there sitting for an hour

(10:38):
and a half, not moving. And then he went to
talk to the soldiers like guys, why are you not
letting them go? It's like, let them go? And then
he told them, imagine if he was your father, And
the soldier stood up was like, what these are peaks,
These are not humans. So when you tell me, what

(10:59):
would you do if Israel would do? It really needs
to we need to ask how does Israel look at
the Palestinian and view the Palestinians, because they do look
at them less than human. And there is an incredible
talk by Mihor Meyer. He was a Holocaust survivor and
he said, I learned in Auschwitz when I was there
in the concentration camp that in order for a group
of a dominant group of people to dehumanize another group,

(11:22):
they need first to dehumanize themselves. And Israel looks at
Palestinians as lesser people, as lesser beings, as some people
who are dispensable, and the way that they treat them
is that they don't really care about like that's why
they exchange great thing. So for me, if I am Israel,

(11:44):
it would be like what would you do if you're
the United States in the time of the Native Americans,
they were killing people with the millions. When you dehumanize
a group of people, you really don't care. So if
I was Israel, I would do exactly what Israel is
doing right now because there's no one is holding me accountable,
there's no one stopping me, and I can get whatever

(12:05):
I want throughout my history through violence.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
I think a lot of the things you just said
are a tiny bit slightly exaggerated, So let me let
me try. Let's let's try. So not everybody in Israel,
of course.

Speaker 3 (12:18):
Let's let's look at several groups, so people in government,
idea of soldiers and citizens that are neither of those,
and not everybody of any of those sees passings is
less than human, just some percentage.

Speaker 2 (12:37):
So what percentage is that? In your sense, it's the
people who have the power, So it's mostly the focus
of your commentary. When you say people in Israel, you
really mean the people.

Speaker 1 (12:46):
And people have in power. But as much as like I,
of course I mean the people apart because when I
speak about because even when I speak about America, I
speak about people in power. When I speak about Egypt,
I speak the people about power, because like the country,
talk about one hundred million people in Egypt, or they
a million people in Israel. Of course not there are
people who go in and they demonstrate against Nitiniaho and
they want him out of the government. But you have
to admit that the Israel elite society it as a whole,

(13:09):
have moved quite a bit to the right and has
been has been like many extreme. And you know what
happens when you go to the right, or you go
to the most extreme, the other person go to the
most extreme, and extremism breeds extremism. So thank you for
the clarification. But like I really meant with the people
of power. When people criticize the United States for going

(13:30):
in Iraq, of course I'm not criticizing citizens.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
But you made another point, which is an interesting point,
and it's very difficult to see in the heart of people.
But I wonder if you look at the average Palestinian
and the average Israeli and when they look at the other,
do they have some hate in their heart? Or everybody
probably has some What is that amount? You know, when

(13:53):
you look at a person that looks different than you,
how much hate is there?

Speaker 1 (13:57):
It depends on what is the use living situation of
each person. So in the Berlin Film Festival, just like
a few couple of weeks ago, there was an Israelian
and Palestinian receiving an award together and the Israeli director said,
We're going to go back to Israel. He's gonna go
to the West Bank. He will have no rights and
I will have full living rights. These people managed to

(14:18):
work together and be friends and they have empathy to
each other. Now, the average Palestinian, it's a very difficulty
question because is it the Palestinian in the Aspera, or
the Palestinian in Gaza, or the Espra in the West Bank,
or the one in the citizen who as a citizen
of Israel, who still have less right than a Roman

(14:40):
citizen of Israel, the Jew. And it really depends if
I am there are people in Arabs in Israel who
are having a great life. And there are people Arabs
who are having a miserable life, but definitely people that
liveing in Gaza or in the West Bank. It's kind
of like on the lower tier of the living conditions.
Now let's talk about the hate. What does that Palestinian

(15:03):
see human Israeli. The Palestinian see oppression, limitation of movement,
limitation of freedom they have, and then when there's something happens,
you see the full force coming in destroying their home,
taking away members of his family. There would be absolutely
no reason for him to love the other, the Israeli,

(15:23):
because he you know, he doesn't have the power, but
he lives under his government. All he sees is the
rockets or whatever. But like he sees the reaction, and
he doesn't see what happened to those of them. And
as humans, we are selfish, we see what really affects
us as humans. And I cannot even imagine what it
would be like to live as a Palestinian. And I'm

(15:43):
not even talk aboutcasts, because everybody talks about gasts. But
let me give you an example. And I'm not going
to talk about the twelve thousand kids killed in Gaza.
Let's talk about just like the four weeks in the
West Bank. Much fourth amh Or aged ten, sitting next
to his father. Shot in a while he's sitting in

(16:05):
a car next with father by the idea of soldiers.
Ahmedi had thirteen years old, marsh third shot in front
of a young school while sitting with his friends. Mohammed
Renem aged fifteen. March second, he shot while standing in
front of a two front during a night trade Febru

(16:26):
twenty third. Saijar Dahal. He was killed by a drone
fire Febru twenty second. Ferdusial Man killed while standing in
front of the top of a red cross building Nihil'siad
February fourteenth, Valentine's Day killed a shot in the head
while leaving school. February eleventh. Mohammad rottur Us citizens killed

(16:49):
while being in a park car and wild Chem's February ninth,
killed right in front of his home because a military
car came racing back to him and then somebody opened it,
over shot him and leave. This is the daily life
of people in the West Bank.

Speaker 2 (17:07):
What is the justification idea provides terrorists terrorists.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
Or I don't know. I mean, you cannot really say
like human shields. But they would say like they were
throwing rocks. There was a guy who went on Chris's
rock and he said, like his son, a US citizen
will kill and like they were throwing rocks. So we
killed him even when they were throwing rocks. You kill him.
But the thing is, you see, this is how easy
for them to get rid of parestines. I mean, I
love like I was. I had to say, I've prepared

(17:37):
a little bit for the podcast because you are in
tech so and I am ignorant in tech. There is
a movie called The Lab. It is directed by an
Israeli a director called u Tam Feldman, and he talks
about how the military industry in Israeli is very advanced.
And what is really mind boggling is in that movie

(18:00):
he shows how the military tests its weapons in the
field in urban areas and Palestinians. It is it is heartbreaking.
You know, as a doctor, there's five stages of trials.
There is like there is discovery, pre clinical, clinical, and
then market and then post market evaluation by the FDA,

(18:22):
the FDA value approval and then the FDA postmarket. Wife
just to take a pill and you go in and
and he interviews people as like, where did you test this?
They tested in the field. So when when you just
like when human life is so so cheap and it
is so indispensable, it made me. It gave me a

(18:47):
viseral reaction because you know, we as human this has
been actually the state of humanity. Humanity have lived and
survived and thrived by actually killing each other. But there
was kind of a we were remotely remote or removed
from it. People in Greece didn't know what the Alexander

(19:07):
the Great was doing. He was killing a pelaging and
like we called him the Grade because he was killing,
he was conquering, he was invading Julius Caesar all over
the grades he was doing. But killing was difficult. Killing
had to have some sort you have to be with
your enemy. Then you go back catapults, then cannons, then
a little bit back for and then you're kind of

(19:27):
like shunning remotely. Now you're killing people behind the screen
with a button, with a push of a button. You
know a lot of people say terrorism, they killed you
with a knife, killed one person with a knife shot you,
that's terrorism. But if you fly a sixty four million
dollars F sixteen and you drop up in an eighty
four bomb that cost sixteen thousand dollars. That's not terrorism
because it's remote. You're behind the screen. So what happened.

(19:49):
What Israel is doing, it is removing itselfish like America too,
drones and then when you push someone to be in
they always brag about bombing them to the stone ages.
What happens when the screens and all of the obstacles
that you have been put between you and those people
that you have treated them this way, When this is

(20:11):
a breach and you come face to face, you will
come face to face with what you have created.

Speaker 2 (20:17):
Yeah, there's a lot of interesting things you just said.
So one is the methodology of killing. If you want
to look at some horrific, large scale killing, people often
talk about the Holocaust, but that's visceral. You can look
at holler More by Stalin where the murders they're starvation
by Churchill in India, in Churchill in India and the

(20:42):
Great Leap Forward by Mao Yep. So starvation is a thing.
We don't often think of it as murder because it's quiet,
it's slow, and the interesting thing about starvation is that
the people don't complain as they're dying because they're exhausted.

(21:02):
That's one and the other is the value of human life.
It does seem that every culture has a unequal valuation
of human life. So those two things combined create a
complicated military landscape of the world.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
Yes, but the thing is is that how we would
look at technology as the savior, and we talk about
how we aree disrupt, will disrupt. We'll disrupt, will disrupt.
And now if you go you talk about like going
to the West Bank, the people in the West Bank
walk and they don't see humans. They see people shouting
them from towers or behind the screens or doing and

(21:43):
they have like biometrics that is developed by Basil system,
like that's done by HP or Google and Amazon who
are like part of Project Nimbus. And you see Indivision
developing all of this like metric and surveillans and all
of that stuff. And then you have like something like
the Gospel that like people have actually said that that

(22:04):
Gospel can actually create a target list using AI and
give you a green, yellow or a red to go
go ahead. And now AI is not just disrupting the market,
it's disrupting our humanity. And it is. We became so
comfortable killing people from Afar, killing people with a push
of the button, and now it is it is like

(22:27):
it's like dating apps, you know, when you swipe left
and right and it's like, oh right, it becomes so
like cheap. It's not like meeting someone. It's like it's
a lot of fish in the sea. Same way I boom,
five hundred people killed, Boom they killed. It's so easy.
It's so easy. It's so easy, and then it's so
far removed from you. So when you put these people

(22:47):
in this condition, you have literally put them in a
different universe than yours. You are behind in your condition
screens like pushing them blowing up a university. It's amazing.
But then you meet what you have done that, you
meet the Frankish line that you have created. And then
people are like, oh look what they did.

Speaker 2 (23:06):
With You just gave me this image of a dating
app from hell where leaders are just sitting there and
kind of swiping left, destroyed and then turn off the phone,
go to sleep. So I got you know, I traveled
to the West Bank and I mentioned to you offline

(23:27):
that I really loved the people there. Just yeah, I've
met a bunch of people like that in Eastern Europe
where I grew up. Yeah, like the flamboyant, the big personalities,
all of that. I also met a person who's in

(23:48):
charge of a refugee camp who was shopping idea of
soldier and I'm not sure the words he said are
important as the consequences of the thing that you mentioned,
which is the deep hate in his eyes. That was
didn't feel reparable at all. It was pain. It was

(24:09):
like a foundation of pain and on top of that
a hatred. And I was like, wow, this is what
you kill one person. That's the way you create.

Speaker 1 (24:20):
Because we have kind of like a front row seat
to what's happening. We think we're in it, but we
can't really grasp it. I mean, people's like, oh, we're
just gonna go in, get a mess out, and we're
gonna get them back in. And also what the people
get back in, how do you think they would look
at you? What have you created? What have you done?

(24:44):
My show in Egypt was all about propaganda. It's all
about the use of words. Words are very important. The
decapitated babies were not chosen randomly because you see it
plants a certain image in your brain. Imagine if you're
going in, what a baby can do. It can smile,
cry and pull. That's it is absolutely no threat. So

(25:06):
when you tell people forty dicavitated babies, they are so animalistic.
They didn't see the babies women raped. Of course it's
an amial to do that, and they would go through that,
and they would. What was very frustrating about the conversation
is the cash galloping, the cash galloping, throwing. You see

(25:28):
the distractions, You see what happens like, It's like, what's
the proportioned response? Can as well defend itself to you?
Condemn Hams, the desert has the right to exist. De
Capitated babies, raped women? Why don't the Arab countries take them?
Why don't the Muslims killed Muslims. Look what happened in Yemen,
in Syria, in Iraq. See how they kind of distract you.
They throw little things at you, so you don't know

(25:50):
what to do or the honor what the un n
anti Semitic October seventh, October seven, October seven, And then
suddenly you are distracted and pulled into discussing all of
these little things, and you're not discussing what's happening right now.
It is basically stall In giving them time to do
what they do.

Speaker 2 (26:06):
So there's a there's some degree to the propaganda though,
so the beheaded babies and all this kind of stuff
that is so over the top that it shuts down
actual conversation about actual wrongs war crimes on both sides.
So it's overstating it to where everyone on social media

(26:26):
and everywhere in the press and everywhere is arguing almost
become desensitized to actual horrors of death, which are more mundane.
They're not so dramatic as beheaded baby.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
Because people people baby a shot, but decapitated babies there's
like a knife blade that goes into the skin, the track,
the flesh, the spine. Decapitated you can just like he's
Dead't know, you go in this day so much, and
you know that's.

Speaker 2 (26:51):
Why you have made me laugh.

Speaker 4 (26:55):
At the darkest shit.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
You're such a beautiful person, You're dark humor is just wonderful.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
But but you see, this happened to Jews before. Remember
blood libel. Where did the blood libel come from? It
comes from these rumors that Jews suck baby's blood. This
is what they did to that that's a very delicious
baby can tellus, baby, But but this is what you do.
You you tell people something. And it happened with the
Native Americans when they were here. When when they win

(27:22):
it and they wipe a whole tribe, so and and
and and and Jewish people, one of the like the
minorities that were persecuted and had this used against them
for a very long time. And it is terrible and
it's terrifying that's been used again.

Speaker 2 (27:35):
So I just did a very lengthy debate on is
their own pastime? M hm, and a really painful thing
from that. There's two historians, and it was it was deep,
it was thorough, it was fascinating. But in constantly asking
about sources of hope or solutions, there was none. There

(27:56):
was a there's a sense of like a really dark
of it's hopeless from both sides. It's hopeless. So you know,
I look to you for a source, for a source
of hope. Is there any hope here? Solutions? Short term,

(28:21):
long term?

Speaker 1 (28:22):
Obama have kind of summarized this beautifully in his book.
He said the reason why the Israeli Palestinian conflict is
so chronic is one side have so much power, and
the other side have absolutely no power. And that's what
one body say. He said, like you have Israel that
face basically don't listen to us because they are supported

(28:44):
by people who are bigger than the President, bigger than adminstration.
They know that they can. I mean like you like
Nitiniao was a cotton tape many times saying like he's
basically like belittling Americans, like I we control eighty percent
of the population. We don't care they This has kind
of like Nanchalan kind of like we have them. And
there's nothing really that compels Israel to give up anything,

(29:07):
because at the end of the day, what is compromise
compromised Like I give something, you give something. Israel Is
don't give me anything, and they project that on you. So,
for example, how many times have we heard like, oh,
Palestinias were giving like four, five, six, seven, fifteen chances
and they said no to them. And yet when you
read the history that's not the case at all, Like,
for example, in two, the whole idea about like Arafat

(29:30):
walked away from Oslo, that didn't happen. And there is
an incredible video by you know what's his name, Joe's
Scoreboro with Misha and they were hosting her father Brasient
he was the National security advisor. And Joe's cab said like, well,
you know, like Arafat left the Oslo cord and the Palestinis,

(29:53):
and then brazis Ca said, like, this is like embarrassingly shallow.
It's like listen happened. Was there was a lot of
catches on the Oslo court. It was very unfairst to
the Palatina. So Arafa said, like, I agree, but I
need to take it to the Arab capitals. And and
they went to inside, and they went to Sharmache. They

(30:14):
came to Egypt and he and hill Barack went to
there and then he had Barak left because there was
election and he lost in the Eeriel Shong came and
it was this is one of the reasons why people
it is. It's kind of like facts don't matter as
much as what is the narrative that has been controlled?

Speaker 2 (30:32):
But what were the biggest barriers to piece there? Do
you think it's fundamentally leaders don't want it to stay
solution or was there nuanced small differences that have solved
could have led to say solution.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
I mean, there was a maybe there was a certain
point when the Israeli leaders were more open to compromise.
But I can't say that because each time Israel gives
back land it has to be after some use of force.
The nineteen seventy three war the end for the first
and second the casualties. They never give up land willingly

(31:12):
and because of peace, Because if I have that much
military and can do whatever I want, why would I
give up anything? I have that much power. Why would
America or China give everything if they're so powerful, and
especially if they are have this kind of open ship
from the United States. So it is really about what
can push Israel to give up something? Because you are

(31:34):
so much stronger than me, what could compel you to
give up something? And this is why the whole thing
about like trying to equalize Palestinians and the Israeli state
and government. It doesn't make any sense.

Speaker 2 (31:49):
So what is the source of hope? You know John Stewart,
who will talk about from many angles, somebody you admire
a friend, hm hm, He proposed a two state solution. Look,
look look to the Comedians for hope.

Speaker 1 (32:09):
Yes, well, everybody's talking about the two stage collution. But
Israel has said many times on Nitiniajo and Venezuela, there
is going to be no state solutions. They in the past,
is like even even after Taliban, he came in on
the on on hard talks, like yeah, maybe in the
past we wanted to stay solutions, but like look, every
time we give them land, they kill us. So no
state solutions and they are openly saying it. That's perhaps rhetoric,

(32:31):
rhetoric that is supported by action, because look at what
they're doing in the West Bank that you said, they
are cutting it, illegal settlement, peacemealing it. So how is
if you have an intention at all to give them anything,
why do you keep doing this?

Speaker 2 (32:48):
And you've called it a bunch of little gazas, Yes,
a nice little cure of what's happening.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
Peace mealing it tum tum, because it is what happened
in the past four months. The Palestinas have been micro
dozing on it for a very long time, little by little,
little by little, and we would shout every time when
it gets too much, and then we shut down and
then little by little. But this time it was hard.

(33:16):
It was hard to see the blatant oppression and the
words said, maybe the Hamas Ministry of the Health are
giving us the bad numbers. Maybe it's just a human
shield and I laugh, there's thirteen thousand babies killed. Does
that mean that they're thirteen thousand military target hiding in
their diapers? Because it is so it doesn't make any

(33:40):
sense to kill that. Maybe it's just like oh oops,
just out of our heads.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
It's hard to know what to do with those numbers.
I mean, it's just one baby is enough.

Speaker 1 (33:51):
But you know what happens when you hear so many numbers,
Numbers become numbers and you become so desensitized. And this
is why there's the difference between saying thirteen thousand Palestinian
kids did. It's like Milla Cohen, an Israeli baby ten
months old, she was killed in her crib. And this
is what we hear from CNN. We never hear a

(34:12):
story about the Palestinian kids. That's why thank you for
giving the space for saying the news of the Palestinian
children that were killed just for four weeks like it's
it's because humans needs context, they need depth, They need
like a three D look at what they can look at.
But if you just then numbers h they don't mean anything.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
Is there some degree to where both leaderships hamas Pa
Pasini authority Israel all want war like perpetual war to
remain in power.

Speaker 1 (34:49):
That's an interesting question. But I mean, let's admit something.
The Arab regimes in the in the area have actually
used the problem of palace signed in order to stay
in power, in order to take getting excuses like have
this enemy and Israel the Israeli government has used that too,
and maybe the Palestinians. But but my problem with when

(35:12):
going into discussion is that the two sides are not equal.
They're not equal in power, they're not equal in influence,
and they're not equal in international supports, especially for the
United States. So Palestinians can the people who have made
changes in history were the people with power, the people
would have the ability to change things, and the Palestinians

(35:36):
cannot really change and what can they change?

Speaker 2 (35:39):
Well?

Speaker 1 (35:39):
Is that true? Though? Okay?

Speaker 2 (35:41):
With the how much support the Palestinian people have so
j just like you said, there's a lot of Arab
states there. They will voice their pro Palestinian position in
order to distract from their the own corruption and abuses
of power in their own countries.

Speaker 4 (35:59):
But you know, I.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
Don't think if you look globally there's a complete asymmetry
of power and public opinion here maybe in the press
in the West, but.

Speaker 1 (36:10):
If you look globally. But do they have the same
kind of weapons that they is really.

Speaker 2 (36:14):
Having literally power? No, there's a major asymmetry of literal power.

Speaker 1 (36:20):
Some money to their leaders, does that make any difference?
I mean? And also when you say Palestinian authority, which
authoritary talking about Hamas or the Palaestinian authority has been
kind of a domesticated, kind of like a puppy for
the Valatine who basically have been an informant for the
un their own people. And this is the the thing
also that kind of like really pissed me off when

(36:42):
I was hearing the thing of what they think like
Amas Amas Hamas Amas, like we have nitin yaown tape
confessing that he supported Hamas giving money in order to
cause factions in the in between the Palestinians. So it's
just like, it doesn't make you just told me this,
You just told me this, You just told me, didn't
you have sort happen? It's like, but Haimes, like what.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
I mean, to which degree is n Yahoo represent the
Israeli people.

Speaker 1 (37:06):
Is a real question to which point does Trump or
Biden represent the American people?

Speaker 2 (37:12):
And to which the degree does Hamas represent the Palaestinian people?

Speaker 1 (37:15):
Does none of these represent it? But who have the
power in order to make the decisions? It really comes
down to that, Well, who.

Speaker 2 (37:24):
Does have the power? Are you're giving a lot of
power to Israel? Yeah, but the Arab league?

Speaker 1 (37:31):
What Thimas do? What do you think Timas do?

Speaker 2 (37:33):
Continue doing what a charter says, which is trying to
destroy Israel. And the role of the Palatinian people is
to overthrow Hamas and get a more moderate leadership probably,
And the role of the Israeli people is to vote
out this right wing government and elect a more moderate
leader so that there's a chance at peace to moderate leaders.

Speaker 1 (37:56):
So before Hamas even got to control two high and
six guys, there was a real Sharon in two thousands,
and we all know what happened, And a real Sharron
kind of like had made they may came up with
this amazing policy of like breaking people's kids bones in
the into fada. So hill BAROCKI was also like, I

(38:17):
mean which one is moderate? I mean I think is
Hamas is a product of what happened. I mean we
can if there was no appartite in in in South Africa,
there will be no NFC, there will be no if
there was no Nazis in Paris, there would be no
French resistance. And I'm not saying that, and again I'm not.
I would don't want to be in a put in

(38:39):
a position to defend Hamas or anybody because you know
what that entails. But there are those are like Hamas,
again not defending them. They went into October seven? What
was there? What they Why? Why did they do that?
Like release our hostages, the people in prison because if
you're talking about people who are kidnap, Israeli kidnaps people

(39:02):
every single day, and when they had the first exchange
in November fourth, it israet least four hundred people, three
quarters of them were women and children. Why are those
people in prison? There's one in four kids that are
in prisoned that stay in solitary confinement, which is by
international law a form of torture, and you're putting kids
through that.

Speaker 2 (39:22):
Is it possible? So, first of all, ceasefire, yes, and
longer term, is it possible for Arab States and the
United States to get together.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
And with power through diplomacy, enforce a solution. It's a
very very ideal solution. But you know, and I know
that the Arab States don't really have the power. All
of the powers are in the hands of America. They
have the power. See, I think they have the power.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (39:54):
Maybe they don't want to use it.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
They don't because there's a benefit like the dark. The
dark sense I have is that a lot of people
when from the suffering and Palestinians are going through, because
they can point to that then distract from definitely the
corruption in Therong States. And then obviously Iran can benefit

(40:18):
also from the same kind of dynamic distracting from the
authority in nature of their regime.

Speaker 1 (40:27):
Definitely. But what is the core of the problem here?
Is it the Arab States using the suffering or the
actually the suffering itself, and the suffering comes from people
being displaced, their homes were taken away. There are seven
million Palestinians in diaspora, seven millions. Seven million went out
there and now they're living in Canada and America and Europe.

(40:50):
They had homes there. They cannot go back to one
point seven million people of the people in Gaza don't
belong in Gaza. They were pushed from other places. The
piecemeal thing of people are being you know, in Germany.
I'm gonna chieft gear a little bit. It's going to

(41:10):
be a little bit of fun. There's a book that
I bought the rights to and I want to turn
it into a movie. And I I optioned the right
for two months, for two years in marsh of last year,
before October seventh. After October seventh, I bought the permanent right.
That book is called The Muslim and the Jew and

(41:31):
it is written by another called Ron and Steink. I
read an article about this book in twenty sixteen and
I chased that book for rights for seven years. I
didn't have that much money, but I wanted that book.
And that book was translated into English called and and
Doctor Hemy and that book tells the incredible story under

(41:51):
Nazi Germany where Arabs went in droves to Berlin in
nineteen twenties after the First World War in the Iomary Republic,
and they became doctors and engineers and journalists. For two reasons.
Number one, it was they're cheap, very cheap, because of
the inflation. And two, a lot of the Arab nationalists
didn't want to send their kids to to England or

(42:15):
France because they were the occupiers. And doctor Henry was
the hero of that. He's an Egyptian doctor and that's
why I kind of like a personally kind of connected
with them. And he went to medical school, didn't find
a place to live, so he lived in the Jewish ghetto.
Like many Arabs, he didn't find a school to work at,

(42:37):
a hospital to work, and so he worked in a
Jewish hospital. So there was a lot of virus who
lived with the Gaul and actually the first director of
the Berlin Mosque with a Jewish convert who converted to Islam,
and he was a gay activist. I'm telling you, this
is like a crazy story. Yeah, and this is all.
This is not a fiction story, This is not this

(42:59):
is actually like a nonfiction and Thretten actually based on
the statement the documents of the Nazis and Istabul Doctor Henry.
He was in this hospital and the Nazis came in
and they killed and tortured and beat up the Jewish
doctor and they made him the head of his department.

(43:19):
Then he was so now he's surrounded by Nazi doctor.
They didn't touch him because he was an Arab. There
was kind of like a thing between Germany and the
Arabs because they wanted to appease to them in order
to have kind of a a grassroot base in the
Arab world where he wanted to go next. And this
is why nineteen thirty four, nineteen thirty five, the racial

(43:43):
Laws of Nuremberg, they had a name change. First they
were called anti Semitic, then they changed into anti Jewish
because also Arabs were Semitic, so they wanted to appease
the Arabs. Now what happened to doctor Henny. When that
happened to him, he would go back to the ghetto
and he would see the apartments next to him, the

(44:03):
Jewish apartment become more and more and more flooded with
people because they were moving Jews and pushing them and
putting them together, pushing them to the side, and each
each plat, each flat, each apartment. Instead of one family,
it would have three, four, six, seven families. And he

(44:24):
was there, went home and he looked he was he
was there. This is where the people he grew up with,
he lived with, and now he's seeing that kind of
discrimination just because he was an Arab. And then he
started to kind of like atone for like because he
felt responsible because he wasn't treated the same way. And
he started to go and treat Jewish people in their

(44:46):
homes because they couldn't go to hospitals. And then one
family gave them his daughter. It's like this is Anna
save her. He took her, pretended that she is his niece,
put a hejab around her, taught her Arabic, called her Nadia,
my daughter's name, by the way, and they and he
hid her in Plaine Sights for seven years in front

(45:08):
of the Nazis as his nurse. It's an incredible story.
And then not just that, he went to prison, and
then he went out and he formed with the Arab
people that was in prison with him, a network that
saves three hundred Jews. See that kind of story. This
is the Jews that were living in the air bord.
I'm not saying that the Jews living in airport was
living like an incredible black course as la kind of
a minority. They did not have like the full power

(45:30):
of their full advantages of the rule. That's normal, but
we had this kind of a relationship before it was
erected in nineteen forty eight, and then, of course everybody
looked at Jews at that are termed as fifth column.

(45:53):
Of course, the nationalistic regimes used that, and this is
why what Biden said was very dangerous when he said,
if there's no Israel, no Jew in the world will
feel safe. You are the leader of the few world.
You are the president of the United States. Do you
mean that you are telling me that the Jews in
your country, in the United States of America, are not safe.

(46:13):
That is wrong on two levels. Number One, America, historically
and right now is more safe to Jews in America
in the world one than anybody. They are safer than
the Jews in Israel. They never had programs or the Holocausts,
like Europe. They live here a good life, not perfect life,
but they are better. Second of all, if you're the
president and you're telling that a group of people will
not feel safe unless there is a different one, you

(46:34):
are already feeding into their fifth column. They're like, you're Russian.
You come from there, and there is a group of
laws in the Russian constitution that says that Russia will
protect its citizens everywhere in the world. What happens if
the president says, like, oh, you're Russians, You're protected by
own country, don't belong here. This is terrible.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
Yeah, you're right, that's actually an indirect right. So I yes,
you know, even saying Muslims cannot feel safe in America
or something like that, that means, like, that's a threat.

Speaker 1 (47:03):
But what would a Jewish person in Beverly Hills or
in Brooklyn Field if he hears that you are already
telling people you need to have me loyal to Israel?
I mean, Israel's a foreign country. I am sorry, but
Israel is a foreign country. Israel is a client country
that we sponsored, and it should actually be responsible and

(47:25):
held accountable for what they do.

Speaker 2 (47:28):
You mentioned nineteen forty eight a NAPA, but before that
forty one, thirty nine, forty one to forty five, the Holocaust?
What do you do? What do you do with the Holocaust?

Speaker 1 (47:39):
Like what.

Speaker 2 (47:41):
How do you incorporate into the calculus, oh of what's
Oh it's terrible, of morality that leads up to the
displacement of seven hundred thousand Palestinians from the land. How
do you work that out?

Speaker 1 (47:56):
It is terrible? But like I mean what the systemic
annihilation of Jewish people under an Nazi that is like
like a carefully engineered thought for plan. It was terrible.
It was like kind of like the human ingenuity you
put into like something that is very evil. But also

(48:17):
it is not just not just that happened. We need
to remember that Auto Frank, the father of Anna Frank,
has his visa refuge visa rejected by the United States.
There's a lot of people that were rejected by the
United States, rejected by other European countries, and then they
were pushed into Palestine. So you have to put yourself
between like and that the Arabs. Okay, we're sitting here, Okay,
come and then all right, you don't have a home

(48:38):
or a country anymore. That kills you. I mean, you see,
if I'm not an Arab and you give me that
kind of piece of like terrible human traasure, like, oh
my god, that is terrible. But then I'm an Arab
is like yes, I'm so sorry, but what do I
have to do with that? Why is that my fault?
The persecution of the Jewish people have started since in

(49:00):
the eighth and ninth century because they were like they
were first anti Christians. They were like with criminal immigrants,
they were like conspirators. This this, this, this is, this
is this is the antis like people kind of like
as if Europe kind of like throw anti Semitism on us.
You understand that like Henry Ford. Henry Ford is one

(49:22):
of the biggest anti he was, He was the inspiration
for Adulf Hitler. This is how anti Semitic Henry Ford was.
And you kind of like gloss over that and then
suddenly we as Arabs have to pay the price.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
Why several questions I want to ask the so, but
one just zooming out, Why do you think hatred of
Jews has been such a viral kind of idea throughout humans? Oh,
it's very easy.

Speaker 1 (49:57):
It all started from Christ. Kill Christ. They kill Christ,
they kill Christ. They're the killer of Christ.

Speaker 2 (50:02):
That's a very success.

Speaker 1 (50:03):
That was so yeah, that was and that stayed for years,
that stayed for centuries. I'm sorry centries. They're the killer
of Christ. And then the Catholic Church did not allow usury,
but they would work in usual so they become rich.
Now the people that we hate, that we accuse them
of feeling Christ, are becoming rich. So that's envy now

(50:26):
and that's that and and that's hatred. I mean, when
you talk about ghettos, ghettos were not just as secluded
parts in cities. Sometimes those ghettos were outside the cities.
Jews were not even allowed to work a lot of professions.
They were not allowed to get into the syndicates of
certain professions. So they had to work usually and they

(50:50):
got rich, so the people hated them more. The first
the first Crusade didn't kill a single Muslim. All they
killed were Jews. And when they in the Arab to Jerusalem,
all they killed were Jews. They almost annihilated the Jews.
So it was all this and of course you have
the dark Ages. Who do you need as an enemy
the Jews? Right, they're the killer of Christ. There is

(51:13):
nothing bigger than this. And then you fast forward. I mean,
one of the things that I that I found out
that was very very very very crazy when Henry Ford
imported the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. By the way,
in the Arab word, Protocols of the elder of Zion

(51:33):
is so popular and for the obvious yearses and the
people who don't know it, it's kind of like a
bunch of like stories. And basically it's like the Jews say,
like we're gonna control the war and we're gonna do
that and whatever. What people don't know that that is
a work of plagiarism. It was plagiarized from a satirical

(51:58):
play called Conversation and Hell between Mickey Velli and Monte Sequi,
and it is just it is and it's kind of
like based on one chapter, one scene or so. It's crazy,
but it's crazy how sticky it is. Like, yes, it's weird, yes,
because if I if I hate you, that's great. But
if I have a story to support that hate, that's

(52:20):
even better. But it's like one of the one of
the best stories, one of the stickiest stories about Hey.
Of course it's probably the most effective because like there
you know a lot of people hate other groups of
people's but that's just like the sexiest story of all
because humans need to concentrate their hate, their insecurities, and

(52:45):
their shortcomings into one thing that they can practice that
that hate on. If it's a it's a it's a person, great,
If it's a group even better.

Speaker 2 (52:55):
How do you into this calculus incorporate that that group
is pretty small? There's sixteen million Jews worldwide, and you
mentioned how is that the responsibility of the Arab people's
you know, everybody should be to blamed for not taking
in Jews after the Holocaust. But you know the reality
of the situation. If we look at the religious lives

(53:18):
of this there's sixteen, let's say million Jews, and there's
I don't know how many Muslims at one point eight billion.

Speaker 4 (53:27):
Ye.

Speaker 1 (53:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:28):
Do you that difference, that one hundred x difference. Do
you incorporate that into this sense that Jews in Israel
might feel for, you know, the existential dread that we
might this this small group might be destroyed.

Speaker 1 (53:47):
Jews in Israel have every right to feel afraid because
of everything that they see and everything they're being told. Everything.
But I would say that the calculus of the numbers
doesn't like, of course like being small. It is, of
course the factor, but it is never an excuse in
order to take something that's not yours. It's saying like, hey,

(54:09):
you have three hundred million Americans and we have fifty
two or fifty szusays give one stateerally, there's too many
of them, too many of you just give them something,
you know, it's like the fact that I have something
and you don't, and I have there are too many
of me and there's little of you, and then you
come in. And it's not really against the Arab word

(54:29):
or the Muslim or because we have to say we
sucked up big time, but it is the Palestinians that
are in and they are being subjected to that. So
it's not really like the one point eight billion and
the sixteen million Jews and the one point eight billion.
If you look at them, some of them like don't care.
Some of them live into regimes that being oppressed, and

(54:50):
those regyms are supported by the United States and order.
It's easier for me as an empire to take what
I want from this country if I control the dictator
and I tell him that his power is linked to
my ability, to my desire to keep him in power.
So that's why you have a total disconnect between people

(55:11):
in power in the Arab and the Muslim countries and
the people themselves.

Speaker 2 (55:15):
Can you speak to the nineteen forty eight you know,
because you mentioned taking land that's not yours. Maybe parallels
with Native Americans. Yeah, there was a war the Jewish
minority fought that war against several Arab states and won

(55:36):
that war. How do we incorporate that into the capitals.

Speaker 1 (55:41):
Yeah, well, that's also a misconception, like misinterpretation of defense,
because it seems that it was like the small It's
kind of like a David and Goliath kind of story.
And I was always like, how did we not do that?
But in reality, with numbers, I can't pull it up

(56:05):
right now. But if you look at the numbers, the
number of tanks, the planes, the trained officers, because those
many of those Jewish fighters came from World War Two,
they were season fighters, and they actually had more planes,
more tanks, more artillery, more pieces of weapons, more of
all of other combined. Because the people that treated like

(56:29):
fought was Egypt, and you have nineteen forty eight. Many
of those air contries didn't even have their independence, so
they would kind of like send like a cavalry or
like people in horses. But in fact, the whole idea
is that we won against seven nations. The numbers were
totally in israel favor. They were better equipped, they were
better trained, They had like more tanks and artillery and aeroplanes,

(56:55):
and they planned planned better. So yes, they deserve the
win because they planned and we did to you.

Speaker 2 (57:00):
There's an asymmetery military power even Yeah, but what do
you do with the fact that the war was won?
So like, if you look at the history of the world,
there's wars fought over land.

Speaker 1 (57:15):
That I agree with you. This has been the history
of humanity. Humanity was not living peacefully. It's all about
like people taking people and etailing people taking their land.
But there's two difference here. Mostly usually the conquering power,
like for example England, they had England and they conquered
you in India and after the occupation finished to go

(57:36):
back to England, France, Greece, Purgia, Egypt. They will go
and expand and shrink, expand and shrink. It's always been there.
What is different here is exactly what happened in Australia
and the United States. A group of people came in
not just to conquer and take the land, but to

(57:56):
completely change, to replace them and get them out or
kill them. It was very easy with the Indians because
they had small parks, there were no social media. They
did it over four hundred years. They had time. The
problem is what is happening right now. I agree with
you It might not badly be that new, but we
are there and we're watching it happen, and.

Speaker 2 (58:16):
So now we have to confront the realities of war
and empire.

Speaker 1 (58:20):
And because because you know, what's the problem, we told
ourselves we can be better. After nineteen forty eight there
was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It means that
we are going to be better humans. We're not gonna
kill and take plan, We're not gonna displace people, We're
not gonna take people for there. There's now laws, there's
international laws, there's International Court of Justice, and now Israel

(58:43):
is giving the middle finger to all of them.

Speaker 2 (58:45):
So isn't in some fundamental way this whole thing that
we're talking about is us as a civilization. On social media,
in articles and books and in newspapers, we're just trying
to figure out who are we as a people.

Speaker 1 (59:01):
I think the shock came from the fact that we
thought that we as humanity have evolved, and now we are.
What have actually changed is that we became more advanced
in effectively eradicating a group of people because of the
technoledge that we have and the fact that we can
do that under the eyes and ears of all the world.
That we are watching it on our phone. We have

(59:23):
a window. We have a window to the war. You know,
nineteen forty five people didn't know what was happening in Japan.
What well, we heard about it in the radio. Today
our forces came in and they launched that. We don't
know we heard it. We maybe we saw fixtures after that,
and it's quite added. But now we see it, we're
into it, and it is so much for our psyche

(59:47):
and we can't get it. And and the Arabs I said, like, guys,
you told us. We came to the West because we
were told that we were equal, you know the University Declaration. Right.
One of the co austers, his name is Stefan Hessel.
He's a Jew. He is a survivor of the Holocaust.
And you know what happened to him. He died by

(01:00:08):
the way a couple of years ago. But he before
he died, he was canceled by so many people, and
he was called anti Semitic because he joined the BDS
movement and he spoke of truth Palestine, that is the
author of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that we
value so much, and we think that that would define
our humanity. But then we go in and we are

(01:00:31):
shocked that maybe we were sold something, maybe that was
false advertisement.

Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
You shared a tweet by an account called Awesome Jew.
It reads islamo Nazi a comedian Bosom mus of comedian quote.

Speaker 1 (01:00:53):
By the way, Yeah, of course, because I'm not funny.

Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
So Islamo Nazi. Comedian Basim Yusuf is now denying Doctor
of the Year retweeted like this like twice. Yeah, I
guess suppose because it's advertising some upcoming dates. He's now
the denying October seventh massacre the Muslim radical Boston use
of his notorious for his radical radical set twice for

(01:01:16):
his radical hatred of Jews in Israel. In a recent clip,
he claims that the atrocities committed on October seventh, they
are fabricated. We're looking for all information regarding any of
his upcoming shows, as well as the venues which host
this comeback. Would Jews feel safe around this Nazi Nazi? Yeah,
I've never This is my first time interviewing a Nazi.

Speaker 1 (01:01:39):
It's the first time I actually get called a Nazi,
first time, first time. I have been called so many
things in Egypt. So in Egypt I was called as
Cia operative and Mushad spy, secret Muslim brother with a
secret a secret Jew, secret Jew. And there was also
an article that was published about me in the State

(01:02:02):
Fron media saying in details how Basim has been recruited
by CIA agents using John Stewart in order to use
that to bring down the country. I was a Freemason
and infidel, a member of the the the Knights of
the Temple something like that. And there's actually people that

(01:02:25):
the Muslim Brotherhood on their show they would say like
he is action Israeli and they have forged an Egyptian
idea for him to come. So it's kind of like
when I guess I said I had, I left all
of that behind and I come here. It's like boom,
anti Semitic, Nazi. Yeah, I mean, I really covered everything.
I don't know what else. I mean I think I have.
It's kind of like I'm collecting pH ds. I'm just

(01:02:48):
like getting like all of these credits and how do
you deal with that?

Speaker 2 (01:02:51):
How do you deal with the attacks? I mean, this
goes back to the decision to do the interview with
Piers Morgen.

Speaker 5 (01:02:59):
How do you like psychologically through all of it, these
kind of attacks at the beginning, it's fun, but when
they evolve into something else.

Speaker 1 (01:03:10):
So for example, I was like laughing of all of
the stuff about calling me this, calling me that, But
then when people would come and thread the theater, because
it's not the people who are making those accusations that
would come to you, it's the people that will hear
and see those accusations and act on it. And there's
always the fear of like I mean, we have we
have in the airport a lot of things that somebody

(01:03:31):
would hear something about someone else and go kill him
and whatever, like anybody else. So there's this but somehow
I want to make fun of it. And and it
is to be called a net an islam Wu Nazzi.
It must been the funniest thing ever because it doesn't
Islam Nazi? Wow, how did you? How did you? An

(01:03:53):
erradical Muslim? Me? A lot of Islamists hate me. They
will call me a secular infidel. So it's kind of like, oh, am,
I maybe I have an identity crisis and I need
the people to tell me who I am.

Speaker 2 (01:04:08):
Let's go to the beginning. Let's go to your childhood.
You grew up in Egypt. Egypt, Well, let's figure out how.

Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
You came to be who you are. How do you
become an islam Nazi?

Speaker 2 (01:04:20):
Yeah, exactly, it's a long journey. I do like the
swastika tattoo.

Speaker 1 (01:04:24):
On your ass, which I didn't, How did you see
my you know what you did?

Speaker 4 (01:04:28):
I know I did.

Speaker 2 (01:04:29):
It's very inappropriate. You're also obviously a sexual harassmer. This
is like a met Yes.

Speaker 1 (01:04:38):
This is this is like twenty twenty. This is someone
will come up as like, okay.

Speaker 4 (01:04:41):
We have flip it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:42):
This is your me too moment. All right, So Cairo,
what's a what's the what's a memory defining memory? Positive
or negative? From your childhood?

Speaker 1 (01:04:55):
My memory in general was was cool. It was cool.
I went to a Catholic UH school until the for
for primary school elementary and by the time I'm done
there was kind of like a start of a decline
into the public education. And my parents they are like
middle class working officials.

Speaker 2 (01:05:16):
You.

Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
My dad was a judge, my mom was a business
professor and she's and they were like one of the people's,
Like they didn't have that much of luxury. My dad
like drove like a regular like car, a Fiat which
is like the equivalent for the ladder in.

Speaker 2 (01:05:31):
Thank you for speaking to the audience, and so would
that be a good car.

Speaker 1 (01:05:38):
No, No, it's kind of like kind of like the minimum.
And my dad was not like amman of of of
showing off. Whatever money they would do, they would put
it for us education, give everything to their kids. This
is kind of like a very very typical mentality, and
I'm sure it's in many cultures, but like we grew

(01:05:59):
up with this. Everything that we have is like fri kids.
So they would put us in education. So middle school
that was the big nineteen eighty six was the beginning
of the explosion of like international schools, private schools, and
these schools were relatively expensive. Of course now with today's
currency it's ridiculous, but at that time it's very expensive.

(01:06:20):
So I went to that school and from there was
this moment. It's like you feel less right away. I mean,
of course there's the regular bullying and stuff, but it's
not that it's kind of like you always feel less.
You don't have that much of like purchasing power, that
the canality to go to the same outings or travel
with them, and even like how you dress, it would

(01:06:41):
be modest compared to them. So I was always an outsider.
I was, and I compensated with that by two things,
being good at school and being good at sports. So
I was not like the typical not was just like that.
I was like I was playing football, basketball, crat and field,
and I was like one of the people would like
to have me on their team. So I wasn't like

(01:07:02):
kind of like, ah, he's an air getting away. But
I never had a girlfriend. I never had any kind
of like it was not like I was not boyfriend material.
So that's kind of like it leaves remnants in you
that you're not good.

Speaker 2 (01:07:15):
Enough, but psychologically you're always like when you're by yourself.

Speaker 1 (01:07:18):
You felt like an outsider, yes, all the time, And
that's why it's kind of like I'm more of an owner.
I don't have a lot of what you called friends.
I have acquainted to people that I do stuff with,
but I don't I have like the people that I
tell them everything. When I went to medical school, now,
medical school is a different animal. Medical school is where
all of the people from the public schools go. Public
schools are very like they are not they don't have

(01:07:39):
like they don't have English language as like a strong part.
But they are brilliant people. So because they would mostly
study in Arabic, but they are brilliant and they are
very very very smart, very sharp. But then I'll go there.
Now I am the sissy boy from the private school
that comes into medical school. Now now I'm an outsider again,

(01:08:01):
and I go into I go into residency, and I
pick up salsa. So now I'm a salsa teacher while
being a CHRDIU thorastic surgery resident. And I'm an outsider
for the third time because in Sulsa, I'm kind of
like the respectful doctor, and in resident I'm the guy
who is just dancing so and everything. Of course, as

(01:08:23):
addic resident, you will mess up a lot. So they
would always like, oh because you're a dancer, Oh because
you don't care about medicine, you just like want to
go there. And that's what women, which is true. But
and so all of my life I felt that I'm
an outsider. I'm not part of the team. I'm not
part of the core group. So and I have a

(01:08:49):
story that you would love. I right before my residency,
I was so much into Sulta, so I as all
of them. I mean, then you save that, and I
was working in summers and I was doing extra jo,
and I took that money and I went to Miami
in order to learn relate at the Casino, which is
the Kuban kind of like circle salsa kind of thing.

(01:09:10):
And I and I went there in the summer of
two thousand and one and my return ticket was nine twelve,
two thousand and one the University. That sounds a humor.
I gotta tell you what. Nine twelve. I was supposed
to be on a plane coming back to what happens?
Thank god? I ran out of money ten days before that.

(01:09:33):
It was like all right, I changed my ticket and
I came back nine to eleven. I'm kind of like,
see my mom, what what like? And I see like
the two power four. It was like I'm almost like, oh,
you're here, You're here that And I was like, I
was like, I should I could have been in one

(01:09:54):
tunnelore right now flying nine twelve. And but by the way,
I was in Miami, the where they when they went
to the flying school in Miami. So I mean I
I had like nine eleven written all over my news
and I'm almost like, what you went to dance alsa?
I didn't know that salsa is like a name for

(01:10:17):
why salsa? Why?

Speaker 4 (01:10:18):
Why?

Speaker 2 (01:10:18):
Why did that attract you? And what like can you
explain what alsa is? So I mentioned to your offline
that I've been doing a little bit of tango trying
to learn.

Speaker 1 (01:10:25):
Yeah, like you know, some marine it's kind of like
Latin dances. Uh and uh it's like, you know, I
don't know how you describe solves a couple dance on
Latin beat. And I did it because I I once
I and I talked about that about my my Arabic

(01:10:46):
stand up coming, not the English. I talk about like
how I was, you know, I didn't have like created
like a great like social life. And my friends went
there one day and then I go into a place
which call is so it was called It'll get to
a Negrow. No, no, it was called Big Fat Black
pussy Cat. And then I think they thought it will

(01:11:07):
be like crisis or something. Those changed to it'll get
to Negro anyway, So great, great, great decision, I know.
So I went, there's a damn music and women and
my doctor a doctor dancing sulsa. That is a cheap magnet. Yeah,
but we know we do every you know, we do

(01:11:28):
everything for for that all even power, even money, all
the wars we've been talking about women. At the end
of the day, the approval from the other sex. We are,
we are babies, we were we are terrible people. So
of course, like I mean, that was like, that was
like great. But then I as as a nerd, I

(01:11:51):
went in so hard and now I became a CELSA
teacher and I earned more money from salsa more than
I did as a doctor.

Speaker 4 (01:12:00):
I didn't know this part of it.

Speaker 1 (01:12:01):
That's hilarious. I know I was making I was making
killing amount of money, like huge amount of money, and
I was just like, you know, I would go finish
my shift and I go to the CELSA class and
sometimes I would have like seventy people in my salsa class.
I had like the biggest CELSA class in Egypt in
at the beginning on the those houses, and it was

(01:12:21):
fantastic and it was an outlet because you go there
and there's the shifts and people dying, damn, and they
got salsa escape. You must have been good. I was okay,
I was cool, I was fun. There were people better
than me. But I have a think about teaching. I
like teaching people.

Speaker 2 (01:12:39):
So you mentioned heart surgery. So what what motivated to
become a doctor?

Speaker 1 (01:12:43):
It was a choice of exclusion. I mean, there's nothing
else you can do with these high grades other than
doctrine engineering. I hit maths, So go be a lovetor.
This is the Middle East. What do you expect is
either like I in my joke at my show, I said,
like there's it can be one of three things in
a doctor, an engineer, or disappointment. It is that is

(01:13:04):
the choices that you have.

Speaker 4 (01:13:08):
So years after.

Speaker 2 (01:13:14):
You damn good at it. That's a hard path though, yeah,
and it's a fascinating one.

Speaker 1 (01:13:22):
Can I tell you something that actually I was thinking about,
Why did I actually go into medicine and why did
I always choose the hardest thing although I didn't love it?
And I have to tell you I had an epiphany
only two weeks ago. And I don't know if that's
actually related or not. You know, remember when I told
you I went to this school and I didn't have
that much money, and I didn't have the luxury of

(01:13:44):
time or money to be with those people and do
what they do. So by the time I finished school
and everybody was going to university. Oh, everybody in my
school went to the AUC, the American University in Care
of course private like American education, party time, like I mean,
of course they are brilliant and everything, but they have Yeah,

(01:14:05):
they have a different you know, social life and part
of me now I kind of like I realized that,
just like very very recently, maybe I went to the
hardest school ever. So I don't have space to use
other than studying, because if I have that much space,

(01:14:27):
what I'm gonna do with it. I don't have that
much freedom. I don't have that much money. I'm not
gonna can't keep peach with those people going out. So
maybe I need a solid excuse that I'm in a
place where I don't have that much of a spare time.

Speaker 2 (01:14:41):
Is it also possible, I like how this is a
therapy session where we're a psychoanalyzing. Is it also possible
that you always just pick the hardest thing you could
possibly do?

Speaker 1 (01:14:50):
Maybe?

Speaker 2 (01:14:51):
But maybe that's the Puers Morgan thing too, Like.

Speaker 1 (01:14:54):
What maybe but like when I left Egypt and I
came here, I still had the choice to go back
to medicine, but I hated it. I hated medicine traumatized me.
The amount of like you give up. You know my
brother in Egypt, he had a daughter. She's a brilliant
basketball player. She is in the national team. Amazing. I
used to play basketball also in the Egyptian league, but

(01:15:16):
I never I was kind of like, my favorite position
in the court was the bench, and I was not
as good as her. But she and then and then
it was time for her to go into and to college,
and he didn't talk to me for six weeks. What's
happened to Farido? Which college? Like, I didn't want to

(01:15:36):
tell you. She went into medicine. I thought, what Madisine,
What did you do? Because he knows how I hated it.
I was traumatized. She's and I said, like, dude, she's
a basketball player. Make her go like to an easy schools.
So that's kind of I still did it. He still
did it. I still did it. But I don't know
is it because of the difficulty or because because of

(01:15:57):
what I told you? Maybe I needed something because I
was not very confident in my social life, so I
needed a distraction not to be to have that much
of a social life. Oh wow, okay, you understand. Yeah,
it's kind of love because I will always have an excuse.
I'm studying. I have something with them, and I don't know.
I kind of like self sabotage my own thing because

(01:16:18):
I couldn't compete with with those people on the outing
and the money and whatever, so I need an excuse
to be It's like, oh, he's a doctor, he's study.

Speaker 2 (01:16:26):
At least in your own mind, you couldn't compete.

Speaker 1 (01:16:28):
Yeah. Yeah. I always felt as less because I mean
I didn't have any difference in school. I had very
little life, and everything good to me came to life.
So I always felt even stand up comedy, it came
very late to me in life. So I always feel
that I'm not good enough. I feel that I didn't
spend the time of to build the foundation that other

(01:16:50):
comedians do, so I always feel that I am too lucky.
I always feel that this is a fleeting thing. And
when I had the height and fall the fall in Egypt,
when I would like the top of everything, I was
like so so famous and then everything was taken away
from me. That's like I you see, I told you

(01:17:12):
that happens when you don't build foundation, you fall. So
I always feel that I that I am not good enough,
or if I am in a position where people think
I am deep inside. I am not. Do you know
that I have a speech impediment, that I was not
meant to be a TV presenter. I have an In Arabic,
it's very obvious. I cannot roll my arms. I cannot

(01:17:33):
say I cannot roll it. So in Arabic, like Spanish,
it's very obvious. So when I did my first video
on the internet that made me famous, and then I
got my television d back there there in Egypt. My
partner at the time, he took the video and he
went to a producer. I said, like, are you giving
me a guy with a lisp? He couldn't, he should.
That's why when I came on television, I was the

(01:17:54):
first ever guy with the lisp. I had two things
going for me, the lisp and the big nose, and
I was always bullied for two for these two all
the time, so I always felt less.

Speaker 2 (01:18:03):
See, but that's the foundation of like creating a great person.

Speaker 1 (01:18:07):
Yeah, because if you're pretty, you don't need to do.

Speaker 2 (01:18:12):
What I probably wouldn't recommend it, but it is it
is true that.

Speaker 1 (01:18:18):
So if you are pretty, do some disfigurement.

Speaker 2 (01:18:23):
Find the flaws and be extremely self critical about them.
So you saw John Stewart on TV for the first
time in two thousand and three, How did that change
your life?

Speaker 1 (01:18:37):
I was in the gym and I was running on
the treadmill, and at that time C and N was
coming up on like on cable, and I was watching,
and there's this studio. I don't know what it is.
So I put the earphones on and I started watching.
And I was so taken by this, but I stopped

(01:19:00):
the treadmill and I just like stood for the twenty
minutes like this on the treadmills, and then I love
and I just like standing there. I didn't know what
he was he was saying. I didn't understand what is democrats?
What is Republicans? What is what those names that he's saying?
What does Fox News? I don't understand. But I was fascinated.
There was something you know when you don't understand the

(01:19:21):
music but you get the rhythm.

Speaker 2 (01:19:22):
It was that I wonder what that is that you saw.
It's like the timing of the humor. I mean there
is John Steward is one of a kind. Like his
biting criticism of power, I would say, and also ability
to highlight the absurdity of it all, but.

Speaker 1 (01:19:39):
You understand I didn't understand any of that, but I
didn't understand any of the references. But there's the rhythm.
The rhythm you know sometimes when you even see like
a comedy that is that's the language you don't understand.
But there's a rhythm that that that there's something. There's
something in that music, there's something. So there's something with

(01:19:59):
the juice and the pictures and he in the face
and people reacting, Yeah, what is this? What is this? Yeah?
What is this? And we had the global edition. So
I went to the YouTube and I just like started
to kind of like watch every single episode that I can.
I was like, do you think we can have this
in Egypt? Never? And then twenty eleven, like I had

(01:20:22):
a friend of mine who was also a YouTube partner
to something new at the time. It is that like,
let's do something on inter let's do something I want
to do John Stuart, That's like do Ray William Johnson,
John Stewart to note Fork. It's like I want that.

Speaker 2 (01:20:35):
So that was in there.

Speaker 1 (01:20:36):
Yeah, it was in there, and and and I and
I and I did it and it it worked.

Speaker 2 (01:20:42):
Can you talk about twenty eleven? I mean yeah, what
is it the air of spring? What is it people
here in America?

Speaker 6 (01:20:48):
You know, depend depends on which something happened, depends, it
depends which side of the equation you are, because for
a lot of people, it's a it's my American made,
it is almost brotherhood, it's day Islamist, it is Israel,
it is everything else other than people.

Speaker 1 (01:21:07):
But it's a pure revolution. It's a pure I think
we put too much weight on conspiracies. I think it
is normal human behavior that then become get maybe used
or abused or taken advantage of by other powers, and
then the conspiracy starts. But at the time, the Arab

(01:21:29):
Spring didn't start in Egypt. It starts in Tunisia. Boy
As he's a fruit vendor, like burned himself up like
the American soldiers who did that a few days ago,
and that kind of sparked protests in Tunisia. And Ben
Ali was a dictator in Tunisia for about like twenty years,
and they removed them, so suddenly it was kind of

(01:21:52):
like a domino effect. So then Egypt started and it
just took eighteen days. And you know, people, hindsight is
twenty twenty. The saying said, like, you know, just Bubar
became like a burden on the military, because the military
the real rulers of the country. You might have a
present that kind of like have certain powers, but at
the end of the day, when the military sees that
a certain president is like too much of a burden,

(01:22:14):
too much of like a you know, so they cut
him off and barg is a little visier at that time.
He was there for thirty years.

Speaker 2 (01:22:20):
Thirty years, by the way, speaking of because it was
a joke and Mark Twain's speech, I got teary eye
just watching that.

Speaker 1 (01:22:27):
It was great.

Speaker 2 (01:22:28):
You're like fucking great, like what you did Mark twenty
Awards for John Stewart. It's great. I mean, your comedy
is great in general, and I wanted to go to
your show. I definitely will. But that's a that's like
a little stroll and a complete tangent of just a
masterful introduction and celebration of John.

Speaker 1 (01:22:45):
Stewart anyway, bark yeah, so I and it's the joke
that I say, also like had like was the president
for thirty years, Like, oh my god, yeah, the president
for thirty It's like it's the Middle East. It's a
very short first term. It's just like it's like we're
still warming up. Day is warming up, and I don't like,
we need to plan ahead. We need to plan our vacations,
our careers, our jail time. It's just like we need to.

Speaker 2 (01:23:07):
It's great.

Speaker 1 (01:23:09):
So we had kind of like the shortest nicest reblution
eighteen days, and we thought, oh, eighteen days, we can
change the country in eighteen days. So but of course
sure naive and we had this kind of hope. So
Movak was removed. There was an interim period by the
military took for one year, then they did elections. Mussom
brother came to power. They stayed for one one year,

(01:23:32):
and then the military removed them. And in these three
years my show started. It started by kind of like
a YouTube video.

Speaker 2 (01:23:41):
It became famous overnight.

Speaker 1 (01:23:43):
Overnight five to six videos boom went out. And at
that time I was waiting to get my clearance to
go to Cleveland. I alay accepted in a fellowship as
a pedietic art surgery in a hospital in Cleveland. And
as are times you gonna do a couple of videos,
maybe I'm gonna put in an internet and maybe after

(01:24:03):
a year or two after I come back from the fellowship,
somebody will come, hey, why don't you write I show
that looks like John Start. That was my mind. Took
five weeks, I had my first contract of television, and
overnight the exposure and over the next two three years,
I had thirty to four million people watched, thirty to
forty million people watching every episode. A lot of this

(01:24:24):
like wow, that's too much. That is terrifying because it
means that there are thirty million people who have an
opinion about you.

Speaker 2 (01:24:32):
You said, there's a lot of aspects of that sudden
thing that.

Speaker 1 (01:24:36):
Were just toxic. It's toxic. It's unnatural. It's unnatural that
when people started to recognize me in the street and
take pictures, I was awkward, like why do you want
to have a picture of me? Why? Why is it?
Because I didn't feel that I'm worthy enough to be
like a reward for someone of a picture and I
didn't understand it. I was actually I was kind of
an ass sometimes because people thought it was arrogance. No,

(01:24:57):
it was confusion. And I remember, like my director and
my producers and people are they always saw me in
a very bad mood. It's like, why are you not
enjoying this. It's like, because this is not natural, This
is not natural, this adoration just love and just have
to end somehow, And it did. And because at a

(01:25:19):
certain point you are human and people kind of the
adoration and the fun and the love comes because they
see you saying stuff because you do your job. Basically,
political satire is basically us making fun of politicians in
the media. And a lot of people have a really
strong opinions about politicians and the media. So we came that.

(01:25:40):
We articulate that and we give it them and we
make them laugh. So for them, we made a great job.
So why don't you do more? But you are limited
and at a certain time you can't. And at a
certain time you're afraid because we're humans, because you're afraid
about like if I continue speaking up, not like something
will happen to me. I'm kind of like maybe have

(01:26:01):
some protection because I'm people see me, but what the
people around you and we I've seen that, So that's
why at a certain points, like that's it, I can't.
I mean, there's a lot of things to say there.

Speaker 2 (01:26:14):
But one of the difficult things of fame in your
situation is you're not just having fun, you're criticizing power.

Speaker 1 (01:26:22):
Yeah, and and and it is loved by the people,
but it comes with the price, because at a certain price,
if the power is too strong and you're not into
a situation or or or a system that allows that
that gives you that kind of safety. So what happened,
what happened? I was so when so the height of

(01:26:45):
my fame, what the Muslim brothers were, brotherhood was in power,
and at that time, they had their media and I
had one show. I had like one hour per week,
and they had five channels twenty four to seven, and
they were like, you know, I'm basic. John Seuwar said
it beautifully. One. It's like we say ship and you
say ship, and we just say shit better than you.

(01:27:06):
This is exactly what John said, like we're just better.
We're really better at saying shit back. So so basically
I had one hour and they have like the five
things that they were like, you know, they're calling me
all kinds of names, not just me, like all their enemies,
you know. And then I just had one hour and
I would kind of like annihilate them in one hour
a week. So at a certain point they would they
would even like kind of be the side with the

(01:27:29):
army against the the the kind of the liberal sectors,
whatever you call it. And at a certain point, the
army kind of like flipped everybody, like kind of like
the the the the the. Yeah, yeah, they removed the
most brotherhood. They came to power and we I can't.
I have to say I admitted I supported that in
the beginning because I had daily threats I had. I

(01:27:52):
was actually interterogated in a rested under the Muslim brotherhood.
I was in an introgration for six hours and they
were asking all my jokes. And I used that in
my stand up comedy describing exactly what happened in the
six hours, and it is so funny. Okay, well, it's.

Speaker 4 (01:28:08):
What you were by the.

Speaker 1 (01:28:13):
General prosecutor, the general prosecutor, and it was based because
of complaints by the officials in the government, because you know,
the general prosecutors do it. It has to have a high
up mandate to bring that person to questioning.

Speaker 2 (01:28:25):
So they went through kind of official channels.

Speaker 1 (01:28:27):
Oh yeah, yeah absolutely, so it's all yeah, it was official.

Speaker 2 (01:28:30):
It was legal, legal, very legal.

Speaker 1 (01:28:32):
So I went there and I and I asked and
and it's kind of like a bunch of like insulting slam,
insulting president, spreading false swimmers. And I went there and
I and it was funny because I go into the
building where there's police officers and their judges and all
of them are big fans of the show, and some
of them were taking pictures of me. And then I'm
sitting there and it was the most ridiculous interview ever

(01:28:54):
because he was asking me about my jokes. It's like,
what did you mean but this joke and it's like nothing.
It was there for six hours.

Speaker 2 (01:29:03):
He's just reading.

Speaker 1 (01:29:04):
He was reading my joke and he's reading the jokes
and the junior judges sitting there like cracking up. I
was like, I remember that.

Speaker 2 (01:29:14):
Guy that's dark is It's.

Speaker 1 (01:29:17):
Kind of like and I'm laughing, but in the same time,
it's like the whole situation is ridiculous. But then at
the end, I was released on bail, so I went
back to my show and I make fun of that.
And you have to be honest. The Muslim Brotherhood were
in power, but Egypt was like right out of the revolution,
for there was kind of like an equal spread of
power between the people. There was not like someone would

(01:29:39):
come in and just like the Muslim brother we didn't
have that power yet, but they were kind of people
saw that they were moving towards that, and then the
tension rose and then there was like a kind of
a confrontation between them and the army, and then a
lot of people were killed in the street. It was
terrible massacre. And then suddenly I am blamed for all
of that. It's like, you made fun one of us,

(01:30:00):
so now it made it easier for people to kill us. Like, dude,
come on, you're doing that to me too. I just
did it better than you. And the fact that you
sided with the same people that flipped against you, that's
not my fault.

Speaker 2 (01:30:11):
Did you criticize the army at all?

Speaker 1 (01:30:13):
Day? Yeah, So after that show, I did like one
episode against the army and I was canceled the next day,
and then I went to another channel did sixteen episodes
in a different season, and it was I was walking
on eggshells. And then that was canceled again. And then
the production company that was doing my show that we
severed ties because we didn't have the show. They had

(01:30:33):
their offices rady that have people like having that threats.
So I woke up on day eleventh of November twenty fourteen,
and my lawyer said, like, leave the country right now.
There's this legal case that we that they kind of
like they're coming for you. But I said, like, you cannot.
This was an arbitration case and I lost against the

(01:30:54):
channel that basically canceled me. And it said that I
don't know, but there's no jail time in arbitrations, Like yeah,
tell that to the judges. Leave, So I jumped on
a plane. Di verdict was twelve noon eleven November five. Afternoon,
I was on a plane left Egypt and I never
came back. Since then.

Speaker 2 (01:31:11):
Was there a worry of non legal things like assassination.

Speaker 1 (01:31:19):
I can tell you something. I was so stressed because
of the show, because of everything. I sometimes I would
wake up in the morning and I hope that my
bullet will come and finish everything because I was so stressed.
It's like I would love because I'm too much of
a chicken to kill myself, so I would like rather
have someone else do it for me. So I was

(01:31:41):
so under so much pressure. And I remember the day
that like my show was canceled indefinitely the second time
under the army, and I was like, I don't have
to worry about what kind of script I have to
write next week because this is you know, remember when
you asked me about like that tweet. But like all
of these said, the accusation doesn't bother me. Infidels by

(01:32:04):
secreture Zionist slam Nazzi, that's a protect What is really
what really leaves a mark is the criticism to your
craft and your work. So you're not funny goes deeper.

Speaker 2 (01:32:19):
Yeah, certain things get to you better than others, especially
if you have like a secret suspicion that you are
like maybe not funny.

Speaker 1 (01:32:29):
Maybe I'm not because I was put into that. It's
like because that toasts your insecurities. Like I know, but
you shouldn't say that. You shouldn't say the truth that loud.

Speaker 2 (01:32:42):
But what about the way of the responsibility of speaking
truth to power? So like walking on eggshells, Like what
did that feel like?

Speaker 1 (01:32:51):
Well, after the Muslim Brotherhood were removed, you have said,
like when the military happened, it was a very popular coup.
Like people love the in Egypt, the army is more
sacred than the religious. People love the army can go wrong,
So me going against the army was, I mean the

(01:33:11):
most brotherhood was not very popular. They were popular for
their own basis, but people accepted the fact that, like
we make fun of them. But Ceci at that time,
he was a god. And I used to go to
this high class club called Gizier Club. And this is
basically kind of like the kind of upper middle class,
upper class kind of people. And during the that year

(01:33:33):
of the Muslim Brotherhood, I was the most popular ever.
People come, yeah, when the military came in, people were
walking to me like pointing their fingers. Don't speak about
don't speak about the army. We love you now, but
don't you do it like that? So I called John
Stewarts just like I don't know what to do. I
don't know what to do. And at that time, all

(01:33:55):
of the channels were like closed down, all of the
independabul I was the only one left because it was
difficult for them to get rid of me very quickly
because I was too popular. It was kind of like
peace peacemelling, kind of like and I remember something like
I don't know what to do. He said, like, you
don't have to do anything, just your safety comes first,

(01:34:16):
and said, but I can't. I mean, I've been doing
that for two years, and I cannot just like say
bye bye guys. I have a responsibility, I have a team,
I have people working for me, and I also I
cannot just like disappear. And he said the most interesting
thing ever, and say, if you're afraid of something, make

(01:34:37):
fun about the fact that you're afraid of it instead
of talking about that something. Really so there was like
a whole episode that we did not even mention cci
We not even mentioned it, but the videos did all
the things. And the whole episode was me trying to
avoid talking about and that how the comedy was created,

(01:34:58):
the fact that I don't want to be here. And
then so he said, like if you will be surprised
how people can relate to that, because there was a
lot of kind of like we love them, but we
feel we cannot speak. So just by doing the simple
thing about mirroring the society, that goes a long way.

(01:35:19):
And I kind of tried to do what I can
under the military, I mean, they came up with a
machine that treats aids and hepatities, see virus and basically
every single and I went to town with that because

(01:35:40):
people think it doesn't really have to go in to
go to the bigger pouse, like you're an asshole. No,
you talk about their propaganda, you talk about what they
want people to perceive them at, and it's a failure.
And for that that kind of hit them even more
because what do authority? Harry and figures too, They work

(01:36:02):
on two things, fear and propaganda, and from that it
gets the respect. So when you go into their propaganda
and expose them, they have nothing else that's brilliant.

Speaker 2 (01:36:11):
So like you are walking on act shells, but you're
doing it masterfully that you're revealing sort of the flaws
and the propaganda, the absurdity of the propaganda, and so
doing or criticizing that.

Speaker 1 (01:36:21):
And this is why comedy is very specific because people
say you were not as hard on him as you
were in the Musom was like yes, because I'm the
Muslim brother. We were just like saying saying shit for
each other. Yeah, but now the ceiling was like here,
so it's kind of like, how can you do something
for me? Yeah? Exactly, that's the art form.

Speaker 4 (01:36:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:36:39):
In the Soviet Union Understanaling, the a lot of the
criticism came from like children stories and and children's cartoons.

Speaker 1 (01:36:51):
Double meaning w and window stuff that means other stuff.
That is the that's the brilliance. But everyone knows.

Speaker 2 (01:36:59):
Everyone knows because you are like putting a mirror you're
marry in a society is fascinating.

Speaker 1 (01:37:04):
And that's why I was canceled twice. And that is
a scary one.

Speaker 2 (01:37:09):
The army. You see that in Ukraine. Everybody supports the army.
That's why Zanski Ready getting rid of the head of
the army was a big, big deal. It's a really
dangerous thing because everyone's supporting and everyone's afraid to it's
saying the negative about the army, especially during war. In
that case and in this case maybe there's a civil war,

(01:37:29):
that kind of.

Speaker 1 (01:37:30):
Thing, but think about it. Actually, an army during peace
is much more dangerous because think about it, I don't
really have an enemy to fight, but I have all
of these powered, all of this tank. Why is this
actor have more money than me? Yeah, I'm protecting him.
Why does this businessman think that he can get onto
his private plane and go to Paris and while I'm

(01:37:51):
here sitting like not having all of these things. So,
and there's a lot of time on your hand because
your job is to go fight when you don't go
fight and we when you have the lack of That's why.
That's one of the things I love the United States about,
is the fact that the army cannot really get power.
But the kind of like the army is the power
is actually in the military industrial complex, which is a

(01:38:13):
different thing. Yeah, it's kind of like a different kind
of issue. But if you have all of that power,
like why am I sitting around just like playing guard
for you guys.

Speaker 2 (01:38:22):
That's why Iran it's terrifying because you have this military
that it just becomes a police force and turns against
his own people. Yeah, so you're you're a famous guy
talking shit in the middle of all that.

Speaker 4 (01:38:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:38:36):
And I when I left, I went through a very
dark side, dark dark because all of the insecurities, all
of the stuff that had been like working on my
head now came to life. And now I'm in America
and I'm a nobody. I'm a nobody, and now it's
like I have to do something. You have to earn
some money. So I started to send up comedy five
years ago, and I sucked because it was my second

(01:39:00):
language and it was new. And now I would go
to these comedy clubs with like kids on twenty one
twenty two people and the I'm there with the family
to support that, I'm going there to doing it for
fifteen dollars, twenty dollars then and I was bad, You're bad,
You're you're borrowing, bombing big time, eating shit, waiting very
big time, dying up there big time. And I would
go back home and I would cry. And then what

(01:39:22):
made it force is sometimes like a fan, like not
a fan, a bunch of fans from Egypt, Oh music
field that they comes and yeah, the said the appointment
there that kind of like face of adoration that goes

(01:39:44):
and I could see it in their base. I think
he's going to drive an uber in a couple of weeks.
That's bad kind of pressure. And I would go and
I would cry, and I and and then oh, you
left you you you you gave up your sellout. You're
why don't you speak from abroad? You're safe now, Like
I don't. I already spoke. I don't want to be

(01:40:08):
because I don't want to be an activist. I was
doing that for comedy because when it was good for everybody.
But now they want me to go go into YouTube
and just like throw rocks from outside and like, you know,
I understand I have family there, and it was this
kind of like thing like that I am being like
attacked for not doing what I should do in their

(01:40:28):
face and attack for not being funny and not doing
good being. And now I'm a feel like maybe it
was wrong and I was. I don't know, I really
it was so traumatic that I don't know actually how
I went through these years and I blocked so many
details from my brain because I have been using this
technique for a while. Now that I have been erasing

(01:40:50):
a lot of my there is a lot of memory
gaps in my brain and I'm trying to suppress it
because it was very, very very traumatic. And a lot
of people told me, you have to go to therapy,
but I don't. I can't. I don't know. I'm worried
to open the floodgates and I thinking as if it's
unfunctional and I'm not killing anybody. I'm okay.

Speaker 2 (01:41:15):
It's like I think Leon tweeted, never want to therapy.
It's gonna be on my headstone. Yeah, you're a best buds, Okay.
I mean that is like terrifyingly difficult to like after
being a surgeon after being a superstar, super famous, going

(01:41:38):
to eat shit at local tiny clubs in the United States.
I mean eating shit period, Like bombing is really really
really difficult, really difficult for twenty year olds.

Speaker 1 (01:41:52):
But even when you're forty five, forty six and then
people it's like, is this his midlife crisis?

Speaker 4 (01:41:57):
What is that?

Speaker 1 (01:42:00):
I went through a lot of pain and a lot
of like the doubts, and it was terrible.

Speaker 2 (01:42:08):
Well, I mean, how did you survive? I know you
bocked most of it, but what gave you, like strength
through all that?

Speaker 1 (01:42:14):
Because I didn't have any other choice, because I started
that and the only reason that I could is to continue.
I don't know what else to do. I don't want
to go back to medicine. I don't want to do
go I don't I don't want to do that, and
I don't I don't know. I was and bit by bit,
bit by bit, I started to kind of like be better,
be better, be better. And I was at a certain

(01:42:36):
time a year ago, a year ago, this is where
I started to kind of like cone the craft and
kind of sell more tickets and sometimes even sell out
some shows and sometimes sell a theater. So like I
was going and the money was flowing and it was good.
And then I was like, why didn't I wanted faster,
I wanted more, I want it now, I wanted I

(01:42:58):
want Netflix deal or whatever. And then the Pieerce Morgan
thing happened, and then I blew up and then suddenly
I'm setting out everywhere. It's like, ah, if those people came,
if that the war happened two years ago, I will
not be ready. So now they come to the show,
and by my show had nothing to do with the
October seventh. My show is my thing that I've been
crafting and working on. You know how difficulty is to

(01:43:20):
do the first hour that the hour that have been
working on for five years. And it's all my personal story,
all of what like what happened to me degally me
as an immigrant coming here to the is, finding Trump
as a president, finding myself in the middle of a
gun's rally for finding myself in the middle of a bombing,
kind of like talking about how I got my citizenship.
It's all like funny stories of what like my origin story.

(01:43:41):
So they come in and they expected October seven and
all ye's my personal story. But it's good and it
kills and they love it. It's like if that, if
that kind of like blew up in America happened to
me two three years ago, I would not have people
who come and be So there's the point.

Speaker 2 (01:43:54):
That I say, the timing of October seventh is very
suspicious that I'm just asking questions.

Speaker 1 (01:44:01):
I'm telling you. One of the funniest thing a guy
I was in Dubai and a TV anchor came to
me best amusive. He flourishes during revolutions and wars, Like
what what what what? Dude? You're making me sound like
a bad omen a, very bad.

Speaker 2 (01:44:19):
Yeah, you Hamas and bb together orchestrated all, Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:44:23):
My god, that's that's the trilogy.

Speaker 2 (01:44:27):
You guys should go on the road together. I'm telling
you that phone call.

Speaker 1 (01:44:30):
Is coming, yeah, but comes has to open.

Speaker 2 (01:44:34):
And they would really bomb, right that bomb.

Speaker 1 (01:44:41):
I love dark humor.

Speaker 2 (01:44:42):
You do a show like you were saying in English
and in Arabic, so and the story is.

Speaker 1 (01:44:49):
Very different, totally different, two different stories.

Speaker 2 (01:44:52):
I would love to just the language difference because it's
the music of the language is also different. So like
what what's how can you convert into wards? But what's
the difference in the music of the languages.

Speaker 1 (01:45:03):
I'll tell you because I thought about that at all. Right,
all right, So when I was doing the English first,
I was I actually had good jokes, but I was
missing the delivery because the cadence and the music and
the rhythm is different. The way that an English speaking Americans,

(01:45:25):
a member of audience will receive it, it will be
different than how I receive it. The energy, everything is different.
So when I kind of like got it, I didn't
know how to switch back to Arabic.

Speaker 2 (01:45:40):
Oh wow, Yeah, fascinating.

Speaker 1 (01:45:43):
Because here's the thing with English stand up comedy. Inlist
you have a huge library, you have like a legacy,
you have like years and years and years and years
of people doing comedy. But in Arabic it's a very new,
very new to us, and most of the Arabic stand
up comedy, especially in Egypt, is very tamed. This is
kind of like image in the stand up comedy scene
in America nineteen sixties before Lenny Bruce.

Speaker 2 (01:46:05):
So no s rank, conservative, care.

Speaker 1 (01:46:07):
Very nothing conservative everything that I was like, yeah, it's
kind of like very So I didn't know what to
do there. So I broke the barriers. I became Lenny Bruce,
I became a Jewish con so I went in and
I went and I changed the whole for me. There're
fifteen words. Arabic is a very rich language. So when

(01:46:32):
I did, here's the difference between the Arabic and the
English show. The English show Surprise. Surprise is a unifying language,
even for a group of Arabs. So if I give
the same exact show to the same one thousand audience
members in the same theater and they are the same people,
same makeup of like Lebanese, Egyptian, Syrian, Saudis, English will

(01:46:57):
be a unifying language. Arab is a dividing language because
you have twenty two dialects and the dialects are vastly different,
And like maybe Egyptians understand a little bit of Libanese,
but not that much, but the reference is Algerber and Moroken, Tunisian,
totally different animal. That's like a totally different line Saudi
Amoraiti Kuwaiti, totally different. People understand the Egyptian dialect because

(01:47:18):
it's the dialect of most of the artwork and the movies,
but the reference in the everyday street talk might not
be understood by them. So now I have to go
in and talk to all of these dialects together. So
I formed my big big part of my show is like,
what are you guys expecting of this? This is what

(01:47:40):
this is. We're gonna when I go do profanity and
you're gonna like it. This is the problem with that.
The show as a dialect, and I construct all of
these sentences formed of so different different words. For example,
an iron in any in any in any the Arab
dialect is an iron in Saudi Arabia, it means ass.

(01:48:02):
That's one example. That's one example, you know, So imagine
if you can actually construct sentences having all of these
things and one so I would, I would construct like
a whole section of my show about that.

Speaker 2 (01:48:13):
So it's really very much about like self reflective on
language and the limits of language that is.

Speaker 1 (01:48:18):
Allowed and the limits of language. And I tell them
part of the show is like, I know, what's the
problem with me doing Arabic? Is like if this was
an English show and I was telling you fucking shit,
you'll be a haha. But if I do want swear wars,
all of you will scripch Yeah. It's like why is
is it because we are ashamed? So it's kind of
like it is. It's not just like about swearing, it's
about like there's a lot of philosophical pathways in this. Yeah,

(01:48:42):
there's profanity and we when people have fun whatever, but
like it is about like what does how do we
treat our language? And I tell them we speak Arabic
as Arabs, but it's not the same Arabic. It's crazy, right.

Speaker 2 (01:48:54):
And you're doing the show in America also, it's just
another level of.

Speaker 1 (01:48:57):
Oh yeah, actually the Arab the asper in America is
some of the best audiences I have. They are like
wonderful and they come from liches. And I did and
I do and I did it also in the Middle East,
and maybe I'll do like an Arab tour in the
Middle East in the fall.

Speaker 2 (01:49:12):
Which countries would you go to?

Speaker 1 (01:49:13):
And I worried Jordan, Libanon, I'm doing Uee, I'm doing Kuwait, Egypt, Bahrain, Egypt.
I don't think so, I don't think so.

Speaker 2 (01:49:23):
Is a personal is it worry about your safety?

Speaker 1 (01:49:29):
Well? I have the American citizenship right now, so I
am relatively safe. There's a block. Honestly, there's a block,
there's a person, there's there's there's so much that happened,
and I don't and I never, I know, never bad
mouth eachypt. This is my country. It is some like
it has all of my marriage, forty years of my
life I lived there. But when you get hurt so much,

(01:49:53):
instead of trying to kind of, I don't want to
take revenge, I don't want to like better. I just
want to avoid. Because Egypt gave me so much fame
and so much love and so much hate and so
much rejection. It is a very it was a very
tumulous relationship, very very difficult, and it's and a lot

(01:50:14):
of people tell me, well, don't you miss Egypt? And
I tell them every time. The Egypt that I miss
is not there anymore. It's not bad or good, it's
not worse or better. It's just I'm different, and the
places are different, and the people are different, and their
circumstances are different. Whatever image you had, you have of
what you love is not there anymore. That's why a
lot of immigrants, especially Arab immigrants, they live here, but

(01:50:35):
they're there, and then when you go back for a vacation,
they get disappointed because they didn't find what they want,
and then they come back here and they're disappointed because
this is what they want to come back, but it's
not there anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:50:47):
Yeah, their view of that place is from a different time.
I have that, you know, my parents, but everybody that
lost the Soviet Union. I mean, it's such a complicated
relationship with that. It's sometimes borders on hate disappointment in
the In the case of the Soviet Union, perhaps similar

(01:51:09):
to Egypt. Is the promises sold when you were younger,
and the promise is broken by the possibility of what
it was supposed to be. With the Soviet Union, I'm
sure with Egypt is the same. Iran is the same.
So they have a very complicated relationship with that.

Speaker 1 (01:51:26):
Yeah, this one like for them people from Iran. You know,
I remember I remember quite well the World Cup that
was made in the United States and the Iranian team
will play in America, and there were people people in
the audience, all wearing they hate the regime, but they
have this kind of connection with the country, and this

(01:51:46):
is this is the whole thing. You can actually love
the country and you don't have to agree with the regime.

Speaker 2 (01:51:52):
Would would uh would you ever perform in the West Bank?

Speaker 1 (01:51:57):
Because if I go there, I have to go to
the Israeli checkpoints, and I don't want to go through this.
I don't want to have an Israeli soldier telling me
what to do.

Speaker 2 (01:52:04):
Yeah, there's a demeaning aspect to that whole very even
even in subtle ways.

Speaker 1 (01:52:09):
Yeah. Yeah, I mean I have so many Palestinian friends
with an American passport, US pastor living here. They're born here,
and they talk about the humiliation and the intimidation and
the harassment that they go in. It's like, ah, do
you want me to try?

Speaker 2 (01:52:25):
Yeah, that little bit of a humiliation, a little bit,
sometimes it's major. But I know I noticed that, you know,
even a little bit as has a after a lifetime
of that, it can turn to it can turn to
hate towards the other. Yeah, and resentment, resentment, and then

(01:52:46):
how do you do anything with that resentment.

Speaker 1 (01:52:48):
I have a friend of mine, he is from Palestine,
from Lowestbec. He's American here, is born here, and we
talk about, you know, we have a cursol of this
discussion of what happened, and he tells me, you know,
in the October eleventh in the West Bank, and there
was a village called Costra, and on that village like

(01:53:10):
the settlers went in around the agin. They send the
message on Facebook as like you rats going out of
your sewers and we're going to be waiting for you.
Intimidations through technology, and then they went it is Costra
have like another settlement next to it called the Eshkodish
h Kodish. They have people there who were training something

(01:53:31):
called Mishmeriti Yisha, which is basically the Guardians of Yisha.
And it's like a paramilitary group that trains other settlers
on military compact, give them weapons and do like military drills.
And they went there like militarized and went there. And
it was actually co founded by a Jew from Brooklyn,

(01:53:53):
not even and and and in Israeli. And he is
like one of the disciples of Mayer Kahana. I'm sure
the you know what mahyer Kana is, who is the
Jewish defense lead the people who assassinated alex auDA here
in the United States. And they were there with their
weapons outside intimidating people. Now, this story carries everything that

(01:54:15):
is wrong with the situation. You have people from Brooklyn
from outside just because they're Jewish, they can't come and
they can't claim the land from the people there. Anybody
from Paul just because he's Jewish, you can come and
take the land from other people. They're using technology to
intimidate Palestinians. They have unchecked military power. These are not
ideaf soldiers. These are settlers and they have free reign

(01:54:35):
in order to intimidate and to kill the people. And
you understand, this is the daily life of Palestinians, not
in Gaza, in the West Bank.

Speaker 2 (01:54:43):
What do you do from your what do we do?
What do people do to nudge this towards peace, towards flourishing.

Speaker 1 (01:54:55):
Here's the thing I want to talk to the people
of Israel. What is Israel doing right now? Is not
just unfair to the Palestinians, It's unfair to the Jewish
people in Israel. No, it is unfair to the Jewish
people around the world because the way that Israel links
itself to the Jews, to ju Judaism. At a certain point,

(01:55:16):
I remember like Isis and Kaid and when everybody hit
it Muslims. You know, sometimes humans are simple. They cannot
have the nuances to separate. So anybody who with a
Muslim name, with a Muslim face, with a beard, who
looks Muslim, he would do it because of dead actions
of those atrocities. You have the power as a person
to separate yourself from an abuse of power, a horrible power,

(01:55:41):
and be yourself. I am really worried because the rise
of anti Semitism and the rise of hate against Jews
is not because of the Jews. It's because of the
actions of a government. Jews do not have to be
on the side of apartheid. Ronny Kestrils, he is a
Jewish South African and he shoulder to shoulder next to
Nelson Madela. He was part of the African National Conference Agency,

(01:56:06):
and he had an article said like, I know what
apartheid is and I saw Isral and this is what
they have and the thing is Israel that Israeli government
should listen to other people. You cannot call anybody who
criticized you either an antisemit or if they're already Jewish,
you call them like self hating jew. You cannot do that.
You cannot continue doing that because we did that. When

(01:56:28):
I would go in and criticize the Islam it's just like, oh,
you're self hating Muslim. You're not really Muslim, You're an
infant or secret you're a secular or whatever. We have
the power in order to reform the course by holding
people in power accountable. And I think is it is
very stupid to actually call this anti Semitism. And like

(01:56:49):
my idol is John Stewart. I voted for Bernice Andrews.
Sarah Taxler, the one who did this amazing documentary about
me tickling giants. She said she is married to an Israeli.
We have a good resue because we know what the
right is. They don't have to associate themselves with the
action of the Israelia.

Speaker 2 (01:57:09):
One of your favorite words, Gid.

Speaker 1 (01:57:13):
That's my favorite hobbies. It's his favorite hob it's it's
my shoes, Like what's your his favorite I talk about
like how when a white shooter does something, he talks
about all of his family and I always hope it's
like what if you do this was like for Arab
for for Arab Terris, what are his hobbies? She had
you see a comedian?

Speaker 2 (01:57:32):
Yeah, wow, it makes me feel good. Okay. Sam Harris
has done several episodes on Jihad and people should go
listen to it even if you disagree with it. But
the basic idea that he's proposing is that this idea
of GHD, in the negative connotation of it, of martyrdom,

(01:57:58):
is a thing that gets it counterproductive, is destructive to
the possible future flourishing of Palestinian people. What do you
think of that?

Speaker 1 (01:58:09):
That's just the idea. I totally agree. But like people
don't wake up in the morning you say, like I
wanted to clear you had think about it. Why would
anybody choose to end his life by taking other people
with him and in that life, his life must be miserable,
he must be pushed into that. Nobody chooses death over
life willingly. One of the first suicide bombers in the

(01:58:34):
Palestinian resistance were Christians. We don't talk about that.

Speaker 2 (01:58:40):
I think he would say that the presence of a
story that you can tell yourself when you're in a
really shitty place that you can go to a much
better place by sacrificing your own life. Just the fact
that the presence of that story is there is harmful.

Speaker 1 (01:58:57):
Of course, but these but he's my problem with Sam
Harris and usually people they have free range talking about
the Islamic faith and nitpicking the stuff that makes it
put in a in a a in a bad light.
I can go and nitpick every single religion. There are
Jews there like BEng Ha Fir who openly slave. Spitting

(01:59:18):
on Christians is not a hate speech, all right, they are.
I mean, you can bring me like all kinds of
videos of Islamic you had these saying horrible things on
the YouTube, and I can bring you Jews who live
there there, so like we're gonna have the whole world
enslaved for us, and everybody would love to be slaved
for the Jews, you know. I can use the Talmudic

(01:59:39):
argument that if you tie a man to a tree
and he dies of thirst and hunger, you didn't kill
that man. And this is kind of the same arguments,
like we're not getting fin it's just like kenning By
and they're dying by themselves, you know. So it is
the nitpicking of of a certain narrative, religious narrative that
is separate from the political context and what's happening right now.

(02:00:03):
It's very, very unfair because I can read if you
want to have a deep dive into religious texts, nobody
will be happy. And I can bring stuff from the
tell Mood and the and the Torah and stuff that
is horrible but like you know, this is a way
again of like distraction.

Speaker 2 (02:00:20):
I dare you to talk about Buddhism and Jainism.

Speaker 1 (02:00:22):
Though, try Well, you know the people who killed the
Muslims and melmar where they're we're in the Buddhists.

Speaker 4 (02:00:29):
Yeah, well let's go. Okay, I'll find get back to.

Speaker 1 (02:00:35):
The flying Monster. The Church of the must Spaghetti.

Speaker 2 (02:00:42):
As a person who tries not to eat carbs, I'm
deeply offended by that.

Speaker 1 (02:00:45):
I mean, they're scientologists. All they do is actually by
real estate.

Speaker 2 (02:00:51):
I think there's a few books written about the fact
that they do other stuff as well. So even there
Mormons sometimes there's some of the nicest people I've ever met,
But I'm sure there's also darkness there too. Oh boy, religion,
there's soaking in Mormons. There's what soaking? What's soaking?

Speaker 1 (02:01:13):
Okay, so I don't know how much so soaking. Basically,
like you if if you get into the woman and
you don't move, that's not adultrey, that's not like, oh.

Speaker 2 (02:01:25):
Interesting, so you go in and used to say there's
a loophole.

Speaker 1 (02:01:28):
The loophole. There's the thing of religious religion as a loophole. Yes,
and Muslims w do that the whole time. We can
choose our sins, the stuff that we enjoy.

Speaker 2 (02:01:37):
It's just we're healing seventy two versions waiting for all
of us.

Speaker 1 (02:01:41):
Maybe if I converted you as a Jew, I'll get
you eighty. I don't know, you know, like I can
negotiate that.

Speaker 2 (02:01:46):
But I also have questions about whether a very good
deal I'll give you.

Speaker 1 (02:01:49):
And maybe also there a CAMERI I have camera.

Speaker 4 (02:01:54):
It's pretty good.

Speaker 2 (02:01:55):
What year I don't know, nineteen ninety eight best year ever?
They last a long time. Yeah, so I'm not sure
I want seventy to.

Speaker 1 (02:02:05):
Through five in the mix. And yeah, can we if
you want to upgrade?

Speaker 4 (02:02:10):
Can we? Can we do a trial period?

Speaker 2 (02:02:13):
But in gener if you just zoom out, do you
think religion is in what way is it good for
the world? In what way is that harmful?

Speaker 1 (02:02:22):
If there was no religion, humans would have invented religion
because I think about think I think of like the
early humanity, like you're like a cave man or whatever,
and then like you see your family members killed and
then you say, like what I'm going to be like
the sheet or the gazelle that just like ends and perish.
I need to have. I am more important. I think
I think with the development of consciousness, humans like thought

(02:02:46):
that they are much more precious and important than the
other animals because they have now intelligence. So my life
will not end like that they will. My death would
be even more important. There's consequences for them. There's consults
for what I do. And then the early man who
was like, they're in the desert and all of these

(02:03:07):
like natural phenomena. They didn't know what to do. They
were afraid, So they need to have refuge. They need
to have something to take care of it. They need
to have a reason for everything, because if there's no reason,
it's chaos. It's chaos terrifying, it's terrifying, there's nothing there.
There has to be a reason. There has to be
a really, there has to be a purpose. It has
to be like a cause something. It's it's just I'm

(02:03:30):
not just gonna be like die like like a cockroach
being stepped on. And that's kind of like part of it.
This is ego.

Speaker 4 (02:03:36):
The whole world.

Speaker 2 (02:03:37):
The road tastes around you, you know.

Speaker 1 (02:03:39):
It's the the ego. So the religion actually got a
lot of it from humanity itself. Like me like us
being humans, and there's and and and many. Religion is
a collection of stories, and those stories based on things
that humans did themselves and they attributed to gods.

Speaker 2 (02:03:57):
And there's an aspect of religion where you hut yourself
before a thing that is much greater than you. So
that has a I would say, a very positive effect
of humbling.

Speaker 1 (02:04:08):
It will be great if you stop there. But here's
the thing. If you humble in order that your ego
kicks in and feel that you are better than someone
else who's not humbled in front of the same gut
go there. That means that I will have all that
train that I can use that because now what does
mean me humble? I'm divine, Yeah, but I'm way more

(02:04:29):
humble than you, but you're not. So you see how
they kind of like the oxymoron. I'm humble and I'm surrendering,
but in the same time, I am better than you
and I'm more entitled. Isn't it crazy?

Speaker 2 (02:04:38):
Yeah, it's beautiful. It's crazy.

Speaker 1 (02:04:41):
I mean, look at look look at like like the Muslim,
Christians and Jews and every like you say, all right, Muslims,
we surrendered. I'm talking about the extreme ones. I mean
like people like people, I surrendered to God. Good, keep
it that way. Like if you go there, I surrender
to God. That means that I am closer to God
than you than you should die. Okay, Chris christ is
love and he loves me and we're going to be together.

(02:05:04):
But you don't get into his condemn and you you
see it's the same thing. Yeah, it's just if you
stop it. Stop stop there, stop stop where you are
humble and you feel that you're a piece of fit
and you are worthless human being and you are there,
stop there. But once you says like, oh that makes
me a better person than you, and it makes me

(02:05:25):
more with God than you, So that would give me
the entitlement to kick your ass.

Speaker 4 (02:05:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:05:30):
We always ruin a good thing, don't we.

Speaker 4 (02:05:34):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (02:05:36):
You've been outspoken, you know with Pearis Morgan, but just
on this topic. And you talked about the Superman story,
which I would love it if you're in a Superman movie.

Speaker 1 (02:05:52):
But have you lost your opportunities because of this? I
there was other a couple of things that were going on,
but they stop again. I don't know if it's October seventh.

Speaker 2 (02:06:03):
The Superman stories, Yeah, yeah, what role were you Okay?

Speaker 1 (02:06:06):
What did you audition for? Yeah, it's okay. So in June,
I was traveling to Dubai and write. An hour before
I get into the car and go there, my marriage
is like best and we're gonna send you a script.

Speaker 2 (02:06:20):
Read it.

Speaker 1 (02:06:20):
It's for Superman. It's like, oh Superman. You know I
I'm not really good in auditions. I'm not an actress.
So I was like, okay, I'm just gonna do it.
Send the tape. I do that. They send it. I
go to the airport and I read and I think
I can talk about it now because they said they
change the script. So basically, what I found it interesting
in that new script is that there's like a dictator

(02:06:43):
in a country that invades another country and Superman interferes politically.
That's the first time we ever see Superman interfece politically.
So basically it was like Rushia and Ukraine. But because
of me, it was like it had it couldn't be
Russia and Ukraine, so it had to be something kind
of like with a flavor. So I read the role
as if as a mixture of Trump and Mobarak. I

(02:07:06):
did this make it, like, you know, like the kind
of the myths, but also like kind of like the
the the the essence of Trump into it. I went
to the airport. It's like an hour. It's like James
Gunn saw it. He loves you what. I never had
an audition that fast. I mean I had a few roles,
but not that fast, not like that. And then it's like, well,

(02:07:28):
the strike starts like tomorrow and we need to be
on the phone or but after the strike, we cannot
talk the sec after a strike, like where the writers
and the actors strike, So like, well, I'm gonna be
on a plane right now. It's like once you land,
you can have a zoom call with Jim's gun. I
have a call with James gun He's I'm a huge
fan of him. The guy took like something the Guardian
of the Galaxy, nobody knew about it, made amazing trilogy

(02:07:50):
and he is like a really cool guy. I like
what he did. And it was like really nice. And
he started to talk to me about the movie, and
you know, like I talked to people before casting them,
so I know that everybody is an on set have
a good chemistry. It was amazing. So in your mind,
if you're an actor, what does that mean? You got
the part? And he told me you got the part.

(02:08:12):
A month goes by, strike goes by, October seven happens.
I do Peters Morgan one and two, and then I
go to my Australian tour. My manager called me that
circles over. It's like, you don't have the part anymore.
I was sad, very sad, but for three days and
said like I need to stam up with it. I'm
actually doing very well. I'm du la. And then when

(02:08:38):
I went to Chris Como, I after I finished the show,
he told me, did you lose any opportunities? And that
was off record. After the show was like we concluded,
and I said, I talked about Superman and I found
myself when I was talking, I was angry. I was bitter,

(02:08:59):
and I went almost like why was I angry? Why
was I bitter? It wasn't meant to be And I'm
living a good life now. I don't need so. When
I was asked again the next day in two different
interviews the BBC another and another one was alone with
my friend, you know, with a I said the story
in a different way. I said, I don't have any

(02:09:20):
anger as a matter of fact, maybe if I was
Wonder Brothers, I didn't talk about Jim's Gunn. I thought
it was the studio. If I was Wonder Brothers and
I'm a Muslim, I wouldn't have like a Zionist for
prose Ali in my movie. But I want to tell
them that, like when I criticize Israel, I am not
a threat to you as a Jew, and we can
actually have more in comments. I was more of a
kind of empathic. So when I said that, the internet

(02:09:43):
went crazy and you know, Jim's Gunn have haters because
you know the the Snyder verse and all of this
that it's it's it's a word that I don't understand.
And James Gunn, like I had all of these attacks
on him, and I was pissed off how it was handled.
I wasn't angry at Jam's gun but I thought it
was so my public system manages like Bessie, stay calm,

(02:10:07):
don't speak. It's better like to like not talk about it.
I said, okay, so as there's nothing wrong about me,
but I see the heat is rising against Dreams Gun
and that is a guy that I had a personal
connection even through Zoom, and I didn't like what was happening.
And then he called me and he explained to me,
as I best him, you know, I actually use like
have camera tests before people before. Finally I didn't know that,

(02:10:31):
and I and then we change the script and it
was the strike. So I didn't call. And I also
I thought to myself, I'm small, I'm a small actor.
I'm not that important for him to call me to
say we're gonna change the script. So I still think that,
like the timing sucks and everything. But then I went
and I did a video explaining exactly what I'm telling you,
because I didn't want to be famous for the wrong

(02:10:52):
reasons because that would be unfair because that was there already.
People work and I was having like interviews. Can you
come about to someone's like, that's it. I'm not gonna
talk about it because this is an issue, and I did.
I didn't, and I when I talked to James on
the phone, I felt how sincere he was. So I
didn't want someone to because of me, will have that

(02:11:13):
kind of attack, because I know what it means to
be on the other side of that kind of attack.
It's terrible and it ruins your life and it runs
your day and nobody deserves to be doing it, And
I don't want to be the reason for someone else
to go through that pain.

Speaker 2 (02:11:25):
And you also said that you don't want to be
a victim.

Speaker 1 (02:11:27):
I don't want to be. I'm doing it great. I'm
doing great. I'm setting out everywhere, I'm having a wonderful
loyal audience is coming to me. Whoy I would be
angry about the role of its Superman. Yes, it's great
to be in a superhero movies, but so what you know?

Speaker 4 (02:11:41):
But you know, there's.

Speaker 2 (02:11:43):
There's a wisdom in that even if you weren't doing great.
That's a choice a lot of people can come to,
which is like do I play victim here or not?

Speaker 1 (02:11:53):
It's great, it's great. They want more attention, they want
to be more into the thing. They want more and more,
and there is so much to go around to be
enough for all of us. But it is great. It
is ego, ego, ego, ego. I need to be in
the center. I need to be victimized. I need I
need to be people feel sorry for me and love me.

(02:12:15):
And it is not the right way. It's not because
it is fake. It is fake. It's made up, and
I did not victimize myself when I left for Egypt.
I mean in the time that I was and now
I speak about it now, But in that dark times,
I was detained in airports. I didn't have my American
passport yet. I was still traveling with my Egyptian parson,
and I was detained in an Arab airport and I

(02:12:37):
was going to be delivered to the Egyptians. I had
shows when I was still starting. I had hecklers being
sent to me by the Egyptian embassy and the Egyptian
Council in New York and in London to curse me
and to take videos of that and then send it
to state run media in Egypt. And I didn't speak
about that because I felt that, like, if I speak

(02:12:57):
about that I feel about what was going on to me,
I would be victimizing. It's like, if I'm going to
be good, I'm gonna be good because of what I do,
not because of what people's perception of what I'm going through.

Speaker 2 (02:13:06):
Yeah, and that becomes a slippery slope, and somehow victimizing yourself.

Speaker 1 (02:13:10):
Goes to more victimizing, Yeah, And then you cannot leave
that habit. You can only exist and thrive if people
feel sorry for you.

Speaker 2 (02:13:18):
Yeah, I mean Israel and Palastime currently both have that temptation.

Speaker 1 (02:13:25):
I would always push back when you do the comparison
because one of them is not really the same kind
of power. I mean, yeah, for you, very easy to
say why Pilot will victimize themselves, But Israel with all
of that military right, man, it's too much. What Israel
is doing is that they're victimizing the Jewish experience. And

(02:13:46):
I don't think a lot of other and I don't
think it is fair for a lot of Jews. I
don't think that they should use the Holocaust and the
persecution that happened to Jewish people all through history in
order to push an equal oppressive agenda. That is not
fair and it's not good for the Jewish people living.
And it is basically a disrespect to the memory of

(02:14:08):
the Holocaust. I told you I want to make a
movie about the Holocaust. I do because what happened was
that kind of engineer torture should never happen again, and
it should not be happening now.

Speaker 2 (02:14:20):
So to you, what Israel is doing is leading to
more anti Semitism in the world.

Speaker 1 (02:14:24):
And I think and can I be a conspiracy theorist
for a second, please, all part of me thinking maybe
they are doing that intentionally, because if there's a rise
of Antisituenes and Jews, there will always like points like, see,
they hate us, so we can do whatever we want
because if because because you see, if we let go

(02:14:45):
of our might and our strength, we're going to go
back to the concentration camps because you see how the
world hates you.

Speaker 2 (02:14:53):
And again when you say they.

Speaker 1 (02:14:54):
Are people in power, yeah, oh yeah, absolutely, Listen, it's
always the people in power. I believe that humans are
easily corruptible and easily repairable. But the corrupt, corruptive part
is much easier. But you you, people could change. But power,
people in power are very dangerous, very very dangerous, especially

(02:15:16):
if you have religion which is powered by itself, military might,
political support, and money. Dude, that's the that's a very
very very dangerous recipe.

Speaker 4 (02:15:28):
That you know.

Speaker 2 (02:15:29):
All that said, I do believe in the power of
the little guy, the individual to overthrow the government. You know,
I don't know if you heard, but the Arab spring,
you know happens.

Speaker 1 (02:15:38):
But but but but okay, here we're we're here just
among friends, we are Americans, right, We're Americans. We're Americans.

Speaker 2 (02:15:48):
And how funny is that, like just giving our two
backgrounds we're Americans is like, we're Americans.

Speaker 1 (02:16:00):
There's one thing about like the power of the little
guy that I am very sad about, because you see,
I love America, by the way, I consider it my
new home, and I want my kids to grow up here.
I'm very grateful for the opportunity that I have in
the United States, and I criticize the United States politics,

(02:16:21):
and I criticize it out of love, the same way
that I was criticizing what's happening of Egypt out of love.
What is worrying for me is how the power of
the little man is diminishing. It doesn't matter now who
do you vote into power. They will not listen to you.
They would listen to the people who paid them to

(02:16:42):
be there. And it is very concerning because I can
see the American democracies turning, not even slowly, very rapidly
into an oligarchy. If I'm sure that all of the
millions of people who are voting, they don't vote for
the NRA, they don't vote for APEX, they don't vote
for the pharmaceutical companies. They don't vote for the military

(02:17:05):
industry complex. And yet the people in power they come in,
they take your vote and my vote, and they are
loyal to those people, not to us. And it is
very very very concerning, very concerning, and it is this
is the danger of American on American policies, American politics,

(02:17:26):
and American democracies. It is dangerous because basically the vote
becomes just like a ceremony that that that someone with
the more like funding will get to power, and then
he's not loyal to you.

Speaker 2 (02:17:41):
So the fire, I mean, we are in Texas. Everybody's
armed to the teeth here.

Speaker 1 (02:17:47):
Yeah, but like, what are these aren't going to do
in front of tanks?

Speaker 2 (02:17:51):
Well, you said, the American military is unique in this way.
I know, but for now, for now, the tanks. From
first of all, I believe Russia has more tanks than
the United States tanks. I don't know, you know, I'm
not an expert in military strategic deployment of arms, but
the United States uses different kinds of weapons.

Speaker 1 (02:18:13):
They have drones, and they have the lasers, and they
have there sitting comfortably behind the screens. It's kind of
like it turns like a big Xbox game.

Speaker 2 (02:18:20):
Yeah, and they saw a lot of those things.

Speaker 1 (02:18:23):
To everybody, it's crazy because the defense budget is sixty
eight percent of American military. It's like almost eight hundred
and fifty billion dollars each year, and most of that
weapons we don't even need it, We just do it
because of the contracts. There was like an incredible sixty minutes.

(02:18:44):
I'm sure that you saw it, the one about like
the gouging of the prices of the Department of this
It was one of the most fascinating things that I've
ever seen. They say, like a valve, a a safety
oil valve that used to be sold for three hundred
and twenty nine dollars. Now it is sold for nine
thousand dollars. Why because there is only five weapon companies
and they can control the prices. And in two thousand

(02:19:05):
and six, the whole Apache fleet over the American Army
in Iraq was grounded because there's one valve that they
were like gouging the price and didn't want to give them.
The Stinger missile that's just like the missile that the
one that you carry, and it's like the anti aircraft
I choose to be sold for twenty five thousand dollars.
Now it's sold for four hundred thousand dollars and nobody

(02:19:28):
is doing that, you know, guires because the God has
fired one hundred and thirty thousand people, including engineers and negotiators.
So now in order to cut expenses, now we're paying
more money. And the thing is, we do not have
a say in this. We don't have a say and
how my tax money and your tax money is being spent.
Because I'm sure we don't want your money to be

(02:19:48):
sent to Israel like that. I'm sure even if you
choose I'm sure. I'm sure that, Like I don't want
my money to be given to some Muslim countries who
kill other Muslims. I'm sure, But it is, it is not.
Here's the thing. What kind of power do we have
other than speaking? So what is left for us is
free speech? And now when you speak, they call you
anti Semitic. You see why I'm angry.

Speaker 2 (02:20:10):
But still, I mean, America is holding pretty strong despite
the criticisms on the free speech front. But if you
look at the free free, freedom of the press, freedom
of the speech, and that's America is not at the top.

Speaker 1 (02:20:23):
It is not. And this is why, for example, it
is very disheartened for me to see that the Western media,
western press that used to be the beacon of freedom
as I'm using as mouthpieces. And it is funny how
the New York Times. Nixon got angry in the New
York Times in nineteen seventy one when they found leaks

(02:20:46):
about him lying about the Vietnam War since the beginning.
And now he hired the plumbers, you know, especially Unit
in orders to go in and find the leaks. This
was Watergate basically because he was angry to see who
leaked that instead of seemed the problem. Now the New
York Times have published the story about the rape that
was a hoax that was written by Anna Schwartz, who

(02:21:07):
someone will have no experience, And now when it was leaked,
instead of them correcting themselves, they went in and they
had their own investigation to see who leaked. The New
York Times in two thousand and three became the mouthpiece
of George W. Bush of the WMD. And now as
an American, I see that the New York Times becoming
a mouthpiece of a foreign country. Why do you do that?

Speaker 2 (02:21:28):
One of the things that's really difficult to know is
where to find the truth. It does seem that both
sides is propaganda and both sides lie a lot. But
both sides as in both Israel and passive propials time
pro Israel, there's a lot of lies, I.

Speaker 1 (02:21:45):
Know, but I think you're it's a lot of inequality man.
You like, there's like a lot of people on the internet,
but like, who have the mainstream media siding with? Yeah,
but you know, thanks, and I'm okay, yes, thank god
for social media because now it's individuals. There are people, Yes,
they're people. You're you're comparing BBC, New York Times, Washington

(02:22:09):
Post worship genre with just people with the TikTok account.

Speaker 2 (02:22:13):
Yeah, you can get more power now.

Speaker 1 (02:22:15):
It is actually very very fascinating to see the little
man having that power over the media. And because you
speak portionally, so like, hey, this is that's not But
you cannot call people with TikTok propagandists while people being
paid to give you the news and they deliberately lie
to you. Yes, a cad and they're both propagandas probact. Okay, yes, yes,

(02:22:36):
but like but the mechanism and the intentions are different
because because here's the thing, I'd rather have the TikTok
if like the TikTok is a TikTok guy, all right,
But if you have the New York Times being told
that they're being exposed to be lying, and then they
get this like you and report, which is like a disgrace,

(02:22:57):
and you just put the title and you don't talk
about it, like I'm fine with CNN and Jack Tapper
and all of those people like spreading the rape allegations
for years. They didn't I don't even want them to refute.
I want them to bring the Israeli reports saying that
they didn't happen, the ismedia. They didn't even bother, not once.
Is that balanced? That's not So that's why people in

(02:23:20):
TikTok and because they have to take matters on their
own hand. Yeah, but the.

Speaker 2 (02:23:24):
Problem with the people on TikTok is the drug, the
dopeymine rush of getting a lot of likes. So instead
of talking about the death of civilians, they will talk
about behind of babies or the equivalent. Yeah, they're they're
going to actually make up stories because the made up
stories are going to be more viral. And so now
we're just in a scene a smuck of lies.

Speaker 1 (02:23:45):
And there's a lot of people who actually expose their
lives on TikTok. So you have both. You have both,
and it's kind of like the democracy of the social media,
as we almost call it. But if you have the
street run media, that is the legacy media scene, n BBC,
New York Times, fuck News, all of those people, and
they are like spreading lives and they're not even doing
their journalistic job in order to at least bring the

(02:24:06):
other side.

Speaker 2 (02:24:07):
Yeah, that's problematic, and that's that's worse. You're supposed to
be journalists.

Speaker 1 (02:24:11):
Yes, it's supposed to be report, report, report.

Speaker 2 (02:24:16):
Yeah, but you know, I see that this is like
a catalyst, an inspiration for the citizen journalists to rise up.

Speaker 1 (02:24:24):
This is what you're doing. Oh this, yeah, this is
what you're doing. No, this is what you're doing because
you go into a deep dive. This is like like
a no filter thing. There's no spin.

Speaker 2 (02:24:32):
The long form, long form is gonna save us.

Speaker 1 (02:24:37):
I see why you hate the ticts like a dupamine rush.
You know, five hours later, I assume the resentment in
your face.

Speaker 2 (02:24:46):
I can't can't look away for like like those like
thirty seconds I do four hours. I mean, both have
a place, both are exciting, you know, but I can't.
It is very dangerous, like you can't look away, and
I almost never Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I
almost never feel better ever after having used.

Speaker 1 (02:25:07):
TikTok mixed two of us. I can't, I cannot, I cannot.
I have a team, by the way, I give my
my my my passport to like a team. I don't
even go there because I went. I once in a
dark night, very late at night, I went TikTok, and
it was like two hours. What yeah, what I said? No, no, no, no,

(02:25:30):
this is dangerous. I'm really like an Instagram and Facebook. Guy,
I don't need that even and I barely get out
of Twitter. I mean like X, I don't, I can't.
X is a cess pool X. It's just like the
concentrated hate and X too much, too much.

Speaker 2 (02:25:46):
I can't. So you don't check it at all. You
try not to check it at all. It is very intense.

Speaker 1 (02:25:50):
I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I can't.

Speaker 2 (02:25:52):
I can't.

Speaker 1 (02:25:52):
I just like I post something and I run post
and ghosts.

Speaker 2 (02:25:59):
Uh, so you're you're doing comedy here in the United
States right now. Joe Rogan has the Comedy Mothership, which
is an incredible club. Have you considered doing that club?

Speaker 1 (02:26:08):
I would like to. I mean, I do you know Joe?
Of course, who doesn't Joe.

Speaker 2 (02:26:13):
I feel like it's a small world of comedy. That's
why I know.

Speaker 1 (02:26:17):
I think like Joe. Joe's story was like what he
did and stuff that he thought that in the UFC
and his podcast, and it just it's it's very impressive.
The fact that he's there and he's bringing all of
those people, whether in comedy or his podcast, is very impressive.
And this is what this is what is the media

(02:26:37):
is all about. What is like the internet is all
about to give you the experiences of stuff that you
might never experience. And that's very important. I mean, you
do it with people with like you go into their brains.
He goes take people and they take their experiences and
the and and their lives and their stories. It's very interesting.
And this is the beauty of that art form because

(02:26:59):
you have all of these experiences at the tips of
your hands and it's there for you to learn from,
you know, and what he's doing, like and when he
moved to Texas and we did the Comedy Mothership. Anybody
who would like push comedy forward. That is the most
difficult art form and the most demanding And the fact
that you do that and he might not even be

(02:27:20):
making money out of it, but he's doing that because
of his passion that is enough.

Speaker 2 (02:27:24):
Yeah, he's he's he really believes in creating this like
place where comedians could be really free. And one of
the cool things about the Comedy Mothership is like comedian
is king there.

Speaker 1 (02:27:36):
Yeah, like there, we have to like you have to
bow down to the because you know, the comedian who
came there came after like eating ship out there everywhere else.
If you you have basically you're a saint. I have
eaten ship from now I'm gonna give your ship.

Speaker 2 (02:27:57):
It's great. You already told me what you think about
the state of politics in the United States, But now
tell me what you really think. What do you think
of the choice of Trump versus Biden? How do I
end up here?

Speaker 1 (02:28:08):
I don't know, man. I mean like the fact that
like you have two people over the age of ninety.

Speaker 2 (02:28:13):
Yeah it is. I think it's over one hundred.

Speaker 1 (02:28:15):
But that's alright, it's combined like seventy it is so sad.
It is so sad that this is what we can
produces as a society, like like a demagogue and a
sleepy Joe idea. He's too He's not there, man, He's gone.

(02:28:35):
He's gone.

Speaker 2 (02:28:36):
I mean.

Speaker 1 (02:28:40):
He could you know, like when old people could be
like a danger for themselves. He's a danger for the
whole world. I mean, like the whole world. Like if
if an old person would die, who would, like you know,
have like a hip replacement we can need them at
and like a new planet because of one decision. It's
but it's not just that. It's not that, it's what

(02:29:01):
are When I came here, listen, I am, I'm I'm
a Democrat. I al was like, and I told you,
like I vote for Bernice Anders I like, I supported
them like twenty sixteen, but I couldn't vote then. And
of course a huge fan of Obama. And one of
my things was just like he's the first Muslim president,
like but he killed Muslims, Like that's things Muslims do.

Speaker 2 (02:29:22):
But anyways, I love that.

Speaker 1 (02:29:25):
Lie and it's just I think the whole idea, Like
my shock is I told you about like what Biden
said about like I'm a Zionists. Okay, you're a science
but then like Jews are not safe in anywhere other news, Like, dude,
what the hell are you saying? And if you don't

(02:29:46):
care about me and I don't care about my misery,
why would I care about you winning or losing? You know?
And I have a joke that I told people, like,
why would even Biden listen to us? He just trad
one hundred and forty five million dollars in California alone
from pro Israeli groups. I mean, what can we Arabs

(02:30:09):
working in the vague business do to him. It's like
we cannot compete with that. I mean, like practically, I
mean it's like life is like life is unfair. The
guy is a politician. He needs bills to pay, he
needs a campaign to run, He needs money. He will
go to the people who will give him money. Joe
Biden is the highest paid politician from Israel lobby is

(02:30:31):
four point six million dollars over the years.

Speaker 2 (02:30:35):
Yeah, but I also believe in great leaders that go
against all that. But unfortunately, you know, Bernie Sanders was
like that. Bernie Sanders, Yes, but also age, I don't
want to be ages. Of course, no, even with like
because I remember listening to Bernie Sanders twenty years ago
on Tom Hartman Show, and I don't want to say

(02:30:56):
anything against Bernie, but like he was then. Of course
there's a thing with age.

Speaker 1 (02:31:02):
Of course. Now I think I'm a huge fan about
like putting a limit on your working years because you
don't want to have like a Mitch MCCONNM moment every now,
because now the whole thing is like what is this?
Is this not like a a housepicecare home. It's just
it is unfair. It is unfair, and that the whole
idea that you have like underlivered, like you have a
limit for the present, but you don't have limits for

(02:31:24):
congress people and senators. That's what you mean. This is
basically you can go in and and be in governance
for forever. And you know, the longer that you can get,
the more corrupt you will get. Yes, and that is
very concerning for Americans.

Speaker 2 (02:31:39):
Everybody everybody becomes corrupt after I mean, that's why two
terms is a good limit for everybody. Yeah, and you
know maybe half a term for Egyptian leaders, well, you
know our half term is fifteen years quart a term.
You should come back and run for for office there.

Speaker 1 (02:32:01):
Oh my god, no, no, there's a curse in Egyptian
of Egyptian presidency. Nobody nobody comes there. Like it's not
dead or in jail. Yeah, it's it's not the most
appealing job.

Speaker 2 (02:32:13):
They might make a statue, you know, make you look good.

Speaker 1 (02:32:16):
After my death. I look look very good dead.

Speaker 2 (02:32:23):
Yeah, when you look at what happened with Navalny, since
you kind of really thought about this in Egypt, what
happened with Navarne in Russia? What do you think about that?

Speaker 1 (02:32:38):
Yeah, but what happened in Vali in Russia is not
something new in Russia. I mean, Putin have like this
whole history of poisoning and killing people, and it's kind
of like pretty much he's I would have to cite
credit Putin. He's like bringing us the essence of the
Dark Ages, the Middle Ages. It's like, you know, you know,
like basically Putin is like is the living example of

(02:32:59):
what happened if Game of Thrones with reality, it's like
death by poison, like a blow up a plane. It's
like mysteriously disappears. It is so it is it is
very dark, but it's like wow, it's like it's it's
it's a it's a it's a television show.

Speaker 2 (02:33:20):
Maybe that's what attracts us to that part of the world,
is that it's so much on display, this game of.

Speaker 1 (02:33:27):
Of power, of geopolitics, of war. No, but the same
happens in the West. But I'm behind closed doors. It's
not that open. It's it's it's not it's not that pronounced,
you know, it's like oops Epstein.

Speaker 4 (02:33:44):
It's like.

Speaker 1 (02:33:46):
We're just like I think. I think because of the
West is more advanced, like in movies and cinemas, we
kind of directed better. Yeah, and I think I think
the outcomes, like the way that you kind of like
said the scenes, like scene and scene.

Speaker 2 (02:33:58):
That's why people are all like landing on the moon
and they're like, yeah, I get it, but yeah, we
haven't gone back.

Speaker 1 (02:34:08):
There's the flat.

Speaker 2 (02:34:12):
All right, if we zoom out. Do you think there
will always be war in the world, you always be suffering?

Speaker 1 (02:34:18):
Yes, yeah, But here's the thing. I don't think for long.
I don't think that could happen for them. Wait a minute, yeah, yeah,
because here's the thing. Humanity is destined to have war,
especially it will have war. But something happened in the
last fifty years we have had. Now we have much
more lethal weapons. The problem is the beginning. It's like

(02:34:43):
swords against words, horses, cavalry, like cannons, catapults minimicized. But
now you like, we're like like a press of a button,
you can annihilate the whole planet. And this is the problem.
Wars will all continue. The problem is when it's going
to be the tipping point where we are actually going
to destroy ourselves. And it is so easy now to

(02:35:04):
destroy ourselves. The amount of weapons and the quality of
weapons that we have. It is designed to kill more
effectively more. It It is crazy. It's like we can
create our own destruction on ourselves, and I think we're
not that far away from it just looking.

Speaker 2 (02:35:19):
At nuclear weapons. The fascinating thing about nuclear weapons that
have gotten to learn recently just how few people are
involved in a full on nuclear war that kills basically
kills everybody, well three plus billion people right away.

Speaker 1 (02:35:39):
And the consequences of the nuclear winter. It's unlivable.

Speaker 2 (02:35:44):
But all it takes is I mean, one president can
do it. So it could be even a false alarm misunderstanding.

Speaker 1 (02:35:52):
Like what happened in the Cuba missile crisis.

Speaker 2 (02:35:55):
But again and now there's more nations are prepared and
ready to launch.

Speaker 1 (02:36:04):
Yeah, and you have a media and a twenty four
hours kind of like thing that makes you like at
edge the whole time. That's crazy.

Speaker 2 (02:36:13):
There's a dark perspective on this where there's certain members
of the media that would kind of enjoy the prospect
of nuclear war like a little bit, just let's get
as close to it as possible.

Speaker 1 (02:36:26):
You have another factor that will contribute to that religion.
And remember how like the radical Islamis talk about like
the end of time and whatever, but like most of
the Islamic can don't have that much power. Problem is
with Christian Zionists now being on the top of the
world with America, they have been pushing for that kind

(02:36:47):
of conflict to kind of escalate, escalate. Listen to Sarah
Palin's like God Wants Us here like girdled Row of
all of the new cons the dispensation is Dragan. It's
an incredible book called like Forcing the Hands of Gods.
Oh beautiful book. I read. It's like it's published nineteen
ninety eight, but it still matters today. The whole idea

(02:37:08):
about like especially the designers, Christians who love Israel but
they hate the Jews. They're anti Semite, but they love
Israel because of its roule. This is all basically formed
because of the interpretation of the Bible of Schofield and
how they talk about the end of time, then Armargeddon
and then the laid great planet Earth and then left
behind Siries and all of that. It's all about like

(02:37:28):
we're heading to armageddon. And the problem is Islam has
there people that believe that the end of time, and
then we have the Christians that believe in the end
of time, and then you have Israel happy that those
people are using it for the end of time. And
then the whole idea about them pushing as many weapons
and troops and people in the Middle East to be
there for the nuclear holocaust. And John Hagey, one of

(02:37:50):
the of the pastors, talk about that about the primstones
and it's not gonna be a nuclear holocaust all that people.
It's crazy how people are so despising life that they
are wanting death. So now you have you al would
have Jesus revelations, But these revelations mean nothing if you
don't have an effective weapon in order to make it happen.
And this is the crazy thing. And I'm worried that

(02:38:12):
that the end is going to be by someone that
wants to meet God a little bit earlier.

Speaker 2 (02:38:19):
Uh, somebody who's really in a hurry. Hmm, Well, I
have good news for you. Maybe will become a multiplanetary species.

Speaker 1 (02:38:28):
Maybe Ellen Musk will will lead the way to get
out in space.

Speaker 2 (02:38:39):
I asked you offline to not mention the lizard people.

Speaker 4 (02:38:44):
They are.

Speaker 1 (02:38:44):
There's like a whole people that believe in the lizard people.
It's great.

Speaker 2 (02:38:48):
I actually actually have to be honest, I haven't fully
looked into the lizard people. I probably should should. Yeah, well,
maybe I'm afraid of the truth.

Speaker 1 (02:38:58):
And then and then and then by moving my face down.

Speaker 2 (02:39:07):
I mean, what so let's say, let's say you're wrong
about the end of the world and and we it
all turns out great and humanity flourishes. Why would that happen?
What what gives you hope for that trajectory for humanity?

Speaker 1 (02:39:26):
Younger people, the people. Yeah, there is a lot of
like cole ship there.

Speaker 2 (02:39:35):
You know, after you're saying this, people just keep saying
you taktalk videos these younger people.

Speaker 1 (02:39:43):
This woman showing your boobs that that woman.

Speaker 2 (02:39:48):
All right, awesome, thank you.

Speaker 1 (02:39:50):
No, there's like I think, uh, there is a wealth
of it. You know, remember like the joke that said,
like we thought that like when we have Internet, we're
gonna have like be more you know, more informed, And
now we're watching twerque individus and that is true. But
on the other side, the fact that you have the

(02:40:10):
availability of information, I'm learning a lot and there's people
who are using that platform from that. It's not the
majority because you know, it's not very interesting and exciting,
but I think there is there might be a tipping
point where there's enough people that would be aware and
maybe they would collectively do something in order to bring

(02:40:34):
back the power to the small man. And maybe it
sounds very naive, maybe it's fine, but we don't know.
We don't know because you have already seen the legacy
media and the legacy politicians shaking in the past few months.

Speaker 2 (02:40:48):
They're getting nervous, they're.

Speaker 1 (02:40:49):
Getting nervous because people are calling them out. And those
people we are like hiding behind their desks, behind in
their offices and not like not holding out for that,
but like people now are calling them out and it's
not gonna happen like this year or next year, but
I think it's something.

Speaker 2 (02:41:02):
What advice would you give to those young folks.

Speaker 1 (02:41:03):
I will never give advice to those people.

Speaker 4 (02:41:09):
I will never.

Speaker 1 (02:41:09):
I will never because like their input is different than mine.
But like, there's there's one thing I learned when people
sawd me did the revolution fail in Agypt? Did people
that the people are like listen to the revolution is
not an event. It's not like hey, we go in
with top of the government. It's not und revolution. A
revolution is a process, is a very long process. And
maybe that process. I mean as much as we don't
like what happened in the Arab word, but the people there,

(02:41:31):
the awareness that happened, and the discussions that have been
opened that were you didn't even imagine what happened in
the Middle East is happening, and maybe the beginning of
any any hope of change is that people start talking,
speaking out, talking about stuff they were not allowed to
speak about, like, for example, Israel.

Speaker 2 (02:41:54):
The revolution continues. Yes, Boston, you're you're a beautiful human being.
It is truly a pleasure and honor to meet you.
I could just feel the love radiating from you. I
hope I get to see your perform live. I hope
to get to see you many more times. Thank you
for being who you are.

Speaker 1 (02:42:11):
Thank you so much, and I would love to invite
you for my new special Islam When that's.

Speaker 4 (02:42:18):
That would be the title of ATI.

Speaker 1 (02:42:21):
Thank you so much, Thank you brother.

Speaker 2 (02:42:23):
Thanks for listening to this conversation with bossome YOUSEF. To
support this podcast, please check out our sponsors in the description.
And now let me leave you some words from John Stewart.
The press can hold this magnifying glass op to our problems,
bringing them into focus illuminating issues heretofore unseen. Or they

(02:42:45):
can use that magnifying glass to light ants on fire
and then perhaps host a week of shows on the sudden, unexpected,
dangerous flaming ant epidemic. If we amplify everything, we hear nothing.
Thank you for listening and hope to see you next time.