AI transcript
0:00:00 The following is a conversation with Bassem Yusef, a legendary Egyptian American comedian,
0:00:05 the so-called John Stuart of the Middle East, who fearlessly satirized those in power,
0:00:12 even when his job and life were on the line. Bassem is a beautiful human being. It was truly a
0:00:19 pleasure for me to get to know him and to have this fun, fascinating, and challenging conversation.
0:00:28 And now a quick few second mention of his sponsor. Check them out in the description.
0:00:32 It is the best way to support this podcast. We’ve got AG1 for health, Shopify for shopping,
0:00:38 ASleep for naps, and Element for electrolytes. Choose wisely, my friends. Also, if you want
0:00:45 to get in touch with me or maybe work with our amazing team, go to lexfreedman.com/contact.
0:00:51 And now on to the full ad reads. As always, no ads in the middle. I try to make these
0:00:57 interesting, but if you skip them, please still check out our sponsors. I enjoy their stuff.
0:01:02 Maybe you will too. This episode is brought to you by AG1 and all in one daily drink to support
0:01:09 better health and peak performance. I got hit pretty hard today by allergies. And I’m just
0:01:17 in this place where nothing makes any sense. Nose is running, scratchy, throw all that kind of stuff.
0:01:27 Just a mess. Just a beautiful, wonderful mess that makes me appreciate all the other days
0:01:31 when such things have not felt. That’s what I hear from people who suffer from migraines,
0:01:37 that chronic migraines are so terrible that they make you intensely hate when the migraines go
0:01:46 down and intensely love when it’s not. Every time anything goes wrong, it’s a great chance to celebrate
0:01:53 all the times when stuff didn’t go wrong. But I say all that because I just drank AG1 and it gave
0:01:59 me this little drop of happiness that I can cling to as I proceed to try to work through the day
0:02:06 even though I feel like crap. And if you want to not feel like crap, try AG1. They’ll give you
0:02:12 one month supply of fish oil when you sign up at drinkag1.com/lex. This episode is also brought
0:02:19 to you by Shopify, a platform designed for anyone to sell anywhere with a great looking
0:02:24 online store. I used it at lexframing.com/store to put up some shirts. I should be probably putting
0:02:31 up a bunch of other shirts. I’m a big fan of being a fan, a big fan of podcasts, of bands,
0:02:39 of shows, of movies, of specific concerts. I still have a Metallica, I have a few Metallica
0:02:46 shirts. But anyway, I’m a big fan of celebrating and wearing your celebration of others on your
0:02:51 shirt. It’s like a great way to start conversation. So I love it. I also love wearing just a black
0:02:57 shirt, but a little variety is good for the soul. So if you want to inject a little bit of variety
0:03:02 into the metaverse of the internet by selling whatever stuff you want to sell, I suggest you
0:03:10 sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com/lex. That’s all lowercase, go to
0:03:17 Shopify.com/lex to take your business to the next level today. This episode is also brought
0:03:23 to you by Eight Sleep. It cools or heats up each side of the bed separately. It’s like a little
0:03:29 piece of heaven, cold bed surface with a warm blanket, whether I’m doing like a 10 or 20 minute
0:03:38 nap or I’m doing a phone night sleep. It’s just an incredible experience. Sleep is such an important
0:03:45 component of life, not just for your health, sort of from a physiological, neurobiological
0:03:52 perspective, but from a spiritual perspective. Wherever this need for sleep comes from, I think
0:04:00 of sleep as a kind of celebration of our connection to nature. It’s a mini-death, but
0:04:07 the beautiful version of that, especially when you dream, you travel to some place
0:04:11 where your mind is reconfiguring itself to try to make sense of the world, to try to put together
0:04:17 the puzzle in the most hallucinogenic way possible before you get to return to the real
0:04:24 world where everything makes a little bit more sense. Like Alice in Wonderland, but it’s Lex in
0:04:30 Wonderland, in Eight Sleep Wonderland. Check them out and get special savings when you go to eightsleep.com/lex.
0:04:39 This episode is also brought to you by Element, electrolytes that I’m sipping on right now,
0:04:45 sodium, potassium, and magnesium. My favorite flavor is watermelon salt. It’s the only one I drink.
0:04:52 I drink it many times a day. It’s great when I’m fasting. My diet these days is almost always
0:04:58 eat once a day. Very low carb. For that, especially when you’re starting out, you have to get the
0:05:03 electrolytes right. Now, as it starts to warm up and when I’m running long distance in Austin,
0:05:10 Texas, I really have to get the electrolytes right. You want to make sure you have a lot of salt in
0:05:15 your body and a lot of water before you go on the long run. Unless we’re talking about crazy
0:05:20 distances. I tend to prefer not to drink on the run. I don’t know. There’s something super inconvenient
0:05:25 about bringing a water bottle with you when you’re out on the trail or just in the middle of nowhere.
0:05:31 I just like to forget the world. Forget the needs of the body. Forget everything. Forget time.
0:05:35 And just focus on my thoughts or if I’m listening to an audiobook, focus on the thing that’s being
0:05:40 said and all the little tangents that my brain creates from what’s being said. All of that.
0:05:45 So, but before I go on in the run, I drink a bunch of element to get the electrolytes right.
0:05:50 And again, it mixes the electrolytes and the water so you get both. And you’re all set.
0:05:55 You can get a simple pack for free with any purchase. Try it at drinkelement.com/lex.
0:06:03 This is Alex Friedman podcast. To support it, please check out our sponsors in the description.
0:06:10 And now, dear friends, here’s Basim Youssef.
0:06:20 Your wife is half Palestinian. And I’ve heard you say that you’ve been trying to kill her,
0:06:36 but she keeps using the kids as human shields. So, have you considered negotiating a ceasefire?
0:06:41 Well, the thing is, every day, every minute of the day in a married life is a negotiation.
0:06:48 Everything can blow up into a full-scale war, starting from a simple sentence like,
0:06:54 “Good morning. What should we do with the kids today? What should we do with that piece of
0:06:59 furniture? Any sentence can lead you to heaven or to hell at the same time.”
0:07:04 So, you do negotiate with terrorists? Oh, yeah, 100%.
0:07:06 You must? Yeah. And for her, I am her terrorist too. So, it’s equal.
0:07:10 Terrorists on both sides. On a more serious note, when you found out about the attacks of October
0:07:16 7th, what went through your mind? If I’m allowed to use a curse word, I was like…
0:07:21 As many as possible. I was like, “Oh, shit.” Part of my stand-up comedy is, I describe a situation
0:07:26 where I was in a restaurant with producers and there was a bombing two blocks away in Chelsea,
0:07:32 New York in 2016. And of course, this is like, “Damn, what’s going to happen to us now?”
0:07:39 And there’s two different reactions. There’s the white reaction, which is like, “Oh my God,
0:07:44 I hope nobody’s hurt. This is terrible. I hope everybody’s okay.” And there’s the Arab reaction.
0:07:48 What’s his name? What is his name? What is the name? Because you know what’s going to come?
0:07:53 I was scared what’s going to really happen in that area. And I said, “Oh my God, it’s going to be
0:08:01 horrible.” And the way that it was reported, I didn’t know how to handle this. So, I basically,
0:08:09 I went into hiding for a few days, three, four days. And I talked about Piers Morgan
0:08:14 team talking to me two times, three times, I was like, “No, I can’t. How can you defend that?
0:08:19 How can you defend the rape that you committed to babies and whatever?” And then I started kind of
0:08:23 looking at the news a little bit. And then I started seeing people coming on the shows and
0:08:27 saying things that I know as an Arab, as a Muslim, as someone from that region, that it’s not true.
0:08:35 But I didn’t know what to say, how to say it. So, I said, by the third time when they asked
0:08:41 me, I said, “Fine, put me on.” And I went there, it was more of a figuratively speaking, a suicide
0:08:48 mission. Because it’s a lose-lose situation. I can lose stuff in Hollywood. I can, I even,
0:08:56 I remember my manager’s like, “Bessie, be careful. I mean, are you sure you want to do it?”
0:09:01 My manager’s was like, “Please don’t do it. Please don’t do it.” And on the other side,
0:09:05 if I don’t perform well, whatever well means, I’m going to be rejected by my own people.
0:09:12 So, it was a lose-lose situation. Because whatever I say, it will never be enough. And
0:09:16 whatever I say will not be good enough. And I was going into there and I felt that I was going
0:09:24 into a trance for the 33 minutes that I was on that interview for the first time.
0:09:29 You blacked out. I blacked out. I blacked out. And a lot of people asked me,
0:09:33 is the earpiece, was that a bit when the earpiece kept falling? It’s like, no, it was really falling
0:09:40 off and it disconnected. And I had to save it because I cannot see them. All I can hear,
0:09:45 I can just hear them. And I could expect it at any time. “Okay, Bessie, thank you.” I was fighting
0:09:51 for every second to say worse, to put stuff in there. Yeah, for people who don’t know, this is
0:09:55 your conversation interview with Piers Morgan. And you can see. I couldn’t see, I was just like,
0:10:02 the lens of the camera. And I was just like, “It’s a real dream or nightmare.” Yeah, hello Wasum.
0:10:06 I was like, “Hello Wasum.” It was like, “Hi.” And it could end at any moment. Your career and
0:10:12 everything. Everything, yeah. Yeah. So, what was the drive that got you to actually do it,
0:10:18 to overcome that fear? Multiple things. First of all, I don’t want to say it’s just my wife’s
0:10:25 family because my wife’s family has always been there. But this time was different. The
0:10:29 bombing, the attack, they usually, one of those people that they’re a way of everything,
0:10:34 whatever happened in Gaza, they are always in safe places. But this time, it seems that there
0:10:38 was no place safe. And already we heard about like two, three of the cousins and the uncles
0:10:46 already lost their home. So, this was too much. So, I wanted to say something for those people.
0:10:53 Because I know that, you know, I made one of the jokes that I made about like, “Oh, you know,
0:10:58 it’s Hassan, her cousin. He’s a loser. He’s a doctor. He’s a doctor.” And every time a hospital
0:11:05 was bombed, we were worried about him. So, I wanted to say that because I felt that these are,
0:11:11 this is a family that I have never seen in my life. I have never, she actually hardly saw an
0:11:16 uncle or two because, you know, they cannot leave. But I said like, “I need to speak. At least I do
0:11:24 something for those extended families that I have never known.” But also because when, when
0:11:31 P.S. Morgan team called me a couple of times and said, “Okay, let’s see what’s going on in the show.”
0:11:35 And I just watched the stuff and the lies and the one-sided reporting. That made my blood boil.
0:11:43 And then I thought like, “Why am I, what am I afraid of? I’m afraid of,
0:11:47 if I say something, I can lose my courage.” Like, wait a minute. But that was the reason why I left
0:11:52 Egypt. I said, “Wait, I left Egypt. I came to the United States. I came to the land of the free,
0:11:57 where I can say anything I want. And yet I have limitation of what to say.” I mean, I thought,
0:12:03 “We left that shit behind. I mean, what’s happening?” And I understand, I understand the
0:12:07 connection of like, how sensitive it is when you speak about Israel and all of the ready-made
0:12:14 accusations. But as an Arab, as a Muslim, I don’t react the same when you talk about Saudi Arabia
0:12:21 or Iran or Egypt or any of them. It’s like, “Hey, you want, you want to diss some of these countries?
0:12:25 I’ll do that with you.” Because I have strong opinions about what happened and I already
0:12:29 been expressing them. But when I talk, when that’s why I, and I speak, and there’s a lot of Jewish
0:12:35 people who come to my show, and they understand that, they understand that, that the separation.
0:12:39 But that kind of grouping of blackmailing people and saying and not saying what they have in their
0:12:44 mind, it is that kind of like, one of the things that kind of like, push me to go on the show.
0:12:50 The thing that was bothering you, was it what was being said or how it was being said?
0:12:55 Both. Because there are lies, which is usually in the media, but there was the total disregard
0:13:02 of humanity. You talk a lot about your show about human suffering. And I felt that here,
0:13:10 the human suffering was not equal. I felt that’s why I came up with this, like, what’s the exchange
0:13:16 rate today? What’s the exchange rate today? There’s, there’s, of course, it’s terrible to see
0:13:23 anybody die. But what I feel that like, is it, isn’t our life not worth anything?
0:13:29 Yeah, you had a chart, akin to crypto, from an investor, you analyzed it from an investing
0:13:35 perspective, of course, in a dark human kind. And you were saying that a certain year was a good
0:13:43 year. Yeah, 2014. 2014 was a good year for investment purposes. And also to refer to the,
0:13:50 to a family member that you called a loser, you were saying that you called him, had a conversation
0:13:55 with him, and he keeps saying that he’s not using anybody for human shields. And you called him a
0:13:59 loser. What are you, you can’t even give a job. The liar, he lied to us, because I have to believe.
0:14:04 But this is what the one thing is like, it’s also one of the things like how it was said.
0:14:08 It was stuff that I’ve been hearing. I don’t know what, what turned on on my head. But it’s
0:14:13 stuff that I’ve been hearing all my life from the media. Israel warns civilians before bombing them.
0:14:19 And that’s okay. But that’s not okay. Israel is trying to minimize the civilians, but killing
0:14:25 them anyway. And that’s okay. But that’s not okay. So it is kind of like the indoctrination that we’ve
0:14:30 been hearing as if it is okay. And then suddenly it’s not. Yeah, there’s a kind of several layers
0:14:39 of bullshit, almost sometimes hiding the obvious horror of the situation with kind of politeness
0:14:48 and all this kind of stuff, just the basic value of human life. That said, it’s a difficult situation.
0:14:54 It is. It is. What would you do if you were Israel? BB called you, boss and big fan, big fan of your
0:14:59 comedy. First of all, would you hang up right away? Would you hear him out? No, I’ll definitely
0:15:04 hear him out. That’s like, that was like, wait a minute, that’s material. That’s material, that’s
0:15:09 material, man. It’s like, so, I was sitting with my family, just like I have my phone right, like,
0:15:16 oh, Netanyahu. Yeah, it just shows up that way. I mean, what would you do? What would you do in
0:15:22 the situation? To answer this question, we need to understand how Israel thinks. There is an
0:15:27 incredible speech given by Gideon Levy, a famous Israeli reporter and Hertz, and he describes
0:15:35 a situation where he was in the West Bank and there was a checkpoint. And in that checkpoint,
0:15:40 there was an ambulance with a Palestinian patient and it was there sitting for an hour and a half,
0:15:48 not moving. And then he went to talk to the soldiers, like, guys, why are you not letting
0:15:54 them go? I was like, I’ll let them go. And then he told them, imagine if he was your father
0:15:59 and the soldiers stood up, I was like, what? These are pigs. These are not humans. So when you
0:16:08 tell me what would you do if Israel would do, it really needs to, we need to ask, how does Israel
0:16:13 look at the Palestinians and view the Palestinians because they do look at them less than human.
0:16:18 And there is an incredible talk by Mehor Mayer. He was a Holocaust survivor and he said,
0:16:24 I learned in Auschwitz when I was there in the concentration camp that in order for a group,
0:16:28 a dominant group of people to dehumanize another group, they need first to dehumanize themselves.
0:16:33 And Israel looks at Palestinians as lesser people, as lesser beings, as some people who are
0:16:43 dispensable. And the way that they treat them is that they don’t really care about, like,
0:16:50 that’s why they exchange rate thing. So for me, if I am Israel, it would be like, what would you do
0:16:55 if you’re the United States in the time of the Native Americans? They were killing people with
0:17:00 the millions. When you dehumanize a group of people, you really don’t care. So if I was Israel,
0:17:05 I would do exactly what Israel is doing right now because there’s no one who’s holding me accountable.
0:17:11 There’s no one stopping me. And I can get whatever I want throughout my history through violence.
0:17:17 I think a lot of the things you just said are a tiny bit slightly exaggerated.
0:17:22 So let me let me try. Let’s try. So not everybody in Israel. Let’s look at
0:17:28 several groups. So people in government, IDF soldiers, and citizens that are neither of those.
0:17:39 And not everybody of any of those sees Palestinians as less than human, just some percentage.
0:17:46 So what percentage is that in your sense? It’s the people who have the power.
0:17:50 So it’s mostly the focus of your commentary. When you say people in Israel, you really mean
0:17:56 the people in power? People have in power. But but but as much as like, of course,
0:18:00 I mean the people of power because when I speak about, even when I speak about America,
0:18:03 I speak about people in power. When I speak about Egypt, I speak the people of power because
0:18:06 I can’t really talk about the 100 million people in Egypt or the 11 million people in Israel. Of
0:18:10 course, now there are people who go in and they demonstrate against Netanyahu and they want him
0:18:14 out of the government. But you have to admit that the Israeli society, it at a whole, have moved
0:18:19 quite a bit to the right and has been has been like many extreme. And you know what happens
0:18:24 when you go to the right or you go to the most extreme, the other person go to the most extreme.
0:18:29 And extremism breeds extremism. So thank you for the clarification. But like I really meant
0:18:35 with the people of power, when people criticize the United States for going in Iraq, of course,
0:18:40 I’m not criticizing citizens. But you made another point, which is an interesting point,
0:18:44 and it’s very difficult to see in the heart of people. But I wonder if you look at the
0:18:48 average Palestinian and the average Israeli, and when they look at the other, do they
0:18:54 have some hate in their heart? Well, everybody probably has some. What is that amount? You know,
0:19:03 when you look at a person that looks different than you, how much hate is there?
0:19:07 It depends on what is the living situation of each person. So in the Berlin Film Festival,
0:19:12 just like a few couple of weeks ago, there was an Israeli and a Palestinian receiving
0:19:16 an award together. And the Israeli director said, we’re going to go back to Israel,
0:19:22 he’s going to go to the West Bank, he will have no rights and I will have full living rights.
0:19:26 These people managed to work together and be friends. And they have empathy to each other.
0:19:33 Now, the average Palestinian, it’s a very difficult question, because is it the Palestinian
0:19:41 in the diaspora, or the Palestinian in Gaza, or the diaspora in the West Bank, or the one
0:19:46 in the citizen as a citizen of Israel, who still have less right than a Roman citizen of Israel
0:19:51 than you. And it really depends if I am, there are people in Arabs in Israel who are having a great
0:19:59 life. And there are people Arabs who are having a miserable life, but definitely people that
0:20:04 living in Gaza or in the West Bank is kind of like on the lower tier of the living conditions.
0:20:09 Now, let’s talk about the hate. What does that Palestinian see from the Israeli?
0:20:14 The Palestinian see oppression, limitation of movement, limitation of freedom.
0:20:19 They have, and then when there’s something happens, you see the full force coming in,
0:20:25 destroying their home, taking away members of his family. There would be absolutely no reason
0:20:30 for him to love the other. The Israeli, because he, you know, he doesn’t have the power, but he
0:20:36 lives under his government. All he sees is the rockets or whatever, but like he sees the reaction,
0:20:41 and he doesn’t see what happened to those and as humans, we are selfish. We see what really
0:20:46 affects us as humans. And I cannot even imagine what it would be like to live as a Palestinian.
0:20:53 And I’m not even talking about Gaza because everybody talks about Gaza,
0:20:56 but let me give you an example. And I’m not going to talk about the 12,000
0:21:00 kids killed in Gaza. Let’s talk about just like the four weeks in the West Bank.
0:21:04 March 4th, Amr Najjar, age 10, sitting next to his father, shot while he’s sitting in a car
0:21:14 next to his father by the IDF soldiers. Mohammad Ziad, 13 years old, March 3rd, shot in front of
0:21:23 a UN school while he’s sitting with his friends. Mohammad Ghanem, age 15, March 2nd, he shot while
0:21:31 standing in front of a stove front during a nitrate. February 23rd, Saeed Jardal, he was killed
0:21:39 by a drone fire. February 22nd, Fadi Saliman, killed while standing in front of the top of a
0:21:45 Red Cross building. Nihil Ziad, February 14th, Valentine’s Day, killed a shot in the head while
0:21:53 leaving school. February 11th, Mohammad Khattur, U.S. Citizens, killed while being in a parked car.
0:22:02 And Muayyad Shams, February 9th, killed right in front of his home because a military car
0:22:09 came reversing back to him and then somebody opened the door, shot him and leave. This is a
0:22:14 daily life of people in the West Bank. What is the justification the IDF provides?
0:22:19 Terrorism. Terrorism. Or I don’t know, I mean, you cannot really say like human shields,
0:22:27 but they will say like they were throwing rocks. There was a guy who went on Chris Rock and he
0:22:32 said like his son, a U.S. citizen, would kill and they were throwing rocks. So we killed him.
0:22:36 Even when they were throwing rocks, you kill him. But the thing is, you see, this is how easy for
0:22:40 them to get rid of penicins. I mean, I love, like, I was, I had to say I prepared a little bit for
0:22:47 the podcast because you are in tech. So, and I am ignorant in tech. There is a movie called The Lab.
0:22:54 It is directed by an Israeli, a director called Yutam Feldman, and he talks about how
0:23:00 the military industry in Israel is very advanced. And what is really mind boggling is in that movie
0:23:10 he shows how the military tests its weapons in the field in urban areas from Palestinians.
0:23:16 It is heartbreaking. You know, as a doctor, there’s five stages of trials. There is like,
0:23:24 there is discovery, pre-clinical, clinical, and then market and then post-market evaluation
0:23:31 by the FDA. The FDA approved and then the FDA post-market. Five, just to take a pill.
0:23:37 And you go in and he interviews people as like, where did you test this? They test it in the field.
0:23:45 So when, when you just like, when human life is so, is so cheap and it is so indispensable,
0:23:53 it made me, it gave me a visually reaction because you know, we as human, this has been
0:24:01 actually the state of humanity. Humanity have lived and survived the thrive by actually killing
0:24:09 each other. But there was kind of a, we were remotely removed, we were removed from it.
0:24:14 People in Greece didn’t know what Alexander the Great was doing. He was killing a pillaging,
0:24:19 like we call him the Great because, but he was killing. He was, he was conquering, he was invading.
0:24:24 Julius Caesar, all of the greats, he was doing, but killing was difficult. Killing had to have
0:24:29 some sort. You have to be with your enemy. Then you go back, catapults, then cannons,
0:24:34 then a little bit back from, and then you’re kind of like sounding remotely now. You’re
0:24:38 killing people behind the screen with a button, with a push of a button. You know,
0:24:42 a lot of people say terrorism, they killed you with a knife, killed one person with a knife,
0:24:46 shot you. That’s terrorism. But if you fly at $64 million, F-16, and you drop up in an A-84 bomb
0:24:54 that costs $16,000, that’s not terrorism because it’s remote. You’re behind the screen. So what
0:24:59 happened? What Israel is doing? It is removing itself, like America to drones. And then when you
0:25:05 push someone to be, they always brag about bombing them to the stone ages.
0:25:10 What happens when the screens and all of the obstacles that you have been put between you
0:25:18 and those people that you have treated them this way, when this is a breach and you come face to
0:25:23 face, you will come face to face with what you have created? Yeah, there’s a lot of interesting
0:25:29 things you just said. So one is the methodology of killing. If you want to look at some horrific
0:25:36 large-scale killing, people often talk about the Holocaust, but that’s visceral. You can look
0:25:42 at hollermore by Stalin, where the murder is through starvation, by Churchill in India,
0:25:48 and Churchill in India, and the great leap forward by Mao. So starvation is a thing we don’t
0:25:58 often think of it as murder because it’s quiet, it’s slow, and the interesting thing about
0:26:05 starvation is that the people don’t complain as they’re dying because they’re exhausted.
0:26:10 That’s one. And the other is the value of human life. It does seem that every culture has an
0:26:19 unequal valuation of human life. So those two things combined create a complicated
0:26:29 military landscape of the world. Yes, but the thing is, is that how we would look at technology
0:26:36 as the savior, as if we talk about how we disrupt, we disrupt, we disrupt, we disrupt,
0:26:42 and now if you go, you talk about like going to the West Bank, the people in the West Bank walk
0:26:47 and they don’t see humans, they see people shouting them from towers or behind the screens or doing,
0:26:52 and they have like biometrics that is developed by Basel system, like that’s done by HP or Google
0:26:59 and Amazon who are like part of Project Nimbus, and you see Indivision developing all of this like
0:27:07 metric and surveillance and all of that stuff. And then you have like something like the Gospel
0:27:12 that like people have actually said that the Gospel can actually create a target list using AI
0:27:18 and give you a green, yellow, or a red to go ahead. And now AI is not just disrupting the market,
0:27:25 it’s disrupting our humanity. And it is, we became so comfortable killing people from afar,
0:27:30 killing people with a push of the button. And now it is, it is like, it’s like dating apps,
0:27:37 you know, when you, when you swipe left and right, and it’s like, oh, right, it becomes so like cheap.
0:27:43 It’s not like meeting someone. It’s like, it’s like a lot of fish in the sea. Same with AI, boom,
0:27:48 500 people killed, boom, they killed. It’s so easy. It’s so easy. It’s so easy. And then it’s so
0:27:54 far removed from you. So when you put these people in this condition, you have literally put them in
0:28:00 a different universe than yours. You are behind in your condition screens, like pushing them,
0:28:05 blowing up a university. It’s amazing. But then you meet what you have done, that you meet the
0:28:13 Frankenstein that you have created. And then people are like, oh, look what they did to us.
0:28:17 You just gave me this image of a dating app from hell, where leaders are just sitting there and
0:28:23 kind of swiping left and right. Invade, destroy. This is boring. Like a puppet government.
0:28:29 Yeah. And then turn off the phone, go to sleep. So I got, you know, I traveled to the West Bank and
0:28:36 I mentioned to you offline that I really loved the people there. Just, you know, I’ve met a bunch
0:28:43 of people like that in Eastern Europe, where I grew up. Yeah, like the flamboyant, the big
0:28:51 personalities, all of that. I also met a person who was in charge of a refugee camp who was shopping
0:29:01 IDF soldier. And I’m not sure the words he said are important, as the consequences of the thing
0:29:10 that you mentioned, which is the deep hate in his eyes. That was, didn’t feel repairable at all.
0:29:18 It was pain. It was like a foundation of pain. And on top of that, a hatred. And I was like, wow,
0:29:23 this is what you kill. You kill one person. That’s the way you create. Because we have kind of like
0:29:31 a front row seat to what’s happening. We think we’re in it, but we can’t really grasp it. I mean,
0:29:39 people’s like, oh, we’re just going to go in, get Hamas out, and we’re going to get them back in.
0:29:44 And what about the people get back in? How do you think they would look at you?
0:29:47 What have you created? What have you done?
0:29:51 My show in Egypt was all about propaganda. It’s all about the use of words. Words are very important.
0:29:59 The decapitated babies were not chosen randomly, because you see, it plants a certain image in
0:30:08 your brain. Imagine if you’re going in, what a baby can do. It can smile, cry, and poop. That’s it.
0:30:14 It’s absolutely no threat. So when you tell people, 40 decapitated babies, they are so animalistic,
0:30:20 they didn’t see the babies, women raped, of course, he’s an animal to do that. And they would go
0:30:26 through that. And they would, what was very frustrating about the conversation is the
0:30:33 gish galloping, the gish galloping, throwing, you see the distractions? You see what happens?
0:30:39 Like, what’s the proportionate response? Can Israel defend itself? Do you condemn Hamas?
0:30:43 Does Israel has the right to exist decapitated babies, raped women? Why don’t the Arab countries
0:30:48 take them? Why don’t the Muslims, Muslims kill Muslims? Look what happened in Yemen, in Syria,
0:30:53 in Iraq. Like, see, see how they kind of distract you. They throw those little things at you.
0:30:58 So you don’t know what to do or the Honor War, the UNN, anti-Semitic, October 7th, October 7th,
0:31:04 October 7th. And then suddenly you are distracted and pulled into discussing all of these little
0:31:09 things. And you’re not discussing what’s happening right now. It is basically stalling, giving them
0:31:14 time to do what they do. So there’s a, there’s some degree to the propaganda, the, so the beheaded
0:31:19 babies and all this kind of stuff that is so over the top, that it shuts down actual conversation
0:31:28 about actual wrongs, war crimes on both sides. So it’s overstating it to where everyone on social
0:31:36 media and everywhere in the press and everywhere is arguing almost become desensitized to actual
0:31:40 horrors of death, which are more mundane. They’re not so dramatic as beheaded babies.
0:31:45 Yeah. Because people, people, a baby is shot, but decapitated babies. There’s like a knife blade
0:31:50 that goes into the skin, the trachea, the flesh, the spine, decapitated. Like, you can just like,
0:31:57 he’s dead. No, you go in, this is the hate, so much hate. And you know, that’s why you have made
0:32:02 me laugh at the darkest shit. You’re such a beautiful person. Your dark humor is just wonderful.
0:32:11 But, but you see, this happened to Jews before, remember blood libel? Where did the blood libel
0:32:15 come from? It comes from these rumors that Jews suck babies blood. This is what they did to them.
0:32:21 Once in the cup. Exactly. That’s a very delicious baby. Delicious baby. But, but this is what you
0:32:26 do. You, you tell people something and it happened with the Native Americans when they were here,
0:32:30 the one, when they won it and they wipe a whole tribe. So, and, and, and, and Jewish people, one
0:32:36 of the, like the minorities that were persecuted and had this used against them for a very long
0:32:41 time. And it is terrible and it’s terrifying that’s been used again. So I just did a very lengthy
0:32:46 debate on Israel and Palestine. And the really painful thing from that was to historians. It was,
0:32:54 it was deep. It was thorough. It was fascinating. But in constantly asking about sources of hope
0:33:03 or solutions, there was none. There was a, there was a sense of like a really dark sense of
0:33:10 it’s hopeless from both sides. It’s hopeless. So, you know, I look to you for, for sources
0:33:21 for source of hope. Do you have, is there any hope here? Solutions, short-term, long-term.
0:33:31 Obama have kind of summarized this beautifully in his book. He said, the reason why the Israeli
0:33:39 Palestinian conflict is so chronic is one side have so much power and the other side have absolutely
0:33:46 no power. And that’s the one why he said, like, you have Israel that basically don’t listen to us
0:33:52 because they’re supported by people who are bigger than the president, bigger than the
0:33:56 administration. They know that they can. I mean, like you, like Netanyahu was a cotton tape many
0:34:00 times saying like, he’s basically like belittling Americans. Like, we control 80% of the population.
0:34:06 We don’t care. They, this has kind of like nonchalant kind of like, we have them. And
0:34:12 there’s nothing really that compels Israel to give up anything because at the end of the day,
0:34:17 what is compromise? Compromise like, I give something, you give something. Israel’s not
0:34:21 giving anything. And they project that on you. So, for example, how many times have we heard like,
0:34:27 oh, Palestinians were giving like four, five, six, seven, 15 chances and they said no to them. And yet,
0:34:32 when you read the history, that’s not the case at all. Like for example, in 2000, the whole idea
0:34:38 about like, Arafat walked away from Oslo, that didn’t happen. And there is an incredible video
0:34:44 by, you know, what’s his name? Joe score, score borrow with Misha. And they were hosting her father,
0:34:53 Brizinski, he was the national security advisor. And Joe’s car was like, well, you know, like,
0:35:00 Arafat left the Oslo court and the Palestinians left. And then Brizinski said, like, this is like
0:35:06 embarrassingly shallow. It’s like, listen, what happened was, there was a lot of catches on the
0:35:13 Oslo court. It was very unfair to the Palestinians. So Arafat said, like, I agree, but I need to
0:35:18 take it to the Arab capitals. And what, and to, and they went to inside and they went to Sharma
0:35:23 Sheikh, they came to Egypt. And he and he went to there. And then he had a barric left because
0:35:28 there was election and he lost it. Ariel Sharon came and it was destroyed. This is one of the
0:35:33 reason why people, it is, it’s kind of like facts don’t matter as much as what is the narrative that
0:35:40 has been controlled. But what were the biggest barriers to peace there? Do you think it’s
0:35:45 fundamentally leaders don’t want a to stay solution? Or was there nuanced small differences
0:35:52 that if solved could have led to us to stay solution? I mean, there was a, maybe there was
0:35:56 a certain point when the Israeli leaders were more open to compromise. But I can say that
0:36:04 because each time Israel gives back land, it has to be after some use of force. The 1973 war,
0:36:12 the interval, the first and second, the, the, the, the, the, the, the casualties in Gaza,
0:36:19 they never give up land willingly and because of peace. Because if I have that much military,
0:36:24 I can do whatever I want. Why would I give up anything? I have that much power. Why would
0:36:29 America or China give everything if they’re so powerful? And especially if they are, have this
0:36:34 kind of open check from the United States. So it is, it is really about what can push Israel
0:36:42 to give up something because you are so much stronger than me. What could compel you to give
0:36:48 up something? And this is why the whole thing about like trying to equalize Palestinians
0:36:54 and the Israeli state and government, it doesn’t make any sense. So what is the source of hope?
0:37:01 You know, John Stuart, who will talk about it from many angles, somebody you admire, a friend,
0:37:11 he proposed a two-state solution. Look, look, look, look to the comedians for hope.
0:37:18 Yes. Well, everybody’s talking about the two-state solution, but Israel has said many times on
0:37:23 Netanyahu and then it’s like, there, there’s going to be no state solutions. They, in the past,
0:37:27 it’s like, even, even Neftali Bennett, he came in on the, on, on the hard talk. It’s like, yeah,
0:37:32 maybe in the past we wanted to stay solutions, but like, look, every time we give them land,
0:37:36 they kill us. So no state solutions. And they are openly saying it, but that’s perhaps rhetoric.
0:37:41 The rhetoric that is supported by action because look at what they’re doing in the West Bank that
0:37:47 you said. They are cutting it, illegal settlement, peace-mealing it. So how, if you have an intention
0:37:54 at all to give them anything, why would you keep doing this? And you’ve called it a bunch of little
0:38:00 gazes. Yeah. It’s a nice little picture of what’s happening. Peace-mealing it, because it is,
0:38:07 what happened in the past four months? The Palestinians have been micro-dosing on it for a
0:38:12 very long time, little by little, little by little. And we would shout every time when it gets too
0:38:20 much. And then we shut down and then little by little. But this time it was hard. It was hard to
0:38:27 see the blatant oppression and the word said, maybe the Hamas ministry of the health are giving
0:38:35 us the bad numbers. Maybe it’s just human shields. And I laugh. There’s 13,000 babies killed. Does
0:38:42 that mean that there are 13,000 military targets hiding in their diapers? Because it is so, it
0:38:49 doesn’t make any sense to kill that. And maybe it’s just like, oh, oops, it is out of our hands.
0:38:54 It’s hard to know what to do with those numbers. I mean, I just want babies enough.
0:39:00 But you know what happens? When you hear so many numbers, numbers become numbers.
0:39:05 And you become so desensitized. And this is why there’s a difference between saying
0:39:11 13,000 Palestinian kids did. It’s like Mila Kohane, an Israeli baby, 10 months old. She was killed
0:39:19 in her crib. And this is what we hear from CNN. We never hear a story about a Palestinian kid.
0:39:23 That’s why thank you for giving me the space for saying the names of the Palestinian children
0:39:28 that were killed just for four weeks. Because humans need context. They need depth.
0:39:36 They need like a 3D look at what they can look at. But if you just get numbers, they don’t mean
0:39:43 anything. Is there some degree to where both leaderships, Hamas, PA, Palestinian Authority,
0:39:49 Israel all want war, like perpetual war to to remain in power?
0:39:57 There is. That’s that’s an interesting question.
0:40:00 But I mean, let’s admit something. The Arab regimes in the in the area have actually used
0:40:08 the problem of Palestine in order to stay in power, in order to take, get excuses,
0:40:12 like have this enemy and Israel, the Israeli government has used that too. And maybe the
0:40:18 Palestinians. But but my problem with when going into discussion, this is that the two sides are
0:40:25 not equal. They’re not equal in power. They’re not equal in influence and they’re not equal in
0:40:29 international support, especially by the United States. So Palestinians can the people who have
0:40:37 made changes in history were the people with power, the people who would have the ability
0:40:42 to change things. And the Palestinians cannot really change. And what what can they change?
0:40:47 Well, is that true, though, with how much support the Palestinian people have? So
0:40:56 just like you said, there’s a lot of Arab states there, they will voice their pro-Palestinian
0:41:02 position in order to distract from their the own corruption and abuses of power in their own
0:41:08 countries. But, you know, I don’t think if you look globally, there’s a complete asymmetry of
0:41:14 power and public opinion here, maybe in the press in the West. But if you look globally,
0:41:21 but do they have the same kind of weapons that the Israeli have a literally power? No,
0:41:26 there’s a major asymmetry of literal power, some money to their leaders. Does that make any
0:41:33 difference? I mean, and also when you say Palestinian authority, which authority are you
0:41:37 talking about Hamas, or the Palestinian authority who has been kind of a domesticated kind of like
0:41:42 a puppy for the Palestinians who basically have been an informant for their own people.
0:41:47 And this is the thing also that kind of like really pissed me off when I was hearing the thing
0:41:53 about these things. Like Hamas, Hamas, Hamas, Hamas, like we have Netanyahu on tape, confessing
0:41:57 that he supported Hamas, giving money in order to cause factions in between the Palestinians.
0:42:03 So it’s just like, it doesn’t make, you just told me this. You just told me this. You just told me
0:42:08 Netanyahu support. Hamas like, but Hamas like what? I mean, to which degree does Netanyahu represent
0:42:13 the Israeli people? Is a real question. To which point does Trump or Biden represent the American
0:42:21 people? And to which degree does Hamas represent the Palestinian people? Does. None of these
0:42:27 represent it, but who have the power in order to make the decisions? It really comes down to that.
0:42:32 Well, who does have the power? You’re giving a lot of power to Israel.
0:42:37 But the Arab League, what do you think Hamas do? Continue doing what a charter says,
0:42:45 which is trying to destroy Israel. And the role of the Palestinian people is to overthrow Hamas
0:42:50 and get a more moderate leadership probably. And the role of the Israeli people is to vote out
0:42:57 this right-wing government and elect a more moderate leader so that there’s a chance
0:43:04 at peace with two moderate leaders. So before Hamas even got to control 2006,
0:43:10 because there was a real sharon in 2000. And we all know what happened. And a real sharon kind
0:43:16 of like had make, they may came up with this amazing policy of like breaking people’s kids’
0:43:22 bones in the interfather. So he was also like, I mean, which one is moderate? I mean, I think is
0:43:29 Hamas is a product of what happened. I mean, we can, if there was no apartheid in South Africa,
0:43:37 there would be no NFC. There would be no Nelson Mandela. If there were no Nazis in
0:43:42 Paris, there would be no French resistance. And I’m not saying that, and again, I’m not,
0:43:46 I wouldn’t don’t want to be in a put in a position to defend Hamas or anybody because you know what
0:43:51 that entails, but those are like Hamas, again, not defending them. They went into October 7th.
0:44:01 What was their, why did they did that? Like release our hostages, the people in prison,
0:44:07 because if you talk about people who are kidnapped, Israel kidnaps people every single day. And when
0:44:13 they had the first exchange in November 4th, Israel released 400 people, three quarters of them
0:44:18 were women and children. Why are those people in prison? There’s one in four kids that are
0:44:24 imprisoned that stay in solitary confinement, which is by international law, a form of torture.
0:44:30 And you’re putting kids to that. Is it possible? So first of all, ceasefire. Yes. And longer term,
0:44:37 is it possible for Arab states and the United States to get together and with power
0:44:45 through diplomacy enforce a solution? It’s a very, very ideal solution. But you know,
0:44:55 and I know that Arab states don’t really have the power. All of the powers are in the hands of
0:45:00 America. They have the power. See, I would, I think they have the power. I don’t, maybe they
0:45:04 don’t want to use it. Maybe they don’t want to use it. Because there’s a benefit. The dark sense
0:45:12 I have is that a lot of people win from the suffering that Palestinians are going through,
0:45:20 because they can point to that and distract from corruption in their own states. And then obviously
0:45:27 Iran can benefit also from the same kind of dynamic distracting from the authoritarian nature
0:45:35 of their regime. Definitely. But what is the core of the problem here? Is it the Arab states using
0:45:41 the suffering or the actually the suffering itself? And the suffering comes from people being
0:45:47 displaced. Their homes were taken away. They are seven million Palestinians in diaspora,
0:45:55 seven millions. Seven million went out there and now they’re living in Canada and in America and
0:45:58 Europe. They had homes there. They cannot go back to 1.7 million people of the people in Gaza.
0:46:06 Don’t belong in Gaza. They were pushed from other places. The peace meal thing of people are being,
0:46:13 you know, in Germany. I’m going to shift gear a little bit. It’s going to be a little bit of fun.
0:46:20 There is a book that I bought the rights to and I want to turn it into a movie.
0:46:25 And I bought, I optioned the right for two months, for two years in March of last year,
0:46:31 before October 7th. After October 7th, I bought the permanent right. That book is called The Muslim
0:46:39 and the Jew. And it is written by an author called Ronin Steinke. I read an article about this book
0:46:45 in 2016. And I chased that book for rights for seven years. I didn’t have that much money,
0:46:52 but I wanted that book. And that book was translated into English called Anna and Dr. Helmi.
0:46:58 And that book tells the incredible story under Nazi Germany where Arabs went and drove to Berlin
0:47:07 in 1920s after the First World War in the Weimar Republic. And they became doctors and engineers
0:47:13 and journalists for two reasons. Number one, it’s their cheap, very cheap because of the inflation.
0:47:18 And two, a lot of the Arab nationalists didn’t want to send their kids to England or France
0:47:25 because they were the occupiers. And Dr. Helmi was the hero of that. He’s an Egyptian doctor.
0:47:32 And that’s why I kind of like, I personally kind of connected with him. And he went to medical school,
0:47:40 didn’t find a place to live. So he lived in the Jewish ghetto, like many Arabs.
0:47:44 He didn’t find a school to work at a hospital to work in. So he worked in a Jewish hospital.
0:47:50 So there was a lot of Arabs who lived with the ghetto. And actually the first director of the
0:47:57 Berlin Mosque with a Jewish convert who converted to Islam and he was a gay activist.
0:48:02 I’m telling you, this is like a crazy story. And this is all, this is not a fiction story.
0:48:08 This is not, this is actually like a nonfiction. It’s written actually based on the statement
0:48:11 and the documents of the Nazis in Istanbul. Dr. Helmi, he was in this hospital and the Nazis came in
0:48:21 and they killed and tortured and beat up the Jewish doctor. And he made, they made him the
0:48:27 head of his department. Then he was surrounded by a Nazi doctor. They didn’t touch him because he
0:48:31 was an Arab. There was kind of like a thing between Germany and the Arabs because they wanted to appease
0:48:37 to them in order to have kind of a grass root base in the Arab world where he want to go next.
0:48:46 And this is why 1934, 1935, the racial laws of Nuremberg, they had a name change. First they
0:48:56 were called anti-Semitic. Then they changed into anti-Jewish because also Arabs were Semitic.
0:49:01 So they wanted to appease the Arabs. Now, what happened to Dr. Helmi when that happened to him?
0:49:06 He would go back to the ghetto and he would see the apartments next to him, the Jewish apartment
0:49:14 become more and more and more flooded with people because they were moving Jews
0:49:19 and pushing them and putting them together, pushing them to the side. And each flat, each flat,
0:49:28 each apartment instead of one family, it would have three, four, six, seven families. And he was
0:49:34 there when at home and he looked, he was there. This is where the people he grew up with,
0:49:40 he lived with and now he’s seen that kind of discrimination just because he was an Arab.
0:49:45 And then he started to kind of like atone for, like because he felt responsible because he
0:49:52 wasn’t treated the same way and he started to go and treat Jewish people in their homes because
0:49:57 they couldn’t go to hospitals. And then one family gave them his daughter. It’s like this is
0:50:04 Anna, save her. He took her, pretended that she is his niece, put a hijab around her,
0:50:09 taught her Arabic, called her Nadia, my daughter’s name by the way. And they, and he hid her in plain
0:50:16 sites for seven years in front of the Nazis as his nurse. It’s an incredible story. And then
0:50:21 not just that he went to prison and then he went out and he formed with the Arab people that was
0:50:26 in prison with him, a network that saves 300 Jews. You see that kind of story? This is the Jews that
0:50:33 were living in the airport. I’m not saying that the Jews living in the airport was living like
0:50:36 an incredible level. Of course, as a kind of a minority, they did not have like the full power
0:50:40 of their full, you know, advantages of the rule. That’s normal. But we had this
0:50:46 kind of a relationship before Israel was erected in 1948. And then of course,
0:50:59 everybody looked at Jews at the time as fifth column. And of course, the nationalistic regimes
0:51:04 used that. And this is why what Biden said was very dangerous when he said, if there’s no Israel,
0:51:12 no Jew in the world will feel safe. You are the leader of the free world. You are the president
0:51:17 of the United States. Do you mean that you’re telling me that the Jews in your country in the
0:51:21 United States of America are not safe? That is wrong on two levels. Number one, America historically
0:51:26 and right now is more safe to Jews in America in the world than in anybody. They are safer than
0:51:31 the Jews in Israel. They never had programs or the Holocaust like Iraq. They live here a good
0:51:36 life, not perfect life, but they are better. Second of all, if you are the president and
0:51:40 you’re telling that a group of people will not feel safe unless there is a different one,
0:51:43 you are already feeding into their fifth column. They’re like, you’re Russian. You come from there.
0:51:49 And there is a group of laws in the Russian Constitution that says that Russia will protect
0:51:54 its citizens everywhere in the world. What happens if the president says like, oh,
0:51:58 you’re Russians. You’re protected by your own country. You don’t belong here. This is terrible.
0:52:01 Yeah, you’re right. That’s actually an indirect threat. So yes, you know, even saying Muslims
0:52:06 can now feel safe in America or something like this. That means like that’s a threat.
0:52:12 But what would a Jewish person in Beverly Hills or in Brooklyn feel if he hears that?
0:52:19 You are already telling people you need to be loyal to Israel. I mean, Israel is a foreign
0:52:26 country. I am sorry, but Israel is a foreign country. Israel is a client country that we
0:52:32 sponsor and it should actually be responsible and held accountable for what they do.
0:52:36 You mentioned 1948, the Nakba. But before that, 41, 39, 41 to 45, the Holocaust. What do you do?
0:52:47 What do you do with the Holocaust? How do you incorporate into the calculus of what’s
0:52:54 of morality that leads up to the displacement of 700,000 Palestinians from the land? How do
0:53:05 you work that out? It is terrible. But like, I mean, what the systemic annihilation of Jewish
0:53:11 people under the Nazi, that is like a carefully engineered thought for plan. It was terrible.
0:53:19 It was like kind of like the human ingenuity put into like something that is very evil.
0:53:24 But also it is not just not just that happened. We need we need to remember that Otto Frank,
0:53:30 the father of Anna Frank, has his visa, refugee visa rejected by the United States.
0:53:34 There’s a lot of people that were rejected by the United States, rejected by other European
0:53:38 countries. And then they were pushed into Palestine. So you have to put yourself between like under
0:53:43 the Arabs. Okay, we’re sitting here. Okay, come and then all right, you don’t have a home or a
0:53:48 country anymore. That kills you. I mean, you see, if I’m not an Arab and you give me that kind of
0:53:56 piece of like terrible human tragedy, like, oh my God, that is terrible. But then I’m an Arab,
0:54:01 like, yes, I’m so sorry, but what do I have to do with that? Why is that my fault? The persecution
0:54:07 of the Jewish people have started since the eighth and ninth century, because they were like,
0:54:13 they were first anti Christians. They were like criminal immigrants. They were like conspirators.
0:54:19 This is this is this is this is the anti like people kind of like it as if Europe kind of
0:54:26 like throw antisemitism on us. You understand that like Henry Ford, Henry Ford is one of the
0:54:32 biggest anti he was he was the the inspiration for Adolf Hitler. This is how anti-Semitic
0:54:40 Henry Ford was. And you kind of like gloss over that. And then suddenly we as Arabs have to pay
0:54:50 the price. Why? Several questions I want to ask there. So but one just zooming out, what do you
0:54:57 think hatred of Jews has been such a viral kind of idea throughout human history? Oh, it’s very
0:55:06 easy. It all started from Christ. They killed Christ. They killed Christ. They killed Christ.
0:55:10 They’re the killer of Christ. That’s a very sexy story. And that was so yeah, that was and that
0:55:15 stayed for years. That stayed for centuries. I’m sorry, centuries. They’re the killer of Christ.
0:55:21 And then the Catholic Church did not allow usury. But they would work in usury. So they become
0:55:28 rich. Now the people that we hate that we accuse them of feeling Christ are becoming rich.
0:55:33 So that’s envy now. And that’s that and that’s hatred. I mean, when you talk about ghettos,
0:55:41 ghettos were not just as secluded parts in cities. Sometimes those ghettos were outside the cities.
0:55:49 Jews were not even allowed to work a lot of professions. They were not allowed to get into
0:55:54 the syndicates of certain professions. So they had to work usury and they got rich. So the people
0:56:01 hated them more. The first crusade didn’t kill a single Muslim. All the kill were Jews. And when
0:56:09 they finally arrived to Jerusalem, all the kill were Jews. They almost annihilated the Jews. So it
0:56:14 was all this. And of course, you have the dark ages. Who do you need as an enemy? The Jews,
0:56:19 right? They’re the killer of Christ. There’s nothing bigger than this.
0:56:24 And then you fast forward. I mean, one of the things that I found out that was very, very,
0:56:32 very, very crazy when Henry Ford imported the protocols of the elders of Zion.
0:56:40 By the way, in the Arab world, protocols of the elders of Zion is so popular and
0:56:44 for no one uses. And the people who don’t know it, it’s kind of like a bunch of like stories. And
0:56:51 basically it’s like the Jews saying like, we’re going to control the war. We’re going to do this.
0:56:57 And we’re going to do that and whatever. But people don’t know that that is a work of plagiarism.
0:57:04 It was plagiarized from a satirical play called Conversation in Hell between Mickevely and Montesequil.
0:57:14 And it is just, and it is kind of like based on one chapter or one scene or so. It’s crazy.
0:57:21 But it’s crazy how sticky it is. It’s weird. Because if I hate you, that’s great. But if
0:57:27 I have a story to support that hate, that’s even better. But it’s like one of the best stories,
0:57:33 one of the stickiest stories about hate. Of course. It’s probably the most effective. Because like
0:57:39 there are, you know, a lot of peoples hate other groups of peoples. But that’s just like the sexiest
0:57:45 story of all. Because humans need to concentrate their hate, their insecurities and their shortcomings
0:57:56 into one thing that they can practice that hate on. If it’s a person, great. If it’s a group,
0:58:03 even better. How do you, into this calculus, incorporate that that group is pretty small?
0:58:09 There’s 16 million Jews worldwide. And you mentioned how is that the responsibility
0:58:16 of the Arab peoples? You know, everybody should be to blame for not taking in Jews
0:58:21 after the Holocaust. But you know, the reality of the situation, if we look at the religious
0:58:27 slice of this, there’s 16, let’s say, million Jews. And there’s, I don’t know how many Muslims,
0:58:34 but 1.8 billion. Yeah. Do you, that difference, that 100x difference, do you incorporate that
0:58:45 into the sense that Jews in Israel might feel for, you know, the existential dread that we might,
0:58:54 this small group might be destroyed? Jews in Israel have every right to feel afraid,
0:58:59 because of everything that they see and everything they’ve been told, everything. But I would say
0:59:06 that the calculus or the numbers doesn’t, like, of course, like being small, it is, of course,
0:59:14 a factor, but it is never an excuse in order to take something that’s not yours. It’s saying like,
0:59:18 “Hey, you have 300 million Americans and we have 52 or 52 says give one state for them.” There’s too
0:59:24 many of them, too many of you, just give them something. You know, it’s like the fact that I
0:59:29 have something and you don’t, and I have too many of me and there is little of you. And then you
0:59:34 come in and, and it’s not really Israel against the Arab world or the Muslim world, because we have
0:59:40 to say we fucked up big time. But it is the Palestinians that are in and they are being
0:59:48 subjected to that. So it’s not really like the 1.8 billion and the 16 million Jews. And the 1.8
0:59:54 billion, if you look at them, some of them, like, don’t care, some of them live into regimes that
0:59:58 have been oppressed and those regimes are supported by the United States in order. It’s easier for
1:00:03 me as an empire to take what I want from this country if I control the dictator. And I tell
1:00:10 them that his power is linked to my ability to, to my desire to keep him in power. So that’s why
1:00:18 you have a total disconnect between people in power in, in the Arab and the Muslim countries and
1:00:23 the people themselves. Can you speak to the 1948, you know, because you mentioned taking land that’s
1:00:30 not yours. Maybe parallels with Native Americans. Yeah. There was a war. The, the Jewish minority
1:00:43 fought that war against several Arab states and won that war. How do we incorporate that into the
1:00:50 Catholic? Yeah, well, that’s also a misconception, like a misinterpretation of the event, because
1:00:56 it seems that it was like the small, the, it’s kind of like a David and Goliath kind of story.
1:01:04 But, and I was always like, how did we, how did we not do that? But in, in reality, with numbers,
1:01:12 I can’t pull it up right now. But if you look at the numbers, the number of tanks, the planes, the,
1:01:18 the trained officer, because those, many of those Jewish fighters came from World War II.
1:01:25 They were seasoned fighters and they actually had more planes, more tanks, more artillery,
1:01:33 more pieces of weapon, more of the, all of the other combined because they, the, the people that
1:01:38 really like fought was Egypt. And you have to, 1948, some, many of those Arab countries didn’t
1:01:44 even have their independence. So they would kind of like send like a cavalry or like a people in
1:01:48 horses. But in fact, the whole idea was like, we won against seven nations. Sure. The numbers were
1:01:54 totally in Israel favor. They were better equipped. They were better trained. They were, they had like
1:01:59 more tanks and, and, and artillery and, and, and, and, and aeroplanes and they planned, planned
1:02:06 better. So they, yes, they deserved the win because they planned and we did it. So to you,
1:02:09 there was an asymmetry, military power even then. But what do you do with the fact that the war was
1:02:15 won? So like, if you look at the history of the world, there is wars fought over land. I agree
1:02:25 with you. This has been the history of humanity. Humanity was not living peacefully. It’s all about
1:02:30 like people taking people and killing people, taking their land. But there’s two difference here.
1:02:34 Mostly, usually, the conquering power, like for example, England, they had England and they
1:02:43 conquer you in India. And after the occupation finished, they go back to England. France, Greece,
1:02:51 Persia, Egypt, they will like go in, expand and shrink, expand and shrink. It’s all been there.
1:02:57 What is different here is exactly what happened in Australia and the United States. A group of
1:03:02 people came in not just to conquer and take the land, but to completely change that, to replace
1:03:08 them and get them out or kill them. It was very easy with the Indians because they had small
1:03:12 parks. There was no social media. They did it over 400 years. They had time. The problem is
1:03:18 what is happening right now, I agree with you. It might not be that new, but we are there and
1:03:24 we’re watching it happen. And so now we have to confront the realities of war and empire and
1:03:30 conquering. Because you know what’s the problem? We told ourselves we can be better.
1:03:34 After 1948, there was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It means that we are going to be
1:03:42 better humans. We’re not going to kill and take land. We’re not going to displace people. We’re
1:03:46 not going to take people for what they are. There’s now laws. There’s international laws. There’s
1:03:50 International Court of Justice. And now Israel is giving the middle finger to all of them.
1:03:54 So isn’t some fundamental way this whole thing that we’re talking about is us as a civilization
1:04:00 on social media in articles and books and in newspapers. We’re just trying to figure out
1:04:09 who are we as a people. I think the shock came from the fact that we thought that we as humanity
1:04:15 have evolved and now we are what have actually changed is that we became more advanced in
1:04:23 effectively eradicating a group of people because of the technology that we have. And the fact that
1:04:28 we can do that under the eyes and ears of all the world and we are watching it on their phone.
1:04:33 We have a window. We have a window to the war. You know, 1945, people didn’t know what was happening
1:04:38 in Japan. What? Well, we heard about it on the radio. Like, oh, today our forces came in and
1:04:43 they launched it. We don’t know. We heard it. We maybe we saw pictures after that and it’s quite
1:04:49 edited. But now we see it. We’re into it and it is it is so much for our psyche and we can get it.
1:04:57 And it’s like and the Arabs say like, guys, you told us we came to the West because we were told
1:05:03 that we were equal. You know the Universal Declaration of Right? One of the co-authors,
1:05:07 his name is Stefan Hessell. He’s a Jew. He is a survivor of the Holocaust. And you know what
1:05:16 happened to him. He died, by the way, a couple of years ago, but he before he died, he was cancelled
1:05:22 by so many people and he was called anti-Semitic because he joined the BDS movement and he spoke
1:05:27 about of Palestine. That is the author of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that we
1:05:33 value so much and we think that that would define our humanity. But then we go in and we are
1:05:39 shocked. It’s like maybe we were sold something. Maybe that was false advertisement.
1:05:48 You shared a tweet by an account called Awesome Jew.
1:05:56 It reads, “Islamo Nazi comedian Bassem Yusuf.” Comedian in quotes, by the way.
1:06:03 Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course, because I’m not funny.
1:06:05 So, “Islamo Nazi comedian Bassem Yusuf is now denying Dr.” I love that you retweeted this like
1:06:11 twice. I guess suppose because it’s advertising some upcoming dates. He’s now denying October 7th
1:06:19 Massacre, “The Muslim radical Bassem Yusuf is notorious for his radical radical set twice,
1:06:25 for his radical hatred of Jews in Israel. In a recent clip, he claims that the atrocities
1:06:30 committed on October 7th are fabricated. We’re looking for all information regarding
1:06:35 any of his upcoming shows, as well as the venues which host the scumbag where Jews feel safe around
1:06:41 this Nazi. Nazi.” Yeah. I’ve never, this is my first time interviewing a Nazi.
1:06:48 It’s the first time I actually get called a Nazi.
1:06:51 First time. First time. I have been called so many things in Egypt. So, in Egypt, I was called
1:06:58 a CIA operative of Mossads by a secret Muslim brotherhood, a secret Jew. There was also an
1:07:09 article that was published about me in the state-run media saying in details how Bassem has been
1:07:18 recruited by CIA agents using John Stewart in order to use satire to bring down the country.
1:07:23 I was a Freemason, an infidel, a member of the Knights of the Temple, something like that.
1:07:32 And there is actually people, the Muslim brotherhood on their show, they would say like,
1:07:37 “His action is Israeli and they have forged an Egyptian ID for him to come.”
1:07:43 So, it’s kind of like when I guess, I said, “I left all of that behind and I come here,
1:07:48 it’s like boom, anti-Semitic Nazi.” Damn. I mean, I really covered everything. I don’t know what
1:07:53 else. I mean, I think I have, it’s kind of like I’m collecting PhDs. I’m just like getting like
1:07:58 all of these credits. How do you deal with that? How do you deal with the attacks? I mean, this goes
1:08:03 back to the decision to do the interview with Piers Morgan. Like, how do you like psychologically
1:08:12 do all of it? These kind of attacks, at the beginning, it’s fun. But when they evolve
1:08:18 into something else. So, for example, I was like laughing of all of the stuff about calling me this,
1:08:22 calling me that, but then when people would come in and thread the theater, because it’s not the
1:08:27 people who are making those accusations that would come to you. It’s the people that will hear
1:08:31 and see those accusations and act on it. And there’s always the fear of like, I mean, we have,
1:08:38 we have in the airboard a lot of things like somebody would hear something about someone
1:08:42 else and go kill him and whatever, like anybody else. So there’s this, but somehow I want to make
1:08:47 fun of it. And, and it is to be called a nat and Islam-Nazi, it must been the funniest thing ever.
1:08:58 Because it doesn’t Islam-Nazi. Wow. How did you, how did you and a radical Muslim, me, a lot of
1:09:05 Islamists hate me. They will call me a secular infidel. So it’s kind of like, who am I? Maybe
1:09:12 I have an identity crisis and I need the people to tell me who I am. Let’s go to the beginning.
1:09:18 Let’s go to your childhood. You grew up in Egypt, Cairo, Egypt. Well, let’s figure out how you came
1:09:26 to be who you are. I hope you become an Islam-Nazi. Yeah, exactly. It’s a long journey. I do like the
1:09:33 swastika tattoo on your ass, which I didn’t, how did you see my ass? You know what you did.
1:09:38 I know what you did. It was very inappropriate. You’re also obviously a sexual harasser of me.
1:09:44 Is this like a me too? This is like 2020 or someone will come up. It’s like, okay.
1:09:51 Please flip it. This is your me too moment. All right. So Cairo, what’s a, what’s a,
1:10:00 what’s a defining memory, positive or negative from your childhood?
1:10:03 My memory in general was, was cool. It was cool. I went to a Catholic
1:10:09 school until the, for primary school, the elementary. And by the time I’d done,
1:10:17 there was kind of like a start of a decline into the public education. And my parents,
1:10:23 they’re like middle-class working officials. My dad was a judge. My mom was a business
1:10:27 professor’s and she’s, and they were like, one of the people was like, they didn’t have that
1:10:30 much luxury. My dad like drove like a regular like car, a fiat, which is like the equivalent for
1:10:37 the Lada in Russia. Thank you for speaking to the audience. Yeah. The Lada. And so would that
1:10:46 be a good car or a bad car? No, it’s kind of like, kind of like the minimum. And my dad was not a
1:10:52 man of, of, of showing off. Whatever money they would do, they would put it for us, education,
1:10:59 give everything to their kids. This is kind of like a very, very typical mentality. And I’m sure
1:11:07 it’s in many cultures, but like, we grew up with this, like everything that we have is like for
1:11:11 kids. So they would put us into education. So middle school, that was the big 1986 was the
1:11:17 beginning of the explosion of like international schools, private schools. And these schools were
1:11:23 relatively expensive. Of course, now with today’s currency, it’s ridiculous. But at that time,
1:11:28 it’s very expensive. So I went to that school. And from there was this moment was like, you feel
1:11:35 less right away. I mean, of course, there’s the regular bullying and stuff, but it’s, it’s not
1:11:41 that it’s kind of like, you always feel less, you don’t have that much of like purchasing power
1:11:45 that can allow you to go to the same outings or travel with them. And even like how you dress,
1:11:50 it will be modest compared to them. So I was always an outsider. I was, and I compensated with
1:11:58 that by two things, being good at school and being good at sports. So I was not like the typical
1:12:03 nerd was just like, I was like, I was playing football, basketball, cratering field. And I was
1:12:08 like, one of the people would like to have me on their team. So I wasn’t like, kind of like,
1:12:13 ah, he’s nerd, get him away. But I never had a girlfriend. I never had any kind of like,
1:12:17 was not like, I was not boyfriend material. So that’s kind of like, it leaves remnants in you
1:12:23 that you’re not good enough. But psychologically, you’re always like, when you’re by yourself,
1:12:27 you felt like an outsider. Yes, all the time. And that’s why it kind of like, I’m more of a loner.
1:12:32 I don’t have a lot of what you call friends, I have acquaintances, people that I do stuff with,
1:12:36 but I don’t have like the people that I tell them everything. When I went to medical school,
1:12:39 now medical school is a different animal. Medical school is where all of the people from the public
1:12:43 schools go. Public schools are very like, they are not, they don’t have like, they don’t have
1:12:50 English language as like a strong partner, but they are brilliant people. So because they would
1:12:56 mostly the study in Arabic, but they are brilliant and they are very, very, very smart, very sharp.
1:13:02 But then I’ll go there. Now I am the sissy boy from the private school that comes into medical
1:13:09 school. Now I’m an outsider again. And I go into, I go into residency and I pick up salsa.
1:13:17 So now I’m a salsa teacher while being a cardiothoracic surgery resident. And I’m an
1:13:24 outsider for the third time because in salsa, I’m kind of like the respectful doctor. And in
1:13:29 resident, I’m the guy who is just dancing. So and everything, of course, as a medical resident,
1:13:34 you will mess up a lot. Yeah. So they would always like, oh, because you’re a dancer,
1:13:38 oh, because you don’t care about medicine. You just like want to go there and dance with women.
1:13:41 Which is true. Yeah. And so all of my life, I felt that I’m an outsider. I’m not part of
1:13:52 the team. I’m not part of the core group. So where and I have a story that you would love.
1:14:00 Right before my residency, I was so much into salsa. So I asked all of them, I mean,
1:14:06 then you saved that. And I was working in summers and I was doing extra jobs. And I took that money
1:14:11 and I went to Miami in order to learn the way that the casino, which is the Cuban,
1:14:17 kind of like circle salsa kind of thing. And I went there in the summer of 2001. And my return
1:14:25 ticket was 9/12/2001. The universe is a sense of humor, I gotta tell you that. 9/12. I was supposed
1:14:37 to be on a plane coming back to Egypt. What happens? Thank God, I ran out of money 10 days
1:14:42 before that. Just like, all right, I changed my ticket and I came back. 9/11. I’m kind of like,
1:14:49 my mom, wake up! Wake up! What? What? It’s like, and I see like the two tower four and it was like,
1:14:56 I’m almost like, oh, you’re here, you’re here, you’re here. And I was like, I could have been
1:15:03 in Guantanamo right now. Fly at 9/12. And by the way, I was in Miami. They went to the flying
1:15:11 school in Miami. So I mean, I had like 9/11 written all over my face. You’d be all over the news.
1:15:19 All over the news. And my mom was like, what? He went there to dance salsa? I didn’t know that
1:15:23 salsa is like a name for terrorist. Why salsa? Why did that attract you? And what, like, can you
1:15:30 explain what salsa is? So I mentioned to you offline that I’ve been doing a little bit of tango,
1:15:34 trying to learn it. Yeah, like, you know, Samba salsa, Pachata, marina, it’s kind of like Latin
1:15:39 dances. And it’s like, you know, I don’t know how you describe salsa. Couple dance on Latin beats.
1:15:48 And I did it because I once, I, and I talk about that in my Arabic standup comedy, not the English,
1:15:56 I talk about like how I was, you know, I didn’t have like really like a great like social life.
1:16:04 And I, my friends went there one day and then I go into a place which it was called El Getunegro.
1:16:11 No, no, it was called Big Fat Black Pussycat. And then I think they thought it would be like,
1:16:18 racist or something, so it should change it to El Getunegro. Anyway, so.
1:16:21 Great, great. Great decision. I know. So I went there and said, damn, music and women
1:16:31 and my doctor, a doctor dancing salsa, that is a chick magnet. Yeah, 100%. We do, you know,
1:16:38 we do everything for that. All of humans. Even power, even money. All the wars we’ve been talking
1:16:44 about. At the end of the day. The approval from the other sex. We are, we are babies. We are terrible
1:16:52 people. So of course, like, I mean, that was like, that was like great. But then I, as, as a nerd,
1:17:00 I went in so hard and now I became a salsa teacher. Yeah. And I earned more money from salsa more
1:17:07 than I did as a doctor. I didn’t know this part of you. That’s hilarious. You know, I was, I was
1:17:13 making, I was making a killing amount of money, like huge amount of money. And I was just like,
1:17:19 you know, I would go finish my, my, my shift and I go to the salsa class. And sometimes I would have
1:17:23 like 70 people in my salsa class. Oh, wow. I had like the biggest salsa class in Egypt in the beginning
1:17:29 of 2000. And it was fantastic. And it was an outlet because you go there and there’s the shifts
1:17:35 and people dying. Damn. And he goes salsa. You must have been good. I was okay. I was cool. I was
1:17:43 fun. There were people better than me, but I have a thing about teaching. I like teaching people.
1:17:48 So you, you mentioned heart surgery. So what motivated you to become a doctor?
1:17:53 It was a choice of exclusion. I mean, there’s nothing else you can do with these high grades
1:17:58 other than doctor and engineering. I hate math. So go be a doctor. This is the Middle East. What
1:18:05 do you expect? You see there, like I, in my joke and my show, I said, like, there’s, it can be one
1:18:10 of three things in the Middle East, a doctor, an engineer or a disappointment. It is, that is the
1:18:14 choices that you have. So years after. You damn good at it though. That’s a hard path though.
1:18:28 Yeah. And it’s, it’s a fascinating one. Can I tell you something? Yes. That’s actually, I was
1:18:33 thinking about why did I actually go into medicine and why did I always choose the hardest thing
1:18:38 although I didn’t love it. And I have to tell you that I had an epiphany only two weeks ago.
1:18:43 And I don’t know if that’s actually related or not. You know, remember when I told you,
1:18:48 I went to this school and I didn’t have that much money and I didn’t have the luxury of time
1:18:54 or money to be with those people and do what they do. So by the time I finished school and
1:19:00 everybody was going to university, oh, everybody in my school went to the AUC, the American
1:19:05 University in Cairo, of course. Like American education, party time, like, I mean, of course,
1:19:13 they’re brilliant and everything, but they have, they have a different, you know, social life.
1:19:17 And part of me, now I, I kind of like, I realized that just like very, very recently,
1:19:25 maybe I went to the hardest school ever. So I don’t have space to use other than studying.
1:19:35 Because if I have that much space, what I’m going to do with it. I don’t have that much
1:19:39 freedom, I don’t have that much money. I’m not, I can’t compete with those people going out.
1:19:43 So maybe I need a solid excuse that I’m in a place where I don’t have that much of a spare time.
1:19:50 Is it also possible? I like how this is a therapy session where we’re psychoanalyzing you.
1:19:55 Is it also possible that you always just pick the hardest thing you could possibly do?
1:19:59 Maybe. But maybe that’s the Piers Morgan thing too.
1:20:04 Like what? Maybe, but like when I left Egypt and I came here, I still had the choice to go back
1:20:08 to medicine. But I hated it. I hated medicine traumatized me. The amount of like, you give up,
1:20:16 you know, my brother in Egypt, he had a daughter, she’s a brilliant basketball player. She is in
1:20:21 the national team, amazing. I used to play basketball also in the Egyptian league, but I never,
1:20:26 I was kind of like my favorite position in the court was the bench. And I was not as good as her,
1:20:33 but she, and then, and then he, it was time for her to go into college. And he, he didn’t talk to
1:20:41 me for six weeks. I said, man, tell me what’s happened to Farida, which college, like I didn’t
1:20:46 want to tell you, she went into medicine. I said, what medicine? Why did he do it? Because he knows
1:20:50 how I hated it. I was traumatized. And I said, like, dude, she’s a basketball player. Make her go
1:20:56 like to an easy school. So that’s kind of. He still did it. He still did it. I still did it,
1:21:02 but I don’t know. Is it because of the difficulty or because, because of what I told you, maybe I
1:21:08 needed something, maybe because I was not very confident in my social life. So I needed a distraction
1:21:15 not to be, to have that much of a social life. Oh, wow. Okay. You understand? Yeah. Uh-huh. It’s,
1:21:20 it’s kind of loud because I will always have an excuse. I’m sorry. I have something. I have exams.
1:21:24 And I don’t know. I kind of like self sabotaged my own thing because I couldn’t compete with,
1:21:30 with those people on, on the outing and the money and whatever. So I need an excuse to
1:21:34 be like, oh, he’s a doctor. He’s studying. At least in your own mind, you couldn’t compete.
1:21:38 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, I, I always felt as less because I mean, I, I didn’t have any girlfriends in,
1:21:44 in, in school. I had a very latent life and everything to me came to life. So I always felt
1:21:49 even stand up comedy. It came very late to me in life. So I always feel that I’m not good enough.
1:21:55 I feel that I didn’t spend the time of, to build the foundation that other comedians do.
1:22:01 So I always feel that I am too lucky. I always feel that this is a fleeting thing. And when I
1:22:09 went, had the, the, the height and the fall, the fall or in Egypt, when I would like the top of,
1:22:15 of everything I was like, so, so famous. And then everything was taken away from me. That’s like,
1:22:19 oh, you see, I told you, that’s happens when you don’t build foundation, you fall. So I always
1:22:24 feel that I, that I am not good enough. Or if I am in a position where people think I am deep
1:22:31 inside, I’m not, you know, that I have a speech impediment that I was not meant to be a TV presenter.
1:22:36 I have an air in Arabic. It’s very obvious. I cannot roll my Rs.
1:22:41 I cannot say er, I cannot roll it. So in Arabic, like Spanish, it’s very obvious.
1:22:47 So when I did my first video on the internet that made me famous, and then I got my television
1:22:52 deed back there, there in Egypt, my partner at the time, he took the video and you went to a
1:22:57 producer. I said, like, are you giving me a guy with a lisp? He couldn’t, he should, that’s why
1:23:02 when I came on television, I was the first ever guy with a lisp. I had two things going for me,
1:23:06 the lisp and the big nose. And I was always bullied for two, for these two all the time. So I always
1:23:11 felt less. See, but that’s a foundation of like, creating a great person. Yeah. Because if you’re
1:23:18 pretty, you don’t need to do much. I probably wouldn’t recommend it, but it is, it is true that
1:23:28 if you are pretty, do some disfigurement. Find the flaws and be extremely self critical about them.
1:23:38 So you saw John Stewart on TV for the first time in 2003, I believe. How did that change your life?
1:23:47 I was in a gym and I was running on the treadmill. And at that time, CNN was coming out on like,
1:23:54 on cable. And I was watching and there is this studio, I don’t know what it is. So I put
1:24:02 the earphones on and I started watching. And I was so taken by this, that I stopped the treadmill
1:24:11 and I just like stood for the 20 minutes like this on the treadmill. And then I just like
1:24:16 standing there. I didn’t know what we always use saying. I didn’t understand what is Democrats,
1:24:21 what is Republicans, what is, what the, those names that he’s saying, what is Fox News? I don’t
1:24:25 understand. But I was fascinated. There was something, you know, when you don’t understand
1:24:30 the music, but you get the rhythm, it was that. I wonder what that is that you saw. It’s like the
1:24:36 timing of the humor. I mean, there is, John Stewart is one of a kind, like his biting criticism of
1:24:44 power, I would say, and also ability to highlight the absurdity of it all.
1:24:48 But you understand, I didn’t understand any of that. But I didn’t understand any of the references.
1:24:52 But it is the rhythm. The rhythm. You know, sometimes when you even see like a comedy,
1:24:58 that is the language you don’t understand, but there’s a rhythm. There’s something,
1:25:05 there’s something in the music. So there’s something with the videos and the pictures and
1:25:10 he and the face and people reacting. What is this? What is this? What is this? And we had the global
1:25:18 edition. So I went to the YouTube and I just like started to kind of like, watch every single episode
1:25:23 that I can. I said, like, do you think we can have this in Egypt? I said, never. And then 2011,
1:25:29 like I had a friend of mine who was also a YouTube partner. It was something new at the time. He said,
1:25:35 like, let’s do something on the internet. Let’s do something. I said, I want to do John Stewart.
1:25:40 Do Ray William Johnson, John Stewart will not work. I was like, I want to do John Stewart.
1:25:44 Yeah. So that was in there. Yeah, it was in there. And I did it and it worked.
1:25:51 Can you talk about 2011? I mean, what is the Arab Spring? What is it? People here in America, you know?
1:25:58 Depends on which side. Does something happen or what?
1:26:03 Depends which side of the equation you are. Because for a lot of people,
1:26:09 it’s a conspiracy. It’s American made. It is the Muslim Brotherhood. It’s the Islamist.
1:26:13 It is Israel. It is everything else other than people. Oh, but it’s a pure revolution. It’s a
1:26:18 pure. I think we put too much weight on conspiracies. I think it is normal human behavior that then
1:26:28 become get maybe used or abused or taken advantage of by other powers. And then the conspiracy
1:26:35 starts. But at the time, the Arab Spring didn’t start in Egypt. It starts in Tunisia.
1:26:41 Boaziz, a fruit vendor, burned himself up like the American soldiers who did that a few days ago.
1:26:50 And that kind of sparked protests in Tunisia. And Ben Ali was a dictator in Tunisia for about
1:26:57 like 20 years and they removed him. So suddenly it was kind of like a domino effect. So then
1:27:03 Egypt started and it just took 18 days. And you know, people hindsight is 2020. Say inside,
1:27:10 like you know, just Mubarak became like a burden on the military because the military are the real
1:27:14 rulers of the country. You might have a president that kind of like have certain powers. But at the
1:27:19 end of the day, when the military sees that a certain president is like too much of a burden,
1:27:23 too much of like a, you know, so like they cut him off. And Mubarak is the leader of Egypt at the time.
1:27:29 He was there for 30 years. 30 years. By the way, speaking of which, because it was a joke and you
1:27:33 marked Twain’s speech, I got teary-eyed just watching that. That was great. You’re like
1:27:38 fucking great. Like what you did when Mark Twain awards for John Stewart. It’s great. I mean,
1:27:43 your comedy is great in general. And I wanted to go to your show. I definitely will. But that’s
1:27:49 like a little stroll in the complete tangent of just the masterful introduction and celebration
1:27:54 of John Stewart. Anyway, Mubarak. And it’s the joke that I say also like Mubarak had like was
1:28:01 a president for 30 years. Like, oh my God, he had a president for 30 years. Like it’s the Middle
1:28:04 East. It’s a very short first term. It’s like, it’s like we’re still warming up. And I thought
1:28:09 of like, we need to plan ahead. We need to plan our, our, our, our vacations, our careers, our
1:28:14 jail time. It’s just like we need to. So, so we had kind of like the shortest, nicest revolution,
1:28:23 18 days. And we thought, oh, 18 days, we can change the country in 18 days. So, but of course,
1:28:28 we were naive and we had this kind of hope. So, Mubarak was removed. There was an interim period
1:28:33 by the military took it for one year. Then they did elections. Muslim Brotherhood came to power.
1:28:37 They stayed for one, one, one year. And then the military removed them. And in these three years,
1:28:46 my show started. It started by kind of like a YouTube video. It became famous overnight.
1:28:53 Overnight, five to six videos, boom, went out. And at that time, I was waiting to get my clearance
1:29:00 to go to Cleveland. I, I, I was the accepted in a fellowship as a pediatric heart surgery in a,
1:29:06 in a hospital in Cleveland. And, and I said, all right, I’m just going to do a couple of videos.
1:29:11 Maybe I’m going to put it on the internet. And maybe after a year or two, after I come back
1:29:14 from the fellowship, somebody will come, Hey, why don’t you write a show that looks like John
1:29:17 Stewart? That was my main, took five weeks. I had my first contract of television and overnight,
1:29:24 the exposure and over the next two, three years, I had 30 to 40 million people watch,
1:29:30 30 to 40 million people watching every episode. A lot of this like, wow, that’s too much. That
1:29:36 is terrifying. Because it means that there are 30 million people who have an opinion about you.
1:29:42 You said there’s a lot of aspects of that sudden thing that were just toxic. It’s toxic. It’s
1:29:48 unnatural. It’s unnatural. When people started to recognize me in the street and take pictures,
1:29:53 I was awkward. It’s like, why do you want to have a picture with me? Why? Why is it because I didn’t
1:29:58 feel that I’m worthy enough to be like a reward for someone to have a picture. And I didn’t
1:30:02 understand it. I was actually, I was kind of an ass sometimes because people thought it was arrogant.
1:30:07 No, it was confusion. And I remember like my director and my producers and people are,
1:30:12 they always saw me in a very bad mood. It’s like, why are you, why are you not enjoying this?
1:30:19 It’s like, because this is not natural. This is not natural. This adoration, this love, and this
1:30:24 have to end somehow. And it did. And in, because at a certain point, you are human. You, and people
1:30:34 kind of, the adoration and the fun and the love comes because they see you saying stuff because
1:30:39 you do your job basically. Political satire is basically us making fun of politicians in the
1:30:44 media. And a lot of people have a really strong opinions about politicians in the media. So we
1:30:49 came that we articulate that and we give it to them and we make them laugh. So for them, we made
1:30:54 a great job. So why don’t you do more? But you are limited. And at a certain time, you can’t.
1:31:02 And at a certain time, you’re afraid because we’re humans. Because you’re afraid about like,
1:31:06 if I continue speaking up, not like something will happen to me. I’m kind of like, maybe have
1:31:11 some protection because I’m, I’m folk, people see me, but what are the people around you?
1:31:16 And we, I’ve seen that. So that’s why at a certain point it’s like, that’s it. I can’t.
1:31:22 I mean, there’s a lot of things to say there, but one of the difficult things of fame
1:31:26 in your situation is you’re not just having fun. You’re criticizing power.
1:31:31 Yeah. And, and, and, and it is loved by the people, but it comes with a price because at a
1:31:37 certain price, if the power is too strong and you’re not into a situation or a system that
1:31:43 allows that, that gives you that kind of safety. So what happened? What happened? I was, so when,
1:31:53 so the height of my fame, when the Muslim brothers were, brotherhood was in power.
1:31:59 And at that time they had their media and I had one show. I had like one hour per week and they
1:32:04 had five channels, 24/7. And they were like, you know, I’m, I’m, I’m, I’m, I’m, John Stewart
1:32:10 said it beautifully one. It’s like, we say shit and you say shit. And we just say shit better than
1:32:15 you. This is exactly what John Stewart was like. We’re just better. We’re better at saying shit
1:32:20 back. So, so basically I had one hour and they had like the five thing that they were like, you
1:32:24 know, they’re calling me all kinds of names, not just me, like all their enemies, you know.
1:32:28 And then I just had one hour and I would kind of like annihilate them in one hour a week.
1:32:32 So at a certain point they would, they would even like kind of be the side with the army against
1:32:40 the, the, the, the kind of the, the, the, the liberal secular, whatever you call it. And at a
1:32:45 certain point the army kind of like flipped everybody. Like kind of like the, the, the, the,
1:32:50 the, the, the, the, yeah, yeah, they removed the Muslim brotherhood. They came to power and we,
1:32:55 I, I can, I have to say, I admitted, I supported that in the beginning because I had daily threats.
1:33:01 I had, I was actually interrogated and arrested under the Muslim brotherhood. I was in, in an
1:33:06 interrogation for six hours and they were asking me about my jokes and I used that in my stand-up
1:33:10 comedy, describing exactly what happened in the six hours and it is so funny. Okay. Well, it’s hilarious.
1:33:17 But what, it’s slow down. You were interrogated by the brotherhood. The general prosecutor,
1:33:23 the general prosecutor, and it was based because of complaints by the, the officials in the government
1:33:28 because in order to the general prosecutor to do it, it has to have a high up mandate to bring
1:33:33 that person to questioning. So they went through kind of official channels? Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely.
1:33:38 So it’s all, yeah, it was official. It was legal, very legal. So I went there and, and I, and I asked,
1:33:44 and, and it’s kind of like a bunch of like insulting Islam, insulting president,
1:33:49 spreading false rumors. And I went there and I, and it was funny because I go into the building
1:33:53 where there’s police officers and their judges and all of them are big fans of the show.
1:33:57 And some of them were taking pictures of me and then I’m sitting there and it was the most ridiculous
1:34:03 interview ever because he was asking me about my jokes. It’s like, what did you mean by this joke?
1:34:07 And it’s like, nothing. It was there for six hours. He’s just reading your jokes. He was reading my
1:34:15 joke and he’s reading the jokes and the junior judge is sitting there like cracking up. I remember
1:34:21 that. That’s dark. It’s, it’s kind of like, and I’m laughing, but in the same time, it’s like the
1:34:30 whole situation is ridiculous. But then at the end, I was released on bail. So I went back to my show
1:34:35 and I make fun of that. And you have to be honest, the Muslim Brotherhood were in power,
1:34:40 but Egypt was like right out of the revolution for there was kind of like an equal
1:34:44 spread of power between the people. There was not like someone who would come in and just like,
1:34:50 the Muslim Brotherhood, we didn’t have that power yet, but there were kind of
1:34:53 people so that they were moving towards that. And then the tension rose and then there was like a
1:34:58 kind of a, a confrontation between them and the army. And then a lot of people were killed in the
1:35:02 street. It was terrible massacre. And, and then suddenly I am blamed for all of that. It’s like,
1:35:08 you made fun of us. So now it made it easier for people to kill. It’s like, dude, come on,
1:35:13 you’re doing that to me too. I just did it better than you. And the fact that you sided with the
1:35:17 same people that flipped against you, that’s not my fault. Did you criticize the army at all?
1:35:22 Yeah. So after that show, I did like one episode against the army and I was canceled the next day.
1:35:27 And then I went to another channel did 16 episodes in a different season. And it was, I was walking
1:35:33 on eggshells. And then it was canceled again. And then my, the production company that was doing
1:35:39 my show that we severed ties because they’re, we didn’t have the show. They had their, their
1:35:44 offices raided. I have people like having death threats. So I woke up one day, 11th of November,
1:35:49 2014. And my lawyer said, like, leave the country right now. There is this legal case that we,
1:35:56 that they kind of like, they’re coming for you. But I said, like, you cannot, it was an arbitration
1:36:01 case. And I lost against Mike, Mike, the channel that basically canceled me. And it’s like, I don’t
1:36:06 know, but there’s no jail time in arbitration. It’s like, yeah, tell that to the judge, just leave.
1:36:10 So I jumped on a plane. The verdict was 12 noon, 11 November, five
1:36:16 afternoon. I was on a plane, left Egypt, and I never came back since then.
1:36:19 Was there a worry of non legal things like assassination?
1:36:28 I can tell you something. I was so stressed because of the show, because of everything.
1:36:33 I sometimes I would wake up in the morning and I hope that like bullet will come and finish
1:36:37 everything because I was so stressed. It’s like, I would love because I’m too much
1:36:42 of a chicken to kill myself. So I would like rather have someone else do it for me.
1:36:46 So I, I, I was, I was so under so much pressure. And I remember the day that like my show was
1:36:55 canceled indefinitely, the second time under the army. And I was like, I don’t have to worry
1:37:02 about what kind of script I have to write next week. Because this is, you know, remember when
1:37:06 you asked me about like that tweet, but like all of the same, this accusation doesn’t bother me.
1:37:11 Infidels by a secret, you Zionist, the Slamo Nazi. That’s bullshit. What is really,
1:37:21 what really leaves a mark is the criticism to your craft and your work. So if you’re not funny,
1:37:27 goes deeper. Yeah, certain things get to you better than others, especially if you have like
1:37:34 a secret suspicion that you are like, maybe not funny. Maybe I’m not, because I was putting to
1:37:40 that is like, because that toast to your insecurities is like, I know, but you shouldn’t say it out loud.
1:37:47 You shouldn’t say the truth out loud. But what about the weight of the responsibility of
1:37:55 speaking truth to power? So like walking on eggshells, like what did that feel like? Well,
1:38:00 after the Muslim Brotherhood were removed, you have to understand like when the military coup
1:38:07 happened, it was a very popular coup. Like people love the army. In Egypt, the army is more sacred
1:38:13 than the religion. People love the army. So me going against the army was, I mean,
1:38:20 the Muslim Brotherhood was not very popular. They were popular before their own bases.
1:38:24 But people accepted the fact that like we make fun of them. But Ceci at that time, he was a god.
1:38:29 And I used to go to this high class club called Ghizira Club. And this is basically kind of like
1:38:36 the kind of upper middle class, upper class kind of people. And during that year of the
1:38:43 Muslim Brotherhood, I was the most popular ever. People come, yeah. When the military came in,
1:38:49 people were walking to me like pointing their fingers like, don’t speak about Ceci,
1:38:53 don’t speak about the army. We love you now. But don’t you do it like that.
1:38:57 So I called John Steward just like, I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do.
1:39:04 And at that time, all of the channels were like closed down, all of the
1:39:08 individuals, I was the only one left because it was difficult for them to get rid of me very
1:39:12 quickly because I was too popular. It was kind of like peace, peace-mealing kind of like go.
1:39:18 And I remember it’s like, I don’t know what to do. He said like, you don’t have to do anything,
1:39:23 just your safety comes first. And he said, but I can’t, I mean, I’ve been doing that for two years.
1:39:29 And I kind of just like say, bye-bye guys. I have a responsibility, I have a team,
1:39:33 I have people working for me. And I also, I cannot just like disappear.
1:39:39 And he said, the most interesting thing ever. And say, if you’re afraid of something,
1:39:46 make fun about the fact that you’re afraid of it. Instead of talking about that something.
1:39:52 So there was like a whole episode that we did not even mention Ceci.
1:39:57 We did not even mention it, but the videos did all the thing. And the whole episode was me
1:40:02 trying to avoid talking about it. And that’s how the comedy was created. The fact that I don’t
1:40:09 want to be here. And so he said, like, if you will be surprised how people can relate to that,
1:40:15 because there was a lot of kind of like, oh, we love him, but we feel we cannot speak.
1:40:20 So just by doing the simple thing about premiering the society, that goes a long way.
1:40:29 And I kind of tried to do what I can under the military. I mean, they came up with
1:40:34 a machine that treats AIDS and hepatitis C virus. And basically every single end. And I went to
1:40:45 town with that. Because people think that he doesn’t really have to go in to go
1:40:53 to the bigger post like, you’re an asshole. No, you talk about their propaganda. You talk about
1:40:59 what they want people to perceive them at. And it’s a failure. And for that, that kind of hit them
1:41:06 even more. Because what do authoritarian figures do? They work on two things, fear
1:41:12 and propaganda. And from that, it gets the perspective. So when you go into their propaganda
1:41:19 and expose them, they have nothing else. That’s brilliant. So like you are walking on actuals,
1:41:23 but you’re doing it masterfully, that you’re revealing sort of the flaws in the propaganda,
1:41:28 the absurdity of the propaganda and so doing or criticizing them. And this is why comedy is very
1:41:32 specific, because people say, you were not as hard on him as you were in the Muslim Brotherhood.
1:41:37 Yes, because on the Muslim Brotherhood, we were just like, saying shit to each other. Yeah.
1:41:41 But now the ceiling was like here. So it’s kind of like, how can you do something from here?
1:41:47 Yeah, exactly. That’s the art form. In the Soviet Union, under Stalin, a lot of the criticism came
1:41:54 from children’s stories and children’s cartoons. Double meaning, double in the window stuff,
1:42:02 that means other stuff. That is the brilliance. But everyone knows. Everyone knows. Because you
1:42:10 are like putting a mirror. You’re mirroring the society. It’s fascinating. And that’s why I was
1:42:14 tensed twice. And that is a scary one, the army. You see that in Ukraine. Everybody supports the
1:42:22 army. That’s why Zelensky getting rid of the head of the army was a big, big deal. It’s a really
1:42:30 dangerous thing. Because everyone was afraid to say anything negative about the army, especially
1:42:35 during war in that case. And in this case, maybe there’s civil war, that kind of thing. But think
1:42:40 about it. Actually, an army during peace is much more dangerous. Because think about it. I don’t
1:42:45 really have an enemy to fight. But I have all of this power, all of this tank. Why is this
1:42:50 actor have more money than me? Yeah. I’m protecting him. Why does this businessman think that he can
1:42:57 get on his private plane and go to Paris? And why I’m here sitting like not having all of these
1:43:03 things? So, and there’s a lot of time on your hand because your job is to go fight. When you don’t
1:43:10 go fight. And we when you have the lack of that’s why that’s one of the things I love the United
1:43:15 States about is the fact that the army cannot really get power. But the kind of like the army
1:43:20 is the power is actually in the military industrial complex, which is a different issue. Yeah. It’s
1:43:25 kind of like a different kind of issue. But if you have all of that power, like why am I sitting
1:43:29 around just like playing guard for you guys? That’s why Iran is terrifying. Because you have
1:43:34 this military that it just becomes a police force that turns against its own people. Yeah.
1:43:39 So you’re, you’re a famous guy talking shit in the middle of all that. Yeah. And I when I left,
1:43:48 I went through a very dark side, dark, dark, dark, because all of the insecurities, all of the stuff
1:43:54 that had been like working on my head now came to life. And now I’m in America and I’m a nobody.
1:43:59 I’m a nobody. And now it’s like, I have to do something, have to earn some money. So I started
1:44:04 to stand up comedy five years ago. And I sucked because it was my second language and I was new.
1:44:11 And now I will go to these comedy clubs was like kids on 21, 22 people. And then I’m there with
1:44:16 a family to support that I’m going there to do it for $15, $20. And I was bad. You’re, you’re,
1:44:23 you’re bombing bombing big time, eating shit, eating big time, dying up there big time. And I
1:44:29 would go back home and I would cry. And then what made it worse is sometimes, like a fan,
1:44:35 like not a fan, a bunch of fans from Egypt. Oh, that’s the music. They come.
1:44:39 Yeah. That kind of like face of adoration that goes.
1:44:48 And I could see it in their face. I think he’s going to drive an Uber in a couple of weeks.
1:44:58 That’s that kind of pressure. And I would go when I would cry. And, and I, and then the central,
1:45:05 oh, you left, you, you, you, you gave up, you’re a sellout, you’re a coward. Why don’t you speak
1:45:11 from abroad? You’re, you’re safe now. Like I, I don’t, I already spoke. I don’t want to be,
1:45:16 because I don’t want to be an activist. I was doing that for comedy, because when it was good
1:45:21 for everybody, but now they want me to go go into YouTube and just like throw rocks from outside.
1:45:26 I was like, you know, I understand. I have family there. And, and, and it was this kind of like
1:45:32 thing, like that I am being like attacked for not doing what I should do in their face and
1:45:39 attacked for not being funny and not doing good being. And now I’m a fan. Like maybe it was wrong.
1:45:43 And I was, I didn’t know. I really, it was so traumatic that I don’t know actually how I went
1:45:50 through these years. And I blocked so many details from my brain because I have been using this
1:45:57 technique for a while now that I have been erasing a lot of my, there is a lot of memory gaps
1:46:04 in my brain. And I’m trying to suppress it because it was very, very, very traumatic.
1:46:10 And a lot of people told me, you have to go to therapy, but I, I don’t, I can’t, I don’t know.
1:46:16 I, I’m, I’m worried to open the floodgates and I’m thinking as if I’m functional and I’m not
1:46:21 killing anybody, I’m okay. It’s like, I think Elon tweeted, uh, never went to therapy. It’s
1:46:29 going to be on my headstone. Yeah. To your best buds. Okay. Uh, I mean, that is like
1:46:38 terrifyingly difficult to, like after being a surgeon, after being a superstar, super famous,
1:46:47 going to eat shit at local tiny clubs in the United States. I mean, eating shit, period.
1:46:54 Yeah. Like bombing is really, really, really difficult, really difficult for 20 year olds.
1:47:01 Imagine when you’re 45, 46, and the, and then people’s like, is this his midlife crisis? What is
1:47:07 this? I, I, I, I went through a lot of pain and a lot of like the doubts and it was terrible.
1:47:17 Wait, I mean, how did you survive? I mean, I know you blocked off most of it,
1:47:22 but what, what gave you like strength through all that?
1:47:24 Because I didn’t have any other choice because I started that. And the only reason that I could
1:47:29 is to continue. I, I, I, I don’t know what else to do. I don’t want to go back to medicine.
1:47:34 I don’t want to go. I don’t, I don’t want to do that. And I don’t, I don’t know. I was,
1:47:38 and bit by bit, bit by bit, I started to kind of like be better, be better, be better. And I was,
1:47:45 at a certain time, a year ago, a year ago, this is where I started to kind of like hone the craft
1:47:52 and kind of sell more tickets and sometimes even sell out some shows and sometimes sell a theater.
1:47:57 So like it was going and the money was flowing and it was good. And then I was like, why didn’t I,
1:48:04 I wanted faster, I wanted more, I wanted now, I wanted, I want Netflix deal or whatever.
1:48:09 And then the piece Morgan thing happened and then I blew up and then suddenly I’m selling
1:48:12 out everywhere. And it’s like, ah, if those people came, if that, that, that the war happened
1:48:17 two years ago, I will not be ready. So now they come to the show. And by the way, my show
1:48:23 had nothing to do with October 7th. My show is my thing that I’ve been crafting and working on,
1:48:28 you know, how difficult it is to do the first hour, that the hour that I’ve been working on for
1:48:33 five years. And it’s all my personal story, all of what like what happened to me, to me as an immigrant
1:48:38 coming here to the United States, finding Trump as a president, finding myself in the middle of a
1:48:42 gun rally, finding myself in the middle of a bombing, kind of like talking about how I got
1:48:46 my citizenship. It’s all like funny stories. I want like my origin story. So they come in
1:48:51 and they expect October 7th and all of she’s my personal story, but it’s good and it kills and
1:48:55 they love it. It’s like, if that, if that kind of like blew up in America happened to me two,
1:48:59 three years ago, I would not have people who come and be disappointed. So I gotta say the timing
1:49:04 of October 7th is very suspicious. Oh my God, please don’t say that. I don’t know. I’m just asking
1:49:10 questions. I don’t know. I’m telling you, one of the funniest thing, a guy, I was in Dubai
1:49:16 and like a TV anchor came to me, pass him, you sif, he flourishes during revolutions and war is
1:49:21 like, what, what, what, dude, you’re, you’re making me sound like a bad omen, a very bad omen.
1:49:28 Yeah, you, Hamas and BB together orchestrated all of this. Oh my God, that’s the, that’s the
1:49:34 trilogy. You guys should go on the road together telling you that phone call is coming. Yeah,
1:49:41 but Hamas has to open. And they would really bomb, right? They would really bomb.
1:49:47 I love dark humor. You do a show like you were saying in English and in Arabic. So and the story
1:49:59 is very different, totally different, two different stories. I would love to just the language
1:50:03 difference because it’s the music of the language is also different. So like what, what’s, how can
1:50:09 you convert it into words? But what’s, what’s the difference in the music of the languages? I’ll
1:50:13 tell you because I thought about that a lot. So when I was doing the English first, I was,
1:50:23 I actually had good jokes, but I was missing the delivery because the cadence and the music
1:50:29 and the rhythm is different. The way that an English speaking American member of audience
1:50:35 will receive it, it will be different than how I receive it, the energy, everything’s different.
1:50:39 So when I kind of like got it,
1:50:43 I didn’t know how to switch back to Arabic. Oh, wow. Yeah, fascinating. Because easy thing,
1:50:53 with English stand up comedy, English, you have a huge library, you have like a legacy,
1:50:56 you have like years and years and years and years of people doing comedy. But in Arabic,
1:50:59 it’s a very new, very new to us. And most of the Arabic stand up comedy, especially in Egypt, is
1:51:04 very tamed. This is kind of like, imagine the stand up comedy scene in American 1960s before
1:51:13 Lenny Bruce. So no swearing conservative. I don’t know, wearing nothing conservative,
1:51:18 everything. Yeah, it’s kind of like very, so I didn’t know what to do there.
1:51:23 So I broke the bars, I became Lenny Bruce, I became a George Conn, so I went in and I went
1:51:29 and I, and I changed the whole thing. Seven words, you know, for me, there are 15 words.
1:51:34 Arabic is a very rich language. So when I did, here’s the difference between the Arabic and the
1:51:45 English show. The English show, surprise, surprise, is a unifying language, even for a group of Arabs.
1:51:53 So if I give the same exact show to the same 1000 audience members in the same theater,
1:52:00 and there are same people, same makeup of like Lebanese, Egyptian, Syrian, Saudis, English
1:52:07 will be a unifying language. Arabic is a dividing language because you have 22 dialects and the
1:52:13 dialects are vastly different. And like, maybe Egyptians understand a little bit of Lebanese,
1:52:17 but not that much, but the references, Algerian, Moroccan, Tunisian, totally different animal.
1:52:22 That’s like a totally different language. Saudi, Emirati, Kuwaiti, totally different.
1:52:26 People understand the Egyptian dialect because it’s the dialect of most of the
1:52:29 artwork and the movies, but the reference in the everyday street talk might not be
1:52:34 understood by them. So now I have to go in and talk to all of these dialects together.
1:52:41 So I formed my big, big part of my show is like, what are you guys expecting of this?
1:52:48 This is what, this is, we gonna, when I go do profanity and you’re gonna like it.
1:52:53 This is the problem with the show as a dialect. And I construct all of these sentences formed
1:53:00 of so different, different words. For example, an iron in any, in any, in any Arab dialect is
1:53:08 an iron. In Saudi Arabia, it means ass. That’s one example. That’s one example, you know.
1:53:14 So imagine if you can actually construct sentences having all of these things in one
1:53:18 set. So I would, I would construct like a whole section of my show about that.
1:53:23 So it’s really very much about like self-reflective on language and the limits of language that’s
1:53:28 allowed. And the limits of language. And I tell them, part of the show is like, I know what’s
1:53:32 the problem with me doing Arabic. It’s like, if this was an English show and I was telling you,
1:53:35 fuck and shit, I bet you’ll be, ha, ha, ha, ha. But if I do one swear words, all of you will
1:53:39 cringe. Yeah. It’s like, why is it, is it because we are ashamed for only, so it’s kind of like,
1:53:46 it is, it’s not just like about swearing. It’s about like, there’s a lot of philosophical
1:53:50 pathways in this. Yeah. There’s profanity and we, we, we, people have fun, whatever. But like,
1:53:55 it is about like, what does it, how do we treat our language? And I tell them, we speak Arabic
1:54:00 as Arabs, but it’s not the same Arabic. It’s crazy, right? And you’re doing the show in America
1:54:05 also, which is another level of. Oh yeah. Actually, the Arab diaspora in America is some of the best
1:54:10 audiences I have. They are like, wonderful. And they come from, and I did, and I do, and I did it
1:54:16 also in the Middle East. And maybe I’ll do like an Arab tour in the Middle East in the fall.
1:54:21 Which countries would you go to or not? I would, Jordan, Lebanon, I’m doing UAE, I’m doing Kuwait,
1:54:29 Egypt, Bahrain, Egypt, I don’t think so. I don’t think so. Is it personal? Is it
1:54:36 worry about your safety? Well, I have the American citizenship right now. So I am relatively safe.
1:54:44 There’s a bloc. Honestly, there’s a bloc. There’s a person, there’s, there’s, there’s so much that
1:54:50 happened. And I don’t, and I never, I know never bad mouth each, this is my country. There’s some,
1:54:55 like it has all of my marriage, 40 years of my life I lived there. But when you get hurt so much,
1:55:02 instead of trying to kind of, I don’t want to take revenge, I don’t want to like that, I just want
1:55:08 to avoid. Because Egypt gave me so much fame and so much love and so much hate and so much rejection.
1:55:14 It is a very, it was a very tumulus relationship. Very, very difficult. And it’s a, and a lot of
1:55:23 people tell me, well, don’t you miss Egypt? And I tell them every time, the Egypt that I miss is not
1:55:28 there anymore. It’s not bad or good. It’s not worse or better. It’s just, I’m different. And the
1:55:33 places are different. And the people are different. And their circumstances are different. Whatever
1:55:37 image I had you have of what you love is not there anymore. That’s why a lot of immigrants,
1:55:41 especially Arab immigrants, they, they live here, but they’re there. And then when they go back
1:55:47 for a vacation, they get disappointed because they didn’t find what they want. And then they come
1:55:51 back here and they’re disappointed because this is what they want to come back, but it’s not there
1:55:55 anymore. Yeah. Their view of that place is from a different time. I have that, you know, my parents,
1:56:04 but everybody that left the Soviet Union, I mean, it’s such a complicated relationship with that.
1:56:10 It’s sometimes borders on hate, disappointment in the, in the case of the Soviet Union,
1:56:18 perhaps similar to Egypt is the promises sold when you were younger and the promises broken
1:56:24 by the possibility of what it was supposed to be. With the Soviet Union, I’m sure with Egypt
1:56:29 is the same. Iran is the same. So they have a very complicated relationship with that.
1:56:36 Yeah. That’s why like for them, people from Iran, you know, I remember, I remember quite well the
1:56:40 World Cup that was made in, in the United States. And the Iranian team will play in America. And
1:56:46 there were people, people in the audience or wearing, they hate the regime, but they have this
1:56:52 kind of connection with the country. Yeah. And this is, this is the whole thing. You can actually
1:56:58 love the country and you not have to agree with the regime. Would, would, uh, would you ever
1:57:04 perform in the West Bank? No. Gaza. Because if I go there, I have to go to the Israeli checkpoints
1:57:09 and I don’t want to go through this. I don’t want to have an Israeli soldier telling me what to do.
1:57:14 Yeah. There’s a demeaning aspect to that whole. Very. Even in subtle ways. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,
1:57:19 I have so many Palestinian friends with an American passport, US passport living here.
1:57:24 They are born here and they talk about the humiliation and the intimidation and the harassment
1:57:30 that they go in. It’s like, do you want me to try? Yeah. That little bit of a humiliation.
1:57:36 Little bit. Oh, sometimes it’s major, but I noticed that, you know, even the little bit
1:57:46 is, uh, has the, after a lifetime of that, it can turn to, uh, it can turn to hate towards the other.
1:57:53 Yeah. And resentment. Resentment. And then how do you do anything with that resentment?
1:57:58 I have a friend of mine. He is from Palestine, from the West Bank. He’s American here. He’s
1:58:02 born here. And, uh, we talk about, you know, we have of course all of this discussion of what
1:58:09 would happen. And he tells me, you know, in October 11th in the West Bank, in, in those, uh, a village
1:58:15 called Kosra. And on that village, like the settlers went in around the region. They send
1:58:21 a message on Facebook because like you rats going, they are out of your sewers and we’re
1:58:25 going to be waiting for you intimidation through technology. And then they went, uh, uh, it is,
1:58:32 Kosra have like another, uh, settlement next to it called the Eskodesh. Eskodesh, they have people
1:58:39 there who were training something called Meshmeriti Yisha, which is basically the guardians of Yisha.
1:58:46 And it’s like a paramilitary group that trains other settlers on military combat, give them weapons
1:58:53 and do like military drills. And they went there like militarized and went there. And, and it was
1:58:59 actually co-founded by a Jew from Brooklyn, not even an, an, an, an, an Israeli. And he is like
1:59:07 one of the disciples of Mahir Kahana. I’m sure that you know what Mahir Kahana is. It was the
1:59:12 Jewish defense lead, the people who assassinated Alex Awuda here in the United States. And,
1:59:16 and they were, they were there with their weapons outside, intimidating people. Now,
1:59:22 this story carries everything that is wrong with the situation. You have people from Brooklyn,
1:59:27 from outside, just because they’re Jewish, they can’t come and they can’t claim the land from
1:59:30 the people there. Anybody from Paul, just because he’s Jewish, you can come and take the land from
1:59:34 other people. They’re using technology to intimidate Palestinians. They have unchecked military power.
1:59:40 These are not IDF soldiers. These are settlers and they have free reign in order to intimidate
1:59:45 and to kill the people. And you understand, this is the daily life of Palestinians, not in Gaza,
1:59:51 in the West Bank. What do you do from your, what do we do? What do people do
1:59:56 to nudge this towards peace, towards flourishing? Here’s the thing. I want to talk to
2:00:06 the people of Israel. What is Israel doing right now is not just
2:00:11 unfair to the Palestinians. It’s unfair to the Jewish people in Israel. No, it is unfair to the
2:00:18 Jewish people around the world because the way that Israel links itself to the Jewish Judaism,
2:00:24 at a certain point, you know, remember like ISIS and Qaeda and when everybody hated Muslims,
2:00:30 you know, sometimes humans are simple. They cannot have the nuances to separate.
2:00:36 So anybody who with a Muslim name, with a Muslim face, with a beard, who looks Muslim,
2:00:41 he would do it because of that actions of those atrocities. You have the power as a person to
2:00:46 separate yourself from an abusive power, a horrible power and be yourself. I am really worried because
2:00:54 the rise of anti-Semitism and the rise of hate against Jews is not because of the Jews.
2:00:58 It’s because of the actions of a government. Jews do not have to be on the side of apartheid,
2:01:05 Ronny Kestrels. He is a Jewish South African and he fought shoulder to shoulder next to
2:01:11 Nelson Badella. He was part of the African National Conference ANC and he had an article
2:01:16 said like, “I know what apartheid is and I saw Israel and this is what they have.”
2:01:19 And the thing is Israel, the Israeli government should listen to other people. You cannot call
2:01:27 anybody who criticize you either an anti-Semite or if they’re already Jewish, you call them like
2:01:33 self-hating Jew. You cannot do that. You cannot continue doing that because we did that. When I
2:01:37 would go in and criticize the Islamist like, “Oh, you’re self-hating Muslim. You’re not really
2:01:42 Muslim. You’re an infidler. You’re a secret. You’re a secular.” Whatever. We have the power in order to
2:01:47 reform the course by holding people in power accountable. And the thing is it is very stupid
2:01:56 to actually call this anti-Semitism. My idol is John Stuart. I voted for Bernie Sanders.
2:02:05 Sarah Taxler, the one who did this amazing documentary about me, “Tickling Giants,” she’s a
2:02:09 Jew. She is married to an Israeli Jew. We have a good ratio because we know what the right is.
2:02:14 They don’t have to associate themselves with the action of the Israeli government.
2:02:17 One of your favorite words, Jihad?
2:02:21 That’s my favorite hobbies. It’s my favorite hobby.
2:02:25 It’s my shoes. What’s your favorite? I talk about how when a white shooter does something,
2:02:32 he talks about all of his family. And I was like, “What if we do this for Arab terrorists?
2:02:37 What are his hobbies?” Jihad.
2:02:38 Wow. You’re making me feel good. Okay.
2:02:46 Sam Harris has done several episodes on Jihad. And people should go listen to it,
2:02:56 even if you disagree with it. But the basic idea that he’s proposing is that this
2:03:01 idea of Jihad in the negative connotation of it, of martyrdom, is a thing that gets,
2:03:08 is counterproductive, is destructive to the possible future flourishing of Palestinian people.
2:03:16 What do you think of that? There’s just that idea of martyrdom.
2:03:20 I totally agree. But people don’t wake up in the morning and say like I want to declare Jihad.
2:03:24 Think about it. Why would anybody choose to end his life by taking other people with him and
2:03:31 end that life? His life must be miserable. He must be pushed into that. Nobody chooses
2:03:38 death over life willingly. One of the first suicide bombers in the Palestinian resistance
2:03:45 were Christians. We don’t talk about that. I think he would say that the presence of a story
2:03:54 that you can tell yourself when you’re in a really shitty place, that you can go to a much better
2:04:00 place by sacrificing your own life. Just the fact that the presence of that story is there is harmful.
2:04:06 Of course. But here’s my problem with Sam Harris and usually people, they have free range talking
2:04:14 about the Islamic faith and nitpicking the stuff that makes it put in a bad light. I can go and
2:04:22 nitpick every single religion. There are Jews there like Ben Gaffir who openly say spitting on
2:04:28 Christians is not a hate speech. You can bring me all kinds of videos of Islamic Jihadists saying
2:04:37 horrible things on YouTube and I can bring you Jews who live there. We’re going to have the whole
2:04:42 world enslaved for us and everybody would love to be slaves for the Jews. I can use the Talmudic
2:04:49 argument that if you tie a man to a tree and he dies of thirst and hunger, you didn’t kill that
2:04:55 man. This is kind of the same arguments like are we not killing Palestinians? It’s just like
2:04:59 killing them and they’re dying by themselves. The nitpicking of a certain narrative, religious
2:05:06 narrative that is separate from the political context and what’s happening right now, it’s
2:05:13 very unfair because if you want to have a deep dive into religious texts, nobody will be happy.
2:05:19 And I can bring stuff from that Talmud and the Torah and stuff that is horrible. But this is a
2:05:26 way again of distraction. I dare you to talk shit about Buddhism and Jainism though. Well,
2:05:34 the people who killed the Muslims in Myanmar, weren’t they Buddhists? Yeah. Well, let’s go Jain.
2:05:40 Okay, I’ll find religion. I’ll have to get back to you. I’ll have to find it. The flying monster,
2:05:46 the spiritual flying monster. As a person who tries not to eat carbs, I’m deeply offended by
2:05:55 that. I mean, they’re Scientologists. All they do is actually buy real estate.
2:05:57 I think there’s a few books written about the fact that they do other stuff as well.
2:06:04 So even there, Mormon sometimes, there’s some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. But I’m sure
2:06:12 there’s also darkness there too. Oh boy, religion. There’s soaking in Mormon.
2:06:20 There’s what? Soaking. What’s soaking? Okay, so I don’t know how much. So soaking basically,
2:06:26 like, if you get into the woman and you don’t move, that’s not adultery. That’s not late.
2:06:35 Oh, interesting. So you go in and use this thing. There’s a loophole. There’s a loophole.
2:06:39 There’s the thing. Religion has a loophole. Yes. And Muslims who do that the whole time,
2:06:43 we pick and choose our sins, the stuff that we enjoy. It’s just weird. 72 versions waiting for
2:06:50 all of us. Maybe if I converted you as a Jew, I’ll get you 80. I don’t know. I can negotiate.
2:06:54 But I also have questions about whether it would be a very good deal. I’ll give you.
2:06:59 And maybe I’ll throw there a Camry. I have to be on Camry. It’s pretty good. What year? I don’t
2:07:06 know. 1998. Best year ever. Well, they last a long time. So I’m not sure I want ’70. ’72.
2:07:14 I’ll throw five in the mix and see how it feels. Yeah, Camry. If you want to upgrade.
2:07:19 Can we do a trial period? But in Janofi just zoom out. Do you think religion is,
2:07:29 in what way is it good for the world and what way is it harmful? If there was no religion,
2:07:33 humans would have invented religion. Because think about it. Think of the early humanity.
2:07:38 You’re like a caveman or whatever. And then you see your family members killed. And then you
2:07:42 say like, what? I’m going to be like the cheetah or the gazelle that just like ends and perish.
2:07:47 I need to have them. I am more important. I think I think with the development of consciousness,
2:07:52 humans thought that they are much more precious and important than the other
2:07:59 animals because they have now intelligence. So my life will not end like that.
2:08:04 My death will be even more important. There’s consequences for that. There’s consequences
2:08:10 for what I do. And then the early man was like, they are in the desert and all of these like
2:08:16 natural phenomena. They didn’t know what to do. They were afraid. So they need to have refuge.
2:08:20 They need to have something to take care of. They need to have a reason for everything.
2:08:24 Because if there’s no reason, it’s chaos. It’s chaos. It’s terrifying. It’s terrifying.
2:08:31 There’s nothing. There has to be a reason. There has to be a reason. There has to be
2:08:35 a purpose. There has to be like a cause, something. I’m not just going to be like
2:08:41 die like a cockroach being stepped on. And that’s kind of like part of this ego.
2:08:46 The whole world rotates around you in a way. It’s the ego. So religion actually got a lot of
2:08:52 it from humanity itself, like us being humans. And many religion is a collection of stories.
2:09:01 And those stories based on things that humans did themselves and they attributed it to gods.
2:09:06 And there’s an aspect of religion where you humble yourself before a thing that is much
2:09:12 greater than you. So that has a, I would say, a very positive effect of humbling.
2:09:17 It would be great if it stopped there. But here’s the thing. If you humble
2:09:22 in order that your ego kicks in and feel that you are better than someone else who’s not humbled
2:09:27 in front of the same God. That means that I will have all of that train that I can use that.
2:09:33 Because now, what does mean being humble? I’m divine. But I’m way more humble than you.
2:09:39 But you’re not. So you see how they kind of like the oxymoron, I’m humble and I’m surrendering.
2:09:44 But in the same time, I am better than you know, more entitled. Isn’t it crazy?
2:09:48 Yeah, it’s beautiful. It’s crazy. I mean, look at, look, look at like, like the Muslim Christians
2:09:54 and Jews and every, it’s like, all right, Muslims, we surrendered. I mean, I’m talking about the
2:09:57 extreme ones. I mean, like people, like people said, I surrender to God, good. Keep it that way.
2:10:03 Like if you go to, I surrender to God, that means that I am closer to God than you,
2:10:07 than you should die. Okay, Christians, Christ is love and he loves me and we’re gonna be together.
2:10:13 But you don’t get into his kingdom. And you see, it’s the same thing. Yeah, yeah. It’s just,
2:10:19 if you stop it, stop there, stop, stop where you are humble and you feel that you’re a piece of
2:10:25 shit and you are worthless human being and you are there. Yeah, stop there. Yeah. But once you
2:10:31 says like, Oh, that makes me a better person than you. And it makes me more with God than you.
2:10:36 So that would give me the entitlement to kick your ass. Yeah, we always ruin a good thing.
2:10:42 Don’t we? There you go. You’ve been outspoken, you know, with Piers Morgan, but just on this
2:10:50 topic, and you talked about the Superman story, which I would love it if you were in a Superman
2:11:00 movie. But have you lost job opportunities? Because of this? There was a couple of things
2:11:07 that were going on, but they stopped. Again, I don’t know if it’s October 7th.
2:11:12 Can you tell the Superman story yourself? What role were you? Okay, what did you audition for?
2:11:17 Yeah, it’s okay. So in June, I was traveling to Dubai. And right an hour before I get into
2:11:27 the car and go there, my marriage is like best, I’m gonna send you a script, read it. It’s for
2:11:31 Superman. It’s like, Oh, Superman, you know, I’m not really good in auditions. I’m not as
2:11:35 an actress. So I was like, Okay, I’m just gonna do it, send the tape. I do the tape, I send it,
2:11:40 I go to the airport, and I read, and I think I can talk about it now because they said they
2:11:45 changed the script. So basically, what I found interesting in that new script is that there
2:11:51 is like a dictator in a country that invades another country, and Superman interferes
2:11:57 politically. That’s the first time we ever see Superman interferes politically.
2:12:01 So basically, it was like Russia and Ukraine. But because of me, it was like, it had, it couldn’t
2:12:05 be Russia and Ukraine. So it had to be something kind of like with a flavor. So I read the role
2:12:10 as if as a mixture of Trump and Mubarak. I did this mix and like, you know,
2:12:17 like the kind of the mix, but also like kind of like the essence of Trump into it.
2:12:24 I went to the airport. It’s like an hour. It’s like James Gunn saw it. He loves it. What?
2:12:30 I never had an audition that fast. I mean, I had a few roles, but not that fast. Not like that.
2:12:34 And then I said, like, well, the the strike starts like tomorrow and we need to be on the
2:12:41 phone. But after the strike, we cannot talk the seg after strike, like we’re the writers and the
2:12:45 actress strike. So like, well, I’m going to be on a plane right now. It’s like, once you land,
2:12:49 you can have a Zoom call with James Gunn. I have a call with James Gunn. He’s, I am a huge fan of him.
2:12:55 The guy took like something like Guardians of the Galaxy. Nobody knew about it made amazing
2:12:59 trilogy. And he is like a really cool guy. I like, I like what he did. And it was like really nice.
2:13:05 And, and he started to talk to me about the movie. And, you know, like I talked to people
2:13:08 before casting them. So I know that everybody’s an on set, have a good chemistry.
2:13:13 It was amazing. So in your mind, if you’re an actor, what does that mean? You got the part.
2:13:19 And he told me you got the part. Month goes by. Strike goes by. October 7th happens. I do
2:13:26 Pierce Morgan one and two. And then I go to my Australian tour. My manager called me,
2:13:31 the circus was over. It’s like, you don’t get the part anymore. I was sad, very sad, but for
2:13:38 three days and said, like, I need to stand up with it. I’m actually doing very well. And then
2:13:47 when I went to Chris Como, I, after I finished the show, he told me, did you lose any opportunities?
2:13:58 And that was off record after the show was like we concluded. And I said, I talked about Superman.
2:14:03 And I found myself when I was talking, I was angry. I was bitter. And I went home. It’s like,
2:14:09 why was I angry? Why was I bitter? It wasn’t meant to me. And I’m living a good life now.
2:14:15 I don’t need to. So when I was asked again, the next day, two different interviews, the BBC and
2:14:22 the other and another one was alone with my friend, you know, with Allah, I said the story in a
2:14:27 different way. I said, I don’t have any anger. As a matter of fact, maybe if I was wonder brothers,
2:14:32 I didn’t talk about Jim’s and I thought it was the studio. If I was wonder brothers and I’m a
2:14:37 Muslim, I wouldn’t have a like a Zionist or a pro Israeli in my movie. But I want to tell them that
2:14:42 like when I criticize Israel, I am not a threat to you as a Jew. And we can actually have morning
2:14:48 comments. I was more of a kind of empathic. So when I said that, the internet went crazy. And you
2:14:53 know, James Gunn have haters because you know, the, the Snyder verse and all of the that it’s
2:14:59 a word that I don’t understand. And James Gunn, like I had all of these attacks on him.
2:15:08 And I was pissed of how it was handled. I wasn’t angry at James Gunn, but I thought it was
2:15:12 so my public system managers like Bessam, stay calm, don’t speak. It’s better like to,
2:15:18 to like not talk about it. I said, okay, so as there’s nothing wrong about me, but I see the
2:15:25 heat is rising against James Gunn. And that is a guy that I had a personal connection with even
2:15:29 through zoom. And I didn’t like what was happening. And then he called me and he explained to me as
2:15:34 Bessam, you know, I actually use like half camera test before people before finally, I didn’t know
2:15:39 that. And I, and then we changed the script and it was the strike. So I didn’t call and I also,
2:15:44 I thought to myself, I’m small, I’m a small actor. I’m not that important for him to call me to say,
2:15:49 we’re going to change the script. So I think still think that like the timing sucks and everything.
2:15:55 But then I went and I did a video explaining exactly what I’m telling you because I didn’t
2:16:00 want to be famous for the wrong reasons. Because that will be unfair because that, that was,
2:16:06 already people were like, and I was having like interviews, can you come about to someone? It’s
2:16:09 like guys, that’s it. I’m not going to talk about because this is an issue. And I did, I didn’t,
2:16:14 and I, when I talked to James on the phone, I felt how sincere he was. So I didn’t want someone to,
2:16:21 because of me will have that kind of attack because I know what it means to be on the other side of
2:16:25 that kind of attack. It’s terrible. And it ruins your life and it ruins your day. And nobody
2:16:30 deserves to be doing that. And I don’t want to be the reason for somebody else to go through that
2:16:34 pain. And you also said that you don’t want to be a victim. I don’t want to be. I’m doing a great,
2:16:39 I’m doing great. I’m selling out everywhere. I’m having a wonderful loyal audience is coming to
2:16:44 me. Why would be angry about the role of its superman? Yes, it’s great to be in a superhero movies.
2:16:49 But so what? You know, but you know, there’s a, there’s a wisdom in that, even if you weren’t doing
2:16:55 great, that’s a choice a lot of people can come to, which is like, do I play victim here or not?
2:17:02 It’s great. It’s great. They want more attention. They want to be more into the thing. They want
2:17:08 more and more. And there’s so much to go around to be enough for all of us, but it is great.
2:17:14 It is ego, ego, ego, ego. I need to be in the center. I need to be victimized. I need to be,
2:17:22 people feel sorry for me and love me. And it is not the right way. It is not because it is fake.
2:17:27 It is fake. It’s made up. And I did not victimize myself when I left for Egypt. I mean, in the
2:17:34 time that I was, now I speak about it now, but in that dark times, I was detained in airports.
2:17:40 I didn’t have my American passport yet. I was still traveling with my Egyptian parents. And I
2:17:44 was detained in an Arab airport. I was going to be delivered to the Egyptians. I had shows when I
2:17:50 was still starting. I had hecklers being sent to me by the Egyptian embassy and Egyptian consulate
2:17:55 in, in New York and in London to curse me and to take videos of that and then send it to
2:18:01 state-run media in Egypt. And I didn’t speak about that because I felt that like if I speak about
2:18:07 that, I feel about like what was going on to me, I would be victimizing myself. It’s like,
2:18:10 if I’m going to be good, I’m going to be good because of what I do, not because of what people’s
2:18:13 perception of what I’m going through. Yeah. And that becomes a slippery slope and somehow
2:18:19 victimizing yourself. It goes to more victimizing. Yeah. And then you cannot leave that habit.
2:18:24 You can only exist and thrive if people feel sorry for you. Yeah. I mean, Israel and Palestine
2:18:30 currently both have that temptation. I would always push back when you do the comparison
2:18:38 because one of them is not really in the same kind of power. I mean, yeah, for sure. For you,
2:18:43 but that’s a big problem. It’s very easy to say why Palestinians will victimize themselves, but
2:18:47 Israel with all of that military might, man, it’s too much. What Israel is doing is that they’re
2:18:53 victimizing the Jewish experience. And I don’t think a lot of, and I don’t think it is fair for a
2:18:59 lot of Jews. I don’t think that they should use the Holocaust and the persecution that happened to
2:19:05 Jewish people all through history in order to push an equally oppressive agenda. That is not
2:19:12 fair. And it’s not good for the Jewish people living. And it is basically a disrespect to the
2:19:17 memory of the Holocaust. I told you, I want to make a movie about the Holocaust. I do. Because
2:19:24 what happened was that kind of engineered torture should never happen again. And it should not be
2:19:28 happening now. So to you, what Israel is doing is leading to more anti-Semitism in the world?
2:19:33 A hundred percent. And I think, and you know, can I be a conspiracy theorist for a second?
2:19:37 Please, there is this flag. We all know this. A part of me thinking, maybe they are doing that
2:19:42 intentionally, because if there’s a rise of anti-Semitism in Jews, there will always like
2:19:46 points like see, they hate us so we can do whatever we want. Because if, because, because you see,
2:19:53 if we let go of our might and our strength, we’re going to go back to the concentration camps
2:19:59 because you see how the world hates you. And again, when you say they are people in power.
2:20:05 Yeah. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Listen, it’s always the people in power. I believe that humans are
2:20:10 easily corruptible and easily repairable, but the corrupt, corruptible part is much easier.
2:20:15 But you, you, people could change, but power, people in power are very dangerous. Very,
2:20:24 very dangerous, especially if you have religion, which is power by itself, military might,
2:20:30 political support and money. Dude, that’s the, that’s a very, very, very dangerous recipe.
2:20:38 That, you know, all that said, I do believe in the power of the little guy, the individual,
2:20:42 to overthrow the government. You know, I don’t know if you heard, but the Arab Spring will,
2:20:45 you know, happen. But, but, but, okay, here we are, we are here. Just among friends. We are
2:20:52 Americans. Right? We’re Americans. We’re Americans. And how funny is that? Like just giving our two
2:21:02 backgrounds. We’re Americans. We’re Americans. It’s like, we’re Americans. There’s one thing about
2:21:11 like the power of the little guy that I am very sad about. Because you see, I’m, I love America,
2:21:18 by the way. I, I consider it my new home. And I want my kids to grow up here. I have, I’m very
2:21:25 grateful for the opportunity that I have in the United States. And I criticize the United States
2:21:30 politics and I criticize it out of love the same way that I was criticizing what’s happening with
2:21:35 Egypt out of love. What is worrying for me is how the power of the little man is diminishing.
2:21:45 It doesn’t matter now, who do you vote into power? They will not listen to you. They would listen to
2:21:50 the people who paid them to be there. And it is very concerning because I can see the American
2:21:56 democracy is turning not even slowly, very rapidly into an oligarchy. If I’m, I’m sure that all of
2:22:03 the millions of people who are voting, they don’t vote for the NRA. They don’t for vote for APAC.
2:22:09 They don’t vote for the pharmaceutical companies. They don’t vote for the military industry complex.
2:22:16 And yet the people in power, they come in, they take your vote and my vote and they are loyal
2:22:22 to those people, not to us. And it is very, very, very concerning, very concerning. And it is,
2:22:31 this is the danger of American, on the American policies, American politics and American democracies.
2:22:37 It is dangerous because basically the vote becomes just like a ceremony that, that the,
2:22:44 the someone with the more like funding will get to power and then he’s not loyal to you.
2:22:50 So the fire, I mean, we are in Texas. Everybody, everybody’s armed to the teeth here.
2:22:57 Yeah, but like, what are these aren’t going to do in front of tanks?
2:22:59 Well, you said the, the American military is unique in this way.
2:23:05 I know, but who now?
2:23:07 For now, the tanks are, first of all, I believe Russia has more tanks than the United States.
2:23:13 Tanks, I don’t know, you know, I’m not an expert in military strategic deployment of arms, but
2:23:19 the United States uses different kinds of weapons.
2:23:22 They have drones and they have the lasers and they have, they’re sitting comfortably behind
2:23:27 the screens. It’s kind of like, it turns out like a big Xbox game.
2:23:30 Yeah. And they, they, they sell a lot of those things to everybody.
2:23:35 It’s crazy because the defense budget is 68% of American military.
2:23:40 It’s like almost $850 billion each year.
2:23:43 And most of that weapons, we don’t even need it.
2:23:47 We just do it because of the contracts.
2:23:51 There was like an incredible 60 minutes.
2:23:53 I’m sure that you saw it, the one about like the gouging of the prices of the department,
2:23:57 because it was one of the most fascinating things that I’ve ever seen.
2:24:00 They say like a valve, a safety, a safety oil valve that used to be sold for $329.
2:24:06 Now it is sold for $9,000.
2:24:07 Why? Because there’s only five weapon companies and they can control the prices.
2:24:14 And in 2006, the whole Apache fleet of the American army in Iraq was grounded because
2:24:20 there was one valve that they were like gouging the price and didn’t want to give them.
2:24:24 The Stinger missile, that’s just like the missile, the one that you carry and it’s like the anti-aircraft.
2:24:32 It used to be sold for $25,000. Now it’s sold for $400,000.
2:24:36 And nobody is doing that because the DOD has fired 130,000 people,
2:24:42 including engineers and negotiators.
2:24:44 So now, in order to cut expenses, now we’re paying more money.
2:24:48 And the thing is, we do not have a say in this.
2:24:52 We do not have a say in how my tax money and your tax money is being spent.
2:24:56 Because I’m sure we don’t want your money to be sent to Israel like that.
2:24:59 I’m sure, even if you’re Jews, I’m sure, I’m sure that like I don’t want my money
2:25:02 to be given to some Muslim countries who kill other Muslims.
2:25:05 I’m sure, but it is not, here’s the thing.
2:25:09 What kind of power do we have other than speaking?
2:25:12 So what is left for us is free speech.
2:25:15 And now when you speak, they call you anti-semitic.
2:25:17 You see why I’m angry?
2:25:20 But still, I mean, America is holding pretty strong,
2:25:23 despite the criticisms on the free speech front.
2:25:26 But if you look at the freedom of the press, freedom of the speech index,
2:25:30 America is not at the top.
2:25:33 It is not. And this is why, for example, it is very disheartening for me to see
2:25:38 that the Western media, Western press, that used to be the beacon of freedom,
2:25:44 as I’m using as mouthpieces.
2:25:46 And it is funny how the New York Times,
2:25:49 Nixon got angry in the New York Times in 1971.
2:25:53 When they found leaks about him lying about the Vietnam War since the beginning.
2:25:58 And now he hired the plumbers, you know, the Special Unit,
2:26:02 in order to go in and find the leaks.
2:26:04 This was Watergate, basically, because he was angry to see who leaked that,
2:26:08 instead of fixing the problem.
2:26:10 Now the New York Times have published this story about the rape that was a hoax
2:26:15 that was written by Anna Schwartz, who someone will have no experience.
2:26:18 And now, when it was leaked, instead of them correcting themselves,
2:26:23 they went in and they had their own investigation to see who leaked.
2:26:26 The New York Times, in 2003, became the mouthpiece for George W. Bush of the WMD.
2:26:30 And now, as an American, I see that the New York Times is becoming a mouthpiece of a foreign country.
2:26:35 Why do you do that?
2:26:36 One of the things that’s really difficult to know is where to find the truth.
2:26:40 It does seem that both sides use propaganda and both sides lie.
2:26:46 Both sides, as in both Israel and Palestine, pro-Palestine, pro-Israel, there’s a lot of lies.
2:26:54 It’s a lot of inequality, man.
2:26:59 Are you like, there is like a lot of people on the internet,
2:27:03 but like who have the mainstream media siding with?
2:27:07 Yeah, but, you know, thanks to social media.
2:27:10 Yes, thank God for social media, because now it’s individuals.
2:27:13 There are people.
2:27:14 Yes.
2:27:14 There are people.
2:27:15 You’re comparing BBC, New York Times, Washington Post,
2:27:19 Whitewater City Journal with just people with a TikTok account.
2:27:22 Yeah, a lot more power in your view.
2:27:24 Now, it is actually very, very fascinating to see the little man having that power over the media.
2:27:30 And because it’s proportionally so, like, hey, this is my problem.
2:27:34 But you cannot call people with TikTok propagandists
2:27:37 while people being paid to give you the news and they deliberately lie to you.
2:27:41 Yes, I can.
2:27:42 They’re both propagandists.
2:27:44 Propagandists, yes, yes.
2:27:46 But like the mechanism and the intentions are different, because here’s the thing.
2:27:52 I’d rather have the TikTok guy than the yeah.
2:27:54 Like the TikTok guy is a TikTok guy, right?
2:27:57 But if you have the New York Times being told that they’re being exposed to be lying,
2:28:02 and then they get this like you and report, which is like a disgrace.
2:28:06 And you just put the title and you don’t talk about it.
2:28:09 Like I’m fine with CNN and Jake Tapper and all of those people,
2:28:13 like spreading the rape allegations for years.
2:28:16 They didn’t, I don’t even want them to refute them.
2:28:18 I want them to bring the Israeli reports saying that it didn’t happen.
2:28:22 The Israeli media themselves, they didn’t even bother, not once.
2:28:26 Is that balanced?
2:28:28 That’s not.
2:28:29 So that’s why people in TikTok and because they have to take matters on their own hand.
2:28:33 Yeah, but the problem with the people in TikTok
2:28:35 is the drug, the dopamine rush of getting a lot of likes.
2:28:40 So instead of talking about the death of civilians,
2:28:42 they’ll talk about beheaded babies or the equivalent of…
2:28:45 Yeah.
2:28:45 They’re going to actually make up stories
2:28:48 because the made up stories are going to be more viral.
2:28:51 And so now we’re just in this scene, this muck of lies.
2:28:54 And there’s a lot of people who actually expose their lies on TikTok.
2:28:57 So you have both, you have both.
2:28:59 And it’s kind of like the democracy of the social media, as we always call it.
2:29:03 But if you have the streetrun media that is the legacy media seen
2:29:06 and BBC, New York Times, Fuck News, all of those people,
2:29:09 and they are like spreading lies and they’re not even
2:29:12 doing the journalistic job in order to at least bring the other side.
2:29:16 Yeah.
2:29:16 That’s problematic.
2:29:18 And that’s, that’s worse.
2:29:19 You’re supposed to be a journalist.
2:29:21 Yes, it’s supposed to be a report.
2:29:23 Report, don’t, you know, report.
2:29:26 Yeah, but I see that this is like a catalyst
2:29:30 and inspiration for the citizen journalists to rise up.
2:29:33 This is what you’re doing.
2:29:34 Oh, this, yeah.
2:29:36 This is what you’re doing.
2:29:37 No, this is what you’re doing because you go into the deep dive.
2:29:39 This is like, like a no filter thing.
2:29:41 There’s no spin.
2:29:42 The long form, the long form is going to save us.
2:29:45 I see why you hate the tiktoks, like a dopamine rush, you know.
2:29:50 Stupid tiktok.
2:29:51 I saw the resentment in your face.
2:29:54 I can’t, can’t look away.
2:29:57 Before like, like those like 30 seconds, I do four hours.
2:30:00 I mean, both have a place, both are exciting.
2:30:04 And, you know, but I can’t, it is very dangerous.
2:30:08 Like you can’t look away.
2:30:09 And I almost never, maybe I’m doing it wrong,
2:30:13 but I almost never feel better ever after having used tiktok.
2:30:18 Makes two of us.
2:30:19 I can’t, I cannot, I cannot, I have a team.
2:30:21 By the way, I give my, my, my, my, my password to like a team.
2:30:25 I don’t even go there because I went, I once in a dark night,
2:30:30 very late at night, I went tiktok and it was like two hours.
2:30:35 What?
2:30:36 Yeah.
2:30:37 What?
2:30:38 I said, no, no, no, no, no, this is dangerous.
2:30:40 I’m, I’m, I’m really like an Instagram and Facebook guy.
2:30:43 I don’t need that.
2:30:45 But even there, man.
2:30:46 And I barely get out of Twitter.
2:30:47 I mean, like X, I don’t, I can’t.
2:30:49 X is a cesspool.
2:30:51 X, it’s just like two, the concentrated hate in X.
2:30:54 It’s too much.
2:30:55 It’s too much.
2:30:56 I can’t.
2:30:56 So you don’t check it at all.
2:30:58 You try not to check it at all.
2:30:59 It is very intense.
2:31:00 I don’t, I don’t, I don’t, I can’t, I can’t.
2:31:02 I just like, I post something and I run.
2:31:06 Post and ghost.
2:31:07 So you’re, you’re doing comedy here in the United States right now.
2:31:12 Yes.
2:31:12 Joe Rogan has the, the comedy mothership, which is an incredible club.
2:31:16 Have you considered doing that club?
2:31:18 I would love to.
2:31:19 I mean, I.
2:31:20 Do you know Joe?
2:31:21 Of course, no, who does a new Joe?
2:31:23 I feel like it’s a small world of comedy.
2:31:25 That’s why I.
2:31:26 No, I think like Joe, Joe’s story was like what he did and stuff that he did in
2:31:33 the UFC and his podcast and it just, it’s, it’s very impressive.
2:31:38 The fact that he is there and he’s bringing all of those people where they’re
2:31:42 in comedy or his podcast is very impressive.
2:31:44 And this is what, this is what is the media is all about.
2:31:47 What is like the internet is all about to give you the experiences of stuff that
2:31:51 you might never experience.
2:31:52 And that is very important.
2:31:55 I mean, you do it with people with like, you go into their brains.
2:31:57 He goes, take people and they take their experiences and their, and their
2:32:01 lives and their story.
2:32:02 It is very interesting.
2:32:04 And this is the beauty of that art form because you have all of these experiences
2:32:10 at the tips of your hands and it is there for you to learn from.
2:32:13 You know, and what he’s doing, like when he moved to Texas and we did the comedy
2:32:19 mothership, anybody who would like push comedy forward, that is the most difficult
2:32:25 art form and the most demanding.
2:32:27 And the fact that you do that and he might not even be making money out of it,
2:32:31 but he’s doing that because of his passion.
2:32:33 That is enough.
2:32:34 Yeah, he’s, he’s, he really believes in creating this like place where comedians
2:32:40 could be really free.
2:32:41 And one of the cool things about the comedy mothership is like, comedian is king there.
2:32:46 Yeah, like there, we have to like, you have to bow down to the, because you know,
2:32:51 the comedian who came there came after like eating shit.
2:32:54 Yeah, out there, everywhere else.
2:32:56 If you, you have basically, you’re a saint.
2:33:00 I have eaten shit for many years.
2:33:02 Now I’m going to give you shit.
2:33:05 Ah, it’s great.
2:33:08 You already told me what you think about the state of politics in the United States,
2:33:11 but now tell me what you really think.
2:33:13 What do you think of the choice of Trump versus Biden?
2:33:17 How do we end up here?
2:33:18 I don’t know.
2:33:19 I mean, like the fact that like you have two people over the age of 90, it is,
2:33:24 I think it’s over a hundred, but that’s all combined, like 170.
2:33:27 It is so sad.
2:33:30 It is so sad that this is what we can produce as a society.
2:33:34 Like, like a demagogue and a sleepy Joe.
2:33:40 I guess he’s too, he’s not there, man.
2:33:43 He’s, he’s gone.
2:33:45 He’s gone.
2:33:45 I mean, he could, you know, like when all people could be like a danger for themselves,
2:33:53 he’s a danger for the whole world.
2:33:54 I mean, like the whole world, like if an old person would die, who would like, you know,
2:34:00 have like a hip replacement, we can need them and like a new planet because of one decision.
2:34:05 It’s, but it’s not just that.
2:34:07 It’s not it’s what are, when I came here, listen, I am, I’m a, I’m a Democrat.
2:34:13 I always like, and I told you, like I vote for Bernie Sanders.
2:34:17 I, I, like I supported him like 2016, but I couldn’t vote then.
2:34:23 And of course, huge bad fan of Obama.
2:34:25 And one of my readers is like, he’s the first Muslim president.
2:34:30 It’s like, but he killed Muslims.
2:34:31 Like, that’s things Muslims do.
2:34:32 But anyways, I love that line.
2:34:35 And it just, I think the whole idea, like my shock is I told you about like what Biden said
2:34:48 about like, I’m a Zionist.
2:34:49 Okay, we are a Zionist, but then like Jews are not safe in anywhere other news.
2:34:53 Like, dude, what the hell are you saying?
2:34:54 And if you don’t care about me and you don’t care about my misery,
2:34:58 why would I care about you when you’re losing, you know?
2:35:03 And I have a joke that I told people, like, why would even Biden listen to us?
2:35:08 He just raised $145 million in California alone from pro Israeli groups.
2:35:15 I mean, what, what can we Arabs working in the vape business do to him?
2:35:21 It’s like, we cannot compete with that.
2:35:25 I mean, like practically, I mean, it’s like life is like life is unfair.
2:35:29 The guy is a politician.
2:35:30 He needs bills to pay.
2:35:32 He needs a campaign to run.
2:35:33 He needs money.
2:35:34 He will go to the people who will give him money.
2:35:36 Joe Biden is the highest paid politician from Israeli lobbyist, $4.6 million over the years.
2:35:44 Yeah, but I also believe in great leaders that go against all of that.
2:35:49 But unfortunately, you know, Bernie Sanders was like that.
2:35:52 Bernie Sanders, yes, but also age.
2:35:56 I don’t want to be.
2:35:57 Of course, of course.
2:35:58 No, no.
2:35:58 But even with like, because I remember listening to Bernie Sanders 20 years ago
2:36:03 on Tom Hartman show.
2:36:04 And I don’t want to say anything against Bernie, but like he was sharper then.
2:36:10 Of course.
2:36:10 There’s a thing with age.
2:36:12 Yeah, of course.
2:36:12 Now, I think I’m a huge fan about like putting the limits on your working years,
2:36:18 because you don’t want to have like a Mitch McConnell moment every now,
2:36:21 because now the whole thing are like, what is this?
2:36:23 Isn’t this not like a house by scare home?
2:36:26 It is unfair.
2:36:28 It is unfair.
2:36:29 And that’s the whole idea that you have like unlimited,
2:36:31 like you have a limit for the president,
2:36:32 but you don’t have limit for Congress people and senators.
2:36:35 That’s what you mean.
2:36:36 This is basically you can go in and be in governance forever.
2:36:41 And you know, the longer that you can get, the more corrupt you will get.
2:36:44 Yes, and that is very concerning for Americans.
2:36:48 Everybody, everybody becomes corrupt after.
2:36:51 I mean, that’s why two terms is a good limit for everybody.
2:36:55 Yeah.
2:36:55 And you know, maybe half a term for Egyptian leaders.
2:36:59 Well, you know, our half term is 15 years, quarter term.
2:37:05 You should come back around for office there.
2:37:10 Oh my God, no.
2:37:12 No, there’s a curse in the Egyptian presidency.
2:37:17 Nobody, nobody comes there.
2:37:18 Like he’s like dead or in jail.
2:37:20 Yeah.
2:37:21 It’s it’s not the most appealing job.
2:37:23 They might make a statue of you though.
2:37:25 Make you look good.
2:37:26 After my death.
2:37:26 I look very good dead in the statue.
2:37:31 Yeah.
2:37:33 When you look at what happened with Navalny,
2:37:37 since you kind of really thought about this in Egypt,
2:37:43 what happened with Navalny in Russia,
2:37:47 what do you think about that?
2:37:48 Yeah, but what happened in Navalny in Russia is not something new in Russia.
2:37:51 I mean, Putin have like this whole history of poisoning and killing people.
2:37:55 And it’s kind of like pretty much his,
2:37:58 I would have to cite credit Putin.
2:38:00 He’s like bringing us the essence of the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages.
2:38:04 It’s like, you know, we know like basically Putin is like,
2:38:07 is the living example of what happens if game of thrones was reality.
2:38:11 It’s like death by poison, like a blow up a plane.
2:38:16 It’s like mysteriously disappears.
2:38:18 It is so, it is, it is very dark.
2:38:23 But it’s like, wow, it’s like a, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a television show.
2:38:30 Maybe that’s what attracts us to that part of the world
2:38:33 is that it’s so much on display this game of power, of geopolitics, of war.
2:38:41 No, but the same happens in the West, but I’m behind closed doors.
2:38:44 It’s not that open.
2:38:44 It’s not, it’s not, it’s not that pronounced.
2:38:47 You know, it’s like, oops, ipstein.
2:38:50 It’s like, oh, we just like, I think, I think because of the West is more advanced,
2:38:58 like in movies and cinemas, we kind of directed better.
2:39:01 Yeah.
2:39:02 I think, I think the outcome is like the way that you kind of like said the scene is like,
2:39:05 scene and scene.
2:39:07 That’s why people are all like landing on the moon.
2:39:09 They’re like, I don’t know, I get it.
2:39:14 But, you know, we haven’t gone back.
2:39:16 All right.
2:39:22 If we zoom out, do you think there will always be war in the world, always be suffering?
2:39:28 Yes.
2:39:28 But here’s the thing.
2:39:31 I don’t think for long, I don’t think that will happen for them.
2:39:34 Wait a minute.
2:39:35 Yeah.
2:39:35 Yeah.
2:39:36 Because here’s the thing, humanity is destined to, to have war, especially it will have war,
2:39:42 but that something happened in the last 50 years.
2:39:45 We have had, now we have much more lethal weapons.
2:39:50 The problem is the beginning is like swords against swords, horses, cavalry, like cannons,
2:39:56 catapults, mini missiles.
2:39:57 But now you’re like, we’re like, you know, like a press of a button.
2:40:01 You can annihilate the whole planet.
2:40:03 And this is the problem.
2:40:05 Wars will all continue.
2:40:06 The problem is when is going to be the tipping point where we are actually going to destroy
2:40:11 ourselves.
2:40:12 And it is so easy now to destroy ourselves, the amount of weapons and the quality of weapons
2:40:17 that we have.
2:40:17 It is designed to kill more effectively, more, more, it just, it is crazy.
2:40:24 It’s like we can create our own destruction on ourself.
2:40:26 And I think we’re not that far away from it.
2:40:29 Just looking at nuclear weapons, the fascinating thing about nuclear weapons,
2:40:33 as I’ve gotten to learn recently, just how few people are involved in a full on nuclear war.
2:40:41 That kills, basically kills everybody.
2:40:44 Yeah.
2:40:45 Well, three plus billion people right away.
2:40:49 And the consequences of the nuclear winter, it’s unlivable.
2:40:54 But all it takes is, I mean, one president can do it.
2:40:58 So it could be even a false alarm, misunderstanding.
2:41:02 Like what happened in the Cuba Missile Crisis.
2:41:05 But again, and now there’s more nations are prepared and ready to launch.
2:41:13 Yeah.
2:41:14 And you have a media and a 24 hours kind of like thing that makes you like at edge the whole time.
2:41:21 That’s crazy.
2:41:22 There’s a dark perspective on this where there’s certain members of the media that would kind of
2:41:28 enjoy the prospect of nuclear war.
2:41:31 Like a little bit, just let’s get as close to it as possible.
2:41:36 You have another factor that will contribute to that, religion.
2:41:42 And remember how like the radical Islamists talk about like the end of time and whatever,
2:41:49 but like most of the Islamic and don’t have that much power.
2:41:52 Problem is with Christian Zionists now being on the top of the world with America.
2:41:55 They have been pushing for that kind of conflict to kind of escalate, escalate.
2:41:59 Listen to Sarah Palin’s like, God wants us here.
2:42:02 Like a carl drove all of the new gods.
2:42:06 The dispensation is dragon.
2:42:08 There’s an incredible book called like forcing the hands of God’s beautiful book.
2:42:13 I read it’s like it’s published 1998, but it still matters today.
2:42:16 The whole idea about like, especially the Zionist Christians who love Israel, but they hate the Jews.
2:42:22 They’re anti-Semite, but they love Israel because of its role.
2:42:25 This is all basically formed because of the interpretation of the Bible of Schofield and
2:42:30 how they talk about the end of time that Armageddon and then the late great planet earth
2:42:34 and then left behind serious and all of that.
2:42:37 It’s all about like, we’re heading to Armageddon.
2:42:40 The problem is Islam has the people that believe that the end of time.
2:42:44 And then we have the Christians that believe in the end of time.
2:42:46 And then you have Israel happy that those people are using it for the end of time.
2:42:50 And then the whole idea about them pushing as many weapons
2:42:53 and troops and people in the Middle East to be there for the nuclear Holocaust.
2:42:58 And John Hage, one of the pastors talk about that about the primstones
2:43:02 and it’s not going to be a nuclear Holocaust.
2:43:04 All of the people, it’s crazy how people are so despising life that they are wanting death.
2:43:10 So now you have, you always had these revelations,
2:43:14 but these revelations mean nothing if you don’t have an effective weapon in order to make it happen.
2:43:18 And this is the crazy thing.
2:43:20 And I’m worried that the end is going to be by someone that wants to meet God a little bit earlier.
2:43:25 Somebody who’s really in a hurry.
2:43:31 Well, I have good news for you.
2:43:35 Maybe we’ll become a multi-planetary species.
2:43:37 Maybe Elon Musk will lead us the way to get out in space.
2:43:42 Maybe he’s one of them.
2:43:49 I asked you offline to not mention the lizard people.
2:43:52 There’s like a whole people that believe in the lizard people.
2:43:57 It’s great.
2:43:57 I actually have to be honest.
2:43:58 I haven’t fully looked into the lizard people.
2:44:00 I probably should.
2:44:01 You should.
2:44:02 Yeah.
2:44:02 Well, maybe I’m afraid of the truth.
2:44:04 Removing my face.
2:44:17 So let’s say you’re wrong about the end of the world.
2:44:21 I hope so.
2:44:22 And it all turns out great.
2:44:25 And humanity flourishes.
2:44:27 Why would that happen?
2:44:30 What gives you hope for that trajectory, for humanity?
2:44:35 Younger people.
2:44:36 The people of Tiktok that you don’t like.
2:44:39 Yeah, there is a lot of like cool shit there after you sign this.
2:44:47 People just keep saying you take Tiktok videos.
2:44:49 These younger people.
2:44:50 This woman showing her boobs?
2:44:54 That woman.
2:44:55 That’s going to save us.
2:44:56 All right, awesome.
2:44:58 Thank you.
2:44:59 No, there’s like, I think there is a wealth of it.
2:45:06 You know, remember like the joke they said,
2:45:07 like we thought that like when we have internet,
2:45:09 we’re going to have like be more, you know, more informed.
2:45:13 And now we’re watching twerking videos.
2:45:15 And that is true.
2:45:17 But on the other side, the fact that you have
2:45:19 availability of information, I’m learning a lot.
2:45:25 And there’s people who are using that platform from that.
2:45:28 It’s not the majority because, you know,
2:45:29 it’s not very interesting and exciting.
2:45:32 But I think there’s, there might be a tipping point
2:45:35 where there’s enough people that would be aware.
2:45:37 And maybe they would collectively do something
2:45:42 in order to bring back the power to the small man.
2:45:45 And maybe it sounds very naive.
2:45:47 Maybe it’s fine.
2:45:48 But we don’t know.
2:45:49 We don’t know.
2:45:50 Because we, you have already seen the legacy media
2:45:54 and the legacy politicians shaking in the past few months.
2:45:58 They’re getting nervous.
2:45:59 They’re getting nervous because people are calling them out.
2:46:01 And those people were like hiding behind the desk,
2:46:03 behind in their office and not like,
2:46:04 not holding out for that,
2:46:05 but like people now are calling them out.
2:46:07 And it is not going to happen like this year or next year,
2:46:10 but I think it’s something.
2:46:11 What advice would you give to those young folks?
2:46:13 I will never give advice to those people.
2:46:15 (laughing)
2:46:17 Get off, take, talk.
2:46:18 I will never, I will never,
2:46:19 because like their input is different than mine.
2:46:21 Yeah.
2:46:22 But like there’s, there’s one thing I learned
2:46:23 when people saw me, did the revolution fail in Egypt?
2:46:26 Did people, that the people are like,
2:46:28 listen, the revolution is not an event.
2:46:29 It’s not like, hey, we go in with toppled the government.
2:46:31 It’s not under evolution.
2:46:32 A revolution is a process.
2:46:33 It’s a very long process.
2:46:35 And maybe that process,
2:46:37 I mean, as much as we don’t like what happened in the Arab world,
2:46:40 but the people there, the awareness that happened
2:46:42 and the discussions that have been opened
2:46:44 that weren’t, you didn’t even imagine what happened
2:46:46 in the Middle East is happening.
2:46:48 And maybe the beginning of any, any hope of change
2:46:53 is that people start talking, speaking out,
2:46:55 talking about stuff they were not allowed to speak about.
2:46:59 Like for example, Israel.
2:47:01 (laughing)
2:47:03 The revolution continues.
2:47:05 Ah, yes.
2:47:06 Basim, you’re a beautiful human being.
2:47:10 It’s truly a pleasure and honor to meet you.
2:47:12 I can just feel the love radiating from you.
2:47:15 I hope I get to see you perform live.
2:47:17 I hope to get to see you many more times.
2:47:19 Thank you for being who you are.
2:47:21 Thank you so much.
2:47:22 And I would love to invite you
2:47:23 for my new special, the Islamunazi Basim.
2:47:25 (laughing)
2:47:27 That should be the title of your autobiography.
2:47:29 Islamunazi.
2:47:30 Thank you so much.
2:47:31 Thank you, brother.
2:47:32 Thanks for listening to this conversation with Basim Yousef.
2:47:36 To support this podcast,
2:47:38 please check out our sponsors in the description.
2:47:41 And now, let me leave you some words from John Stuart.
2:47:44 The press can hold this magnifying glass up to our problems,
2:47:49 bringing them into focus,
2:47:50 illuminating issues here too fore unseen.
2:47:53 Or, they can use that magnifying glass to light ants on fire,
2:47:59 and then perhaps host a week of shows
2:48:01 on the sudden unexpected dangers flaming ant epidemic.
2:48:04 If we amplify everything, we hear nothing.
2:48:10 Thank you for listening.
2:48:11 And hope to see you next time.
2:48:13 (gentle music)
2:48:16 (gentle music)
2:48:19 (gentle music)
2:48:21 (gentle music)
2:48:24 (gentle music)
2:48:26 (gentle music)
2:48:29 you
0:00:05 the so-called John Stuart of the Middle East, who fearlessly satirized those in power,
0:00:12 even when his job and life were on the line. Bassem is a beautiful human being. It was truly a
0:00:19 pleasure for me to get to know him and to have this fun, fascinating, and challenging conversation.
0:00:28 And now a quick few second mention of his sponsor. Check them out in the description.
0:00:32 It is the best way to support this podcast. We’ve got AG1 for health, Shopify for shopping,
0:00:38 ASleep for naps, and Element for electrolytes. Choose wisely, my friends. Also, if you want
0:00:45 to get in touch with me or maybe work with our amazing team, go to lexfreedman.com/contact.
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0:00:57 interesting, but if you skip them, please still check out our sponsors. I enjoy their stuff.
0:01:02 Maybe you will too. This episode is brought to you by AG1 and all in one daily drink to support
0:01:09 better health and peak performance. I got hit pretty hard today by allergies. And I’m just
0:01:17 in this place where nothing makes any sense. Nose is running, scratchy, throw all that kind of stuff.
0:01:27 Just a mess. Just a beautiful, wonderful mess that makes me appreciate all the other days
0:01:31 when such things have not felt. That’s what I hear from people who suffer from migraines,
0:01:37 that chronic migraines are so terrible that they make you intensely hate when the migraines go
0:01:46 down and intensely love when it’s not. Every time anything goes wrong, it’s a great chance to celebrate
0:01:53 all the times when stuff didn’t go wrong. But I say all that because I just drank AG1 and it gave
0:01:59 me this little drop of happiness that I can cling to as I proceed to try to work through the day
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0:02:39 of shows, of movies, of specific concerts. I still have a Metallica, I have a few Metallica
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0:02:51 shirt. It’s like a great way to start conversation. So I love it. I also love wearing just a black
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0:03:29 piece of heaven, cold bed surface with a warm blanket, whether I’m doing like a 10 or 20 minute
0:03:38 nap or I’m doing a phone night sleep. It’s just an incredible experience. Sleep is such an important
0:03:45 component of life, not just for your health, sort of from a physiological, neurobiological
0:03:52 perspective, but from a spiritual perspective. Wherever this need for sleep comes from, I think
0:04:00 of sleep as a kind of celebration of our connection to nature. It’s a mini-death, but
0:04:07 the beautiful version of that, especially when you dream, you travel to some place
0:04:11 where your mind is reconfiguring itself to try to make sense of the world, to try to put together
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0:04:39 This episode is also brought to you by Element, electrolytes that I’m sipping on right now,
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0:04:52 I drink it many times a day. It’s great when I’m fasting. My diet these days is almost always
0:04:58 eat once a day. Very low carb. For that, especially when you’re starting out, you have to get the
0:05:03 electrolytes right. Now, as it starts to warm up and when I’m running long distance in Austin,
0:05:10 Texas, I really have to get the electrolytes right. You want to make sure you have a lot of salt in
0:05:15 your body and a lot of water before you go on the long run. Unless we’re talking about crazy
0:05:20 distances. I tend to prefer not to drink on the run. I don’t know. There’s something super inconvenient
0:05:25 about bringing a water bottle with you when you’re out on the trail or just in the middle of nowhere.
0:05:31 I just like to forget the world. Forget the needs of the body. Forget everything. Forget time.
0:05:35 And just focus on my thoughts or if I’m listening to an audiobook, focus on the thing that’s being
0:05:40 said and all the little tangents that my brain creates from what’s being said. All of that.
0:05:45 So, but before I go on in the run, I drink a bunch of element to get the electrolytes right.
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0:06:03 This is Alex Friedman podcast. To support it, please check out our sponsors in the description.
0:06:10 And now, dear friends, here’s Basim Youssef.
0:06:20 Your wife is half Palestinian. And I’ve heard you say that you’ve been trying to kill her,
0:06:36 but she keeps using the kids as human shields. So, have you considered negotiating a ceasefire?
0:06:41 Well, the thing is, every day, every minute of the day in a married life is a negotiation.
0:06:48 Everything can blow up into a full-scale war, starting from a simple sentence like,
0:06:54 “Good morning. What should we do with the kids today? What should we do with that piece of
0:06:59 furniture? Any sentence can lead you to heaven or to hell at the same time.”
0:07:04 So, you do negotiate with terrorists? Oh, yeah, 100%.
0:07:06 You must? Yeah. And for her, I am her terrorist too. So, it’s equal.
0:07:10 Terrorists on both sides. On a more serious note, when you found out about the attacks of October
0:07:16 7th, what went through your mind? If I’m allowed to use a curse word, I was like…
0:07:21 As many as possible. I was like, “Oh, shit.” Part of my stand-up comedy is, I describe a situation
0:07:26 where I was in a restaurant with producers and there was a bombing two blocks away in Chelsea,
0:07:32 New York in 2016. And of course, this is like, “Damn, what’s going to happen to us now?”
0:07:39 And there’s two different reactions. There’s the white reaction, which is like, “Oh my God,
0:07:44 I hope nobody’s hurt. This is terrible. I hope everybody’s okay.” And there’s the Arab reaction.
0:07:48 What’s his name? What is his name? What is the name? Because you know what’s going to come?
0:07:53 I was scared what’s going to really happen in that area. And I said, “Oh my God, it’s going to be
0:08:01 horrible.” And the way that it was reported, I didn’t know how to handle this. So, I basically,
0:08:09 I went into hiding for a few days, three, four days. And I talked about Piers Morgan
0:08:14 team talking to me two times, three times, I was like, “No, I can’t. How can you defend that?
0:08:19 How can you defend the rape that you committed to babies and whatever?” And then I started kind of
0:08:23 looking at the news a little bit. And then I started seeing people coming on the shows and
0:08:27 saying things that I know as an Arab, as a Muslim, as someone from that region, that it’s not true.
0:08:35 But I didn’t know what to say, how to say it. So, I said, by the third time when they asked
0:08:41 me, I said, “Fine, put me on.” And I went there, it was more of a figuratively speaking, a suicide
0:08:48 mission. Because it’s a lose-lose situation. I can lose stuff in Hollywood. I can, I even,
0:08:56 I remember my manager’s like, “Bessie, be careful. I mean, are you sure you want to do it?”
0:09:01 My manager’s was like, “Please don’t do it. Please don’t do it.” And on the other side,
0:09:05 if I don’t perform well, whatever well means, I’m going to be rejected by my own people.
0:09:12 So, it was a lose-lose situation. Because whatever I say, it will never be enough. And
0:09:16 whatever I say will not be good enough. And I was going into there and I felt that I was going
0:09:24 into a trance for the 33 minutes that I was on that interview for the first time.
0:09:29 You blacked out. I blacked out. I blacked out. And a lot of people asked me,
0:09:33 is the earpiece, was that a bit when the earpiece kept falling? It’s like, no, it was really falling
0:09:40 off and it disconnected. And I had to save it because I cannot see them. All I can hear,
0:09:45 I can just hear them. And I could expect it at any time. “Okay, Bessie, thank you.” I was fighting
0:09:51 for every second to say worse, to put stuff in there. Yeah, for people who don’t know, this is
0:09:55 your conversation interview with Piers Morgan. And you can see. I couldn’t see, I was just like,
0:10:02 the lens of the camera. And I was just like, “It’s a real dream or nightmare.” Yeah, hello Wasum.
0:10:06 I was like, “Hello Wasum.” It was like, “Hi.” And it could end at any moment. Your career and
0:10:12 everything. Everything, yeah. Yeah. So, what was the drive that got you to actually do it,
0:10:18 to overcome that fear? Multiple things. First of all, I don’t want to say it’s just my wife’s
0:10:25 family because my wife’s family has always been there. But this time was different. The
0:10:29 bombing, the attack, they usually, one of those people that they’re a way of everything,
0:10:34 whatever happened in Gaza, they are always in safe places. But this time, it seems that there
0:10:38 was no place safe. And already we heard about like two, three of the cousins and the uncles
0:10:46 already lost their home. So, this was too much. So, I wanted to say something for those people.
0:10:53 Because I know that, you know, I made one of the jokes that I made about like, “Oh, you know,
0:10:58 it’s Hassan, her cousin. He’s a loser. He’s a doctor. He’s a doctor.” And every time a hospital
0:11:05 was bombed, we were worried about him. So, I wanted to say that because I felt that these are,
0:11:11 this is a family that I have never seen in my life. I have never, she actually hardly saw an
0:11:16 uncle or two because, you know, they cannot leave. But I said like, “I need to speak. At least I do
0:11:24 something for those extended families that I have never known.” But also because when, when
0:11:31 P.S. Morgan team called me a couple of times and said, “Okay, let’s see what’s going on in the show.”
0:11:35 And I just watched the stuff and the lies and the one-sided reporting. That made my blood boil.
0:11:43 And then I thought like, “Why am I, what am I afraid of? I’m afraid of,
0:11:47 if I say something, I can lose my courage.” Like, wait a minute. But that was the reason why I left
0:11:52 Egypt. I said, “Wait, I left Egypt. I came to the United States. I came to the land of the free,
0:11:57 where I can say anything I want. And yet I have limitation of what to say.” I mean, I thought,
0:12:03 “We left that shit behind. I mean, what’s happening?” And I understand, I understand the
0:12:07 connection of like, how sensitive it is when you speak about Israel and all of the ready-made
0:12:14 accusations. But as an Arab, as a Muslim, I don’t react the same when you talk about Saudi Arabia
0:12:21 or Iran or Egypt or any of them. It’s like, “Hey, you want, you want to diss some of these countries?
0:12:25 I’ll do that with you.” Because I have strong opinions about what happened and I already
0:12:29 been expressing them. But when I talk, when that’s why I, and I speak, and there’s a lot of Jewish
0:12:35 people who come to my show, and they understand that, they understand that, that the separation.
0:12:39 But that kind of grouping of blackmailing people and saying and not saying what they have in their
0:12:44 mind, it is that kind of like, one of the things that kind of like, push me to go on the show.
0:12:50 The thing that was bothering you, was it what was being said or how it was being said?
0:12:55 Both. Because there are lies, which is usually in the media, but there was the total disregard
0:13:02 of humanity. You talk a lot about your show about human suffering. And I felt that here,
0:13:10 the human suffering was not equal. I felt that’s why I came up with this, like, what’s the exchange
0:13:16 rate today? What’s the exchange rate today? There’s, there’s, of course, it’s terrible to see
0:13:23 anybody die. But what I feel that like, is it, isn’t our life not worth anything?
0:13:29 Yeah, you had a chart, akin to crypto, from an investor, you analyzed it from an investing
0:13:35 perspective, of course, in a dark human kind. And you were saying that a certain year was a good
0:13:43 year. Yeah, 2014. 2014 was a good year for investment purposes. And also to refer to the,
0:13:50 to a family member that you called a loser, you were saying that you called him, had a conversation
0:13:55 with him, and he keeps saying that he’s not using anybody for human shields. And you called him a
0:13:59 loser. What are you, you can’t even give a job. The liar, he lied to us, because I have to believe.
0:14:04 But this is what the one thing is like, it’s also one of the things like how it was said.
0:14:08 It was stuff that I’ve been hearing. I don’t know what, what turned on on my head. But it’s
0:14:13 stuff that I’ve been hearing all my life from the media. Israel warns civilians before bombing them.
0:14:19 And that’s okay. But that’s not okay. Israel is trying to minimize the civilians, but killing
0:14:25 them anyway. And that’s okay. But that’s not okay. So it is kind of like the indoctrination that we’ve
0:14:30 been hearing as if it is okay. And then suddenly it’s not. Yeah, there’s a kind of several layers
0:14:39 of bullshit, almost sometimes hiding the obvious horror of the situation with kind of politeness
0:14:48 and all this kind of stuff, just the basic value of human life. That said, it’s a difficult situation.
0:14:54 It is. It is. What would you do if you were Israel? BB called you, boss and big fan, big fan of your
0:14:59 comedy. First of all, would you hang up right away? Would you hear him out? No, I’ll definitely
0:15:04 hear him out. That’s like, that was like, wait a minute, that’s material. That’s material, that’s
0:15:09 material, man. It’s like, so, I was sitting with my family, just like I have my phone right, like,
0:15:16 oh, Netanyahu. Yeah, it just shows up that way. I mean, what would you do? What would you do in
0:15:22 the situation? To answer this question, we need to understand how Israel thinks. There is an
0:15:27 incredible speech given by Gideon Levy, a famous Israeli reporter and Hertz, and he describes
0:15:35 a situation where he was in the West Bank and there was a checkpoint. And in that checkpoint,
0:15:40 there was an ambulance with a Palestinian patient and it was there sitting for an hour and a half,
0:15:48 not moving. And then he went to talk to the soldiers, like, guys, why are you not letting
0:15:54 them go? I was like, I’ll let them go. And then he told them, imagine if he was your father
0:15:59 and the soldiers stood up, I was like, what? These are pigs. These are not humans. So when you
0:16:08 tell me what would you do if Israel would do, it really needs to, we need to ask, how does Israel
0:16:13 look at the Palestinians and view the Palestinians because they do look at them less than human.
0:16:18 And there is an incredible talk by Mehor Mayer. He was a Holocaust survivor and he said,
0:16:24 I learned in Auschwitz when I was there in the concentration camp that in order for a group,
0:16:28 a dominant group of people to dehumanize another group, they need first to dehumanize themselves.
0:16:33 And Israel looks at Palestinians as lesser people, as lesser beings, as some people who are
0:16:43 dispensable. And the way that they treat them is that they don’t really care about, like,
0:16:50 that’s why they exchange rate thing. So for me, if I am Israel, it would be like, what would you do
0:16:55 if you’re the United States in the time of the Native Americans? They were killing people with
0:17:00 the millions. When you dehumanize a group of people, you really don’t care. So if I was Israel,
0:17:05 I would do exactly what Israel is doing right now because there’s no one who’s holding me accountable.
0:17:11 There’s no one stopping me. And I can get whatever I want throughout my history through violence.
0:17:17 I think a lot of the things you just said are a tiny bit slightly exaggerated.
0:17:22 So let me let me try. Let’s try. So not everybody in Israel. Let’s look at
0:17:28 several groups. So people in government, IDF soldiers, and citizens that are neither of those.
0:17:39 And not everybody of any of those sees Palestinians as less than human, just some percentage.
0:17:46 So what percentage is that in your sense? It’s the people who have the power.
0:17:50 So it’s mostly the focus of your commentary. When you say people in Israel, you really mean
0:17:56 the people in power? People have in power. But but but as much as like, of course,
0:18:00 I mean the people of power because when I speak about, even when I speak about America,
0:18:03 I speak about people in power. When I speak about Egypt, I speak the people of power because
0:18:06 I can’t really talk about the 100 million people in Egypt or the 11 million people in Israel. Of
0:18:10 course, now there are people who go in and they demonstrate against Netanyahu and they want him
0:18:14 out of the government. But you have to admit that the Israeli society, it at a whole, have moved
0:18:19 quite a bit to the right and has been has been like many extreme. And you know what happens
0:18:24 when you go to the right or you go to the most extreme, the other person go to the most extreme.
0:18:29 And extremism breeds extremism. So thank you for the clarification. But like I really meant
0:18:35 with the people of power, when people criticize the United States for going in Iraq, of course,
0:18:40 I’m not criticizing citizens. But you made another point, which is an interesting point,
0:18:44 and it’s very difficult to see in the heart of people. But I wonder if you look at the
0:18:48 average Palestinian and the average Israeli, and when they look at the other, do they
0:18:54 have some hate in their heart? Well, everybody probably has some. What is that amount? You know,
0:19:03 when you look at a person that looks different than you, how much hate is there?
0:19:07 It depends on what is the living situation of each person. So in the Berlin Film Festival,
0:19:12 just like a few couple of weeks ago, there was an Israeli and a Palestinian receiving
0:19:16 an award together. And the Israeli director said, we’re going to go back to Israel,
0:19:22 he’s going to go to the West Bank, he will have no rights and I will have full living rights.
0:19:26 These people managed to work together and be friends. And they have empathy to each other.
0:19:33 Now, the average Palestinian, it’s a very difficult question, because is it the Palestinian
0:19:41 in the diaspora, or the Palestinian in Gaza, or the diaspora in the West Bank, or the one
0:19:46 in the citizen as a citizen of Israel, who still have less right than a Roman citizen of Israel
0:19:51 than you. And it really depends if I am, there are people in Arabs in Israel who are having a great
0:19:59 life. And there are people Arabs who are having a miserable life, but definitely people that
0:20:04 living in Gaza or in the West Bank is kind of like on the lower tier of the living conditions.
0:20:09 Now, let’s talk about the hate. What does that Palestinian see from the Israeli?
0:20:14 The Palestinian see oppression, limitation of movement, limitation of freedom.
0:20:19 They have, and then when there’s something happens, you see the full force coming in,
0:20:25 destroying their home, taking away members of his family. There would be absolutely no reason
0:20:30 for him to love the other. The Israeli, because he, you know, he doesn’t have the power, but he
0:20:36 lives under his government. All he sees is the rockets or whatever, but like he sees the reaction,
0:20:41 and he doesn’t see what happened to those and as humans, we are selfish. We see what really
0:20:46 affects us as humans. And I cannot even imagine what it would be like to live as a Palestinian.
0:20:53 And I’m not even talking about Gaza because everybody talks about Gaza,
0:20:56 but let me give you an example. And I’m not going to talk about the 12,000
0:21:00 kids killed in Gaza. Let’s talk about just like the four weeks in the West Bank.
0:21:04 March 4th, Amr Najjar, age 10, sitting next to his father, shot while he’s sitting in a car
0:21:14 next to his father by the IDF soldiers. Mohammad Ziad, 13 years old, March 3rd, shot in front of
0:21:23 a UN school while he’s sitting with his friends. Mohammad Ghanem, age 15, March 2nd, he shot while
0:21:31 standing in front of a stove front during a nitrate. February 23rd, Saeed Jardal, he was killed
0:21:39 by a drone fire. February 22nd, Fadi Saliman, killed while standing in front of the top of a
0:21:45 Red Cross building. Nihil Ziad, February 14th, Valentine’s Day, killed a shot in the head while
0:21:53 leaving school. February 11th, Mohammad Khattur, U.S. Citizens, killed while being in a parked car.
0:22:02 And Muayyad Shams, February 9th, killed right in front of his home because a military car
0:22:09 came reversing back to him and then somebody opened the door, shot him and leave. This is a
0:22:14 daily life of people in the West Bank. What is the justification the IDF provides?
0:22:19 Terrorism. Terrorism. Or I don’t know, I mean, you cannot really say like human shields,
0:22:27 but they will say like they were throwing rocks. There was a guy who went on Chris Rock and he
0:22:32 said like his son, a U.S. citizen, would kill and they were throwing rocks. So we killed him.
0:22:36 Even when they were throwing rocks, you kill him. But the thing is, you see, this is how easy for
0:22:40 them to get rid of penicins. I mean, I love, like, I was, I had to say I prepared a little bit for
0:22:47 the podcast because you are in tech. So, and I am ignorant in tech. There is a movie called The Lab.
0:22:54 It is directed by an Israeli, a director called Yutam Feldman, and he talks about how
0:23:00 the military industry in Israel is very advanced. And what is really mind boggling is in that movie
0:23:10 he shows how the military tests its weapons in the field in urban areas from Palestinians.
0:23:16 It is heartbreaking. You know, as a doctor, there’s five stages of trials. There is like,
0:23:24 there is discovery, pre-clinical, clinical, and then market and then post-market evaluation
0:23:31 by the FDA. The FDA approved and then the FDA post-market. Five, just to take a pill.
0:23:37 And you go in and he interviews people as like, where did you test this? They test it in the field.
0:23:45 So when, when you just like, when human life is so, is so cheap and it is so indispensable,
0:23:53 it made me, it gave me a visually reaction because you know, we as human, this has been
0:24:01 actually the state of humanity. Humanity have lived and survived the thrive by actually killing
0:24:09 each other. But there was kind of a, we were remotely removed, we were removed from it.
0:24:14 People in Greece didn’t know what Alexander the Great was doing. He was killing a pillaging,
0:24:19 like we call him the Great because, but he was killing. He was, he was conquering, he was invading.
0:24:24 Julius Caesar, all of the greats, he was doing, but killing was difficult. Killing had to have
0:24:29 some sort. You have to be with your enemy. Then you go back, catapults, then cannons,
0:24:34 then a little bit back from, and then you’re kind of like sounding remotely now. You’re
0:24:38 killing people behind the screen with a button, with a push of a button. You know,
0:24:42 a lot of people say terrorism, they killed you with a knife, killed one person with a knife,
0:24:46 shot you. That’s terrorism. But if you fly at $64 million, F-16, and you drop up in an A-84 bomb
0:24:54 that costs $16,000, that’s not terrorism because it’s remote. You’re behind the screen. So what
0:24:59 happened? What Israel is doing? It is removing itself, like America to drones. And then when you
0:25:05 push someone to be, they always brag about bombing them to the stone ages.
0:25:10 What happens when the screens and all of the obstacles that you have been put between you
0:25:18 and those people that you have treated them this way, when this is a breach and you come face to
0:25:23 face, you will come face to face with what you have created? Yeah, there’s a lot of interesting
0:25:29 things you just said. So one is the methodology of killing. If you want to look at some horrific
0:25:36 large-scale killing, people often talk about the Holocaust, but that’s visceral. You can look
0:25:42 at hollermore by Stalin, where the murder is through starvation, by Churchill in India,
0:25:48 and Churchill in India, and the great leap forward by Mao. So starvation is a thing we don’t
0:25:58 often think of it as murder because it’s quiet, it’s slow, and the interesting thing about
0:26:05 starvation is that the people don’t complain as they’re dying because they’re exhausted.
0:26:10 That’s one. And the other is the value of human life. It does seem that every culture has an
0:26:19 unequal valuation of human life. So those two things combined create a complicated
0:26:29 military landscape of the world. Yes, but the thing is, is that how we would look at technology
0:26:36 as the savior, as if we talk about how we disrupt, we disrupt, we disrupt, we disrupt,
0:26:42 and now if you go, you talk about like going to the West Bank, the people in the West Bank walk
0:26:47 and they don’t see humans, they see people shouting them from towers or behind the screens or doing,
0:26:52 and they have like biometrics that is developed by Basel system, like that’s done by HP or Google
0:26:59 and Amazon who are like part of Project Nimbus, and you see Indivision developing all of this like
0:27:07 metric and surveillance and all of that stuff. And then you have like something like the Gospel
0:27:12 that like people have actually said that the Gospel can actually create a target list using AI
0:27:18 and give you a green, yellow, or a red to go ahead. And now AI is not just disrupting the market,
0:27:25 it’s disrupting our humanity. And it is, we became so comfortable killing people from afar,
0:27:30 killing people with a push of the button. And now it is, it is like, it’s like dating apps,
0:27:37 you know, when you, when you swipe left and right, and it’s like, oh, right, it becomes so like cheap.
0:27:43 It’s not like meeting someone. It’s like, it’s like a lot of fish in the sea. Same with AI, boom,
0:27:48 500 people killed, boom, they killed. It’s so easy. It’s so easy. It’s so easy. And then it’s so
0:27:54 far removed from you. So when you put these people in this condition, you have literally put them in
0:28:00 a different universe than yours. You are behind in your condition screens, like pushing them,
0:28:05 blowing up a university. It’s amazing. But then you meet what you have done, that you meet the
0:28:13 Frankenstein that you have created. And then people are like, oh, look what they did to us.
0:28:17 You just gave me this image of a dating app from hell, where leaders are just sitting there and
0:28:23 kind of swiping left and right. Invade, destroy. This is boring. Like a puppet government.
0:28:29 Yeah. And then turn off the phone, go to sleep. So I got, you know, I traveled to the West Bank and
0:28:36 I mentioned to you offline that I really loved the people there. Just, you know, I’ve met a bunch
0:28:43 of people like that in Eastern Europe, where I grew up. Yeah, like the flamboyant, the big
0:28:51 personalities, all of that. I also met a person who was in charge of a refugee camp who was shopping
0:29:01 IDF soldier. And I’m not sure the words he said are important, as the consequences of the thing
0:29:10 that you mentioned, which is the deep hate in his eyes. That was, didn’t feel repairable at all.
0:29:18 It was pain. It was like a foundation of pain. And on top of that, a hatred. And I was like, wow,
0:29:23 this is what you kill. You kill one person. That’s the way you create. Because we have kind of like
0:29:31 a front row seat to what’s happening. We think we’re in it, but we can’t really grasp it. I mean,
0:29:39 people’s like, oh, we’re just going to go in, get Hamas out, and we’re going to get them back in.
0:29:44 And what about the people get back in? How do you think they would look at you?
0:29:47 What have you created? What have you done?
0:29:51 My show in Egypt was all about propaganda. It’s all about the use of words. Words are very important.
0:29:59 The decapitated babies were not chosen randomly, because you see, it plants a certain image in
0:30:08 your brain. Imagine if you’re going in, what a baby can do. It can smile, cry, and poop. That’s it.
0:30:14 It’s absolutely no threat. So when you tell people, 40 decapitated babies, they are so animalistic,
0:30:20 they didn’t see the babies, women raped, of course, he’s an animal to do that. And they would go
0:30:26 through that. And they would, what was very frustrating about the conversation is the
0:30:33 gish galloping, the gish galloping, throwing, you see the distractions? You see what happens?
0:30:39 Like, what’s the proportionate response? Can Israel defend itself? Do you condemn Hamas?
0:30:43 Does Israel has the right to exist decapitated babies, raped women? Why don’t the Arab countries
0:30:48 take them? Why don’t the Muslims, Muslims kill Muslims? Look what happened in Yemen, in Syria,
0:30:53 in Iraq. Like, see, see how they kind of distract you. They throw those little things at you.
0:30:58 So you don’t know what to do or the Honor War, the UNN, anti-Semitic, October 7th, October 7th,
0:31:04 October 7th. And then suddenly you are distracted and pulled into discussing all of these little
0:31:09 things. And you’re not discussing what’s happening right now. It is basically stalling, giving them
0:31:14 time to do what they do. So there’s a, there’s some degree to the propaganda, the, so the beheaded
0:31:19 babies and all this kind of stuff that is so over the top, that it shuts down actual conversation
0:31:28 about actual wrongs, war crimes on both sides. So it’s overstating it to where everyone on social
0:31:36 media and everywhere in the press and everywhere is arguing almost become desensitized to actual
0:31:40 horrors of death, which are more mundane. They’re not so dramatic as beheaded babies.
0:31:45 Yeah. Because people, people, a baby is shot, but decapitated babies. There’s like a knife blade
0:31:50 that goes into the skin, the trachea, the flesh, the spine, decapitated. Like, you can just like,
0:31:57 he’s dead. No, you go in, this is the hate, so much hate. And you know, that’s why you have made
0:32:02 me laugh at the darkest shit. You’re such a beautiful person. Your dark humor is just wonderful.
0:32:11 But, but you see, this happened to Jews before, remember blood libel? Where did the blood libel
0:32:15 come from? It comes from these rumors that Jews suck babies blood. This is what they did to them.
0:32:21 Once in the cup. Exactly. That’s a very delicious baby. Delicious baby. But, but this is what you
0:32:26 do. You, you tell people something and it happened with the Native Americans when they were here,
0:32:30 the one, when they won it and they wipe a whole tribe. So, and, and, and, and Jewish people, one
0:32:36 of the, like the minorities that were persecuted and had this used against them for a very long
0:32:41 time. And it is terrible and it’s terrifying that’s been used again. So I just did a very lengthy
0:32:46 debate on Israel and Palestine. And the really painful thing from that was to historians. It was,
0:32:54 it was deep. It was thorough. It was fascinating. But in constantly asking about sources of hope
0:33:03 or solutions, there was none. There was a, there was a sense of like a really dark sense of
0:33:10 it’s hopeless from both sides. It’s hopeless. So, you know, I look to you for, for sources
0:33:21 for source of hope. Do you have, is there any hope here? Solutions, short-term, long-term.
0:33:31 Obama have kind of summarized this beautifully in his book. He said, the reason why the Israeli
0:33:39 Palestinian conflict is so chronic is one side have so much power and the other side have absolutely
0:33:46 no power. And that’s the one why he said, like, you have Israel that basically don’t listen to us
0:33:52 because they’re supported by people who are bigger than the president, bigger than the
0:33:56 administration. They know that they can. I mean, like you, like Netanyahu was a cotton tape many
0:34:00 times saying like, he’s basically like belittling Americans. Like, we control 80% of the population.
0:34:06 We don’t care. They, this has kind of like nonchalant kind of like, we have them. And
0:34:12 there’s nothing really that compels Israel to give up anything because at the end of the day,
0:34:17 what is compromise? Compromise like, I give something, you give something. Israel’s not
0:34:21 giving anything. And they project that on you. So, for example, how many times have we heard like,
0:34:27 oh, Palestinians were giving like four, five, six, seven, 15 chances and they said no to them. And yet,
0:34:32 when you read the history, that’s not the case at all. Like for example, in 2000, the whole idea
0:34:38 about like, Arafat walked away from Oslo, that didn’t happen. And there is an incredible video
0:34:44 by, you know, what’s his name? Joe score, score borrow with Misha. And they were hosting her father,
0:34:53 Brizinski, he was the national security advisor. And Joe’s car was like, well, you know, like,
0:35:00 Arafat left the Oslo court and the Palestinians left. And then Brizinski said, like, this is like
0:35:06 embarrassingly shallow. It’s like, listen, what happened was, there was a lot of catches on the
0:35:13 Oslo court. It was very unfair to the Palestinians. So Arafat said, like, I agree, but I need to
0:35:18 take it to the Arab capitals. And what, and to, and they went to inside and they went to Sharma
0:35:23 Sheikh, they came to Egypt. And he and he went to there. And then he had a barric left because
0:35:28 there was election and he lost it. Ariel Sharon came and it was destroyed. This is one of the
0:35:33 reason why people, it is, it’s kind of like facts don’t matter as much as what is the narrative that
0:35:40 has been controlled. But what were the biggest barriers to peace there? Do you think it’s
0:35:45 fundamentally leaders don’t want a to stay solution? Or was there nuanced small differences
0:35:52 that if solved could have led to us to stay solution? I mean, there was a, maybe there was
0:35:56 a certain point when the Israeli leaders were more open to compromise. But I can say that
0:36:04 because each time Israel gives back land, it has to be after some use of force. The 1973 war,
0:36:12 the interval, the first and second, the, the, the, the, the, the, the casualties in Gaza,
0:36:19 they never give up land willingly and because of peace. Because if I have that much military,
0:36:24 I can do whatever I want. Why would I give up anything? I have that much power. Why would
0:36:29 America or China give everything if they’re so powerful? And especially if they are, have this
0:36:34 kind of open check from the United States. So it is, it is really about what can push Israel
0:36:42 to give up something because you are so much stronger than me. What could compel you to give
0:36:48 up something? And this is why the whole thing about like trying to equalize Palestinians
0:36:54 and the Israeli state and government, it doesn’t make any sense. So what is the source of hope?
0:37:01 You know, John Stuart, who will talk about it from many angles, somebody you admire, a friend,
0:37:11 he proposed a two-state solution. Look, look, look, look to the comedians for hope.
0:37:18 Yes. Well, everybody’s talking about the two-state solution, but Israel has said many times on
0:37:23 Netanyahu and then it’s like, there, there’s going to be no state solutions. They, in the past,
0:37:27 it’s like, even, even Neftali Bennett, he came in on the, on, on the hard talk. It’s like, yeah,
0:37:32 maybe in the past we wanted to stay solutions, but like, look, every time we give them land,
0:37:36 they kill us. So no state solutions. And they are openly saying it, but that’s perhaps rhetoric.
0:37:41 The rhetoric that is supported by action because look at what they’re doing in the West Bank that
0:37:47 you said. They are cutting it, illegal settlement, peace-mealing it. So how, if you have an intention
0:37:54 at all to give them anything, why would you keep doing this? And you’ve called it a bunch of little
0:38:00 gazes. Yeah. It’s a nice little picture of what’s happening. Peace-mealing it, because it is,
0:38:07 what happened in the past four months? The Palestinians have been micro-dosing on it for a
0:38:12 very long time, little by little, little by little. And we would shout every time when it gets too
0:38:20 much. And then we shut down and then little by little. But this time it was hard. It was hard to
0:38:27 see the blatant oppression and the word said, maybe the Hamas ministry of the health are giving
0:38:35 us the bad numbers. Maybe it’s just human shields. And I laugh. There’s 13,000 babies killed. Does
0:38:42 that mean that there are 13,000 military targets hiding in their diapers? Because it is so, it
0:38:49 doesn’t make any sense to kill that. And maybe it’s just like, oh, oops, it is out of our hands.
0:38:54 It’s hard to know what to do with those numbers. I mean, I just want babies enough.
0:39:00 But you know what happens? When you hear so many numbers, numbers become numbers.
0:39:05 And you become so desensitized. And this is why there’s a difference between saying
0:39:11 13,000 Palestinian kids did. It’s like Mila Kohane, an Israeli baby, 10 months old. She was killed
0:39:19 in her crib. And this is what we hear from CNN. We never hear a story about a Palestinian kid.
0:39:23 That’s why thank you for giving me the space for saying the names of the Palestinian children
0:39:28 that were killed just for four weeks. Because humans need context. They need depth.
0:39:36 They need like a 3D look at what they can look at. But if you just get numbers, they don’t mean
0:39:43 anything. Is there some degree to where both leaderships, Hamas, PA, Palestinian Authority,
0:39:49 Israel all want war, like perpetual war to to remain in power?
0:39:57 There is. That’s that’s an interesting question.
0:40:00 But I mean, let’s admit something. The Arab regimes in the in the area have actually used
0:40:08 the problem of Palestine in order to stay in power, in order to take, get excuses,
0:40:12 like have this enemy and Israel, the Israeli government has used that too. And maybe the
0:40:18 Palestinians. But but my problem with when going into discussion, this is that the two sides are
0:40:25 not equal. They’re not equal in power. They’re not equal in influence and they’re not equal in
0:40:29 international support, especially by the United States. So Palestinians can the people who have
0:40:37 made changes in history were the people with power, the people who would have the ability
0:40:42 to change things. And the Palestinians cannot really change. And what what can they change?
0:40:47 Well, is that true, though, with how much support the Palestinian people have? So
0:40:56 just like you said, there’s a lot of Arab states there, they will voice their pro-Palestinian
0:41:02 position in order to distract from their the own corruption and abuses of power in their own
0:41:08 countries. But, you know, I don’t think if you look globally, there’s a complete asymmetry of
0:41:14 power and public opinion here, maybe in the press in the West. But if you look globally,
0:41:21 but do they have the same kind of weapons that the Israeli have a literally power? No,
0:41:26 there’s a major asymmetry of literal power, some money to their leaders. Does that make any
0:41:33 difference? I mean, and also when you say Palestinian authority, which authority are you
0:41:37 talking about Hamas, or the Palestinian authority who has been kind of a domesticated kind of like
0:41:42 a puppy for the Palestinians who basically have been an informant for their own people.
0:41:47 And this is the thing also that kind of like really pissed me off when I was hearing the thing
0:41:53 about these things. Like Hamas, Hamas, Hamas, Hamas, like we have Netanyahu on tape, confessing
0:41:57 that he supported Hamas, giving money in order to cause factions in between the Palestinians.
0:42:03 So it’s just like, it doesn’t make, you just told me this. You just told me this. You just told me
0:42:08 Netanyahu support. Hamas like, but Hamas like what? I mean, to which degree does Netanyahu represent
0:42:13 the Israeli people? Is a real question. To which point does Trump or Biden represent the American
0:42:21 people? And to which degree does Hamas represent the Palestinian people? Does. None of these
0:42:27 represent it, but who have the power in order to make the decisions? It really comes down to that.
0:42:32 Well, who does have the power? You’re giving a lot of power to Israel.
0:42:37 But the Arab League, what do you think Hamas do? Continue doing what a charter says,
0:42:45 which is trying to destroy Israel. And the role of the Palestinian people is to overthrow Hamas
0:42:50 and get a more moderate leadership probably. And the role of the Israeli people is to vote out
0:42:57 this right-wing government and elect a more moderate leader so that there’s a chance
0:43:04 at peace with two moderate leaders. So before Hamas even got to control 2006,
0:43:10 because there was a real sharon in 2000. And we all know what happened. And a real sharon kind
0:43:16 of like had make, they may came up with this amazing policy of like breaking people’s kids’
0:43:22 bones in the interfather. So he was also like, I mean, which one is moderate? I mean, I think is
0:43:29 Hamas is a product of what happened. I mean, we can, if there was no apartheid in South Africa,
0:43:37 there would be no NFC. There would be no Nelson Mandela. If there were no Nazis in
0:43:42 Paris, there would be no French resistance. And I’m not saying that, and again, I’m not,
0:43:46 I wouldn’t don’t want to be in a put in a position to defend Hamas or anybody because you know what
0:43:51 that entails, but those are like Hamas, again, not defending them. They went into October 7th.
0:44:01 What was their, why did they did that? Like release our hostages, the people in prison,
0:44:07 because if you talk about people who are kidnapped, Israel kidnaps people every single day. And when
0:44:13 they had the first exchange in November 4th, Israel released 400 people, three quarters of them
0:44:18 were women and children. Why are those people in prison? There’s one in four kids that are
0:44:24 imprisoned that stay in solitary confinement, which is by international law, a form of torture.
0:44:30 And you’re putting kids to that. Is it possible? So first of all, ceasefire. Yes. And longer term,
0:44:37 is it possible for Arab states and the United States to get together and with power
0:44:45 through diplomacy enforce a solution? It’s a very, very ideal solution. But you know,
0:44:55 and I know that Arab states don’t really have the power. All of the powers are in the hands of
0:45:00 America. They have the power. See, I would, I think they have the power. I don’t, maybe they
0:45:04 don’t want to use it. Maybe they don’t want to use it. Because there’s a benefit. The dark sense
0:45:12 I have is that a lot of people win from the suffering that Palestinians are going through,
0:45:20 because they can point to that and distract from corruption in their own states. And then obviously
0:45:27 Iran can benefit also from the same kind of dynamic distracting from the authoritarian nature
0:45:35 of their regime. Definitely. But what is the core of the problem here? Is it the Arab states using
0:45:41 the suffering or the actually the suffering itself? And the suffering comes from people being
0:45:47 displaced. Their homes were taken away. They are seven million Palestinians in diaspora,
0:45:55 seven millions. Seven million went out there and now they’re living in Canada and in America and
0:45:58 Europe. They had homes there. They cannot go back to 1.7 million people of the people in Gaza.
0:46:06 Don’t belong in Gaza. They were pushed from other places. The peace meal thing of people are being,
0:46:13 you know, in Germany. I’m going to shift gear a little bit. It’s going to be a little bit of fun.
0:46:20 There is a book that I bought the rights to and I want to turn it into a movie.
0:46:25 And I bought, I optioned the right for two months, for two years in March of last year,
0:46:31 before October 7th. After October 7th, I bought the permanent right. That book is called The Muslim
0:46:39 and the Jew. And it is written by an author called Ronin Steinke. I read an article about this book
0:46:45 in 2016. And I chased that book for rights for seven years. I didn’t have that much money,
0:46:52 but I wanted that book. And that book was translated into English called Anna and Dr. Helmi.
0:46:58 And that book tells the incredible story under Nazi Germany where Arabs went and drove to Berlin
0:47:07 in 1920s after the First World War in the Weimar Republic. And they became doctors and engineers
0:47:13 and journalists for two reasons. Number one, it’s their cheap, very cheap because of the inflation.
0:47:18 And two, a lot of the Arab nationalists didn’t want to send their kids to England or France
0:47:25 because they were the occupiers. And Dr. Helmi was the hero of that. He’s an Egyptian doctor.
0:47:32 And that’s why I kind of like, I personally kind of connected with him. And he went to medical school,
0:47:40 didn’t find a place to live. So he lived in the Jewish ghetto, like many Arabs.
0:47:44 He didn’t find a school to work at a hospital to work in. So he worked in a Jewish hospital.
0:47:50 So there was a lot of Arabs who lived with the ghetto. And actually the first director of the
0:47:57 Berlin Mosque with a Jewish convert who converted to Islam and he was a gay activist.
0:48:02 I’m telling you, this is like a crazy story. And this is all, this is not a fiction story.
0:48:08 This is not, this is actually like a nonfiction. It’s written actually based on the statement
0:48:11 and the documents of the Nazis in Istanbul. Dr. Helmi, he was in this hospital and the Nazis came in
0:48:21 and they killed and tortured and beat up the Jewish doctor. And he made, they made him the
0:48:27 head of his department. Then he was surrounded by a Nazi doctor. They didn’t touch him because he
0:48:31 was an Arab. There was kind of like a thing between Germany and the Arabs because they wanted to appease
0:48:37 to them in order to have kind of a grass root base in the Arab world where he want to go next.
0:48:46 And this is why 1934, 1935, the racial laws of Nuremberg, they had a name change. First they
0:48:56 were called anti-Semitic. Then they changed into anti-Jewish because also Arabs were Semitic.
0:49:01 So they wanted to appease the Arabs. Now, what happened to Dr. Helmi when that happened to him?
0:49:06 He would go back to the ghetto and he would see the apartments next to him, the Jewish apartment
0:49:14 become more and more and more flooded with people because they were moving Jews
0:49:19 and pushing them and putting them together, pushing them to the side. And each flat, each flat,
0:49:28 each apartment instead of one family, it would have three, four, six, seven families. And he was
0:49:34 there when at home and he looked, he was there. This is where the people he grew up with,
0:49:40 he lived with and now he’s seen that kind of discrimination just because he was an Arab.
0:49:45 And then he started to kind of like atone for, like because he felt responsible because he
0:49:52 wasn’t treated the same way and he started to go and treat Jewish people in their homes because
0:49:57 they couldn’t go to hospitals. And then one family gave them his daughter. It’s like this is
0:50:04 Anna, save her. He took her, pretended that she is his niece, put a hijab around her,
0:50:09 taught her Arabic, called her Nadia, my daughter’s name by the way. And they, and he hid her in plain
0:50:16 sites for seven years in front of the Nazis as his nurse. It’s an incredible story. And then
0:50:21 not just that he went to prison and then he went out and he formed with the Arab people that was
0:50:26 in prison with him, a network that saves 300 Jews. You see that kind of story? This is the Jews that
0:50:33 were living in the airport. I’m not saying that the Jews living in the airport was living like
0:50:36 an incredible level. Of course, as a kind of a minority, they did not have like the full power
0:50:40 of their full, you know, advantages of the rule. That’s normal. But we had this
0:50:46 kind of a relationship before Israel was erected in 1948. And then of course,
0:50:59 everybody looked at Jews at the time as fifth column. And of course, the nationalistic regimes
0:51:04 used that. And this is why what Biden said was very dangerous when he said, if there’s no Israel,
0:51:12 no Jew in the world will feel safe. You are the leader of the free world. You are the president
0:51:17 of the United States. Do you mean that you’re telling me that the Jews in your country in the
0:51:21 United States of America are not safe? That is wrong on two levels. Number one, America historically
0:51:26 and right now is more safe to Jews in America in the world than in anybody. They are safer than
0:51:31 the Jews in Israel. They never had programs or the Holocaust like Iraq. They live here a good
0:51:36 life, not perfect life, but they are better. Second of all, if you are the president and
0:51:40 you’re telling that a group of people will not feel safe unless there is a different one,
0:51:43 you are already feeding into their fifth column. They’re like, you’re Russian. You come from there.
0:51:49 And there is a group of laws in the Russian Constitution that says that Russia will protect
0:51:54 its citizens everywhere in the world. What happens if the president says like, oh,
0:51:58 you’re Russians. You’re protected by your own country. You don’t belong here. This is terrible.
0:52:01 Yeah, you’re right. That’s actually an indirect threat. So yes, you know, even saying Muslims
0:52:06 can now feel safe in America or something like this. That means like that’s a threat.
0:52:12 But what would a Jewish person in Beverly Hills or in Brooklyn feel if he hears that?
0:52:19 You are already telling people you need to be loyal to Israel. I mean, Israel is a foreign
0:52:26 country. I am sorry, but Israel is a foreign country. Israel is a client country that we
0:52:32 sponsor and it should actually be responsible and held accountable for what they do.
0:52:36 You mentioned 1948, the Nakba. But before that, 41, 39, 41 to 45, the Holocaust. What do you do?
0:52:47 What do you do with the Holocaust? How do you incorporate into the calculus of what’s
0:52:54 of morality that leads up to the displacement of 700,000 Palestinians from the land? How do
0:53:05 you work that out? It is terrible. But like, I mean, what the systemic annihilation of Jewish
0:53:11 people under the Nazi, that is like a carefully engineered thought for plan. It was terrible.
0:53:19 It was like kind of like the human ingenuity put into like something that is very evil.
0:53:24 But also it is not just not just that happened. We need we need to remember that Otto Frank,
0:53:30 the father of Anna Frank, has his visa, refugee visa rejected by the United States.
0:53:34 There’s a lot of people that were rejected by the United States, rejected by other European
0:53:38 countries. And then they were pushed into Palestine. So you have to put yourself between like under
0:53:43 the Arabs. Okay, we’re sitting here. Okay, come and then all right, you don’t have a home or a
0:53:48 country anymore. That kills you. I mean, you see, if I’m not an Arab and you give me that kind of
0:53:56 piece of like terrible human tragedy, like, oh my God, that is terrible. But then I’m an Arab,
0:54:01 like, yes, I’m so sorry, but what do I have to do with that? Why is that my fault? The persecution
0:54:07 of the Jewish people have started since the eighth and ninth century, because they were like,
0:54:13 they were first anti Christians. They were like criminal immigrants. They were like conspirators.
0:54:19 This is this is this is this is the anti like people kind of like it as if Europe kind of
0:54:26 like throw antisemitism on us. You understand that like Henry Ford, Henry Ford is one of the
0:54:32 biggest anti he was he was the the inspiration for Adolf Hitler. This is how anti-Semitic
0:54:40 Henry Ford was. And you kind of like gloss over that. And then suddenly we as Arabs have to pay
0:54:50 the price. Why? Several questions I want to ask there. So but one just zooming out, what do you
0:54:57 think hatred of Jews has been such a viral kind of idea throughout human history? Oh, it’s very
0:55:06 easy. It all started from Christ. They killed Christ. They killed Christ. They killed Christ.
0:55:10 They’re the killer of Christ. That’s a very sexy story. And that was so yeah, that was and that
0:55:15 stayed for years. That stayed for centuries. I’m sorry, centuries. They’re the killer of Christ.
0:55:21 And then the Catholic Church did not allow usury. But they would work in usury. So they become
0:55:28 rich. Now the people that we hate that we accuse them of feeling Christ are becoming rich.
0:55:33 So that’s envy now. And that’s that and that’s hatred. I mean, when you talk about ghettos,
0:55:41 ghettos were not just as secluded parts in cities. Sometimes those ghettos were outside the cities.
0:55:49 Jews were not even allowed to work a lot of professions. They were not allowed to get into
0:55:54 the syndicates of certain professions. So they had to work usury and they got rich. So the people
0:56:01 hated them more. The first crusade didn’t kill a single Muslim. All the kill were Jews. And when
0:56:09 they finally arrived to Jerusalem, all the kill were Jews. They almost annihilated the Jews. So it
0:56:14 was all this. And of course, you have the dark ages. Who do you need as an enemy? The Jews,
0:56:19 right? They’re the killer of Christ. There’s nothing bigger than this.
0:56:24 And then you fast forward. I mean, one of the things that I found out that was very, very,
0:56:32 very, very crazy when Henry Ford imported the protocols of the elders of Zion.
0:56:40 By the way, in the Arab world, protocols of the elders of Zion is so popular and
0:56:44 for no one uses. And the people who don’t know it, it’s kind of like a bunch of like stories. And
0:56:51 basically it’s like the Jews saying like, we’re going to control the war. We’re going to do this.
0:56:57 And we’re going to do that and whatever. But people don’t know that that is a work of plagiarism.
0:57:04 It was plagiarized from a satirical play called Conversation in Hell between Mickevely and Montesequil.
0:57:14 And it is just, and it is kind of like based on one chapter or one scene or so. It’s crazy.
0:57:21 But it’s crazy how sticky it is. It’s weird. Because if I hate you, that’s great. But if
0:57:27 I have a story to support that hate, that’s even better. But it’s like one of the best stories,
0:57:33 one of the stickiest stories about hate. Of course. It’s probably the most effective. Because like
0:57:39 there are, you know, a lot of peoples hate other groups of peoples. But that’s just like the sexiest
0:57:45 story of all. Because humans need to concentrate their hate, their insecurities and their shortcomings
0:57:56 into one thing that they can practice that hate on. If it’s a person, great. If it’s a group,
0:58:03 even better. How do you, into this calculus, incorporate that that group is pretty small?
0:58:09 There’s 16 million Jews worldwide. And you mentioned how is that the responsibility
0:58:16 of the Arab peoples? You know, everybody should be to blame for not taking in Jews
0:58:21 after the Holocaust. But you know, the reality of the situation, if we look at the religious
0:58:27 slice of this, there’s 16, let’s say, million Jews. And there’s, I don’t know how many Muslims,
0:58:34 but 1.8 billion. Yeah. Do you, that difference, that 100x difference, do you incorporate that
0:58:45 into the sense that Jews in Israel might feel for, you know, the existential dread that we might,
0:58:54 this small group might be destroyed? Jews in Israel have every right to feel afraid,
0:58:59 because of everything that they see and everything they’ve been told, everything. But I would say
0:59:06 that the calculus or the numbers doesn’t, like, of course, like being small, it is, of course,
0:59:14 a factor, but it is never an excuse in order to take something that’s not yours. It’s saying like,
0:59:18 “Hey, you have 300 million Americans and we have 52 or 52 says give one state for them.” There’s too
0:59:24 many of them, too many of you, just give them something. You know, it’s like the fact that I
0:59:29 have something and you don’t, and I have too many of me and there is little of you. And then you
0:59:34 come in and, and it’s not really Israel against the Arab world or the Muslim world, because we have
0:59:40 to say we fucked up big time. But it is the Palestinians that are in and they are being
0:59:48 subjected to that. So it’s not really like the 1.8 billion and the 16 million Jews. And the 1.8
0:59:54 billion, if you look at them, some of them, like, don’t care, some of them live into regimes that
0:59:58 have been oppressed and those regimes are supported by the United States in order. It’s easier for
1:00:03 me as an empire to take what I want from this country if I control the dictator. And I tell
1:00:10 them that his power is linked to my ability to, to my desire to keep him in power. So that’s why
1:00:18 you have a total disconnect between people in power in, in the Arab and the Muslim countries and
1:00:23 the people themselves. Can you speak to the 1948, you know, because you mentioned taking land that’s
1:00:30 not yours. Maybe parallels with Native Americans. Yeah. There was a war. The, the Jewish minority
1:00:43 fought that war against several Arab states and won that war. How do we incorporate that into the
1:00:50 Catholic? Yeah, well, that’s also a misconception, like a misinterpretation of the event, because
1:00:56 it seems that it was like the small, the, it’s kind of like a David and Goliath kind of story.
1:01:04 But, and I was always like, how did we, how did we not do that? But in, in reality, with numbers,
1:01:12 I can’t pull it up right now. But if you look at the numbers, the number of tanks, the planes, the,
1:01:18 the trained officer, because those, many of those Jewish fighters came from World War II.
1:01:25 They were seasoned fighters and they actually had more planes, more tanks, more artillery,
1:01:33 more pieces of weapon, more of the, all of the other combined because they, the, the people that
1:01:38 really like fought was Egypt. And you have to, 1948, some, many of those Arab countries didn’t
1:01:44 even have their independence. So they would kind of like send like a cavalry or like a people in
1:01:48 horses. But in fact, the whole idea was like, we won against seven nations. Sure. The numbers were
1:01:54 totally in Israel favor. They were better equipped. They were better trained. They were, they had like
1:01:59 more tanks and, and, and artillery and, and, and, and, and aeroplanes and they planned, planned
1:02:06 better. So they, yes, they deserved the win because they planned and we did it. So to you,
1:02:09 there was an asymmetry, military power even then. But what do you do with the fact that the war was
1:02:15 won? So like, if you look at the history of the world, there is wars fought over land. I agree
1:02:25 with you. This has been the history of humanity. Humanity was not living peacefully. It’s all about
1:02:30 like people taking people and killing people, taking their land. But there’s two difference here.
1:02:34 Mostly, usually, the conquering power, like for example, England, they had England and they
1:02:43 conquer you in India. And after the occupation finished, they go back to England. France, Greece,
1:02:51 Persia, Egypt, they will like go in, expand and shrink, expand and shrink. It’s all been there.
1:02:57 What is different here is exactly what happened in Australia and the United States. A group of
1:03:02 people came in not just to conquer and take the land, but to completely change that, to replace
1:03:08 them and get them out or kill them. It was very easy with the Indians because they had small
1:03:12 parks. There was no social media. They did it over 400 years. They had time. The problem is
1:03:18 what is happening right now, I agree with you. It might not be that new, but we are there and
1:03:24 we’re watching it happen. And so now we have to confront the realities of war and empire and
1:03:30 conquering. Because you know what’s the problem? We told ourselves we can be better.
1:03:34 After 1948, there was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It means that we are going to be
1:03:42 better humans. We’re not going to kill and take land. We’re not going to displace people. We’re
1:03:46 not going to take people for what they are. There’s now laws. There’s international laws. There’s
1:03:50 International Court of Justice. And now Israel is giving the middle finger to all of them.
1:03:54 So isn’t some fundamental way this whole thing that we’re talking about is us as a civilization
1:04:00 on social media in articles and books and in newspapers. We’re just trying to figure out
1:04:09 who are we as a people. I think the shock came from the fact that we thought that we as humanity
1:04:15 have evolved and now we are what have actually changed is that we became more advanced in
1:04:23 effectively eradicating a group of people because of the technology that we have. And the fact that
1:04:28 we can do that under the eyes and ears of all the world and we are watching it on their phone.
1:04:33 We have a window. We have a window to the war. You know, 1945, people didn’t know what was happening
1:04:38 in Japan. What? Well, we heard about it on the radio. Like, oh, today our forces came in and
1:04:43 they launched it. We don’t know. We heard it. We maybe we saw pictures after that and it’s quite
1:04:49 edited. But now we see it. We’re into it and it is it is so much for our psyche and we can get it.
1:04:57 And it’s like and the Arabs say like, guys, you told us we came to the West because we were told
1:05:03 that we were equal. You know the Universal Declaration of Right? One of the co-authors,
1:05:07 his name is Stefan Hessell. He’s a Jew. He is a survivor of the Holocaust. And you know what
1:05:16 happened to him. He died, by the way, a couple of years ago, but he before he died, he was cancelled
1:05:22 by so many people and he was called anti-Semitic because he joined the BDS movement and he spoke
1:05:27 about of Palestine. That is the author of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that we
1:05:33 value so much and we think that that would define our humanity. But then we go in and we are
1:05:39 shocked. It’s like maybe we were sold something. Maybe that was false advertisement.
1:05:48 You shared a tweet by an account called Awesome Jew.
1:05:56 It reads, “Islamo Nazi comedian Bassem Yusuf.” Comedian in quotes, by the way.
1:06:03 Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course, because I’m not funny.
1:06:05 So, “Islamo Nazi comedian Bassem Yusuf is now denying Dr.” I love that you retweeted this like
1:06:11 twice. I guess suppose because it’s advertising some upcoming dates. He’s now denying October 7th
1:06:19 Massacre, “The Muslim radical Bassem Yusuf is notorious for his radical radical set twice,
1:06:25 for his radical hatred of Jews in Israel. In a recent clip, he claims that the atrocities
1:06:30 committed on October 7th are fabricated. We’re looking for all information regarding
1:06:35 any of his upcoming shows, as well as the venues which host the scumbag where Jews feel safe around
1:06:41 this Nazi. Nazi.” Yeah. I’ve never, this is my first time interviewing a Nazi.
1:06:48 It’s the first time I actually get called a Nazi.
1:06:51 First time. First time. I have been called so many things in Egypt. So, in Egypt, I was called
1:06:58 a CIA operative of Mossads by a secret Muslim brotherhood, a secret Jew. There was also an
1:07:09 article that was published about me in the state-run media saying in details how Bassem has been
1:07:18 recruited by CIA agents using John Stewart in order to use satire to bring down the country.
1:07:23 I was a Freemason, an infidel, a member of the Knights of the Temple, something like that.
1:07:32 And there is actually people, the Muslim brotherhood on their show, they would say like,
1:07:37 “His action is Israeli and they have forged an Egyptian ID for him to come.”
1:07:43 So, it’s kind of like when I guess, I said, “I left all of that behind and I come here,
1:07:48 it’s like boom, anti-Semitic Nazi.” Damn. I mean, I really covered everything. I don’t know what
1:07:53 else. I mean, I think I have, it’s kind of like I’m collecting PhDs. I’m just like getting like
1:07:58 all of these credits. How do you deal with that? How do you deal with the attacks? I mean, this goes
1:08:03 back to the decision to do the interview with Piers Morgan. Like, how do you like psychologically
1:08:12 do all of it? These kind of attacks, at the beginning, it’s fun. But when they evolve
1:08:18 into something else. So, for example, I was like laughing of all of the stuff about calling me this,
1:08:22 calling me that, but then when people would come in and thread the theater, because it’s not the
1:08:27 people who are making those accusations that would come to you. It’s the people that will hear
1:08:31 and see those accusations and act on it. And there’s always the fear of like, I mean, we have,
1:08:38 we have in the airboard a lot of things like somebody would hear something about someone
1:08:42 else and go kill him and whatever, like anybody else. So there’s this, but somehow I want to make
1:08:47 fun of it. And, and it is to be called a nat and Islam-Nazi, it must been the funniest thing ever.
1:08:58 Because it doesn’t Islam-Nazi. Wow. How did you, how did you and a radical Muslim, me, a lot of
1:09:05 Islamists hate me. They will call me a secular infidel. So it’s kind of like, who am I? Maybe
1:09:12 I have an identity crisis and I need the people to tell me who I am. Let’s go to the beginning.
1:09:18 Let’s go to your childhood. You grew up in Egypt, Cairo, Egypt. Well, let’s figure out how you came
1:09:26 to be who you are. I hope you become an Islam-Nazi. Yeah, exactly. It’s a long journey. I do like the
1:09:33 swastika tattoo on your ass, which I didn’t, how did you see my ass? You know what you did.
1:09:38 I know what you did. It was very inappropriate. You’re also obviously a sexual harasser of me.
1:09:44 Is this like a me too? This is like 2020 or someone will come up. It’s like, okay.
1:09:51 Please flip it. This is your me too moment. All right. So Cairo, what’s a, what’s a,
1:10:00 what’s a defining memory, positive or negative from your childhood?
1:10:03 My memory in general was, was cool. It was cool. I went to a Catholic
1:10:09 school until the, for primary school, the elementary. And by the time I’d done,
1:10:17 there was kind of like a start of a decline into the public education. And my parents,
1:10:23 they’re like middle-class working officials. My dad was a judge. My mom was a business
1:10:27 professor’s and she’s, and they were like, one of the people was like, they didn’t have that
1:10:30 much luxury. My dad like drove like a regular like car, a fiat, which is like the equivalent for
1:10:37 the Lada in Russia. Thank you for speaking to the audience. Yeah. The Lada. And so would that
1:10:46 be a good car or a bad car? No, it’s kind of like, kind of like the minimum. And my dad was not a
1:10:52 man of, of, of showing off. Whatever money they would do, they would put it for us, education,
1:10:59 give everything to their kids. This is kind of like a very, very typical mentality. And I’m sure
1:11:07 it’s in many cultures, but like, we grew up with this, like everything that we have is like for
1:11:11 kids. So they would put us into education. So middle school, that was the big 1986 was the
1:11:17 beginning of the explosion of like international schools, private schools. And these schools were
1:11:23 relatively expensive. Of course, now with today’s currency, it’s ridiculous. But at that time,
1:11:28 it’s very expensive. So I went to that school. And from there was this moment was like, you feel
1:11:35 less right away. I mean, of course, there’s the regular bullying and stuff, but it’s, it’s not
1:11:41 that it’s kind of like, you always feel less, you don’t have that much of like purchasing power
1:11:45 that can allow you to go to the same outings or travel with them. And even like how you dress,
1:11:50 it will be modest compared to them. So I was always an outsider. I was, and I compensated with
1:11:58 that by two things, being good at school and being good at sports. So I was not like the typical
1:12:03 nerd was just like, I was like, I was playing football, basketball, cratering field. And I was
1:12:08 like, one of the people would like to have me on their team. So I wasn’t like, kind of like,
1:12:13 ah, he’s nerd, get him away. But I never had a girlfriend. I never had any kind of like,
1:12:17 was not like, I was not boyfriend material. So that’s kind of like, it leaves remnants in you
1:12:23 that you’re not good enough. But psychologically, you’re always like, when you’re by yourself,
1:12:27 you felt like an outsider. Yes, all the time. And that’s why it kind of like, I’m more of a loner.
1:12:32 I don’t have a lot of what you call friends, I have acquaintances, people that I do stuff with,
1:12:36 but I don’t have like the people that I tell them everything. When I went to medical school,
1:12:39 now medical school is a different animal. Medical school is where all of the people from the public
1:12:43 schools go. Public schools are very like, they are not, they don’t have like, they don’t have
1:12:50 English language as like a strong partner, but they are brilliant people. So because they would
1:12:56 mostly the study in Arabic, but they are brilliant and they are very, very, very smart, very sharp.
1:13:02 But then I’ll go there. Now I am the sissy boy from the private school that comes into medical
1:13:09 school. Now I’m an outsider again. And I go into, I go into residency and I pick up salsa.
1:13:17 So now I’m a salsa teacher while being a cardiothoracic surgery resident. And I’m an
1:13:24 outsider for the third time because in salsa, I’m kind of like the respectful doctor. And in
1:13:29 resident, I’m the guy who is just dancing. So and everything, of course, as a medical resident,
1:13:34 you will mess up a lot. Yeah. So they would always like, oh, because you’re a dancer,
1:13:38 oh, because you don’t care about medicine. You just like want to go there and dance with women.
1:13:41 Which is true. Yeah. And so all of my life, I felt that I’m an outsider. I’m not part of
1:13:52 the team. I’m not part of the core group. So where and I have a story that you would love.
1:14:00 Right before my residency, I was so much into salsa. So I asked all of them, I mean,
1:14:06 then you saved that. And I was working in summers and I was doing extra jobs. And I took that money
1:14:11 and I went to Miami in order to learn the way that the casino, which is the Cuban,
1:14:17 kind of like circle salsa kind of thing. And I went there in the summer of 2001. And my return
1:14:25 ticket was 9/12/2001. The universe is a sense of humor, I gotta tell you that. 9/12. I was supposed
1:14:37 to be on a plane coming back to Egypt. What happens? Thank God, I ran out of money 10 days
1:14:42 before that. Just like, all right, I changed my ticket and I came back. 9/11. I’m kind of like,
1:14:49 my mom, wake up! Wake up! What? What? It’s like, and I see like the two tower four and it was like,
1:14:56 I’m almost like, oh, you’re here, you’re here, you’re here. And I was like, I could have been
1:15:03 in Guantanamo right now. Fly at 9/12. And by the way, I was in Miami. They went to the flying
1:15:11 school in Miami. So I mean, I had like 9/11 written all over my face. You’d be all over the news.
1:15:19 All over the news. And my mom was like, what? He went there to dance salsa? I didn’t know that
1:15:23 salsa is like a name for terrorist. Why salsa? Why did that attract you? And what, like, can you
1:15:30 explain what salsa is? So I mentioned to you offline that I’ve been doing a little bit of tango,
1:15:34 trying to learn it. Yeah, like, you know, Samba salsa, Pachata, marina, it’s kind of like Latin
1:15:39 dances. And it’s like, you know, I don’t know how you describe salsa. Couple dance on Latin beats.
1:15:48 And I did it because I once, I, and I talk about that in my Arabic standup comedy, not the English,
1:15:56 I talk about like how I was, you know, I didn’t have like really like a great like social life.
1:16:04 And I, my friends went there one day and then I go into a place which it was called El Getunegro.
1:16:11 No, no, it was called Big Fat Black Pussycat. And then I think they thought it would be like,
1:16:18 racist or something, so it should change it to El Getunegro. Anyway, so.
1:16:21 Great, great. Great decision. I know. So I went there and said, damn, music and women
1:16:31 and my doctor, a doctor dancing salsa, that is a chick magnet. Yeah, 100%. We do, you know,
1:16:38 we do everything for that. All of humans. Even power, even money. All the wars we’ve been talking
1:16:44 about. At the end of the day. The approval from the other sex. We are, we are babies. We are terrible
1:16:52 people. So of course, like, I mean, that was like, that was like great. But then I, as, as a nerd,
1:17:00 I went in so hard and now I became a salsa teacher. Yeah. And I earned more money from salsa more
1:17:07 than I did as a doctor. I didn’t know this part of you. That’s hilarious. You know, I was, I was
1:17:13 making, I was making a killing amount of money, like huge amount of money. And I was just like,
1:17:19 you know, I would go finish my, my, my shift and I go to the salsa class. And sometimes I would have
1:17:23 like 70 people in my salsa class. Oh, wow. I had like the biggest salsa class in Egypt in the beginning
1:17:29 of 2000. And it was fantastic. And it was an outlet because you go there and there’s the shifts
1:17:35 and people dying. Damn. And he goes salsa. You must have been good. I was okay. I was cool. I was
1:17:43 fun. There were people better than me, but I have a thing about teaching. I like teaching people.
1:17:48 So you, you mentioned heart surgery. So what motivated you to become a doctor?
1:17:53 It was a choice of exclusion. I mean, there’s nothing else you can do with these high grades
1:17:58 other than doctor and engineering. I hate math. So go be a doctor. This is the Middle East. What
1:18:05 do you expect? You see there, like I, in my joke and my show, I said, like, there’s, it can be one
1:18:10 of three things in the Middle East, a doctor, an engineer or a disappointment. It is, that is the
1:18:14 choices that you have. So years after. You damn good at it though. That’s a hard path though.
1:18:28 Yeah. And it’s, it’s a fascinating one. Can I tell you something? Yes. That’s actually, I was
1:18:33 thinking about why did I actually go into medicine and why did I always choose the hardest thing
1:18:38 although I didn’t love it. And I have to tell you that I had an epiphany only two weeks ago.
1:18:43 And I don’t know if that’s actually related or not. You know, remember when I told you,
1:18:48 I went to this school and I didn’t have that much money and I didn’t have the luxury of time
1:18:54 or money to be with those people and do what they do. So by the time I finished school and
1:19:00 everybody was going to university, oh, everybody in my school went to the AUC, the American
1:19:05 University in Cairo, of course. Like American education, party time, like, I mean, of course,
1:19:13 they’re brilliant and everything, but they have, they have a different, you know, social life.
1:19:17 And part of me, now I, I kind of like, I realized that just like very, very recently,
1:19:25 maybe I went to the hardest school ever. So I don’t have space to use other than studying.
1:19:35 Because if I have that much space, what I’m going to do with it. I don’t have that much
1:19:39 freedom, I don’t have that much money. I’m not, I can’t compete with those people going out.
1:19:43 So maybe I need a solid excuse that I’m in a place where I don’t have that much of a spare time.
1:19:50 Is it also possible? I like how this is a therapy session where we’re psychoanalyzing you.
1:19:55 Is it also possible that you always just pick the hardest thing you could possibly do?
1:19:59 Maybe. But maybe that’s the Piers Morgan thing too.
1:20:04 Like what? Maybe, but like when I left Egypt and I came here, I still had the choice to go back
1:20:08 to medicine. But I hated it. I hated medicine traumatized me. The amount of like, you give up,
1:20:16 you know, my brother in Egypt, he had a daughter, she’s a brilliant basketball player. She is in
1:20:21 the national team, amazing. I used to play basketball also in the Egyptian league, but I never,
1:20:26 I was kind of like my favorite position in the court was the bench. And I was not as good as her,
1:20:33 but she, and then, and then he, it was time for her to go into college. And he, he didn’t talk to
1:20:41 me for six weeks. I said, man, tell me what’s happened to Farida, which college, like I didn’t
1:20:46 want to tell you, she went into medicine. I said, what medicine? Why did he do it? Because he knows
1:20:50 how I hated it. I was traumatized. And I said, like, dude, she’s a basketball player. Make her go
1:20:56 like to an easy school. So that’s kind of. He still did it. He still did it. I still did it,
1:21:02 but I don’t know. Is it because of the difficulty or because, because of what I told you, maybe I
1:21:08 needed something, maybe because I was not very confident in my social life. So I needed a distraction
1:21:15 not to be, to have that much of a social life. Oh, wow. Okay. You understand? Yeah. Uh-huh. It’s,
1:21:20 it’s kind of loud because I will always have an excuse. I’m sorry. I have something. I have exams.
1:21:24 And I don’t know. I kind of like self sabotaged my own thing because I couldn’t compete with,
1:21:30 with those people on, on the outing and the money and whatever. So I need an excuse to
1:21:34 be like, oh, he’s a doctor. He’s studying. At least in your own mind, you couldn’t compete.
1:21:38 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, I, I always felt as less because I mean, I, I didn’t have any girlfriends in,
1:21:44 in, in school. I had a very latent life and everything to me came to life. So I always felt
1:21:49 even stand up comedy. It came very late to me in life. So I always feel that I’m not good enough.
1:21:55 I feel that I didn’t spend the time of, to build the foundation that other comedians do.
1:22:01 So I always feel that I am too lucky. I always feel that this is a fleeting thing. And when I
1:22:09 went, had the, the, the height and the fall, the fall or in Egypt, when I would like the top of,
1:22:15 of everything I was like, so, so famous. And then everything was taken away from me. That’s like,
1:22:19 oh, you see, I told you, that’s happens when you don’t build foundation, you fall. So I always
1:22:24 feel that I, that I am not good enough. Or if I am in a position where people think I am deep
1:22:31 inside, I’m not, you know, that I have a speech impediment that I was not meant to be a TV presenter.
1:22:36 I have an air in Arabic. It’s very obvious. I cannot roll my Rs.
1:22:41 I cannot say er, I cannot roll it. So in Arabic, like Spanish, it’s very obvious.
1:22:47 So when I did my first video on the internet that made me famous, and then I got my television
1:22:52 deed back there, there in Egypt, my partner at the time, he took the video and you went to a
1:22:57 producer. I said, like, are you giving me a guy with a lisp? He couldn’t, he should, that’s why
1:23:02 when I came on television, I was the first ever guy with a lisp. I had two things going for me,
1:23:06 the lisp and the big nose. And I was always bullied for two, for these two all the time. So I always
1:23:11 felt less. See, but that’s a foundation of like, creating a great person. Yeah. Because if you’re
1:23:18 pretty, you don’t need to do much. I probably wouldn’t recommend it, but it is, it is true that
1:23:28 if you are pretty, do some disfigurement. Find the flaws and be extremely self critical about them.
1:23:38 So you saw John Stewart on TV for the first time in 2003, I believe. How did that change your life?
1:23:47 I was in a gym and I was running on the treadmill. And at that time, CNN was coming out on like,
1:23:54 on cable. And I was watching and there is this studio, I don’t know what it is. So I put
1:24:02 the earphones on and I started watching. And I was so taken by this, that I stopped the treadmill
1:24:11 and I just like stood for the 20 minutes like this on the treadmill. And then I just like
1:24:16 standing there. I didn’t know what we always use saying. I didn’t understand what is Democrats,
1:24:21 what is Republicans, what is, what the, those names that he’s saying, what is Fox News? I don’t
1:24:25 understand. But I was fascinated. There was something, you know, when you don’t understand
1:24:30 the music, but you get the rhythm, it was that. I wonder what that is that you saw. It’s like the
1:24:36 timing of the humor. I mean, there is, John Stewart is one of a kind, like his biting criticism of
1:24:44 power, I would say, and also ability to highlight the absurdity of it all.
1:24:48 But you understand, I didn’t understand any of that. But I didn’t understand any of the references.
1:24:52 But it is the rhythm. The rhythm. You know, sometimes when you even see like a comedy,
1:24:58 that is the language you don’t understand, but there’s a rhythm. There’s something,
1:25:05 there’s something in the music. So there’s something with the videos and the pictures and
1:25:10 he and the face and people reacting. What is this? What is this? What is this? And we had the global
1:25:18 edition. So I went to the YouTube and I just like started to kind of like, watch every single episode
1:25:23 that I can. I said, like, do you think we can have this in Egypt? I said, never. And then 2011,
1:25:29 like I had a friend of mine who was also a YouTube partner. It was something new at the time. He said,
1:25:35 like, let’s do something on the internet. Let’s do something. I said, I want to do John Stewart.
1:25:40 Do Ray William Johnson, John Stewart will not work. I was like, I want to do John Stewart.
1:25:44 Yeah. So that was in there. Yeah, it was in there. And I did it and it worked.
1:25:51 Can you talk about 2011? I mean, what is the Arab Spring? What is it? People here in America, you know?
1:25:58 Depends on which side. Does something happen or what?
1:26:03 Depends which side of the equation you are. Because for a lot of people,
1:26:09 it’s a conspiracy. It’s American made. It is the Muslim Brotherhood. It’s the Islamist.
1:26:13 It is Israel. It is everything else other than people. Oh, but it’s a pure revolution. It’s a
1:26:18 pure. I think we put too much weight on conspiracies. I think it is normal human behavior that then
1:26:28 become get maybe used or abused or taken advantage of by other powers. And then the conspiracy
1:26:35 starts. But at the time, the Arab Spring didn’t start in Egypt. It starts in Tunisia.
1:26:41 Boaziz, a fruit vendor, burned himself up like the American soldiers who did that a few days ago.
1:26:50 And that kind of sparked protests in Tunisia. And Ben Ali was a dictator in Tunisia for about
1:26:57 like 20 years and they removed him. So suddenly it was kind of like a domino effect. So then
1:27:03 Egypt started and it just took 18 days. And you know, people hindsight is 2020. Say inside,
1:27:10 like you know, just Mubarak became like a burden on the military because the military are the real
1:27:14 rulers of the country. You might have a president that kind of like have certain powers. But at the
1:27:19 end of the day, when the military sees that a certain president is like too much of a burden,
1:27:23 too much of like a, you know, so like they cut him off. And Mubarak is the leader of Egypt at the time.
1:27:29 He was there for 30 years. 30 years. By the way, speaking of which, because it was a joke and you
1:27:33 marked Twain’s speech, I got teary-eyed just watching that. That was great. You’re like
1:27:38 fucking great. Like what you did when Mark Twain awards for John Stewart. It’s great. I mean,
1:27:43 your comedy is great in general. And I wanted to go to your show. I definitely will. But that’s
1:27:49 like a little stroll in the complete tangent of just the masterful introduction and celebration
1:27:54 of John Stewart. Anyway, Mubarak. And it’s the joke that I say also like Mubarak had like was
1:28:01 a president for 30 years. Like, oh my God, he had a president for 30 years. Like it’s the Middle
1:28:04 East. It’s a very short first term. It’s like, it’s like we’re still warming up. And I thought
1:28:09 of like, we need to plan ahead. We need to plan our, our, our, our vacations, our careers, our
1:28:14 jail time. It’s just like we need to. So, so we had kind of like the shortest, nicest revolution,
1:28:23 18 days. And we thought, oh, 18 days, we can change the country in 18 days. So, but of course,
1:28:28 we were naive and we had this kind of hope. So, Mubarak was removed. There was an interim period
1:28:33 by the military took it for one year. Then they did elections. Muslim Brotherhood came to power.
1:28:37 They stayed for one, one, one year. And then the military removed them. And in these three years,
1:28:46 my show started. It started by kind of like a YouTube video. It became famous overnight.
1:28:53 Overnight, five to six videos, boom, went out. And at that time, I was waiting to get my clearance
1:29:00 to go to Cleveland. I, I, I was the accepted in a fellowship as a pediatric heart surgery in a,
1:29:06 in a hospital in Cleveland. And, and I said, all right, I’m just going to do a couple of videos.
1:29:11 Maybe I’m going to put it on the internet. And maybe after a year or two, after I come back
1:29:14 from the fellowship, somebody will come, Hey, why don’t you write a show that looks like John
1:29:17 Stewart? That was my main, took five weeks. I had my first contract of television and overnight,
1:29:24 the exposure and over the next two, three years, I had 30 to 40 million people watch,
1:29:30 30 to 40 million people watching every episode. A lot of this like, wow, that’s too much. That
1:29:36 is terrifying. Because it means that there are 30 million people who have an opinion about you.
1:29:42 You said there’s a lot of aspects of that sudden thing that were just toxic. It’s toxic. It’s
1:29:48 unnatural. It’s unnatural. When people started to recognize me in the street and take pictures,
1:29:53 I was awkward. It’s like, why do you want to have a picture with me? Why? Why is it because I didn’t
1:29:58 feel that I’m worthy enough to be like a reward for someone to have a picture. And I didn’t
1:30:02 understand it. I was actually, I was kind of an ass sometimes because people thought it was arrogant.
1:30:07 No, it was confusion. And I remember like my director and my producers and people are,
1:30:12 they always saw me in a very bad mood. It’s like, why are you, why are you not enjoying this?
1:30:19 It’s like, because this is not natural. This is not natural. This adoration, this love, and this
1:30:24 have to end somehow. And it did. And in, because at a certain point, you are human. You, and people
1:30:34 kind of, the adoration and the fun and the love comes because they see you saying stuff because
1:30:39 you do your job basically. Political satire is basically us making fun of politicians in the
1:30:44 media. And a lot of people have a really strong opinions about politicians in the media. So we
1:30:49 came that we articulate that and we give it to them and we make them laugh. So for them, we made
1:30:54 a great job. So why don’t you do more? But you are limited. And at a certain time, you can’t.
1:31:02 And at a certain time, you’re afraid because we’re humans. Because you’re afraid about like,
1:31:06 if I continue speaking up, not like something will happen to me. I’m kind of like, maybe have
1:31:11 some protection because I’m, I’m folk, people see me, but what are the people around you?
1:31:16 And we, I’ve seen that. So that’s why at a certain point it’s like, that’s it. I can’t.
1:31:22 I mean, there’s a lot of things to say there, but one of the difficult things of fame
1:31:26 in your situation is you’re not just having fun. You’re criticizing power.
1:31:31 Yeah. And, and, and, and it is loved by the people, but it comes with a price because at a
1:31:37 certain price, if the power is too strong and you’re not into a situation or a system that
1:31:43 allows that, that gives you that kind of safety. So what happened? What happened? I was, so when,
1:31:53 so the height of my fame, when the Muslim brothers were, brotherhood was in power.
1:31:59 And at that time they had their media and I had one show. I had like one hour per week and they
1:32:04 had five channels, 24/7. And they were like, you know, I’m, I’m, I’m, I’m, I’m, John Stewart
1:32:10 said it beautifully one. It’s like, we say shit and you say shit. And we just say shit better than
1:32:15 you. This is exactly what John Stewart was like. We’re just better. We’re better at saying shit
1:32:20 back. So, so basically I had one hour and they had like the five thing that they were like, you
1:32:24 know, they’re calling me all kinds of names, not just me, like all their enemies, you know.
1:32:28 And then I just had one hour and I would kind of like annihilate them in one hour a week.
1:32:32 So at a certain point they would, they would even like kind of be the side with the army against
1:32:40 the, the, the, the kind of the, the, the, the liberal secular, whatever you call it. And at a
1:32:45 certain point the army kind of like flipped everybody. Like kind of like the, the, the, the,
1:32:50 the, the, the, the, yeah, yeah, they removed the Muslim brotherhood. They came to power and we,
1:32:55 I, I can, I have to say, I admitted, I supported that in the beginning because I had daily threats.
1:33:01 I had, I was actually interrogated and arrested under the Muslim brotherhood. I was in, in an
1:33:06 interrogation for six hours and they were asking me about my jokes and I used that in my stand-up
1:33:10 comedy, describing exactly what happened in the six hours and it is so funny. Okay. Well, it’s hilarious.
1:33:17 But what, it’s slow down. You were interrogated by the brotherhood. The general prosecutor,
1:33:23 the general prosecutor, and it was based because of complaints by the, the officials in the government
1:33:28 because in order to the general prosecutor to do it, it has to have a high up mandate to bring
1:33:33 that person to questioning. So they went through kind of official channels? Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely.
1:33:38 So it’s all, yeah, it was official. It was legal, very legal. So I went there and, and I, and I asked,
1:33:44 and, and it’s kind of like a bunch of like insulting Islam, insulting president,
1:33:49 spreading false rumors. And I went there and I, and it was funny because I go into the building
1:33:53 where there’s police officers and their judges and all of them are big fans of the show.
1:33:57 And some of them were taking pictures of me and then I’m sitting there and it was the most ridiculous
1:34:03 interview ever because he was asking me about my jokes. It’s like, what did you mean by this joke?
1:34:07 And it’s like, nothing. It was there for six hours. He’s just reading your jokes. He was reading my
1:34:15 joke and he’s reading the jokes and the junior judge is sitting there like cracking up. I remember
1:34:21 that. That’s dark. It’s, it’s kind of like, and I’m laughing, but in the same time, it’s like the
1:34:30 whole situation is ridiculous. But then at the end, I was released on bail. So I went back to my show
1:34:35 and I make fun of that. And you have to be honest, the Muslim Brotherhood were in power,
1:34:40 but Egypt was like right out of the revolution for there was kind of like an equal
1:34:44 spread of power between the people. There was not like someone who would come in and just like,
1:34:50 the Muslim Brotherhood, we didn’t have that power yet, but there were kind of
1:34:53 people so that they were moving towards that. And then the tension rose and then there was like a
1:34:58 kind of a, a confrontation between them and the army. And then a lot of people were killed in the
1:35:02 street. It was terrible massacre. And, and then suddenly I am blamed for all of that. It’s like,
1:35:08 you made fun of us. So now it made it easier for people to kill. It’s like, dude, come on,
1:35:13 you’re doing that to me too. I just did it better than you. And the fact that you sided with the
1:35:17 same people that flipped against you, that’s not my fault. Did you criticize the army at all?
1:35:22 Yeah. So after that show, I did like one episode against the army and I was canceled the next day.
1:35:27 And then I went to another channel did 16 episodes in a different season. And it was, I was walking
1:35:33 on eggshells. And then it was canceled again. And then my, the production company that was doing
1:35:39 my show that we severed ties because they’re, we didn’t have the show. They had their, their
1:35:44 offices raided. I have people like having death threats. So I woke up one day, 11th of November,
1:35:49 2014. And my lawyer said, like, leave the country right now. There is this legal case that we,
1:35:56 that they kind of like, they’re coming for you. But I said, like, you cannot, it was an arbitration
1:36:01 case. And I lost against Mike, Mike, the channel that basically canceled me. And it’s like, I don’t
1:36:06 know, but there’s no jail time in arbitration. It’s like, yeah, tell that to the judge, just leave.
1:36:10 So I jumped on a plane. The verdict was 12 noon, 11 November, five
1:36:16 afternoon. I was on a plane, left Egypt, and I never came back since then.
1:36:19 Was there a worry of non legal things like assassination?
1:36:28 I can tell you something. I was so stressed because of the show, because of everything.
1:36:33 I sometimes I would wake up in the morning and I hope that like bullet will come and finish
1:36:37 everything because I was so stressed. It’s like, I would love because I’m too much
1:36:42 of a chicken to kill myself. So I would like rather have someone else do it for me.
1:36:46 So I, I, I was, I was so under so much pressure. And I remember the day that like my show was
1:36:55 canceled indefinitely, the second time under the army. And I was like, I don’t have to worry
1:37:02 about what kind of script I have to write next week. Because this is, you know, remember when
1:37:06 you asked me about like that tweet, but like all of the same, this accusation doesn’t bother me.
1:37:11 Infidels by a secret, you Zionist, the Slamo Nazi. That’s bullshit. What is really,
1:37:21 what really leaves a mark is the criticism to your craft and your work. So if you’re not funny,
1:37:27 goes deeper. Yeah, certain things get to you better than others, especially if you have like
1:37:34 a secret suspicion that you are like, maybe not funny. Maybe I’m not, because I was putting to
1:37:40 that is like, because that toast to your insecurities is like, I know, but you shouldn’t say it out loud.
1:37:47 You shouldn’t say the truth out loud. But what about the weight of the responsibility of
1:37:55 speaking truth to power? So like walking on eggshells, like what did that feel like? Well,
1:38:00 after the Muslim Brotherhood were removed, you have to understand like when the military coup
1:38:07 happened, it was a very popular coup. Like people love the army. In Egypt, the army is more sacred
1:38:13 than the religion. People love the army. So me going against the army was, I mean,
1:38:20 the Muslim Brotherhood was not very popular. They were popular before their own bases.
1:38:24 But people accepted the fact that like we make fun of them. But Ceci at that time, he was a god.
1:38:29 And I used to go to this high class club called Ghizira Club. And this is basically kind of like
1:38:36 the kind of upper middle class, upper class kind of people. And during that year of the
1:38:43 Muslim Brotherhood, I was the most popular ever. People come, yeah. When the military came in,
1:38:49 people were walking to me like pointing their fingers like, don’t speak about Ceci,
1:38:53 don’t speak about the army. We love you now. But don’t you do it like that.
1:38:57 So I called John Steward just like, I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do.
1:39:04 And at that time, all of the channels were like closed down, all of the
1:39:08 individuals, I was the only one left because it was difficult for them to get rid of me very
1:39:12 quickly because I was too popular. It was kind of like peace, peace-mealing kind of like go.
1:39:18 And I remember it’s like, I don’t know what to do. He said like, you don’t have to do anything,
1:39:23 just your safety comes first. And he said, but I can’t, I mean, I’ve been doing that for two years.
1:39:29 And I kind of just like say, bye-bye guys. I have a responsibility, I have a team,
1:39:33 I have people working for me. And I also, I cannot just like disappear.
1:39:39 And he said, the most interesting thing ever. And say, if you’re afraid of something,
1:39:46 make fun about the fact that you’re afraid of it. Instead of talking about that something.
1:39:52 So there was like a whole episode that we did not even mention Ceci.
1:39:57 We did not even mention it, but the videos did all the thing. And the whole episode was me
1:40:02 trying to avoid talking about it. And that’s how the comedy was created. The fact that I don’t
1:40:09 want to be here. And so he said, like, if you will be surprised how people can relate to that,
1:40:15 because there was a lot of kind of like, oh, we love him, but we feel we cannot speak.
1:40:20 So just by doing the simple thing about premiering the society, that goes a long way.
1:40:29 And I kind of tried to do what I can under the military. I mean, they came up with
1:40:34 a machine that treats AIDS and hepatitis C virus. And basically every single end. And I went to
1:40:45 town with that. Because people think that he doesn’t really have to go in to go
1:40:53 to the bigger post like, you’re an asshole. No, you talk about their propaganda. You talk about
1:40:59 what they want people to perceive them at. And it’s a failure. And for that, that kind of hit them
1:41:06 even more. Because what do authoritarian figures do? They work on two things, fear
1:41:12 and propaganda. And from that, it gets the perspective. So when you go into their propaganda
1:41:19 and expose them, they have nothing else. That’s brilliant. So like you are walking on actuals,
1:41:23 but you’re doing it masterfully, that you’re revealing sort of the flaws in the propaganda,
1:41:28 the absurdity of the propaganda and so doing or criticizing them. And this is why comedy is very
1:41:32 specific, because people say, you were not as hard on him as you were in the Muslim Brotherhood.
1:41:37 Yes, because on the Muslim Brotherhood, we were just like, saying shit to each other. Yeah.
1:41:41 But now the ceiling was like here. So it’s kind of like, how can you do something from here?
1:41:47 Yeah, exactly. That’s the art form. In the Soviet Union, under Stalin, a lot of the criticism came
1:41:54 from children’s stories and children’s cartoons. Double meaning, double in the window stuff,
1:42:02 that means other stuff. That is the brilliance. But everyone knows. Everyone knows. Because you
1:42:10 are like putting a mirror. You’re mirroring the society. It’s fascinating. And that’s why I was
1:42:14 tensed twice. And that is a scary one, the army. You see that in Ukraine. Everybody supports the
1:42:22 army. That’s why Zelensky getting rid of the head of the army was a big, big deal. It’s a really
1:42:30 dangerous thing. Because everyone was afraid to say anything negative about the army, especially
1:42:35 during war in that case. And in this case, maybe there’s civil war, that kind of thing. But think
1:42:40 about it. Actually, an army during peace is much more dangerous. Because think about it. I don’t
1:42:45 really have an enemy to fight. But I have all of this power, all of this tank. Why is this
1:42:50 actor have more money than me? Yeah. I’m protecting him. Why does this businessman think that he can
1:42:57 get on his private plane and go to Paris? And why I’m here sitting like not having all of these
1:43:03 things? So, and there’s a lot of time on your hand because your job is to go fight. When you don’t
1:43:10 go fight. And we when you have the lack of that’s why that’s one of the things I love the United
1:43:15 States about is the fact that the army cannot really get power. But the kind of like the army
1:43:20 is the power is actually in the military industrial complex, which is a different issue. Yeah. It’s
1:43:25 kind of like a different kind of issue. But if you have all of that power, like why am I sitting
1:43:29 around just like playing guard for you guys? That’s why Iran is terrifying. Because you have
1:43:34 this military that it just becomes a police force that turns against its own people. Yeah.
1:43:39 So you’re, you’re a famous guy talking shit in the middle of all that. Yeah. And I when I left,
1:43:48 I went through a very dark side, dark, dark, dark, because all of the insecurities, all of the stuff
1:43:54 that had been like working on my head now came to life. And now I’m in America and I’m a nobody.
1:43:59 I’m a nobody. And now it’s like, I have to do something, have to earn some money. So I started
1:44:04 to stand up comedy five years ago. And I sucked because it was my second language and I was new.
1:44:11 And now I will go to these comedy clubs was like kids on 21, 22 people. And then I’m there with
1:44:16 a family to support that I’m going there to do it for $15, $20. And I was bad. You’re, you’re,
1:44:23 you’re bombing bombing big time, eating shit, eating big time, dying up there big time. And I
1:44:29 would go back home and I would cry. And then what made it worse is sometimes, like a fan,
1:44:35 like not a fan, a bunch of fans from Egypt. Oh, that’s the music. They come.
1:44:39 Yeah. That kind of like face of adoration that goes.
1:44:48 And I could see it in their face. I think he’s going to drive an Uber in a couple of weeks.
1:44:58 That’s that kind of pressure. And I would go when I would cry. And, and I, and then the central,
1:45:05 oh, you left, you, you, you, you gave up, you’re a sellout, you’re a coward. Why don’t you speak
1:45:11 from abroad? You’re, you’re safe now. Like I, I don’t, I already spoke. I don’t want to be,
1:45:16 because I don’t want to be an activist. I was doing that for comedy, because when it was good
1:45:21 for everybody, but now they want me to go go into YouTube and just like throw rocks from outside.
1:45:26 I was like, you know, I understand. I have family there. And, and, and it was this kind of like
1:45:32 thing, like that I am being like attacked for not doing what I should do in their face and
1:45:39 attacked for not being funny and not doing good being. And now I’m a fan. Like maybe it was wrong.
1:45:43 And I was, I didn’t know. I really, it was so traumatic that I don’t know actually how I went
1:45:50 through these years. And I blocked so many details from my brain because I have been using this
1:45:57 technique for a while now that I have been erasing a lot of my, there is a lot of memory gaps
1:46:04 in my brain. And I’m trying to suppress it because it was very, very, very traumatic.
1:46:10 And a lot of people told me, you have to go to therapy, but I, I don’t, I can’t, I don’t know.
1:46:16 I, I’m, I’m worried to open the floodgates and I’m thinking as if I’m functional and I’m not
1:46:21 killing anybody, I’m okay. It’s like, I think Elon tweeted, uh, never went to therapy. It’s
1:46:29 going to be on my headstone. Yeah. To your best buds. Okay. Uh, I mean, that is like
1:46:38 terrifyingly difficult to, like after being a surgeon, after being a superstar, super famous,
1:46:47 going to eat shit at local tiny clubs in the United States. I mean, eating shit, period.
1:46:54 Yeah. Like bombing is really, really, really difficult, really difficult for 20 year olds.
1:47:01 Imagine when you’re 45, 46, and the, and then people’s like, is this his midlife crisis? What is
1:47:07 this? I, I, I, I went through a lot of pain and a lot of like the doubts and it was terrible.
1:47:17 Wait, I mean, how did you survive? I mean, I know you blocked off most of it,
1:47:22 but what, what gave you like strength through all that?
1:47:24 Because I didn’t have any other choice because I started that. And the only reason that I could
1:47:29 is to continue. I, I, I, I don’t know what else to do. I don’t want to go back to medicine.
1:47:34 I don’t want to go. I don’t, I don’t want to do that. And I don’t, I don’t know. I was,
1:47:38 and bit by bit, bit by bit, I started to kind of like be better, be better, be better. And I was,
1:47:45 at a certain time, a year ago, a year ago, this is where I started to kind of like hone the craft
1:47:52 and kind of sell more tickets and sometimes even sell out some shows and sometimes sell a theater.
1:47:57 So like it was going and the money was flowing and it was good. And then I was like, why didn’t I,
1:48:04 I wanted faster, I wanted more, I wanted now, I wanted, I want Netflix deal or whatever.
1:48:09 And then the piece Morgan thing happened and then I blew up and then suddenly I’m selling
1:48:12 out everywhere. And it’s like, ah, if those people came, if that, that, that the war happened
1:48:17 two years ago, I will not be ready. So now they come to the show. And by the way, my show
1:48:23 had nothing to do with October 7th. My show is my thing that I’ve been crafting and working on,
1:48:28 you know, how difficult it is to do the first hour, that the hour that I’ve been working on for
1:48:33 five years. And it’s all my personal story, all of what like what happened to me, to me as an immigrant
1:48:38 coming here to the United States, finding Trump as a president, finding myself in the middle of a
1:48:42 gun rally, finding myself in the middle of a bombing, kind of like talking about how I got
1:48:46 my citizenship. It’s all like funny stories. I want like my origin story. So they come in
1:48:51 and they expect October 7th and all of she’s my personal story, but it’s good and it kills and
1:48:55 they love it. It’s like, if that, if that kind of like blew up in America happened to me two,
1:48:59 three years ago, I would not have people who come and be disappointed. So I gotta say the timing
1:49:04 of October 7th is very suspicious. Oh my God, please don’t say that. I don’t know. I’m just asking
1:49:10 questions. I don’t know. I’m telling you, one of the funniest thing, a guy, I was in Dubai
1:49:16 and like a TV anchor came to me, pass him, you sif, he flourishes during revolutions and war is
1:49:21 like, what, what, what, dude, you’re, you’re making me sound like a bad omen, a very bad omen.
1:49:28 Yeah, you, Hamas and BB together orchestrated all of this. Oh my God, that’s the, that’s the
1:49:34 trilogy. You guys should go on the road together telling you that phone call is coming. Yeah,
1:49:41 but Hamas has to open. And they would really bomb, right? They would really bomb.
1:49:47 I love dark humor. You do a show like you were saying in English and in Arabic. So and the story
1:49:59 is very different, totally different, two different stories. I would love to just the language
1:50:03 difference because it’s the music of the language is also different. So like what, what’s, how can
1:50:09 you convert it into words? But what’s, what’s the difference in the music of the languages? I’ll
1:50:13 tell you because I thought about that a lot. So when I was doing the English first, I was,
1:50:23 I actually had good jokes, but I was missing the delivery because the cadence and the music
1:50:29 and the rhythm is different. The way that an English speaking American member of audience
1:50:35 will receive it, it will be different than how I receive it, the energy, everything’s different.
1:50:39 So when I kind of like got it,
1:50:43 I didn’t know how to switch back to Arabic. Oh, wow. Yeah, fascinating. Because easy thing,
1:50:53 with English stand up comedy, English, you have a huge library, you have like a legacy,
1:50:56 you have like years and years and years and years of people doing comedy. But in Arabic,
1:50:59 it’s a very new, very new to us. And most of the Arabic stand up comedy, especially in Egypt, is
1:51:04 very tamed. This is kind of like, imagine the stand up comedy scene in American 1960s before
1:51:13 Lenny Bruce. So no swearing conservative. I don’t know, wearing nothing conservative,
1:51:18 everything. Yeah, it’s kind of like very, so I didn’t know what to do there.
1:51:23 So I broke the bars, I became Lenny Bruce, I became a George Conn, so I went in and I went
1:51:29 and I, and I changed the whole thing. Seven words, you know, for me, there are 15 words.
1:51:34 Arabic is a very rich language. So when I did, here’s the difference between the Arabic and the
1:51:45 English show. The English show, surprise, surprise, is a unifying language, even for a group of Arabs.
1:51:53 So if I give the same exact show to the same 1000 audience members in the same theater,
1:52:00 and there are same people, same makeup of like Lebanese, Egyptian, Syrian, Saudis, English
1:52:07 will be a unifying language. Arabic is a dividing language because you have 22 dialects and the
1:52:13 dialects are vastly different. And like, maybe Egyptians understand a little bit of Lebanese,
1:52:17 but not that much, but the references, Algerian, Moroccan, Tunisian, totally different animal.
1:52:22 That’s like a totally different language. Saudi, Emirati, Kuwaiti, totally different.
1:52:26 People understand the Egyptian dialect because it’s the dialect of most of the
1:52:29 artwork and the movies, but the reference in the everyday street talk might not be
1:52:34 understood by them. So now I have to go in and talk to all of these dialects together.
1:52:41 So I formed my big, big part of my show is like, what are you guys expecting of this?
1:52:48 This is what, this is, we gonna, when I go do profanity and you’re gonna like it.
1:52:53 This is the problem with the show as a dialect. And I construct all of these sentences formed
1:53:00 of so different, different words. For example, an iron in any, in any, in any Arab dialect is
1:53:08 an iron. In Saudi Arabia, it means ass. That’s one example. That’s one example, you know.
1:53:14 So imagine if you can actually construct sentences having all of these things in one
1:53:18 set. So I would, I would construct like a whole section of my show about that.
1:53:23 So it’s really very much about like self-reflective on language and the limits of language that’s
1:53:28 allowed. And the limits of language. And I tell them, part of the show is like, I know what’s
1:53:32 the problem with me doing Arabic. It’s like, if this was an English show and I was telling you,
1:53:35 fuck and shit, I bet you’ll be, ha, ha, ha, ha. But if I do one swear words, all of you will
1:53:39 cringe. Yeah. It’s like, why is it, is it because we are ashamed for only, so it’s kind of like,
1:53:46 it is, it’s not just like about swearing. It’s about like, there’s a lot of philosophical
1:53:50 pathways in this. Yeah. There’s profanity and we, we, we, people have fun, whatever. But like,
1:53:55 it is about like, what does it, how do we treat our language? And I tell them, we speak Arabic
1:54:00 as Arabs, but it’s not the same Arabic. It’s crazy, right? And you’re doing the show in America
1:54:05 also, which is another level of. Oh yeah. Actually, the Arab diaspora in America is some of the best
1:54:10 audiences I have. They are like, wonderful. And they come from, and I did, and I do, and I did it
1:54:16 also in the Middle East. And maybe I’ll do like an Arab tour in the Middle East in the fall.
1:54:21 Which countries would you go to or not? I would, Jordan, Lebanon, I’m doing UAE, I’m doing Kuwait,
1:54:29 Egypt, Bahrain, Egypt, I don’t think so. I don’t think so. Is it personal? Is it
1:54:36 worry about your safety? Well, I have the American citizenship right now. So I am relatively safe.
1:54:44 There’s a bloc. Honestly, there’s a bloc. There’s a person, there’s, there’s, there’s so much that
1:54:50 happened. And I don’t, and I never, I know never bad mouth each, this is my country. There’s some,
1:54:55 like it has all of my marriage, 40 years of my life I lived there. But when you get hurt so much,
1:55:02 instead of trying to kind of, I don’t want to take revenge, I don’t want to like that, I just want
1:55:08 to avoid. Because Egypt gave me so much fame and so much love and so much hate and so much rejection.
1:55:14 It is a very, it was a very tumulus relationship. Very, very difficult. And it’s a, and a lot of
1:55:23 people tell me, well, don’t you miss Egypt? And I tell them every time, the Egypt that I miss is not
1:55:28 there anymore. It’s not bad or good. It’s not worse or better. It’s just, I’m different. And the
1:55:33 places are different. And the people are different. And their circumstances are different. Whatever
1:55:37 image I had you have of what you love is not there anymore. That’s why a lot of immigrants,
1:55:41 especially Arab immigrants, they, they live here, but they’re there. And then when they go back
1:55:47 for a vacation, they get disappointed because they didn’t find what they want. And then they come
1:55:51 back here and they’re disappointed because this is what they want to come back, but it’s not there
1:55:55 anymore. Yeah. Their view of that place is from a different time. I have that, you know, my parents,
1:56:04 but everybody that left the Soviet Union, I mean, it’s such a complicated relationship with that.
1:56:10 It’s sometimes borders on hate, disappointment in the, in the case of the Soviet Union,
1:56:18 perhaps similar to Egypt is the promises sold when you were younger and the promises broken
1:56:24 by the possibility of what it was supposed to be. With the Soviet Union, I’m sure with Egypt
1:56:29 is the same. Iran is the same. So they have a very complicated relationship with that.
1:56:36 Yeah. That’s why like for them, people from Iran, you know, I remember, I remember quite well the
1:56:40 World Cup that was made in, in the United States. And the Iranian team will play in America. And
1:56:46 there were people, people in the audience or wearing, they hate the regime, but they have this
1:56:52 kind of connection with the country. Yeah. And this is, this is the whole thing. You can actually
1:56:58 love the country and you not have to agree with the regime. Would, would, uh, would you ever
1:57:04 perform in the West Bank? No. Gaza. Because if I go there, I have to go to the Israeli checkpoints
1:57:09 and I don’t want to go through this. I don’t want to have an Israeli soldier telling me what to do.
1:57:14 Yeah. There’s a demeaning aspect to that whole. Very. Even in subtle ways. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,
1:57:19 I have so many Palestinian friends with an American passport, US passport living here.
1:57:24 They are born here and they talk about the humiliation and the intimidation and the harassment
1:57:30 that they go in. It’s like, do you want me to try? Yeah. That little bit of a humiliation.
1:57:36 Little bit. Oh, sometimes it’s major, but I noticed that, you know, even the little bit
1:57:46 is, uh, has the, after a lifetime of that, it can turn to, uh, it can turn to hate towards the other.
1:57:53 Yeah. And resentment. Resentment. And then how do you do anything with that resentment?
1:57:58 I have a friend of mine. He is from Palestine, from the West Bank. He’s American here. He’s
1:58:02 born here. And, uh, we talk about, you know, we have of course all of this discussion of what
1:58:09 would happen. And he tells me, you know, in October 11th in the West Bank, in, in those, uh, a village
1:58:15 called Kosra. And on that village, like the settlers went in around the region. They send
1:58:21 a message on Facebook because like you rats going, they are out of your sewers and we’re
1:58:25 going to be waiting for you intimidation through technology. And then they went, uh, uh, it is,
1:58:32 Kosra have like another, uh, settlement next to it called the Eskodesh. Eskodesh, they have people
1:58:39 there who were training something called Meshmeriti Yisha, which is basically the guardians of Yisha.
1:58:46 And it’s like a paramilitary group that trains other settlers on military combat, give them weapons
1:58:53 and do like military drills. And they went there like militarized and went there. And, and it was
1:58:59 actually co-founded by a Jew from Brooklyn, not even an, an, an, an, an Israeli. And he is like
1:59:07 one of the disciples of Mahir Kahana. I’m sure that you know what Mahir Kahana is. It was the
1:59:12 Jewish defense lead, the people who assassinated Alex Awuda here in the United States. And,
1:59:16 and they were, they were there with their weapons outside, intimidating people. Now,
1:59:22 this story carries everything that is wrong with the situation. You have people from Brooklyn,
1:59:27 from outside, just because they’re Jewish, they can’t come and they can’t claim the land from
1:59:30 the people there. Anybody from Paul, just because he’s Jewish, you can come and take the land from
1:59:34 other people. They’re using technology to intimidate Palestinians. They have unchecked military power.
1:59:40 These are not IDF soldiers. These are settlers and they have free reign in order to intimidate
1:59:45 and to kill the people. And you understand, this is the daily life of Palestinians, not in Gaza,
1:59:51 in the West Bank. What do you do from your, what do we do? What do people do
1:59:56 to nudge this towards peace, towards flourishing? Here’s the thing. I want to talk to
2:00:06 the people of Israel. What is Israel doing right now is not just
2:00:11 unfair to the Palestinians. It’s unfair to the Jewish people in Israel. No, it is unfair to the
2:00:18 Jewish people around the world because the way that Israel links itself to the Jewish Judaism,
2:00:24 at a certain point, you know, remember like ISIS and Qaeda and when everybody hated Muslims,
2:00:30 you know, sometimes humans are simple. They cannot have the nuances to separate.
2:00:36 So anybody who with a Muslim name, with a Muslim face, with a beard, who looks Muslim,
2:00:41 he would do it because of that actions of those atrocities. You have the power as a person to
2:00:46 separate yourself from an abusive power, a horrible power and be yourself. I am really worried because
2:00:54 the rise of anti-Semitism and the rise of hate against Jews is not because of the Jews.
2:00:58 It’s because of the actions of a government. Jews do not have to be on the side of apartheid,
2:01:05 Ronny Kestrels. He is a Jewish South African and he fought shoulder to shoulder next to
2:01:11 Nelson Badella. He was part of the African National Conference ANC and he had an article
2:01:16 said like, “I know what apartheid is and I saw Israel and this is what they have.”
2:01:19 And the thing is Israel, the Israeli government should listen to other people. You cannot call
2:01:27 anybody who criticize you either an anti-Semite or if they’re already Jewish, you call them like
2:01:33 self-hating Jew. You cannot do that. You cannot continue doing that because we did that. When I
2:01:37 would go in and criticize the Islamist like, “Oh, you’re self-hating Muslim. You’re not really
2:01:42 Muslim. You’re an infidler. You’re a secret. You’re a secular.” Whatever. We have the power in order to
2:01:47 reform the course by holding people in power accountable. And the thing is it is very stupid
2:01:56 to actually call this anti-Semitism. My idol is John Stuart. I voted for Bernie Sanders.
2:02:05 Sarah Taxler, the one who did this amazing documentary about me, “Tickling Giants,” she’s a
2:02:09 Jew. She is married to an Israeli Jew. We have a good ratio because we know what the right is.
2:02:14 They don’t have to associate themselves with the action of the Israeli government.
2:02:17 One of your favorite words, Jihad?
2:02:21 That’s my favorite hobbies. It’s my favorite hobby.
2:02:25 It’s my shoes. What’s your favorite? I talk about how when a white shooter does something,
2:02:32 he talks about all of his family. And I was like, “What if we do this for Arab terrorists?
2:02:37 What are his hobbies?” Jihad.
2:02:38 Wow. You’re making me feel good. Okay.
2:02:46 Sam Harris has done several episodes on Jihad. And people should go listen to it,
2:02:56 even if you disagree with it. But the basic idea that he’s proposing is that this
2:03:01 idea of Jihad in the negative connotation of it, of martyrdom, is a thing that gets,
2:03:08 is counterproductive, is destructive to the possible future flourishing of Palestinian people.
2:03:16 What do you think of that? There’s just that idea of martyrdom.
2:03:20 I totally agree. But people don’t wake up in the morning and say like I want to declare Jihad.
2:03:24 Think about it. Why would anybody choose to end his life by taking other people with him and
2:03:31 end that life? His life must be miserable. He must be pushed into that. Nobody chooses
2:03:38 death over life willingly. One of the first suicide bombers in the Palestinian resistance
2:03:45 were Christians. We don’t talk about that. I think he would say that the presence of a story
2:03:54 that you can tell yourself when you’re in a really shitty place, that you can go to a much better
2:04:00 place by sacrificing your own life. Just the fact that the presence of that story is there is harmful.
2:04:06 Of course. But here’s my problem with Sam Harris and usually people, they have free range talking
2:04:14 about the Islamic faith and nitpicking the stuff that makes it put in a bad light. I can go and
2:04:22 nitpick every single religion. There are Jews there like Ben Gaffir who openly say spitting on
2:04:28 Christians is not a hate speech. You can bring me all kinds of videos of Islamic Jihadists saying
2:04:37 horrible things on YouTube and I can bring you Jews who live there. We’re going to have the whole
2:04:42 world enslaved for us and everybody would love to be slaves for the Jews. I can use the Talmudic
2:04:49 argument that if you tie a man to a tree and he dies of thirst and hunger, you didn’t kill that
2:04:55 man. This is kind of the same arguments like are we not killing Palestinians? It’s just like
2:04:59 killing them and they’re dying by themselves. The nitpicking of a certain narrative, religious
2:05:06 narrative that is separate from the political context and what’s happening right now, it’s
2:05:13 very unfair because if you want to have a deep dive into religious texts, nobody will be happy.
2:05:19 And I can bring stuff from that Talmud and the Torah and stuff that is horrible. But this is a
2:05:26 way again of distraction. I dare you to talk shit about Buddhism and Jainism though. Well,
2:05:34 the people who killed the Muslims in Myanmar, weren’t they Buddhists? Yeah. Well, let’s go Jain.
2:05:40 Okay, I’ll find religion. I’ll have to get back to you. I’ll have to find it. The flying monster,
2:05:46 the spiritual flying monster. As a person who tries not to eat carbs, I’m deeply offended by
2:05:55 that. I mean, they’re Scientologists. All they do is actually buy real estate.
2:05:57 I think there’s a few books written about the fact that they do other stuff as well.
2:06:04 So even there, Mormon sometimes, there’s some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. But I’m sure
2:06:12 there’s also darkness there too. Oh boy, religion. There’s soaking in Mormon.
2:06:20 There’s what? Soaking. What’s soaking? Okay, so I don’t know how much. So soaking basically,
2:06:26 like, if you get into the woman and you don’t move, that’s not adultery. That’s not late.
2:06:35 Oh, interesting. So you go in and use this thing. There’s a loophole. There’s a loophole.
2:06:39 There’s the thing. Religion has a loophole. Yes. And Muslims who do that the whole time,
2:06:43 we pick and choose our sins, the stuff that we enjoy. It’s just weird. 72 versions waiting for
2:06:50 all of us. Maybe if I converted you as a Jew, I’ll get you 80. I don’t know. I can negotiate.
2:06:54 But I also have questions about whether it would be a very good deal. I’ll give you.
2:06:59 And maybe I’ll throw there a Camry. I have to be on Camry. It’s pretty good. What year? I don’t
2:07:06 know. 1998. Best year ever. Well, they last a long time. So I’m not sure I want ’70. ’72.
2:07:14 I’ll throw five in the mix and see how it feels. Yeah, Camry. If you want to upgrade.
2:07:19 Can we do a trial period? But in Janofi just zoom out. Do you think religion is,
2:07:29 in what way is it good for the world and what way is it harmful? If there was no religion,
2:07:33 humans would have invented religion. Because think about it. Think of the early humanity.
2:07:38 You’re like a caveman or whatever. And then you see your family members killed. And then you
2:07:42 say like, what? I’m going to be like the cheetah or the gazelle that just like ends and perish.
2:07:47 I need to have them. I am more important. I think I think with the development of consciousness,
2:07:52 humans thought that they are much more precious and important than the other
2:07:59 animals because they have now intelligence. So my life will not end like that.
2:08:04 My death will be even more important. There’s consequences for that. There’s consequences
2:08:10 for what I do. And then the early man was like, they are in the desert and all of these like
2:08:16 natural phenomena. They didn’t know what to do. They were afraid. So they need to have refuge.
2:08:20 They need to have something to take care of. They need to have a reason for everything.
2:08:24 Because if there’s no reason, it’s chaos. It’s chaos. It’s terrifying. It’s terrifying.
2:08:31 There’s nothing. There has to be a reason. There has to be a reason. There has to be
2:08:35 a purpose. There has to be like a cause, something. I’m not just going to be like
2:08:41 die like a cockroach being stepped on. And that’s kind of like part of this ego.
2:08:46 The whole world rotates around you in a way. It’s the ego. So religion actually got a lot of
2:08:52 it from humanity itself, like us being humans. And many religion is a collection of stories.
2:09:01 And those stories based on things that humans did themselves and they attributed it to gods.
2:09:06 And there’s an aspect of religion where you humble yourself before a thing that is much
2:09:12 greater than you. So that has a, I would say, a very positive effect of humbling.
2:09:17 It would be great if it stopped there. But here’s the thing. If you humble
2:09:22 in order that your ego kicks in and feel that you are better than someone else who’s not humbled
2:09:27 in front of the same God. That means that I will have all of that train that I can use that.
2:09:33 Because now, what does mean being humble? I’m divine. But I’m way more humble than you.
2:09:39 But you’re not. So you see how they kind of like the oxymoron, I’m humble and I’m surrendering.
2:09:44 But in the same time, I am better than you know, more entitled. Isn’t it crazy?
2:09:48 Yeah, it’s beautiful. It’s crazy. I mean, look at, look, look at like, like the Muslim Christians
2:09:54 and Jews and every, it’s like, all right, Muslims, we surrendered. I mean, I’m talking about the
2:09:57 extreme ones. I mean, like people, like people said, I surrender to God, good. Keep it that way.
2:10:03 Like if you go to, I surrender to God, that means that I am closer to God than you,
2:10:07 than you should die. Okay, Christians, Christ is love and he loves me and we’re gonna be together.
2:10:13 But you don’t get into his kingdom. And you see, it’s the same thing. Yeah, yeah. It’s just,
2:10:19 if you stop it, stop there, stop, stop where you are humble and you feel that you’re a piece of
2:10:25 shit and you are worthless human being and you are there. Yeah, stop there. Yeah. But once you
2:10:31 says like, Oh, that makes me a better person than you. And it makes me more with God than you.
2:10:36 So that would give me the entitlement to kick your ass. Yeah, we always ruin a good thing.
2:10:42 Don’t we? There you go. You’ve been outspoken, you know, with Piers Morgan, but just on this
2:10:50 topic, and you talked about the Superman story, which I would love it if you were in a Superman
2:11:00 movie. But have you lost job opportunities? Because of this? There was a couple of things
2:11:07 that were going on, but they stopped. Again, I don’t know if it’s October 7th.
2:11:12 Can you tell the Superman story yourself? What role were you? Okay, what did you audition for?
2:11:17 Yeah, it’s okay. So in June, I was traveling to Dubai. And right an hour before I get into
2:11:27 the car and go there, my marriage is like best, I’m gonna send you a script, read it. It’s for
2:11:31 Superman. It’s like, Oh, Superman, you know, I’m not really good in auditions. I’m not as
2:11:35 an actress. So I was like, Okay, I’m just gonna do it, send the tape. I do the tape, I send it,
2:11:40 I go to the airport, and I read, and I think I can talk about it now because they said they
2:11:45 changed the script. So basically, what I found interesting in that new script is that there
2:11:51 is like a dictator in a country that invades another country, and Superman interferes
2:11:57 politically. That’s the first time we ever see Superman interferes politically.
2:12:01 So basically, it was like Russia and Ukraine. But because of me, it was like, it had, it couldn’t
2:12:05 be Russia and Ukraine. So it had to be something kind of like with a flavor. So I read the role
2:12:10 as if as a mixture of Trump and Mubarak. I did this mix and like, you know,
2:12:17 like the kind of the mix, but also like kind of like the essence of Trump into it.
2:12:24 I went to the airport. It’s like an hour. It’s like James Gunn saw it. He loves it. What?
2:12:30 I never had an audition that fast. I mean, I had a few roles, but not that fast. Not like that.
2:12:34 And then I said, like, well, the the strike starts like tomorrow and we need to be on the
2:12:41 phone. But after the strike, we cannot talk the seg after strike, like we’re the writers and the
2:12:45 actress strike. So like, well, I’m going to be on a plane right now. It’s like, once you land,
2:12:49 you can have a Zoom call with James Gunn. I have a call with James Gunn. He’s, I am a huge fan of him.
2:12:55 The guy took like something like Guardians of the Galaxy. Nobody knew about it made amazing
2:12:59 trilogy. And he is like a really cool guy. I like, I like what he did. And it was like really nice.
2:13:05 And, and he started to talk to me about the movie. And, you know, like I talked to people
2:13:08 before casting them. So I know that everybody’s an on set, have a good chemistry.
2:13:13 It was amazing. So in your mind, if you’re an actor, what does that mean? You got the part.
2:13:19 And he told me you got the part. Month goes by. Strike goes by. October 7th happens. I do
2:13:26 Pierce Morgan one and two. And then I go to my Australian tour. My manager called me,
2:13:31 the circus was over. It’s like, you don’t get the part anymore. I was sad, very sad, but for
2:13:38 three days and said, like, I need to stand up with it. I’m actually doing very well. And then
2:13:47 when I went to Chris Como, I, after I finished the show, he told me, did you lose any opportunities?
2:13:58 And that was off record after the show was like we concluded. And I said, I talked about Superman.
2:14:03 And I found myself when I was talking, I was angry. I was bitter. And I went home. It’s like,
2:14:09 why was I angry? Why was I bitter? It wasn’t meant to me. And I’m living a good life now.
2:14:15 I don’t need to. So when I was asked again, the next day, two different interviews, the BBC and
2:14:22 the other and another one was alone with my friend, you know, with Allah, I said the story in a
2:14:27 different way. I said, I don’t have any anger. As a matter of fact, maybe if I was wonder brothers,
2:14:32 I didn’t talk about Jim’s and I thought it was the studio. If I was wonder brothers and I’m a
2:14:37 Muslim, I wouldn’t have a like a Zionist or a pro Israeli in my movie. But I want to tell them that
2:14:42 like when I criticize Israel, I am not a threat to you as a Jew. And we can actually have morning
2:14:48 comments. I was more of a kind of empathic. So when I said that, the internet went crazy. And you
2:14:53 know, James Gunn have haters because you know, the, the Snyder verse and all of the that it’s
2:14:59 a word that I don’t understand. And James Gunn, like I had all of these attacks on him.
2:15:08 And I was pissed of how it was handled. I wasn’t angry at James Gunn, but I thought it was
2:15:12 so my public system managers like Bessam, stay calm, don’t speak. It’s better like to,
2:15:18 to like not talk about it. I said, okay, so as there’s nothing wrong about me, but I see the
2:15:25 heat is rising against James Gunn. And that is a guy that I had a personal connection with even
2:15:29 through zoom. And I didn’t like what was happening. And then he called me and he explained to me as
2:15:34 Bessam, you know, I actually use like half camera test before people before finally, I didn’t know
2:15:39 that. And I, and then we changed the script and it was the strike. So I didn’t call and I also,
2:15:44 I thought to myself, I’m small, I’m a small actor. I’m not that important for him to call me to say,
2:15:49 we’re going to change the script. So I think still think that like the timing sucks and everything.
2:15:55 But then I went and I did a video explaining exactly what I’m telling you because I didn’t
2:16:00 want to be famous for the wrong reasons. Because that will be unfair because that, that was,
2:16:06 already people were like, and I was having like interviews, can you come about to someone? It’s
2:16:09 like guys, that’s it. I’m not going to talk about because this is an issue. And I did, I didn’t,
2:16:14 and I, when I talked to James on the phone, I felt how sincere he was. So I didn’t want someone to,
2:16:21 because of me will have that kind of attack because I know what it means to be on the other side of
2:16:25 that kind of attack. It’s terrible. And it ruins your life and it ruins your day. And nobody
2:16:30 deserves to be doing that. And I don’t want to be the reason for somebody else to go through that
2:16:34 pain. And you also said that you don’t want to be a victim. I don’t want to be. I’m doing a great,
2:16:39 I’m doing great. I’m selling out everywhere. I’m having a wonderful loyal audience is coming to
2:16:44 me. Why would be angry about the role of its superman? Yes, it’s great to be in a superhero movies.
2:16:49 But so what? You know, but you know, there’s a, there’s a wisdom in that, even if you weren’t doing
2:16:55 great, that’s a choice a lot of people can come to, which is like, do I play victim here or not?
2:17:02 It’s great. It’s great. They want more attention. They want to be more into the thing. They want
2:17:08 more and more. And there’s so much to go around to be enough for all of us, but it is great.
2:17:14 It is ego, ego, ego, ego. I need to be in the center. I need to be victimized. I need to be,
2:17:22 people feel sorry for me and love me. And it is not the right way. It is not because it is fake.
2:17:27 It is fake. It’s made up. And I did not victimize myself when I left for Egypt. I mean, in the
2:17:34 time that I was, now I speak about it now, but in that dark times, I was detained in airports.
2:17:40 I didn’t have my American passport yet. I was still traveling with my Egyptian parents. And I
2:17:44 was detained in an Arab airport. I was going to be delivered to the Egyptians. I had shows when I
2:17:50 was still starting. I had hecklers being sent to me by the Egyptian embassy and Egyptian consulate
2:17:55 in, in New York and in London to curse me and to take videos of that and then send it to
2:18:01 state-run media in Egypt. And I didn’t speak about that because I felt that like if I speak about
2:18:07 that, I feel about like what was going on to me, I would be victimizing myself. It’s like,
2:18:10 if I’m going to be good, I’m going to be good because of what I do, not because of what people’s
2:18:13 perception of what I’m going through. Yeah. And that becomes a slippery slope and somehow
2:18:19 victimizing yourself. It goes to more victimizing. Yeah. And then you cannot leave that habit.
2:18:24 You can only exist and thrive if people feel sorry for you. Yeah. I mean, Israel and Palestine
2:18:30 currently both have that temptation. I would always push back when you do the comparison
2:18:38 because one of them is not really in the same kind of power. I mean, yeah, for sure. For you,
2:18:43 but that’s a big problem. It’s very easy to say why Palestinians will victimize themselves, but
2:18:47 Israel with all of that military might, man, it’s too much. What Israel is doing is that they’re
2:18:53 victimizing the Jewish experience. And I don’t think a lot of, and I don’t think it is fair for a
2:18:59 lot of Jews. I don’t think that they should use the Holocaust and the persecution that happened to
2:19:05 Jewish people all through history in order to push an equally oppressive agenda. That is not
2:19:12 fair. And it’s not good for the Jewish people living. And it is basically a disrespect to the
2:19:17 memory of the Holocaust. I told you, I want to make a movie about the Holocaust. I do. Because
2:19:24 what happened was that kind of engineered torture should never happen again. And it should not be
2:19:28 happening now. So to you, what Israel is doing is leading to more anti-Semitism in the world?
2:19:33 A hundred percent. And I think, and you know, can I be a conspiracy theorist for a second?
2:19:37 Please, there is this flag. We all know this. A part of me thinking, maybe they are doing that
2:19:42 intentionally, because if there’s a rise of anti-Semitism in Jews, there will always like
2:19:46 points like see, they hate us so we can do whatever we want. Because if, because, because you see,
2:19:53 if we let go of our might and our strength, we’re going to go back to the concentration camps
2:19:59 because you see how the world hates you. And again, when you say they are people in power.
2:20:05 Yeah. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Listen, it’s always the people in power. I believe that humans are
2:20:10 easily corruptible and easily repairable, but the corrupt, corruptible part is much easier.
2:20:15 But you, you, people could change, but power, people in power are very dangerous. Very,
2:20:24 very dangerous, especially if you have religion, which is power by itself, military might,
2:20:30 political support and money. Dude, that’s the, that’s a very, very, very dangerous recipe.
2:20:38 That, you know, all that said, I do believe in the power of the little guy, the individual,
2:20:42 to overthrow the government. You know, I don’t know if you heard, but the Arab Spring will,
2:20:45 you know, happen. But, but, but, okay, here we are, we are here. Just among friends. We are
2:20:52 Americans. Right? We’re Americans. We’re Americans. And how funny is that? Like just giving our two
2:21:02 backgrounds. We’re Americans. We’re Americans. It’s like, we’re Americans. There’s one thing about
2:21:11 like the power of the little guy that I am very sad about. Because you see, I’m, I love America,
2:21:18 by the way. I, I consider it my new home. And I want my kids to grow up here. I have, I’m very
2:21:25 grateful for the opportunity that I have in the United States. And I criticize the United States
2:21:30 politics and I criticize it out of love the same way that I was criticizing what’s happening with
2:21:35 Egypt out of love. What is worrying for me is how the power of the little man is diminishing.
2:21:45 It doesn’t matter now, who do you vote into power? They will not listen to you. They would listen to
2:21:50 the people who paid them to be there. And it is very concerning because I can see the American
2:21:56 democracy is turning not even slowly, very rapidly into an oligarchy. If I’m, I’m sure that all of
2:22:03 the millions of people who are voting, they don’t vote for the NRA. They don’t for vote for APAC.
2:22:09 They don’t vote for the pharmaceutical companies. They don’t vote for the military industry complex.
2:22:16 And yet the people in power, they come in, they take your vote and my vote and they are loyal
2:22:22 to those people, not to us. And it is very, very, very concerning, very concerning. And it is,
2:22:31 this is the danger of American, on the American policies, American politics and American democracies.
2:22:37 It is dangerous because basically the vote becomes just like a ceremony that, that the,
2:22:44 the someone with the more like funding will get to power and then he’s not loyal to you.
2:22:50 So the fire, I mean, we are in Texas. Everybody, everybody’s armed to the teeth here.
2:22:57 Yeah, but like, what are these aren’t going to do in front of tanks?
2:22:59 Well, you said the, the American military is unique in this way.
2:23:05 I know, but who now?
2:23:07 For now, the tanks are, first of all, I believe Russia has more tanks than the United States.
2:23:13 Tanks, I don’t know, you know, I’m not an expert in military strategic deployment of arms, but
2:23:19 the United States uses different kinds of weapons.
2:23:22 They have drones and they have the lasers and they have, they’re sitting comfortably behind
2:23:27 the screens. It’s kind of like, it turns out like a big Xbox game.
2:23:30 Yeah. And they, they, they sell a lot of those things to everybody.
2:23:35 It’s crazy because the defense budget is 68% of American military.
2:23:40 It’s like almost $850 billion each year.
2:23:43 And most of that weapons, we don’t even need it.
2:23:47 We just do it because of the contracts.
2:23:51 There was like an incredible 60 minutes.
2:23:53 I’m sure that you saw it, the one about like the gouging of the prices of the department,
2:23:57 because it was one of the most fascinating things that I’ve ever seen.
2:24:00 They say like a valve, a safety, a safety oil valve that used to be sold for $329.
2:24:06 Now it is sold for $9,000.
2:24:07 Why? Because there’s only five weapon companies and they can control the prices.
2:24:14 And in 2006, the whole Apache fleet of the American army in Iraq was grounded because
2:24:20 there was one valve that they were like gouging the price and didn’t want to give them.
2:24:24 The Stinger missile, that’s just like the missile, the one that you carry and it’s like the anti-aircraft.
2:24:32 It used to be sold for $25,000. Now it’s sold for $400,000.
2:24:36 And nobody is doing that because the DOD has fired 130,000 people,
2:24:42 including engineers and negotiators.
2:24:44 So now, in order to cut expenses, now we’re paying more money.
2:24:48 And the thing is, we do not have a say in this.
2:24:52 We do not have a say in how my tax money and your tax money is being spent.
2:24:56 Because I’m sure we don’t want your money to be sent to Israel like that.
2:24:59 I’m sure, even if you’re Jews, I’m sure, I’m sure that like I don’t want my money
2:25:02 to be given to some Muslim countries who kill other Muslims.
2:25:05 I’m sure, but it is not, here’s the thing.
2:25:09 What kind of power do we have other than speaking?
2:25:12 So what is left for us is free speech.
2:25:15 And now when you speak, they call you anti-semitic.
2:25:17 You see why I’m angry?
2:25:20 But still, I mean, America is holding pretty strong,
2:25:23 despite the criticisms on the free speech front.
2:25:26 But if you look at the freedom of the press, freedom of the speech index,
2:25:30 America is not at the top.
2:25:33 It is not. And this is why, for example, it is very disheartening for me to see
2:25:38 that the Western media, Western press, that used to be the beacon of freedom,
2:25:44 as I’m using as mouthpieces.
2:25:46 And it is funny how the New York Times,
2:25:49 Nixon got angry in the New York Times in 1971.
2:25:53 When they found leaks about him lying about the Vietnam War since the beginning.
2:25:58 And now he hired the plumbers, you know, the Special Unit,
2:26:02 in order to go in and find the leaks.
2:26:04 This was Watergate, basically, because he was angry to see who leaked that,
2:26:08 instead of fixing the problem.
2:26:10 Now the New York Times have published this story about the rape that was a hoax
2:26:15 that was written by Anna Schwartz, who someone will have no experience.
2:26:18 And now, when it was leaked, instead of them correcting themselves,
2:26:23 they went in and they had their own investigation to see who leaked.
2:26:26 The New York Times, in 2003, became the mouthpiece for George W. Bush of the WMD.
2:26:30 And now, as an American, I see that the New York Times is becoming a mouthpiece of a foreign country.
2:26:35 Why do you do that?
2:26:36 One of the things that’s really difficult to know is where to find the truth.
2:26:40 It does seem that both sides use propaganda and both sides lie.
2:26:46 Both sides, as in both Israel and Palestine, pro-Palestine, pro-Israel, there’s a lot of lies.
2:26:54 It’s a lot of inequality, man.
2:26:59 Are you like, there is like a lot of people on the internet,
2:27:03 but like who have the mainstream media siding with?
2:27:07 Yeah, but, you know, thanks to social media.
2:27:10 Yes, thank God for social media, because now it’s individuals.
2:27:13 There are people.
2:27:14 Yes.
2:27:14 There are people.
2:27:15 You’re comparing BBC, New York Times, Washington Post,
2:27:19 Whitewater City Journal with just people with a TikTok account.
2:27:22 Yeah, a lot more power in your view.
2:27:24 Now, it is actually very, very fascinating to see the little man having that power over the media.
2:27:30 And because it’s proportionally so, like, hey, this is my problem.
2:27:34 But you cannot call people with TikTok propagandists
2:27:37 while people being paid to give you the news and they deliberately lie to you.
2:27:41 Yes, I can.
2:27:42 They’re both propagandists.
2:27:44 Propagandists, yes, yes.
2:27:46 But like the mechanism and the intentions are different, because here’s the thing.
2:27:52 I’d rather have the TikTok guy than the yeah.
2:27:54 Like the TikTok guy is a TikTok guy, right?
2:27:57 But if you have the New York Times being told that they’re being exposed to be lying,
2:28:02 and then they get this like you and report, which is like a disgrace.
2:28:06 And you just put the title and you don’t talk about it.
2:28:09 Like I’m fine with CNN and Jake Tapper and all of those people,
2:28:13 like spreading the rape allegations for years.
2:28:16 They didn’t, I don’t even want them to refute them.
2:28:18 I want them to bring the Israeli reports saying that it didn’t happen.
2:28:22 The Israeli media themselves, they didn’t even bother, not once.
2:28:26 Is that balanced?
2:28:28 That’s not.
2:28:29 So that’s why people in TikTok and because they have to take matters on their own hand.
2:28:33 Yeah, but the problem with the people in TikTok
2:28:35 is the drug, the dopamine rush of getting a lot of likes.
2:28:40 So instead of talking about the death of civilians,
2:28:42 they’ll talk about beheaded babies or the equivalent of…
2:28:45 Yeah.
2:28:45 They’re going to actually make up stories
2:28:48 because the made up stories are going to be more viral.
2:28:51 And so now we’re just in this scene, this muck of lies.
2:28:54 And there’s a lot of people who actually expose their lies on TikTok.
2:28:57 So you have both, you have both.
2:28:59 And it’s kind of like the democracy of the social media, as we always call it.
2:29:03 But if you have the streetrun media that is the legacy media seen
2:29:06 and BBC, New York Times, Fuck News, all of those people,
2:29:09 and they are like spreading lies and they’re not even
2:29:12 doing the journalistic job in order to at least bring the other side.
2:29:16 Yeah.
2:29:16 That’s problematic.
2:29:18 And that’s, that’s worse.
2:29:19 You’re supposed to be a journalist.
2:29:21 Yes, it’s supposed to be a report.
2:29:23 Report, don’t, you know, report.
2:29:26 Yeah, but I see that this is like a catalyst
2:29:30 and inspiration for the citizen journalists to rise up.
2:29:33 This is what you’re doing.
2:29:34 Oh, this, yeah.
2:29:36 This is what you’re doing.
2:29:37 No, this is what you’re doing because you go into the deep dive.
2:29:39 This is like, like a no filter thing.
2:29:41 There’s no spin.
2:29:42 The long form, the long form is going to save us.
2:29:45 I see why you hate the tiktoks, like a dopamine rush, you know.
2:29:50 Stupid tiktok.
2:29:51 I saw the resentment in your face.
2:29:54 I can’t, can’t look away.
2:29:57 Before like, like those like 30 seconds, I do four hours.
2:30:00 I mean, both have a place, both are exciting.
2:30:04 And, you know, but I can’t, it is very dangerous.
2:30:08 Like you can’t look away.
2:30:09 And I almost never, maybe I’m doing it wrong,
2:30:13 but I almost never feel better ever after having used tiktok.
2:30:18 Makes two of us.
2:30:19 I can’t, I cannot, I cannot, I have a team.
2:30:21 By the way, I give my, my, my, my, my password to like a team.
2:30:25 I don’t even go there because I went, I once in a dark night,
2:30:30 very late at night, I went tiktok and it was like two hours.
2:30:35 What?
2:30:36 Yeah.
2:30:37 What?
2:30:38 I said, no, no, no, no, no, this is dangerous.
2:30:40 I’m, I’m, I’m really like an Instagram and Facebook guy.
2:30:43 I don’t need that.
2:30:45 But even there, man.
2:30:46 And I barely get out of Twitter.
2:30:47 I mean, like X, I don’t, I can’t.
2:30:49 X is a cesspool.
2:30:51 X, it’s just like two, the concentrated hate in X.
2:30:54 It’s too much.
2:30:55 It’s too much.
2:30:56 I can’t.
2:30:56 So you don’t check it at all.
2:30:58 You try not to check it at all.
2:30:59 It is very intense.
2:31:00 I don’t, I don’t, I don’t, I can’t, I can’t.
2:31:02 I just like, I post something and I run.
2:31:06 Post and ghost.
2:31:07 So you’re, you’re doing comedy here in the United States right now.
2:31:12 Yes.
2:31:12 Joe Rogan has the, the comedy mothership, which is an incredible club.
2:31:16 Have you considered doing that club?
2:31:18 I would love to.
2:31:19 I mean, I.
2:31:20 Do you know Joe?
2:31:21 Of course, no, who does a new Joe?
2:31:23 I feel like it’s a small world of comedy.
2:31:25 That’s why I.
2:31:26 No, I think like Joe, Joe’s story was like what he did and stuff that he did in
2:31:33 the UFC and his podcast and it just, it’s, it’s very impressive.
2:31:38 The fact that he is there and he’s bringing all of those people where they’re
2:31:42 in comedy or his podcast is very impressive.
2:31:44 And this is what, this is what is the media is all about.
2:31:47 What is like the internet is all about to give you the experiences of stuff that
2:31:51 you might never experience.
2:31:52 And that is very important.
2:31:55 I mean, you do it with people with like, you go into their brains.
2:31:57 He goes, take people and they take their experiences and their, and their
2:32:01 lives and their story.
2:32:02 It is very interesting.
2:32:04 And this is the beauty of that art form because you have all of these experiences
2:32:10 at the tips of your hands and it is there for you to learn from.
2:32:13 You know, and what he’s doing, like when he moved to Texas and we did the comedy
2:32:19 mothership, anybody who would like push comedy forward, that is the most difficult
2:32:25 art form and the most demanding.
2:32:27 And the fact that you do that and he might not even be making money out of it,
2:32:31 but he’s doing that because of his passion.
2:32:33 That is enough.
2:32:34 Yeah, he’s, he’s, he really believes in creating this like place where comedians
2:32:40 could be really free.
2:32:41 And one of the cool things about the comedy mothership is like, comedian is king there.
2:32:46 Yeah, like there, we have to like, you have to bow down to the, because you know,
2:32:51 the comedian who came there came after like eating shit.
2:32:54 Yeah, out there, everywhere else.
2:32:56 If you, you have basically, you’re a saint.
2:33:00 I have eaten shit for many years.
2:33:02 Now I’m going to give you shit.
2:33:05 Ah, it’s great.
2:33:08 You already told me what you think about the state of politics in the United States,
2:33:11 but now tell me what you really think.
2:33:13 What do you think of the choice of Trump versus Biden?
2:33:17 How do we end up here?
2:33:18 I don’t know.
2:33:19 I mean, like the fact that like you have two people over the age of 90, it is,
2:33:24 I think it’s over a hundred, but that’s all combined, like 170.
2:33:27 It is so sad.
2:33:30 It is so sad that this is what we can produce as a society.
2:33:34 Like, like a demagogue and a sleepy Joe.
2:33:40 I guess he’s too, he’s not there, man.
2:33:43 He’s, he’s gone.
2:33:45 He’s gone.
2:33:45 I mean, he could, you know, like when all people could be like a danger for themselves,
2:33:53 he’s a danger for the whole world.
2:33:54 I mean, like the whole world, like if an old person would die, who would like, you know,
2:34:00 have like a hip replacement, we can need them and like a new planet because of one decision.
2:34:05 It’s, but it’s not just that.
2:34:07 It’s not it’s what are, when I came here, listen, I am, I’m a, I’m a Democrat.
2:34:13 I always like, and I told you, like I vote for Bernie Sanders.
2:34:17 I, I, like I supported him like 2016, but I couldn’t vote then.
2:34:23 And of course, huge bad fan of Obama.
2:34:25 And one of my readers is like, he’s the first Muslim president.
2:34:30 It’s like, but he killed Muslims.
2:34:31 Like, that’s things Muslims do.
2:34:32 But anyways, I love that line.
2:34:35 And it just, I think the whole idea, like my shock is I told you about like what Biden said
2:34:48 about like, I’m a Zionist.
2:34:49 Okay, we are a Zionist, but then like Jews are not safe in anywhere other news.
2:34:53 Like, dude, what the hell are you saying?
2:34:54 And if you don’t care about me and you don’t care about my misery,
2:34:58 why would I care about you when you’re losing, you know?
2:35:03 And I have a joke that I told people, like, why would even Biden listen to us?
2:35:08 He just raised $145 million in California alone from pro Israeli groups.
2:35:15 I mean, what, what can we Arabs working in the vape business do to him?
2:35:21 It’s like, we cannot compete with that.
2:35:25 I mean, like practically, I mean, it’s like life is like life is unfair.
2:35:29 The guy is a politician.
2:35:30 He needs bills to pay.
2:35:32 He needs a campaign to run.
2:35:33 He needs money.
2:35:34 He will go to the people who will give him money.
2:35:36 Joe Biden is the highest paid politician from Israeli lobbyist, $4.6 million over the years.
2:35:44 Yeah, but I also believe in great leaders that go against all of that.
2:35:49 But unfortunately, you know, Bernie Sanders was like that.
2:35:52 Bernie Sanders, yes, but also age.
2:35:56 I don’t want to be.
2:35:57 Of course, of course.
2:35:58 No, no.
2:35:58 But even with like, because I remember listening to Bernie Sanders 20 years ago
2:36:03 on Tom Hartman show.
2:36:04 And I don’t want to say anything against Bernie, but like he was sharper then.
2:36:10 Of course.
2:36:10 There’s a thing with age.
2:36:12 Yeah, of course.
2:36:12 Now, I think I’m a huge fan about like putting the limits on your working years,
2:36:18 because you don’t want to have like a Mitch McConnell moment every now,
2:36:21 because now the whole thing are like, what is this?
2:36:23 Isn’t this not like a house by scare home?
2:36:26 It is unfair.
2:36:28 It is unfair.
2:36:29 And that’s the whole idea that you have like unlimited,
2:36:31 like you have a limit for the president,
2:36:32 but you don’t have limit for Congress people and senators.
2:36:35 That’s what you mean.
2:36:36 This is basically you can go in and be in governance forever.
2:36:41 And you know, the longer that you can get, the more corrupt you will get.
2:36:44 Yes, and that is very concerning for Americans.
2:36:48 Everybody, everybody becomes corrupt after.
2:36:51 I mean, that’s why two terms is a good limit for everybody.
2:36:55 Yeah.
2:36:55 And you know, maybe half a term for Egyptian leaders.
2:36:59 Well, you know, our half term is 15 years, quarter term.
2:37:05 You should come back around for office there.
2:37:10 Oh my God, no.
2:37:12 No, there’s a curse in the Egyptian presidency.
2:37:17 Nobody, nobody comes there.
2:37:18 Like he’s like dead or in jail.
2:37:20 Yeah.
2:37:21 It’s it’s not the most appealing job.
2:37:23 They might make a statue of you though.
2:37:25 Make you look good.
2:37:26 After my death.
2:37:26 I look very good dead in the statue.
2:37:31 Yeah.
2:37:33 When you look at what happened with Navalny,
2:37:37 since you kind of really thought about this in Egypt,
2:37:43 what happened with Navalny in Russia,
2:37:47 what do you think about that?
2:37:48 Yeah, but what happened in Navalny in Russia is not something new in Russia.
2:37:51 I mean, Putin have like this whole history of poisoning and killing people.
2:37:55 And it’s kind of like pretty much his,
2:37:58 I would have to cite credit Putin.
2:38:00 He’s like bringing us the essence of the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages.
2:38:04 It’s like, you know, we know like basically Putin is like,
2:38:07 is the living example of what happens if game of thrones was reality.
2:38:11 It’s like death by poison, like a blow up a plane.
2:38:16 It’s like mysteriously disappears.
2:38:18 It is so, it is, it is very dark.
2:38:23 But it’s like, wow, it’s like a, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a television show.
2:38:30 Maybe that’s what attracts us to that part of the world
2:38:33 is that it’s so much on display this game of power, of geopolitics, of war.
2:38:41 No, but the same happens in the West, but I’m behind closed doors.
2:38:44 It’s not that open.
2:38:44 It’s not, it’s not, it’s not that pronounced.
2:38:47 You know, it’s like, oops, ipstein.
2:38:50 It’s like, oh, we just like, I think, I think because of the West is more advanced,
2:38:58 like in movies and cinemas, we kind of directed better.
2:39:01 Yeah.
2:39:02 I think, I think the outcome is like the way that you kind of like said the scene is like,
2:39:05 scene and scene.
2:39:07 That’s why people are all like landing on the moon.
2:39:09 They’re like, I don’t know, I get it.
2:39:14 But, you know, we haven’t gone back.
2:39:16 All right.
2:39:22 If we zoom out, do you think there will always be war in the world, always be suffering?
2:39:28 Yes.
2:39:28 But here’s the thing.
2:39:31 I don’t think for long, I don’t think that will happen for them.
2:39:34 Wait a minute.
2:39:35 Yeah.
2:39:35 Yeah.
2:39:36 Because here’s the thing, humanity is destined to, to have war, especially it will have war,
2:39:42 but that something happened in the last 50 years.
2:39:45 We have had, now we have much more lethal weapons.
2:39:50 The problem is the beginning is like swords against swords, horses, cavalry, like cannons,
2:39:56 catapults, mini missiles.
2:39:57 But now you’re like, we’re like, you know, like a press of a button.
2:40:01 You can annihilate the whole planet.
2:40:03 And this is the problem.
2:40:05 Wars will all continue.
2:40:06 The problem is when is going to be the tipping point where we are actually going to destroy
2:40:11 ourselves.
2:40:12 And it is so easy now to destroy ourselves, the amount of weapons and the quality of weapons
2:40:17 that we have.
2:40:17 It is designed to kill more effectively, more, more, it just, it is crazy.
2:40:24 It’s like we can create our own destruction on ourself.
2:40:26 And I think we’re not that far away from it.
2:40:29 Just looking at nuclear weapons, the fascinating thing about nuclear weapons,
2:40:33 as I’ve gotten to learn recently, just how few people are involved in a full on nuclear war.
2:40:41 That kills, basically kills everybody.
2:40:44 Yeah.
2:40:45 Well, three plus billion people right away.
2:40:49 And the consequences of the nuclear winter, it’s unlivable.
2:40:54 But all it takes is, I mean, one president can do it.
2:40:58 So it could be even a false alarm, misunderstanding.
2:41:02 Like what happened in the Cuba Missile Crisis.
2:41:05 But again, and now there’s more nations are prepared and ready to launch.
2:41:13 Yeah.
2:41:14 And you have a media and a 24 hours kind of like thing that makes you like at edge the whole time.
2:41:21 That’s crazy.
2:41:22 There’s a dark perspective on this where there’s certain members of the media that would kind of
2:41:28 enjoy the prospect of nuclear war.
2:41:31 Like a little bit, just let’s get as close to it as possible.
2:41:36 You have another factor that will contribute to that, religion.
2:41:42 And remember how like the radical Islamists talk about like the end of time and whatever,
2:41:49 but like most of the Islamic and don’t have that much power.
2:41:52 Problem is with Christian Zionists now being on the top of the world with America.
2:41:55 They have been pushing for that kind of conflict to kind of escalate, escalate.
2:41:59 Listen to Sarah Palin’s like, God wants us here.
2:42:02 Like a carl drove all of the new gods.
2:42:06 The dispensation is dragon.
2:42:08 There’s an incredible book called like forcing the hands of God’s beautiful book.
2:42:13 I read it’s like it’s published 1998, but it still matters today.
2:42:16 The whole idea about like, especially the Zionist Christians who love Israel, but they hate the Jews.
2:42:22 They’re anti-Semite, but they love Israel because of its role.
2:42:25 This is all basically formed because of the interpretation of the Bible of Schofield and
2:42:30 how they talk about the end of time that Armageddon and then the late great planet earth
2:42:34 and then left behind serious and all of that.
2:42:37 It’s all about like, we’re heading to Armageddon.
2:42:40 The problem is Islam has the people that believe that the end of time.
2:42:44 And then we have the Christians that believe in the end of time.
2:42:46 And then you have Israel happy that those people are using it for the end of time.
2:42:50 And then the whole idea about them pushing as many weapons
2:42:53 and troops and people in the Middle East to be there for the nuclear Holocaust.
2:42:58 And John Hage, one of the pastors talk about that about the primstones
2:43:02 and it’s not going to be a nuclear Holocaust.
2:43:04 All of the people, it’s crazy how people are so despising life that they are wanting death.
2:43:10 So now you have, you always had these revelations,
2:43:14 but these revelations mean nothing if you don’t have an effective weapon in order to make it happen.
2:43:18 And this is the crazy thing.
2:43:20 And I’m worried that the end is going to be by someone that wants to meet God a little bit earlier.
2:43:25 Somebody who’s really in a hurry.
2:43:31 Well, I have good news for you.
2:43:35 Maybe we’ll become a multi-planetary species.
2:43:37 Maybe Elon Musk will lead us the way to get out in space.
2:43:42 Maybe he’s one of them.
2:43:49 I asked you offline to not mention the lizard people.
2:43:52 There’s like a whole people that believe in the lizard people.
2:43:57 It’s great.
2:43:57 I actually have to be honest.
2:43:58 I haven’t fully looked into the lizard people.
2:44:00 I probably should.
2:44:01 You should.
2:44:02 Yeah.
2:44:02 Well, maybe I’m afraid of the truth.
2:44:04 Removing my face.
2:44:17 So let’s say you’re wrong about the end of the world.
2:44:21 I hope so.
2:44:22 And it all turns out great.
2:44:25 And humanity flourishes.
2:44:27 Why would that happen?
2:44:30 What gives you hope for that trajectory, for humanity?
2:44:35 Younger people.
2:44:36 The people of Tiktok that you don’t like.
2:44:39 Yeah, there is a lot of like cool shit there after you sign this.
2:44:47 People just keep saying you take Tiktok videos.
2:44:49 These younger people.
2:44:50 This woman showing her boobs?
2:44:54 That woman.
2:44:55 That’s going to save us.
2:44:56 All right, awesome.
2:44:58 Thank you.
2:44:59 No, there’s like, I think there is a wealth of it.
2:45:06 You know, remember like the joke they said,
2:45:07 like we thought that like when we have internet,
2:45:09 we’re going to have like be more, you know, more informed.
2:45:13 And now we’re watching twerking videos.
2:45:15 And that is true.
2:45:17 But on the other side, the fact that you have
2:45:19 availability of information, I’m learning a lot.
2:45:25 And there’s people who are using that platform from that.
2:45:28 It’s not the majority because, you know,
2:45:29 it’s not very interesting and exciting.
2:45:32 But I think there’s, there might be a tipping point
2:45:35 where there’s enough people that would be aware.
2:45:37 And maybe they would collectively do something
2:45:42 in order to bring back the power to the small man.
2:45:45 And maybe it sounds very naive.
2:45:47 Maybe it’s fine.
2:45:48 But we don’t know.
2:45:49 We don’t know.
2:45:50 Because we, you have already seen the legacy media
2:45:54 and the legacy politicians shaking in the past few months.
2:45:58 They’re getting nervous.
2:45:59 They’re getting nervous because people are calling them out.
2:46:01 And those people were like hiding behind the desk,
2:46:03 behind in their office and not like,
2:46:04 not holding out for that,
2:46:05 but like people now are calling them out.
2:46:07 And it is not going to happen like this year or next year,
2:46:10 but I think it’s something.
2:46:11 What advice would you give to those young folks?
2:46:13 I will never give advice to those people.
2:46:15 (laughing)
2:46:17 Get off, take, talk.
2:46:18 I will never, I will never,
2:46:19 because like their input is different than mine.
2:46:21 Yeah.
2:46:22 But like there’s, there’s one thing I learned
2:46:23 when people saw me, did the revolution fail in Egypt?
2:46:26 Did people, that the people are like,
2:46:28 listen, the revolution is not an event.
2:46:29 It’s not like, hey, we go in with toppled the government.
2:46:31 It’s not under evolution.
2:46:32 A revolution is a process.
2:46:33 It’s a very long process.
2:46:35 And maybe that process,
2:46:37 I mean, as much as we don’t like what happened in the Arab world,
2:46:40 but the people there, the awareness that happened
2:46:42 and the discussions that have been opened
2:46:44 that weren’t, you didn’t even imagine what happened
2:46:46 in the Middle East is happening.
2:46:48 And maybe the beginning of any, any hope of change
2:46:53 is that people start talking, speaking out,
2:46:55 talking about stuff they were not allowed to speak about.
2:46:59 Like for example, Israel.
2:47:01 (laughing)
2:47:03 The revolution continues.
2:47:05 Ah, yes.
2:47:06 Basim, you’re a beautiful human being.
2:47:10 It’s truly a pleasure and honor to meet you.
2:47:12 I can just feel the love radiating from you.
2:47:15 I hope I get to see you perform live.
2:47:17 I hope to get to see you many more times.
2:47:19 Thank you for being who you are.
2:47:21 Thank you so much.
2:47:22 And I would love to invite you
2:47:23 for my new special, the Islamunazi Basim.
2:47:25 (laughing)
2:47:27 That should be the title of your autobiography.
2:47:29 Islamunazi.
2:47:30 Thank you so much.
2:47:31 Thank you, brother.
2:47:32 Thanks for listening to this conversation with Basim Yousef.
2:47:36 To support this podcast,
2:47:38 please check out our sponsors in the description.
2:47:41 And now, let me leave you some words from John Stuart.
2:47:44 The press can hold this magnifying glass up to our problems,
2:47:49 bringing them into focus,
2:47:50 illuminating issues here too fore unseen.
2:47:53 Or, they can use that magnifying glass to light ants on fire,
2:47:59 and then perhaps host a week of shows
2:48:01 on the sudden unexpected dangers flaming ant epidemic.
2:48:04 If we amplify everything, we hear nothing.
2:48:10 Thank you for listening.
2:48:11 And hope to see you next time.
2:48:13 (gentle music)
2:48:16 (gentle music)
2:48:19 (gentle music)
2:48:21 (gentle music)
2:48:24 (gentle music)
2:48:26 (gentle music)
2:48:29 you
Bassem Youssef is an Egyptian-American comedian & satirist, referred to as the Jon Stewart of the Arab World. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(06:30) – Oct 7
(36:59) – Two-state solution
(52:37) – Holocaust
(1:00:24) – 1948
(1:09:17) – Egypt
(1:23:39) – Jon Stewart
(1:25:51) – Going viral during the Arab Spring
(1:49:55) – Arabic vs English
(2:02:18) – Sam Harris and Jihad
(2:07:25) – Religion
(2:26:37) – TikTok
(2:31:10) – Joe Rogan
(2:33:07) – Joe Biden
(2:37:33) – Putin
(2:39:21) – War
(2:44:17) – Hope