#424 – Bassem Youssef: Israel-Palestine, Gaza, Hamas, Middle East, Satire & Fame

28:49Yeah, like the flamboyant, the big personalities, all of that. I also met a person who's in charge of a refugee camp who was shop and idea of soldier. And I'm not sure the words you said are important as the consequences of the thing that you mentioned, which is the deep hate in his eyes. That was, didn't feel of a parable at all. It was pain. It was like a foundation of pain on top of that, a hatred. And it was like, wow, this is what you kill one person. That's the way you create. Because we have kind of like a front row seat to what's happening. We think we're in it, but we can't really grasp it.

29:39I mean, people are like, oh, we're just going to go in. Get the hummus out. and we're going to get them back in. And also what the people get back in. How do you think they would look at you? What have you created? What have you done? My show in Egypt was all about propaganda. It was all about the use of words. Words are very important. The decapitated babies were not chosen randomly because you see it plants a certain image in your brain. Imagine if you're going in, what a baby can do. it can smile, cry and poop. That's it. It's absolutely no threat. So when you tell people 40 together, they did babies.

30:19They are so animalistic, they didn't see the babies. Women raped. Of course, he's an animal to do that and they would go through that and they would what was very frustrating about the conversation is the gish galloping, the gish galloping. So you see the distractions, you see what happens? Like what's the proportion response? can Israel defend itself, do you condemn Hamas? Does Israel has the right to exist? The Capital is babies, raped women. Why don't the Arab countries take them? Why don't the Muslims kill Muslims? Look at happening Yemen in Syria, in Iraq. Like, see how they kind of distract you.

30:57They throw little things at you. So you don't know what to do or the honor of the UNN, anti -Semitic, October 7th, October 7th, October 7th. And then suddenly you are distracted and pulled into to discussing all of these little things. And you're not discussing what's happening right now. It is basically stalling, giving them time to do what they do. So there's some degree to the propaganda that we had it babies and all this kind of stuff that is so over the top that it shuts down actual conversation about actual wrongs, war crimes on both sides. So it's overstating it to where everyone on social media and everywhere in the press and everywhere is arguing.

31:38almost become disancentized to actual horrors of death which are more mundane. They're not so dramatic as beheaded babies. Because people, people, a baby is shot, but decapitated babies. There's like a knife blade that goes into the skin, the trickier, the flesh, the spine. Decapitated. Like, you can just like, he's dead. Now you go in this is the hate, so much hate. And you know, that's why you have made me laugh. at the darkest shit. You're such a beautiful person. Your dark humor is just wonderful. But you see this happened to Jews before. Remember blood libel? Where did the blood libel come from?

32:15It come from these rumors that Jews suck babies blood. This is what they did to them. That's a very delicious baby. But this is what you do. You tell people something and it happened with the Native Americans when they were here, when they went in and they wipe a whole tribe. So, and Jewish people, one of the minorities that were persecuted and had this used against them for a very long time, and it is terrible and it's terrifying that's been used again. So I just did a very lengthy debate on Israel and Palestine. And a really painful thing from that, those two historians, it was deep, it was thorough, It was fascinating, but in constantly asking about sources of hope or solutions, there was none.

33:05There was a sense of like a really dark sense of its hopeless from both sides. It's hopeless. So you know, I look to you. For sources. For sources of hope. Do you have, is there any hope here? Solutions, short term, long term. Obama have kind of summarized this beautifully in his book. He said, the reason why the Israeli Palestinian conflict is so chronic is one side has so much power. And the other side have absolutely no power. And that's the one what he said. He said, like, you have Israel that faith basically don't listen to us. because they are supported by people who are bigger than the president, bigger than the administration.

33:56They know that they can. I mean, like Netanyahu was a cotton tape many times saying, like he's basically like billy -telling Americans, like we control 80 % of the population, we don't care. This has kind of like none -challant kind of like how we have them. And there's nothing really that compels Israel to give up anything. Because at the end of the day, what is compromise? Compromise like I give something, you give something. Israel is not giving anything. And they project that on you. So for example, how many times have we heard, like, Opalestines were giving, like, four, five, six, seven, fifteen chances and they said no to them.

34:31And yet, when you read the history, that's not the case at all. Like, for example, in the whole idea about like, out of our, walked away from Oslo, that didn't happen. And there is an incredible video by, you know, what is named, Joe's core, core borrow with Misha. And they were hosting her father, he was the National Security Advisor. And Joe's car was like, well, you know, like Arifat left the Oslo court and the Palestinians and then the British said like, this is like embarrassingly shallow. It's like, listen, what happened was, there was a lot of catches on the Oslo court. It was very unfair to the Palestinians.

35:16So Arif said like, I agree, but I need to take it to the Arab capitals. And they went to Shah Masha 'i, he came to Egypt and he and Hillbarak went to there. And then he had Abu Bakr left because there was a election and he lost the Israel -Shahr and it was the Shahr. This is one of the reasons why people, it's kind of like facts don't matter as much as what is the narrative that has been controlled. But what were the biggest barriers to peace there? Do you think it's fundamentally leaders don't want a Tuesday solution? or was there new ones small differences that if solved could have led us to today's Tuesday solution?

35:55I mean there was maybe there was a certain point when the Israeli leaders were more open to compromise but I can't say that because each time Israel gives back land it has to be after some use of force. The 1973 war, the Interval of the first and second, the casualties and cause they never give up land willingly and because of peace. Because if I have that much military I can do whatever I want. Why would I give up anything? I have that much power. Why would America or China give everything if they're so powerful? And especially if they have this kind of open check from the United States. So it is really about what can push Israel to give up something?

36:43Because you are so much stronger than me. What could compel you to give up something? And this is why the whole thing about like, trying to equalize Palestinians and the Israeli state and government, it doesn't make any sense. So what is the source of hope? you know, John Stewart who will talk about it from many angles, somebody admire a friend. He proposed a Tuesday solution. Look to the comedians for hope. Yes, well, everybody's talking about the two -state collusion, but Israel has said many times on Netanyahu and Ben is like, there's going to be no state solution. The past is like, even even after Lebanon, he came in on on the hard talkers like yeah maybe in the past we wanted to say solutions but like look every time we give them land they kill us so no state solutions and they are openly saying it.

37:39That's perhaps rhetoric. If rhetoric that is supported by action because look at what they're doing in the West Bank that you said. They are cutting it, illegal settlement, peace -mealing it. So how if you have an intention at all to give them anything, why would you keep doing this? And you've called it a bunch of little gazes. Yeah. A nice little picture of what's happening. Peace, mealing it. Tum, tum, tum. Because it is what happened in the past four months, the Palestinians have been micro -dozing on it for a very long time. Little by little. Little by little. And we would shout every time when it gets too much, and then we shut down, and then little by little.

38:24But this time it was hard. It was hard to see the blatant oppression and the word said, maybe the Hamas ministry of the health are giving us the bad numbers. Maybe it's Jesus' human shield. And I left, there's 13 ,000 babies killed. Does that mean that there's 13 ,000 military target hiding in their diapers? Because it is so, it doesn't make any sense to kill that. And maybe it's just like, oops, just out of our hands. It's hard to know what to do with those numbers. I mean, I just want babies enough. But you know what happens? When you hear so many numbers, numbers become numbers. And you become so desensitized.

39:07And this is why there's a difference between saying 13 ,000 Palestinian kids did this like Mila Cahane and Israeli baby, 10 month old. She was killed in her crib. And this is what we hear from CNN. We never hear a story about a Palestinian kid. That's why thank you for giving me the space for saying the New Zealand Palestinian children that were killed just for four weeks though like it's it's because Humans needs context they need depth. They need like a 3D Look at what they can look at but if you just didn't numbers Oh, they don't mean anything is there some degree to where both leaderships Hamas PA Palestinian Authority Israel All want war Like, perpetual war to remain in power.

39:58There is, that's an interesting question. But, I mean, let's admit something. The Arab regimes in the area have actually used the problem of Palestine in order to stay in power in order to take getting excuses to have this enemy. and Israel, the Israeli government has used that too, and maybe the Palestinianism. But my problem with when going into discussion, this is that the two sides are not equal. They're not equal in power. They're not equal in influence and they're not equal in international support, especially by the United States. So Palestinians can, the people who have made changes in history you were the people with power, the people who would have the ability to change things.

40:44And the Palestinians cannot really change and what can they change? Well, is that true though, with how much support the Palestinian people have? So just like you said, there's a lot of Arab states there, they will voice their pro -Palestinian position in order to distract from their, the own corruption and abuses of power in their own countries. But you know, I don't think if you look globally, there's a complete asymmetry of power and public opinion here, maybe in the press in the West. But if you look globally, but do they have the same kind of weapons that they really have? Literally power?

41:25No, there's a major asymmetry of literal power. Some money to their leaders. Does that make any difference? I mean, and also when you You say Palestinian authority, which authority are you talking about? Hamas, or the Palestinian authority who has been kind of a domesticated, kind of like a puppy for the Palestinian who basically have been an informant for the under -owned people. And this is the thing also that kind of like really pissed me off when I was hearing the thing about the thing. Like Hamas, Hamas, Hamas, Hamas. We have Netanyahu in tape confessing that he supports it. Hamas gave him money in order to cause factions in between the Palestinians.

42:03So it's just like it doesn't make you just told me this you just told me this you just told me didn't have so far Time I like but Hamas like what I mean to which degree does then Yahoo represent? The Israeli people is a real question to which point does Trump or Biden represent American people and to which degree does Hamas represent the past in your people does None of these represent it but who have the power in order to make the decisions it really comes down to that Well, who does have the power? You're giving a lot of power to Israel. Yeah. But the Arab League... What do you think we should have to continue doing what a charter says, which is trying to destroy Israel, and the role of the Palestinian people is to overthrow Hamas and get a more moderate leadership, probably.

42:52And the role of the Israeli people is to vote out this right -wing government and elect a moderate leader so that there's a chance at peace for two moderate leaders. So before Hamas even got to control 2006, there was a real Sharon in 2000 and we all know what happened. And a real Sharon kind of like had make they make, came up with this amazing policy of like breaking people's kids' bones in the end of the father. So he'll Barack, he was also like, I mean, which one is moderate? Many I think is, Hamas is a product of what happened. I mean, we can, if there was no apartheid in South Africa, there would be no NFC, there would be no Nassim and Dada, if there was no Nazis in Paris, there would be no French resistance.

43:44And I'm not saying that, and again, I'm not, I wouldn't want to be in a position to defend Hamas or anybody because you know what got that entails, but those are, They, Hamas, again, not defending them. They went into a Kutobar Sepht, what was their, what, why did they did that? Like, release our hostages, the people in prison. Because if you talk about people who are kidnapped, Israeli kidnapped people every single day. And when they had the first exchange in November 4th, Israel is for 100 people, three quarters of them were women and children. Why are those people in prison? There's one in four kids that are in prison that stay in solitary confinement, which is by international law a form of torture.

44:30And you're putting kids through that. Is it possible? So first of all, ceasefire. Yes. And longer term is a possible for Arab states and the United States to get together and with power through diplomacy, enforce a solution. It's a very, very ideal solution, but you know, and I know that the Arab crustates don't really have the power. All of the powers are in the hands of America. They have the power. See, I think they have the power. I don't know. Maybe they don't know one that uses it. Maybe they don't know. Because there's a benefit. Like, that dark, the dark sense I have is that a lot of people win from the suffering Palestinians are going through because they can point to that, then they're strapped from, definitely, they're corruption in their own states and then obviously Iran can benefit also from the same kind of dynamic, distracting from the authoritarian nature of their regime.

45:37Definitely, but what is the core of the problem here? Is it the Arab states using the suffering or the actually the suffering itself and the suffering comes from people being displaced, their homes were taken away. They are 7 million Palestinians in diaspora. Seven millions. Seven million went out there and now they're living in Canada and America and Europe. They had homes there. They cannot go back to 1 .7 million people of the people in Gaza. Don't belong in Gaza. They were pushed from other places. the piecemeal thing of people are being, you know, in Germany, I'm going to shift gear a little bit, it's going to be a little bit fun.

46:21There is a book that I bought the rights to and I want to turn it into a movie. And I bought, I optioned the right for two months, for two years in March last year before October 7th. After October 7th, I bought the permanent right. That book is called The Muslim Ended You. And it is written by another called John in Steinke. I read an article about this book in 2016 and I chased that book for rights for seven years. I didn't have that much money, but I wanted that book. And that book was translated into English called Anandock And that book tells the incredible story under Nazi Germany, where Arabs went in droves to Berlin in 1920s after the First World War in the Weimar Republic, and they became doctors and engineers and journalists.

47:14Because for two reasons, number one, it was their cheap, very cheap because of the inflation. And two, a lot of the Arab nationalists didn't want to send their kids to England or France because they were the occupiers. And Dr. Henry was the hero of that. He's an Egyptian doctor. And that's why I kind of like a personal kind of connected with him. And he went to medical school, didn't find a place to live. So he lived in the Jewish ghetto. like many Arabs. He didn't find a school to work at a hospital to work and so he worked in a Jewish hospital. So these are there was a lot of Arabs who lived with the ghetto and actually the first director of the Berlin mosque with a Jewish consvert who converted to Islam and he was a gay activist.

48:04I'm telling you this is like a crazy story and this is all this is not a fiction story this is actually a canon fiction. It's written actually based on the statements and documents of the Nazis and Gestapo. Dr. Henry, he was in this hospital and the Nazis came in and they killed and tortured and beat up the Jewish doctor and he made they made him the head of his department. Then he was now he's surrounded by Nazi doctor. They didn't touch him because he was an Arab. There was kind of like a thing between Germany and the Arabs because they wanted to appease to them in order to have kind of a grass root base in the Arab world where he want to go next.

48:47And this is why, 1934, 1935, the racial laws of Norimberg, they had a name change. First they were called antisemitic. Then they changed into Andy Jewish because also Arabs were semetic. So they wanted to appease the Arabs. Now what happened to Dr. help me when that happened to him. He would go back to the ghetto and he would see the apartments next to him. The Jewish apartment become more and more and more flooded with people because they were moving Jews and pushing them and putting them together, pushing them to the side and each flat, each flat, each apartment instead of one family it would have three, four, six, seven families.

49:34And he was there when he told him and he'd looked. He was, he was there. This is where the people he grew up with, he lived with and now he's seen that kind of discrimination just because he was in the Arab. And then he, he started to kind of like atone for, like because he felt responsible because he wasn't treated the same way and he started to go and treat Jewish people in their homes because they couldn't go to hospitals and then one family gave them his daughter. It's like this is Ana, save her. He pretended that she's his niece, put a hijab around her, taught her Arabic, called her Nadia.

50:11My daughter is named by the way. And they, and he hid her in plain sites for seven years in front of the Nazis as his nurse. It's an incredible story. And then not just that he went to prison and then he went out and he formed with the Arab people that was in prison with him a network that saves 300 Jews. See that kind of story? This is the Jews that were living in the Arab world. I'm not saying that the Jews living the Arab world was living like an incredible, as a kind of a minority, they did not have like the full power of their full, you know, advantages of the rule. That's that's normal. But we had this kind of a relationship before Israel was erected in 1948.

50:59And then of course, everybody looked at Jews at the time, at the time of the fifth column. And of course, the nationalistic regimes used that. And this is why what Biden said was very dangerous when he said, if there is no Israel, no Jew in the world will feel safe. You are the leader of the few words you are the presence of the Nazis. Do you mean that you are telling me that that Jews in your country, in the United States This is America not safe, that is wrong with two levels. Number one, America historically and right now is more safe to use in America in the world than in anybody. They are safer than to use in Israel.

51:33They never had programs or the Holocaust like Europe. They live here a good life, not perfect life, but they are better. Second of all, if you are the president and you're telling that a group of people will not feel safe unless there is a different one, you are already feeding into their fifth column. You're Russian. You come from there. And there is a group of laws in the Russian Constitution that says that Russia will protect its citizens everywhere in the world. What happens if the President says like, oh, you're Russians, you're protected by a country, don't belong here. This is terrible.

52:01Yeah, you're right. That's actually an indirect threat. It's like, yes. You know, even saying Muslims can feel safe in America or something like this. That means like that's a threat. But what would a Jewish person in Beverly Hills or in Brooklyn feel if he hears that? You are already telling people you need to have a loyal to Israel. I mean Israel is a foreign country. I am sorry but Israel is a foreign country. Israel is a client country that we sponsor and it should actually be responsible and held accountable for what they do. You mentioned 1948, Anapa, but before that, 41, 39, 41 to 45, the Holocaust.

52:46What do you do? What do you do with the Holocaust? How do you incorporate into the calculus of what's... Oh, it's terrible, I think. Of morality that leads up to the displacement of 700 ,000 Palestinians from the land. How do you work that out? I mean, the systemic annihilation of Jewish people, under Nannatsi, that is like a carefully engineered thought for plan, it was terrible. It was like kind of like the human ingenuity put into like something that is very evil. But also, it is not just that happened, we need to remember that Otto Frank, the father of Anna Frank has his visa, refugee visa rejected by the United States.

53:34There's a lot of people that were rejected by the right states, rejected by other European countries, and then they were pushed into Palestine. So you have to put yourself between it like and that the Arabs, okay, we're sitting here, okay, come and then all right, you don't have a home or a country anymore. That gives you... I mean, you see if I'm not an Arab and you give me that kind of piece of like terrible human tragedy like, oh my God, that is terrible. But then, and my Arabs like, yes, I'm so sorry but what do I have to do with that? What why is that my fault? The persecution of the Jewish people have started since then the eighth and ninth century because they they were like they were first anti -christians They were like with criminal immigrants.

54:18They were like conspirators. There's this this is this is this is though the antics like people Kind of like as if Europe kind of like throw anti -Semitism on us You understand that like Henry Ford Henry Ford is one of the biggest anti he was he was the the inspiration for adult Hitler This is how anti -Semitic Henry Ford was and you Kind of like Gloss over that and then suddenly we as Arabs have to pay the price. Why? Several questions I want to ask there so but one just zooming out What do you think hatred of Jews has been such a viral kind of idea throughout human history? Oh, it's very easy.

55:06It all started from Christ. They killed Christ. They killed Christ. They killed Christ. They're the killer of Christ. That's the very success of that. And that was, yeah, that was, and that stayed for years. That stayed for centuries. I'm sorry, centuries. They're the killer of Christ. And then the casted church did not allow usury, but they would work in usury. So they become rich. Now the people that we hate, that we accuse them of feeling Christ are becoming rich. So that's envy now. And that's hatred. I mean, when you talk about ghettos, ghettos were not just as occluded parts in cities. Sometimes those ghettos were outside the cities.

55:49Jews were not even allowed to work a lot of professions. They were not allowed to get into the syndicates of certain professions. So they had to go work usually and they got rich. So the people hated them more. The first crusade didn't kill a single Muslim. All they killed were Jews. And when they finally arrived to Jerusalem, all they killed were Jews. They almost annihilated the Jews. So it was all this. And of course you have the dark ages who do you need as an enemy? They choose. Right? They're the killer of Christ. There's nothing bigger than this. And then you fast forward. I mean one of the things that I found out that was very very very very crazy when Henry Ford imported the protocols of the elders of Zion.

56:40By the way in the Arab world, protocols of the elders of Zion is so popular. And for all of you's uses. And for the people who don't know it, it's kind of like a bunch of like stories. And basically it's like the Jews saying like, we're going to control the world and I know this and we're going to do that and whatever. What people don't know that that is a work of plagiarism. It was plagiarized from a satirical play called Conversational Hell between Mickiavelli and Montesequio. And it is just, and it is kind of like based on one chapter, one scene or so. It is crazy. But it's crazy how sticky it is.

57:23Yes. It's weird. Because if I hate you, that's great. But if I have a story to support that hate, that's even better. But it's like one of the best stories, one of the stickiest stories about, hey, of course. It's probably the most effective. because there are a lot of people hate other groups of people, but that's just like the sexiest story of the world. Because humans need to concentrate their hate, their insecurities, and their shortcomings into one thing that they can practice that hate on. If it's a person, great, if it's a group, even better. How do you into this calculus incorporate that group is pretty small?

58:09There's 16 million Jews worldwide. And you mentioned how is that the responsibility of the Arab peoples? Everybody should be to blame for not taking in Jews after the Holocaust. But the reality of the situation, if we look at the religious list, there's 16 million Jews. and there's I don't know how many Muslims but 1 .8 billion? Yeah, that difference that 100x difference. Do you incorporate that into the sense that Jews in Israel might feel for, you know, the existential dread that this small group might be destroyed? Jews in Israel have every right to feel afraid because of everything that they see and everything they've been told, everything.

59:04But I would say that the calculus or the numbers doesn't like, of course, like being small, it is of course a factor, but it is never an excuse in order to take something that's not yours. It's saying like, hey, you have 300 million Americans and we have 52 or 50 Suces, give one state, but only there's too many of them. Too many of you, just give them something. You know, it's like the fact that I have something and I don't and I have a there's too many of me and there is little of you. And then you come in and it's not really is against the Arab world or the Muslim world because we have to say we fucked up big time.

59:44But it is the Palestinians that are in and they are being subjected to that. So it's not really like the 1 .8 billion and the 16 billion Jews. And the 1 .8 billion, if you look at them, some of them like don't care, some of them live into regimes that being oppressed and those regimes are supported by the United States in order, it's easier for me as an empire to take what I want from this country if I control the dictatorship. And I tell them that his power is linked to my ability to my desire to keep him in power. So that's why you have a total disconnect between people in power in the Arab and the Muslim countries and the people themselves.

1:00:24Can you speak to the 1948, you know, because you mentioned taking land that's not yours. Maybe parallels with Native Americans. Mm -hmm. Yeah. There was a war. The Jewish minority fought that war against several Arab states and won that war. How do we incorporate that into the Catholic? Yeah, well, that's also misconception like a misinterpretation of the event because it seems that it was Like the small the my it's kind of like a David and Goliath kind of story But and I was always like how did we how did we not do that? but in reality with numbers I Can't pull it up right now, but if you look at the numbers the number of tanks the planes the the trained officer because those many of those Jewish Fighters came from over to they were seasoned fighters and they actually had more Plains more tanks more artillery more pieces of weapon more of the all of other combined because they the people that really like fought was Egypt And you have so 1948 some many of those air countries didn't even have their independence So they would kind of like send like a cavalry or like a people in horses But in fact the whole idea was like we won against seven nations The numbers were totally in Israel favor.

1:01:56They were better equipped. They were better trained They were they had like more tanks and and and artillery and and and and and aeroplanes And they planned planned better. So they yes, they deserve the win because they plan and we did it So to you there was an asymmetry military power. Yeah But what do you do with the fact that the war was won? So like if you look at the history of the world, there is Wars fought over land. I agree with you. This has been the history of humanity. Humanity was not living peacefully. It's all about like people taking people and ekeling people taking their ant. But there's two difference here.

1:02:36Mostly, usually, the conquering power. Like for example, England, they had England and they conquered Union India and after the occupation finished they go back to England. France, Greece, Persia, Egypt, they were like going expand, and extrink, expand, and shrink. It's all been there. What is different here is exactly what happened in Australia and the United States. A group of people came in not just to conquer and take the land, But to completely change, to replace them and get them out or kill them. It was very easy with the Indians because they had smallpox, there was no social media, they did it over 400 years, they had time.

1:03:17The problem is, what is happening right now? I agree with you, it might not be that new, but we are there and we are watching it happen. And so now we have to confront the realities of war and empire and conquering. Because you know what's the problem? We told ourselves we can be better. Yeah, after 1948 there was the universal declaration of human rights. It means that we are going to be better humans. We're not going to kill and take land. We're not going to space people. We're not going to take people for their... There's now laws. There's international law. There's international court of justice.

1:03:52And now Israel is giving the middle finger to all of them. So isn't some fundamental way this whole thing that we're talking about is us as a civilization, on social media, in articles and books, in newspapers, we're just trying to figure out who are we as a people. I think the shock came from the fact that we thought that we as humanity have evolved, and now we are what have actually changed is that we became more advanced in effectively eradicating a group of people because of the technology that we have, and the fact that we can do that under the eyes and ears of all the world and we are watching it under a phone.

1:04:33We have a window. We have a window to the world. You know, 1945 people didn't know what was happening in Japan. What? Well, we heard about it in the radio. Like, well, today our forces came in and they launched that. We don't know. We heard it. We maybe were so pictures after that. And it's quite 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. And then the Arabs said like, guys, you told us we came to the West because we were told that we were equal. You know the University of Declaration of Rights? One of the co -authors, his name is Defan Hezl.

1:05:09He's a Jew. He is a survivor of the Holocaust. And you know what happened to him? He died by the way a couple of years ago, but he, before he died, he was cancelled by so many people and he was called anti -Semitic. because he joined the BDS movement and he spoke about the Palestine. That is the author of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that we value so much and we think that that would define our humanity. But then we go in and we are shocked. It's like maybe we were sold something, maybe that was false advertisement. You shared a tweet by an account called Awesome Jew. It reads, Islamonazi, comedian, Basim Yusuf, comedian and clothes, by the way.

1:06:03Yeah, yeah, of course, because I'm a funny. So Islamonazi, comedian, Basim Yusuf is now denying, Doctor, I love that you retreated. Like this, like twice. I guess supposed because it's advertising some upcoming dates. He's not denying October 7th massacre. The Muslim radical, Baselian use of his notorious, first radical radicals at twice, for his radical hatred of Jews in Israel. In a recent clip, he claims that the atrocities committed on October 7th are fabricated, we're looking for all information regarding any of his upcoming shows as well as the venues which host the scumbag with Jews feel safe around this Nazi.

1:06:43Nazi. I've never, this is my first time interviewing a Nazi. He knows. It's the first time I actually get called a Nazi. First time. I have been called so many things in Egypt. So in Egypt I was called CIA operative Amusez by secret Muslim brother, a secret Jew. there was also an article that was published about me in the state run media saying in details how Basim has been recruited by CIA agents using John Stewart in order to use that I had to bring down the country. I was a Freemason and Infidel, a member of the the the the the the the the the the Knights of the Temple something like that. And there is actually a people that the Muslim brotherhood on their show they would say like he is action Israeli and they have forged and Egyptian ID for him to come So it's kind of like when I guess like I said I had I left all of that behind and I come here It's like boom anti -Semitic Nazi.

1:07:50Yeah, I mean I really covered everything. I don't know what else I mean, I think I it's kind of like I'm collecting PhDs I'm just like getting like all of these credits I mean how do you deal with that? How do you deal with the attacks? I mean this goes back to the decision to Do they interview with Pierce Morgan? Like how do you like psychologically throw all of it? These kind of attacks at the beginning, it's fun. But when they evolve into something else, so for example, I was like laughing of all of the stuff about calling me, this calling me that, but then when people would come and thread the theater because it's not the people who are making those accusations that would come to you, it's the people that will hear and see those as it gives accusations and act on it.

1:08:35And there's always the fear of like, I mean we have, we have in the airboard a lot of things that somebody would hear something about someone else and go kill him and whatever like anybody else. So there's this. But somehow I want to make fun of it. And it is to be cold and not an Islam, monazzi. It must be in the funniest thing ever. because it doesn't Islam on that. Wow. How did you, how did you, and the radical Muslim me, a lot of Islamist hate me. They call me a secular infidel. So it's kind of like, who am I? Maybe I have an identity crisis and I need the people to tell me who I am. Let's go to the beginning.

1:09:19Let's go to your childhood. You grew up in Egypt. I grew up in Egypt. My childhood. Well, let's figure out how you came to be who you are. How do you come at Islamunatsi? Yeah, exactly. It's a long journey. I do like the Swasek tattoo on your ass, which I didn't... How did you see my... You know what you did. I know what you did. It was very inappropriate. You're also obviously a sexual harasser of me. Is this like a meter? Yes. This like 2020, someone who come off is like, okay, we have a split. This is your Me Too moment. All right, so Cairo. What's a defining memory, positive or negative from your childhood?

1:10:04My memory in general was, it was cool. I went to a Catholic school until the, for primary school, elementary. And by the time I had done, there was kind of like a start of a decline into the public education. and my parents, they're like middle class working officials. You by dad was a judge, my mom was a business professor. And she's and they were like, one of the people was like, they didn't have that much luxury. My dad like drove like a regular like car, a fiat, which is like the equivalent for the ladder in the... Thank you for speaking to the audience. Yeah, the ladder. And so would that be a good car?

1:10:48No, it's kind of like the minimum. And my dad was not a man of showing off. Whatever money they would do, they would put it for us, education, give everything to their kids. This is kind of like a very

1:11:05typical mentality. And I'm sure it's many cultures, but like we grow up with this, like everything that we have is like for kids. So they would put us into education. So middle school school. That was the big 1986 was the beginning of the explosion of like international schools, private schools. And these schools were relatively expensive. Of course now with today's currency is ridiculous, but at that time it's very expensive. So I went to that school. And from there was this moment, it was like you feel less right away. I mean, the big thing, of course there's the regular bullying and stuff, but it's not that it's kind of like you always feel less.

1:11:43You don't have that much of purchasing power that you can allow you to go to the same outings or travel with them. And even like how you dress, it would be modest compared to them. So I was always an outsider. I was and I compensated with that by two things, being good at school and being good at sports. So I was not like the typical nerd was just like I was like I was playing football, basketball, Cratern field. And I was like one of the people I would like to have me on their team. So I wasn't like kind of like, ah, he's an air to get him away, but I never had a girlfriend. I never had any kind of like, I was not like what, I was not boyfriend material.

1:12:20So that's kind of like, it leaves remnants in you that you're not good enough. But psychologically you're always, like when you're by yourself, you felt like an outsider. Yes, all the time. And that's why it kind of like a more of a loner. I don't have a lot of what you call friends. I have acquitted as people that I do stuff with, but I don't have like the people that I tell them everything. When I went to medical school, Now medical school is a different animal, medical school is where all of the people from the public schools go. Public schools are very like... They don't have like, they don't have English language as like a strong part of it, but they are brilliant people.

1:12:55So because they would mostly study in Arabic, but they are brilliant and they are very, very, very smart, very sharp. But then I'll go there. Now I am the CISI boy from the private school that comes into medical school. Now I'm an outsider again. And I go into residency and I pick up salsa. So now I'm a salsa teacher while being a cardiothoracic surgery resident. and I'm an outsider for the third time because in salsa, I'm kind of like the respectful doctor. And in resident, I'm the guy who is just dancing. So and everything, of course, as a theoretical resident, you will mess up a lot. So they would always like, oh, because you're dancer, oh, because you don't care about medicine, you just like want to go there and dance with women.

1:13:42Which is true. But. And so all of my life, I felt that I'm an outsider. I'm not part of the team. I'm not part of the core group.

1:13:57So, and I have a story that you would love. I, right before my residency, I was so much in 2016, so I had all of the money and you saved that, and I was working in summers and I was doing extra jobs. And I took that money and I went to Miami in order to learn a Rue de de Casino, which is the Cuban kind of like circle salsa kind of thing. And I went there in the summer of 2001. My return ticket was 912, 2001. The universe sounds like humor. I gotta tell you that. 912, I was supposed to be on a plane coming back to you. What happens? Thank God I ran out of money 10 days before that. Just like, all right, I changed my ticket and I came back.

1:14:46911, I'm kind of like, I was like, my mom, wake up! Wake up! What? What? And I see like the two -hour four news, like, my mom was like, oh, you're here, you're here, you're here. You're here. And I was like, I was like, I could have been in Montana more right now. Fly at 912. But by the way, I was in Miami. They went to the flying school in Miami. So I mean, I had, I had like, my in 11, I've been written all over my face. You'd be all over the news. And my mom was like, what? He went there to dance salsa. I didn't know that salsa is like a name for her. Why salsa? Why did I attract you? And what, like can you explain what salsa is?

1:15:31So I mentioned to you offline that I've been doing a little bit of tango or trying to learn it. Yeah, so that, you know, some of us also put you out to a Marine, it's kind of like Latin dances. And it's like, you know, I don't know how you just grab some couple dance on Latin beat. And I did it because I once, and I talk about that about my Arabic standup comedy, not the English. I talked about how I was, you know, I didn't have like really like a great social life. And my friends went there one day and I go into a place which it was called El Gettunegro. No, no, it was called Big Fat Black Pussycat.

1:16:15And then I think they thought it would be like creases or something to switch it to get to an egg group. Anyway, so. Great, great. I know. Great decision. I know. So I went there as a damn music and women and my doctor, a doctor dancing salsa. That is a chick magnet. Yeah. We do everything for that. All of you know what I said. Even power, even money. All the wars we've been talking about. Women. At the end of the day. The approval from the other sex. We are babies. We are terrible people. So of course, that was great. But then as an nerd, I went in so hard and now I became a self -seater. Yeah, and I earned more money from salsa more than I did as a doctor Know this party.

1:17:10That's hilarious. I know I was I was making I was making killing come out of money Like huge amount of money and I was just like you know I'll go finish my my shift and I go to the salsa class and sometimes I would have like 70 people in my salsa class Oh, wow, I had like the biggest salsa class in Egypt in the beginning of 2000. And it was fantastic. And it was an outlet because you go there and there's the shifts and people dying. Damn, and he goes, salsa. And I stay. You must be good. I was okay. I was cool. I was fun. There were people better than me, but I have a thing about teaching. I like teaching people.

1:17:49So you mentioned heart surgery. So what motivated become a doctor? It was a choice of exclusion. I mean, there's nothing else you can do would these high grades other than doctrine engineering I hit math so go be as often.

1:18:03This is the middle east what do you expect is either like in my joke and my show I said like there's can be one of three things in the middle east a doctor and engineer or disappointment it is that is the choices that you have. So years after. I mean, it's a point! Yeah, yeah! You damn good at it, though. That's a hard path, though. Yeah. And it's a fascinating one. Can I tell you something? Yes. There's actually, I was thinking about why did I actually go into medicine? And why did I always choose the hardest thing, although I didn't love it? And I have to tell you, I had an epiphany only two weeks ago.

1:18:44And I don't know if that's actually related or not. You know, remember when I told you I went to this school and I didn't have that much money and I didn't have the luxury of time or money to be with those people and do what they do. So by the time I finished school and everybody was going to university, oh everybody in my school went to the AUC, the American University in Canada. Of course, probably. Like American education, party time, like I mean of course there are brilliance and everything but they have. Yeah, they have a different, you know, social life. And part of me now, I kind of like, I realize that just like very, very recently, maybe I went to the hardest school ever so I don't have space to use other than studying.

1:19:35Because if I have that much space, what I'm gonna do with it? I don't have that much freedom, I don't have that much money. I'm not gonna keep it with those people going out, So maybe I need a solid excuse that I'm in a place where I don't have that much of a spare time. Is it also possible? I like how this is a therapy session where we're psychoanalysing it. Is it also possible that you always just pick the hardest thing you could possibly do? Maybe. But maybe that's the worst Morgan thing too. Like what is it? Maybe, but like when I left Egypt and I came here, I still had the choice to go back to medicine.

1:20:10But I hated it. I hated medicine traumatized me. The amount of like you give up, you know, my brother in Egypt, he had a daughter. She's a brilliant basketball player. She is in the national team. Amazing. I used to play basketball also in the Egyptian league, but I never, I was kind of like my favorite position in the court was the bench. And I was not as good as her, but she, And then he, it was time for her to go into college. And he didn't talk to me for six weeks. I said, well, what's happening to Farido? Where is college? I didn't want to tell you. She went to two minutes. I said, what? Matheson, why did he do?

1:20:49Because he knows how I hated it. I was traumatized. I said, and I said, like, dude, she's a basketball player. Make her go like to an easy school. So that's kind of, it's fine. He still did it. He still did it. I hate it. But I don't know is it because of the difficulty or because of what I told you, maybe I needed something, maybe because I was not very confident in my social life. So I needed a distraction not to have that much of a social life. Oh, okay. You understand? Yeah. It's kind of a lot because I will always have an excuse I'm studying. I have something. I have examples. And I don't know, I kind of like self -sabotaged my own thing because I couldn't compete with those people on the outing and the money and whatever, so I need an excuse to be like, oh, he's a doctor, he's studying.

1:21:36At least in your mind, you couldn't compete. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I always felt as less because, I mean, I didn't have any girlfriends in school, I had very little life, I had everything couldn't do me came to life, so I always felt even stand up comedy. It came very late to me in life, so I always feel that I'm not good enough. I feel that I didn't spend the time of to fill the foundation that other comedians do. So I always feel that I am too lucky. I always feel that this is a fleeting thing. And when I went head the height and the fall, the fall of Egypt when I would like the top of everything, I was like so famous.

1:22:17And then everything was taken away from me. That's like, I see. I told you, that's happens when you don't build foundation, you fall. So I always feel that I am not good enough Or if I am in a position where people think I am deep inside I'm not you know that I have a speech impediment that I was not meant to be a TV presenter I have an air in Arabic. It's very obvious. I cannot troll my hours. I Cannot say er I cannot roll it so in Arabic like Spanish. It's very obvious So when I did my first video on the internet that made me famous and then I got my television deal back there in Egypt My partner at the time, he took the video and you went to a producer and said, like, are you giving me a guy with a list?

1:23:01He could, he should, that's why when I came on television, I was the first ever guy with a list. I had two things going for me, the list and the big nose. And I was always bullied for these two all the time, so I always felt less. See, but that's a foundation of like creating a great person. Because if you're pretty, you don't need to do much. I probably wouldn't recommend it, but it is true that if you are pretty do some disfigure me to find the flaws and be extremely self -critical about them. So you saw John Stewart on TV for the first time in 2003. How did that change your life? I was in a gym and I was running on the treadmill and at that time CNN was coming up on cable.

1:23:57And I was watching and there is this studio, I don't know what it is, so I put the earphones on and I started watching and I was so taken by this that I stopped the treadmill and I He just like stood for the 20 minutes like this on the treadmill. And then I just like standing there. I didn't know what we always use saying. I didn't understand what is Democrats, what is Republicans, what is what those names that he's saying, what is Fox News, I don't understand. But I was fascinated. There was something, you know, when you don't understand them music, but you get the rhythm, it was that. I wonder what that is that you saw.

1:24:35It's like the timing of the humor. I mean, there is, John Stuart is one of a kind. His biting criticism of power, I would say, and also ability to highlight the absurdity of it all. But you understand? I didn't understand any of that. But I didn't understand any of the references. But it is the rhythm. The rhythm. You know sometimes when you even see like a comedy that is the language you don't understand, but there's a rhythm.

1:25:05There's something in them use. So there's something with the videos and the pictures and he and the face and people reacting. What is this? What is this? What is this? And we had the global edition. So I went to the YouTube and I just started to kind of like watch every single episode that I can. I said, do you think we can have this in Egypt? I thought, never. And then 2011, like I had a friend of mine who was also a YouTube partner, it was something new at the time, he said, like, let's do something on Inter. Let's do something. I said, like, I want to do a jumpsuit. It's like, do Ray William Johnson.

1:25:41John Stewart will not work. It's like, I want to. John, that one. So that was in there. Yeah, it was in there. And I did it. And it tore. Can you talk about 2011? I mean, what is the Arab Spring? What is it? People here in America, you know, depends on which side depends depends which side of the equation you are because for a lot of people it's a conspiracy. It's American made. It is the Muslim brotherhood. It's the Islamist. It is Israel. It is everything else other than people. Oh, I think we put too much weight on conspiracies. I think it is normal human behavior that then become, get maybe used or abused or take an advantage of by other powers and then the conspiracy starts.

1:26:36But at the time, the Arab Spring didn't start in Egypt. It started in Tunisia. Boaziza, a fruit vendor, like burned himself up, like the American soldiers, so that a few days ago, and that kind of sparked protest in Tunisia. And Benali was a dictator in Tunisia for about like 20 years and they removed him. So suddenly it was kind of like a domino effect. So and then Egypt started and it just took 18 days. And you know, people, hindsight is 2020, since I said like you know, just Bubar became like a burden on the military because the military the real rulers of the country. You might have a president that kind of like half -sertened powers, but at the end of the day when the military sees that a certain president is like too much of a burden, too much of like a, you know, so like they cut him off.

1:27:27Emma Barr is a little v -ger at that time. He was there for 30 years, 30 years. By the way, speaking of which, because there was a joke in your Mark Twain speech. I got T -ri -i just watching that. That was great. You're like fucking great. Like what you did when Mark Twain awards for John It's great. I mean your comedy is great in general and I wanted to go to your show I definitely will but that's a that's like a little straw and a complete tangent of just a masterful introduction and celebration of John Stewart anyway Mubarak. Yeah, so I And it's the joke that I say also like Mubarak had like was a president for 30 years like oh my god Yeah, the president for 30 is like it's the Middle East is a very short first term It's like it's like we still warming up baby warming up and I don't think we need to plan ahead we need to plan our our our our vacations our careers our jail time it's just like we need to

1:28:19So true so we had kind of like the shortest nicest revolution 18 days yeah, and we thought oh 18 days we can change the country in 18 days So but of course we were naive and we had this kind of hope so Mubarak was removed there was an interim period by the military took for one year then they did elections muslim brother came to power They stayed for one year and then the military removed them. And in these three years, my show started. It started by kind of like a YouTube video. It became famous overnight. Over night. Five to six videos boom went out. And at that time I was waiting to get my clearance to go to Cleveland.

1:29:02I was accepted in a fellowship as a pediatric heart surgery in a hospital in Cleveland. And I said, I'm just going to do a couple of videos. Maybe I'm going to put it on the internet and maybe after a year or two, after I come back from the fellowship, somebody will come, hey, why don't you write a show that looks like John's theorem? That was my main. It took five weeks. I had my first contract of television and overnight, the exposure and over the next two I had 30 to 40 million people watching every episode. A lot of this like, wow, that's too much that is terrifying. Because it means that there are 30 million people who have an opinion about you.

1:29:42You said there's a lot of aspects of that sudden fame that were just horrible. It's toxic. It's unnaturally. It's unnaturally. When people started to recognize me in the street and take pictures, I was awkward as like, why do you want to have a picture with me? Why? Why? Is it because I didn't feel that I'm worthy enough to be like a reward for some of the picture. And I didn't understand it. I was actually, I was kind of an ass sometimes because people thought it was arrogance. No, it was confusion. And I remember like my director and my producers and people are, they always saw me in a very bad mood.

1:30:17It's like, why are you, why are you not enjoying this? It's like because this is not natural. This is not natural. This adoration, this love, and this have to end somehow and it did. And because at a certain point you are a human. And people kind of the adoration and the fun and the love comes because they see you saying stuff because you do your job basically. Political satire is basically us making fun of politicians in the media. And a lot of people have a really strong opinions about politicians and the media. So we came that we articulate that and we give it and we make them laugh. So for them we made a great job.

1:30:55So why don't you do more? But you are limited. And at a certain time you can't. And at a certain time you're afraid because we're humans. Because you're afraid about like if I continue speaking up not like something will happen to me. I'm kind of like maybe have some protection because I'm a folk, people see me, but what are people around you? And we, I've seen that. So that's why at a certain point it's like, that's it. I can. I mean, there's a lot of things to say there, but one of the difficult things of fame in your situation is you're not just having fun, you're criticizing power. Yeah. And it is loved by the people, but it comes with a prize because at a certain price, If the power is too strong and you are not into a situation or a system that allows that, that gives you that kind of safety.

1:31:46So what happened? What happened? I was... So when... So the height of all my fame, the Muslim brothers were... Brotherhood was in power. And at that time they had their media and I had one show. I had like one hour per week and they had five channels, 24 -7. and they were like, you know, I'm a busy, John Sear said it beautifully one. It's like, we say shit and you say shit and we just say shit better than you. This is exactly what John Sear said. We're just better. We're just better at saying shit back. So, so basically I had one hour and they had like the five things that they were like, you know, they're calling me all kind of names, not just me like all their enemies, you know.

1:32:28And then I just had one hour and I would kind of annihilate them in one hour or a week. So at a certain point, they would even be the side with the army against the liberal secures, whatever you call it. And at a certain point, the army flipped everybody. They moved the most brotherhood they came to power. I have to I admit it, I supported that in the beginning because I had daily threats. I was actually interrogated and I was in a restaurant in Muslim Brotherhood. I was in an interrogation for six hours and they were asking about my jokes. And I used that in my stand -up comedy describing exactly what happened in the six hours.

1:33:13And it is so funny. Okay, well, it's a whole lot of work. But what? You were interrogated by the other... The general prosecutor. the general prosecutor and it was based because of complaints by the officials in the government because in order to do the general prosecutor to do it, it has to have a high up mandate to bring that person to questioning. So they went to kind of official channels? Oh yeah, absolutely. So it was all... Yeah, it was official. It was legal. Yeah, legal, very legal. So when they're... And I asked... And it's kind of like a bunch of insulting Islam, something president, spreading false rumors and I went there and I...

1:33:51And it was funny because I go into the building where there's police officers and their judges and all of them are big fans of the show. And some of them were taking pictures of me. And then I'm sitting there and it was the most ridiculous interview ever because he was asking me about my jokes. It's like, what did you mean by this joke? And it's like, nothing. And it was there for six hours. He was reading my joke. And he's reading the jokes and the junior judges sitting there like cracking up. I was like, I remember that. That was like, that's dark. It's kind of like, and I'm laughing, but in the meantime, it's like the whole situation is ridiculous.

1:34:31But then at the end, I was released on bail. So I went back to my show and I make fun of that. And you have to be honest, the Muslim Brotherhood were in power, but Egypt were like right out of the revolution for there was kind of like an equal spread of power between the people. There was not like someone who would come in and just like, The Muslim brother couldn't have that power yet, but there were people so that they were moving towards that. And then the tension rose and then there was a confrontation between them and the army and then a lot of people were killed in the street. It was terrible massacre.

1:35:05And then suddenly I am blamed for all of that. It's like you made fun of us. So now it made it easier for people to kill us. Like, do it, come on. You're doing that to me too. I just did it better than you. And the fact that you cited with the same people that flipped against you, that's not my full. Did you criticize the army at all? Yes, so after that show I did like one episode against the army and I was canceled the next day. And then I went to another channel, did 16 episodes in a different season and it was like I was walking on eggshells. And then it was that, it was canceled again. And then the production company that was doing my show that we severed ties because we didn't have the show.

1:35:43they had their offices ready that have people like having death threats. So at woke up on the 11th of November 2014 and my lord said like leave the country right now. There is this legal case that we that they kind of like they're coming for you. But I said like you cannot it was an arbitration case and I lost against my the channel that basically cancelled me. And it's like I don't know but there's no jail time in arbitration. It's like yeah tell that to the judges leave. So I jumped on a plane, I diverted it was 12 noon 11 November 5 after I was on a plane left Egypt and I never came back since then.

1:36:21Was there a worry of non -legal things like assassination? I can tell you something, I was so stressed because of the show and because of everything, I sometimes I would wake up in the morning and I hope that like, Boulot will come and finish everything because I was so stressed. It's like, I would love because I'm too much of a chicken to kill myself. So I would like rather have someone that's to do it for me. So I was so under so much pressure and I remember the day that like my show was cancelled indefinitely, the second time under the army. And I was like, I don't have to worry about what kind of script I have to write next week.

1:37:04Because this is, you know, remember when you asked me about that tweet, but like all of the said, the use accusation doesn't bother me. Infidels by a secret Jew, Zionist, the Slavonazzi, that's bullshit. What is really, what really leaves a mark is the criticism to your craft and your work. So if you're not funny, it goes deeper. Yeah, certain things get to you better than others. especially if you have like a secret suspicion that you are like maybe not funny. Maybe I'm not because I was put into that is like because that toast to your insecure is like I know but you shouldn't say that. You shouldn't say the truth out loud.

1:37:48You shouldn't say that I'm like give me the answer. What about the way of the responsibility of speaking truth to power? So like walking on eggshells like what did that feel like? Well, after the Muslim Brotherhood were removed, after the military coup happened, it was a very popular coup. Like people loved the army. In Egypt, the army is more sacred than the religion. People loved the army. So the army was against the army. The Muslim Brotherhood was not very popular. They were popular for their own basis. But people accepted the fact that we make fun of them. But Ciccia, that time he was a god.

1:38:30And I used to go to this high class club called Gizira Club. And this is basically kind of like the kind of upper middle class, upper class kind of people. And during the that year of the Muslim Brotherhood, I was the most popular ever. People come, yeah. When the military came in, people were walking to me like pointing their fingers like, don't speak about the army. We love you now, but don't you, they were like that. So I called John Styrs like I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. And at that time all of the channels were closed down. All of the independent world, I was the only one left because it was difficult for them to get rid of me very quickly because I was too popular.

1:39:14It was kind of like peace, peace -mealing kind of like go. And I remember some like I don't know what to do. He said like you don't have to do anything. Just your safety comes first. And so, but I can't. I mean, I've been doing that for two years and I cannot just like say, bye -bye guys. I have a responsibility, I have a team, I have people working for me. And I also, I cannot just like disappear. And he said the most interesting thing ever. And say, if you're afraid of something, make fun about the fact that you're afraid of it. Instead of talking about that, something. So there was like a whole episode that we did not even mention, see see, we did not even mention it, but the videos did all the thing.

1:40:00And the whole episode was me trying to avoid talking to about it. And that, that, that, that how the comedy was created. The fact that I don't want to be here. And there are no, so he said like if you will be surprised how people can relate to that because there was a lot of kind of like, oh, we love them, but we feel we cannot speak. So just by doing the simple thing about measuring the society, that goes a long way. And I kind of tried to do what I can under the military. I mean, they came up with a machine that treats AIDS and hepatitis C virus and basically everything and I went to town with that because people think that it doesn't really have to go and to go to the bigger post like you're an asshole no you talk about their propaganda you talk about what they want people to perceive them at and it's a failure and for that that kind of hit them even more because what do authoritarian figures too.

1:41:11They work on two things. Fear and propaganda. And from that, it gets different aspects. So when you go into their propaganda and expose them, they have nothing else. That's brilliant. So like you are walking on actuals, but you're doing it masterfully that you're reviewing sort of the flaws in the propaganda, absurdity of the propaganda and so doing or criticizing them. And this is why comedy is very specific because people say, you were not as hard on him as you We were in a Muslim path, yes, because on the Muslim brotherhood, we were just like saying, saying, she'd treat each other. But now the ceiling was like here.

1:41:44So it's kind of like, how can you do something for him? Yeah, exactly. That's the art form. Yeah. In Soviet Union, under Stalin, a lot of the criticism came from children's stories and children's cartoons, double meaning, double meaning windows, death, that means other stuff. That is the brilliance. brilliance but everyone knows everyone knows because you are like putting a mirror Yeah, you're mirroring the society's fascinating and that's why I was cancer twice And that is a scary one the army you see that in Ukraine Yes, everybody supports the army That's why Zalantzky getting rid of getting rid of the head of the army was a big big deal It's a really dangerous thing because everyone's support and everyone's afraid to say the negative about the army Especially during war.

1:42:37In that case, in this case, maybe there's civil war that kind of thing. But think about it. Actually, an army during peace is much more dangerous. Because think about it. I don't really have an enemy to fight, but I have all this power, all this tank. Why is this actor have more money than me? Yeah. I'm protecting him. Why does this businessman think that he can get onto his private plane and go to Paris? And why I'm here sitting, like not having all of this thing. So, and there's a lot of time on your hand because your job is to go fight. When you don't go fight, and when you have the lack of that's why, that's one of the things I love the United States about is the fact that the army can actually get power, but the power is actually in the military, in the cluster complex, which is a different issue.

1:43:23Yeah. It's kind of like a different kind of issue, but if you have all of that power, why am I sitting around just playing guard for you guys? That's why Iran is terrifying because you have this military that it just becomes a police force that turns against some people. Yeah.

1:43:41So you're a famous guy talking shit in the middle of all that. Yeah. And when I left, I went through a very dark side, dark, dark, dark, because all of the insecurities, all of the stuff that had been working on my head now came to life. And now I'm in America and I'm a nobody. I'm a nobody. And now I have to do something, I have to earn some money. So I started to send up comedy five years ago. And I sucked because it was my second language and I was new. And now I would go to these comedy clubs, I was like kids on 21, 22 people. And then I'm there with the family to support it. I'm going there to do it for $15 or $20 and I was bad.

1:44:23You're a bad... You're a bad... You're bombing... bombing big time eating shit waiting... right big time dying up there big time and I would go back home and I would cry and then what made it worse is sometimes like a fan. Like not a fan. A bunch of fans from Egypt. Oh, but as a museum user, they come... And then... Yeah, just start. That kind of face of adoration, like that goes into it.

1:44:53And I could see it in the face. I think he's going to drive an Uber in a couple of weeks. That kind of pressure. And I would go and I would cry and I eat. And then the central, oh, you left. You gave up. You were a sellout. You were a coward. Why don't you speak from abroad? You're safe now. Like I don't, I already spoke. I don't want to be, because I don't want to be an activist. I was doing that for comedy when it was good for everybody. But now they want me to go into YouTube and just like throw it off from outside. And like, you know, I understand I have family there. And, and it was this kind of like thing like that I am being like attacked for not doing what I should do in their face and attacked for not being funny.

1:45:40I'm not doing good things and now I'm a fellow like maybe it was wrong and I was I didn't know I really it was so traumatic That I don't know actually how I went through these years and I blocked so many details from my brain because I Have been using this technique for a while now that I have been erasing a lot of my there is a lot of memory gaps in my brain and And I'm trying to suppress it because it was very, very, very traumatic. And a lot of people told me you have to go to therapy, but I don't know. I'm worried to open the floodgates. And I'm thinking as if I'm functional and I'm not killing anybody, I'm okay.

1:46:25I think you all on tweeted, never want the therapy. It's going to be on my headstone. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Terrier buzz buzz. Okay. I mean, that is like, terrifyingly difficult. Like, after being a surgeon, after being a superstar, super famous, going to eat shit at local, tiny clubs in the United States. I mean, eating shit period. Yeah. Like, bombing is really, really, really difficult, really difficult for 20 -year -olds. But when you were 45, 46, and then people were like, is this his midlife crisis? What is the... I went through a lot of pain and a lot of the doubts and it was terrible. I mean, how did you survive?

1:47:19I know you bought most of it, but what gave you strength through all that? Because I didn't have any other choice. because I started that and the only reason that I could is to continue. I don't know what I'll do. I don't want to go back to medicine. I don't want to do that. And I don't know. I was and bit by bit, bit by bit. I started to kind of like be better, be better, be better. And I was at a certain time a year ago, a year ago, this is where I started to kind of like hone the craft and kind of sell more tickets and sometimes even sell out some shows and sometimes sell a theater. So like it was going and the money was flowing and it was good.

1:48:01And then I was like, why didn't I wanted faster? I wanted more, I wanted now, I want Netflix deal and whatever. And then the piece more than thing happened and then I blew up and suddenly I'm selling out everywhere. And I was like, ah, if those people came, if that the word happened two years ago, I will not be ready. So now they come to the show and by the way my show had nothing to do with the October 7th. My show is my thing that I've been crafting and working on, you know how difficult it is to do the first hour that the hour that I've been working on for five years. And it's all my personal story.

1:48:36All of what happened to me, usually me as an immigrant coming here to the United States, finding Trump as a president, finding myself in the middle of a gun rally, for the middle of a bombing, kind of like talking about how I got my citizenship. It's like funny stories of like my origin story So they come in and they expect October 7th and all of a season my prison story But it's good and it kills and they love it. It's like if that if that kind of like blew up in America happened to me two three years ago I would not have people who come and beat So I gotta say the timing of October 7th is very suspicious.

1:49:06Oh my god. Please don't say that I'm just asking questions I'm telling you one of the funniest thing a guy you I was in Dubai and And like a TV anchor came to me passing you sift he flourishes during revolutions and wars like what what what what dude You're you're making me sound like a bad omen a very bad Yeah, you Hamas and baby together orchestrated all this oh my god. That's that that's the trilogy You guys should go on the road together telling you that phone calls coming. Yeah, but Hamas has to open And they would really bomb, right? They would really bomb. Oh, I love dark humor. You do a show like you were saying in English and in Arabic.

1:49:57So in the stories, very different, totally different, two different stories. I would love to just the language difference because it's the music of the language is also different. So like what, what's, how can you convert it into words? but what's the difference in the musical languages? I'll tell you. Because I thought about that a lot.

1:50:20So when I was doing the English first, I actually had good jokes, but I was missing the delivery, because the cadence and the music and the rhythm is different. The way that an English speaking member of audience will receive it, it will be different than how I receive it, the energy, everything's different. So when I kind of like got it, I didn't know how to switch back to Arabic. Oh wow, yeah, fascinating. Because here's the thing with English standard comedy, English, you have a huge library, you have like a legacy, you have like years and years and years of people doing comedy. But in Arabic, it's a very new to us.

1:51:01And most Most of the Arabic stand -up comedy, especially in Egypt, is very tame. This is kind of like, imagine the stand -up comedy seen in the American 1960s before Lenny Bruce. Oh. So, no swearing, conservative, nothing conservative, everything that I would like to do. No, no, no. Yeah, it's kind of like very… So, I didn't know what to do there. So I broke the barriers. I became Lenny Bruce. I became a Jewish con. So I went in and I went and I changed the whole thing. You know how this is? Ah, for me, there are 15 words. Well, it's a lot. It's a lot. Eric is a very rich language. So, when I did, here's the difference between the Eric and the English show.

1:51:47The English show, surprise surprise, is a unifying language, even for a group of Arabs. So if I give the same exact show to the same 1000 audience members in the same feature, And there are same people, same makeup of like Lebanese Egyptian Syrians Saudis English will be a unifying language Arabic is a dividing language because you have 22 dialects and the dialects are vastly different and like maybe Egyptians Understand a little bit of Lebanese but not that much but their references Algerian Moroccan Tunisian totally different animal That's like a totally different language Saudi Emirati Kuwaiti totally different people understand the Egyptian dialect because it's the dialect of most of the artwork and the movies but the reference in the everyday street talk might not be understood by them.

1:52:36So now I have to go in and talk to all of these dialects together. So I formed my big part of my show is like what are you guys expecting of this? This is what this is we gonna when I go and do profanity and you're gonna like it. This is the problem with that it is show as a dialect and I I construct all of these sentences formed of so different words, for example, an iron. And any in any in any the Arab dialect is an iron in Saudi Arabia, it means ass. That's one example. That's one example. So imagine if you can actually construct sentences having all of these things and once so I would I would construct like a whole section of my show about that.

1:53:23So it's really very much about like self -reflective on language and the limits of language is a lot. And the limits of language and I tell them part of the show is like I know what's the problem with me doing Arabic is like if this was an English show and I was telling you fucking shit and bitch you'll be ha ha ha but if I do one swear words all of you will scream. It's like why? Is it because we are ashamed for own it? So it's kind of like it is it's not just like about swearing it's about like there's a lot of philosophical pathways in this. Yeah there's profanity and people have fun whatever but like it is about like what does how do we treat our language and I tell them we speak Arabic as Arabs but it's not the same Arabic Crazy right and you're doing a show in America also which is another level of oh yeah actually the Arab diaspora in America is some of the best audiences I have They are like wonderful and they come from ditches and I did and I do and I did it also in the Middle East and and maybe I'll do like an Arab tour in the Middle East in the fall.

1:54:21Which countries would you go to? Jordan, Lebanon, I'm doing UAE, I'm doing Kuwait, Egypt, Bahrain, Egypt, I don't think so. I don't think so. Is it personal? Is it worry about your safety? Well, I have the American citizenship right now, so I am relatively safe. There's a block, honestly. There's a block. There's the person, there is, there is, there's so much that happens. And I know, I never, I know, never bad mouth each. This is my country. It's some, like, it has all of my marries, 40 years of my life. I live there. But when you get hurt so much, instead of trying to kind of, I don't want to take revenge.

1:55:06I don't want to let that, I just want to avoid. Because Egypt gave me so much fame and so much love and so much hate and so much rejection. It is a very, it was a very tumeless relationship. Very, very difficult. And it's, and a lot of people tell me, well, don't you miss Egypt? And I tell them every time the Egypt that I miss is not there anymore. It's not bad or good. It's not worse or better. It's just indifferent. And the places are different. And the people are different. And their circumstances are different. Whatever image you had you have of what you love is not there anymore. That's why a lot of immigrants, especially Arab immigrants, they live here, but they're there.

1:55:46And then when they go back for vacation, they get disappointed because they didn't find what they want. And then they come back here and they're disappointed because they want to come back, but it's not there anymore. Yeah. Their view of that place is from a different time. I have that, you know, my parents, but everybody that left the Soviet Union, I mean, there's such a complicated relationship with that. It's sometimes borders on hate, disappointment, in the case of the Soviet Union. Perhaps similarly Egypt is the promises sold when you're younger, and the promises broken by the possibility of what it was supposed to be.

1:56:27With the Soviet Union, I'm sure with Egypt is the same. Iran is the same. So they have a very complicated relationship with that. Yeah, that's why, like, for example, people from Iran, you know, I remember quite well, the World Cup that was made in the United States. And the Iranian team will play an American, and there were people in the audience or wearing the arrangements, they hate the regime, but they have this kind of connection with the country. And this is the whole thing. You can actually love the country and you not have to agree with the regime. Would you ever perform in the West Bank?

1:57:06No, Gaza. Because if I go there, I have to go to the Israeli checkpoints and I don't want to go through the Israeli, I don't want to have an Israeli soldier telling me what to do. Yeah, there's a demeaning aspect to that whole. Very even in subtle ways. Yeah, I mean, I have so many Palestinian friends with an American passport, US passport, living here. They are born here. And they talk about their humiliation and their intimidation and harassment that they go in. It's like, ah, you want me to try? Yeah, that little bit of a humiliation. A little bit. Sometimes it's major, but I noticed that even the little bit has the, after a lifetime of that, it can turn to hate towards the other.

1:57:53Yeah, and resentment. Resam -man. And then how do you do anything with that resentment? I have a friend of mine. He is from Palestine, from the West Bank. His American here is born here. And we talk about, you know, we have a course all of this discussion of what would happen. And he tells me, you know, in October 11th, in the West Bank, in those village called Kusra. And on that village, like the settlers went in around the region, they sent a message on Facebook, because like you rats going, they are out of your sewers and we're going to be waiting for you, intimidation through technology. And then they went, it is, the Kosovo have like another settlement next to it called the Heskodesh.

1:58:37Heskodesh, they have people there who were training something called Mishmerati Isha, which is basically the Guardians of Isha. and it's like a paramilitary group that trains other settlers on military combat, give them weapons and do like military drills, and they went there like militarized and went there, and it was actually co -founded by Adju from Brooklyn, not even in Israel. And he is like one of the disciples of Mayor Kahana, I'm sure that you know what Mayor Kahna is, was Jewish defense lead the people who assassinated Alex Auda here in the United States. And they were there with their weapons outside, intimidating people.

1:59:22Now this story carries everything that is wrong with the situation. You have people from Brooklyn from outside just because they're Jewish, they can't claim the land from the people there. Anybody from Poland just because he's Jewish, you can come and take the land from other people. They're using technology to intimidate Palestinians. They have unchecked military power. These are not IDF soldiers. These are settlers and they have free reign in order to intimidate and to kill the people. And your other said, this is the daily life of Palestinians. Nothing Gaza, it was back. What do you do from your, what do we do?

1:59:55What do people do to nudge this towards peace, towards flourishing? Here's the thing, I want to talk to the people of Israel. What is Israel doing right now is not just unfair to the Palestinians, it's unfair to the Jewish people in Israel. No, it is unfair to the Jewish people around the world. Because the way that Israel links itself to the Judaism, at a certain point, remember like ISIS and Qaeda and everybody hid Muslims? You know, sometimes humans are simple. They cannot have the nuances to separate. So anybody who, with a Muslim name, with a Muslim face, with a beard, who looks Muslim, he would do it because of that actions of those atrocities.

2:00:45You have the power as a person to separate yourself from an abusive power, a horrible power and be yourself. I am really worried because the rise of anti -Semitism and the rise of hate against Jews is not because of the Jews, it's because of the actions of a government. Jews do not have to be on the side of apartheid, Roni Kestriels. He is a Jewish South African and he thought, shoulder to shoulder next to Nelson Badella, he was part of the African National Conference A &C. And he had an article said like, I know what apartheid is and I saw Israel and this is what they have. And the thing is Israel, that Israeli government should listen to other people.

2:01:26You cannot call anybody who criticize you either an anti -Semite Or if they're already Jewish, you call them like self -hating Jew. You cannot do that. You cannot continue doing that. Because we did that when I would go in and criticize the Islamist, it was like all you're self -hating Muslim. You're not really Muslim. You're an inferior secret, you're a secular, whatever. We have the power in order to reform the course by holding people in power accountable. And I think it is very stupid to actually call this anti -Semitism. I like my idol is John Stuart. I voted for Bernie Sanders. Sarah Taxler, the one who did this amazing documentary about me, Tickling Giants, she's a Jew.

2:02:10She is married to an Israeli Jew. We have a good ratio because we know what the right is. We don't have to associate themselves with the action of the Israeli government. One of your favorite words, Jihad. That's my favorite hobbies. It's my shoes. I was like, what's your favorite? I talk about like how, when a white shooter does something, he talks about all of his family, and I was like, what if we do this for Arab, for Arab terrorists? What are his hobbies, Jihad? You see, you can be a comedian. Yeah, I'm sure. Wow, you make me feel good. Okay. Sam Harris has done several episodes on Jihad.

2:02:53And people should go listen to it, even if you disagree with it. But the basic idea that he's proposing is that this idea of jihad and the negative connotation of it of martyrdom is the thing that gets is counterproductive, is destructive to the possible future flourishing of Palestinian people. What do you think of that? There's just the idea of martyrdom. Yeah, I totally agree, but like people don't wake up in the morning as hell like I wanted to clear he had. Think about it. Why would anybody choose to end his life by taking other people with him and in that life? His life must be miserable.

2:03:35He must be pushed into that. Nobody chooses death over life willingly. One of the first suicide bombers in the Palestinian Resistance were Christians. We don't talk about that. I think he would say that the presence of a story that you can tell yourself when you're in a really shitty place, that you can go to a much better place by sacrificing your own life, just the fact that the presence of that story is there is harmful. Of course, but his problem with Sam Harris and usually people would have free range talking about the Islamic faith and nitpicking the stuff that makes it put in a in a in a in a bad light.

2:04:21I can go and nitpick every single religion. They are Jews, they're like bin Rafir who openly say spitting on Christians is not a hate speech. Alright? They are, I mean I you can bring me like all kind of videos of Islamic jihad is saying horrible things on on YouTube and I can bring you Jews who live there there. So like we're going to have the whole world in slave for us and everybody would love to be slaves for the Jews. I can use the Talmudic argument that if you tie a man to a tree and he dies of thirst and hunger, you didn't kill that man. And this is kind of the same argument. It's like, we're not Kenny Palestinians, they're just like Kenny Man, they're dying by themselves.

2:05:01So it is the nitpicking of a certain narrative, religious narrative that is separate from the political context and what's happening right now. Now it's very unfair because I can read if you want to have a deep dive into religious text, nobody will be happy. And I can bring stuff from that al -Muth and the Torah and stuff that is horrible. But like, you know, this is a way again of like distraction. I dare you to talk shit about Buddhism and Jainism though. Try. Well, you know, the people who killed the Muslims in Myanmar were in their Buddhist. Yeah. Yeah, well, let's go, Jay, okay, I'll find the truth.

2:05:42You all got to get back to you. I'll have to find the flying monster, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the the church of the flying monster, I get to you. As a person who tries not to eat carbs, I'm deeply offended by the, I mean, there's Scientologists. All they do is actually buy real estate. I think there's a few books written about the fact that they do other stuff as well. So even there Mormon sometimes there's some of the nicest people I've ever met Yeah, but I'm sure there's also darkness there too Oh boy religion There's soaking in Mormon There's what soaking what's soaking?

2:06:23Okay, so I don't know how my So soaking basically like you if if you get into the woman and you don't move That's not adultery, that's not late. Oh, interesting. Yeah, you go in and use this thing. There's a loophole. There's a loophole. There's the thing, religion has a loophole. Yes, and Muslims, we do that the whole time. We can choose our sins, the stuff that we enjoy. It's just, we're usually... 72 versions waiting for all of us. Maybe if I converted you as a Jew, I'll get you 80. I don't know, you know, we can negotiate. But I also have questions about what we are very good deal. I'll give it and maybe also there at Camry I have Pretty good what year I don't know 1990 or best year ever.

2:07:09Well, they last a long time. Yeah, so I'm not sure I want 70 I don't need to I threw five in the mix and see how we feel Yeah, can we if you want upgrade? Yeah, can we do a trial period But in Jennifer just zoom out. Do you think religion? is in what way is a good for the world and what way is it harmful? If there was no religion, humans would have invented religion. Because I think about, I think I like the early humanity. You're like a caveman or whatever, and then you see your family members killed, and then you say like, what I'm gonna be like, the cheater or the gazelle, that just ends in perish.

2:07:48I need to have, I am more important. I think I think with the development of consciousness, humans, humans thought that they are much more precious and important than the other animals because they have now intelligence. So my life will not end like that. My death will be even more important. There's consequences for that. There's consequences for what I do. And then the early man was like they're in the desert and all of these like natural phenomena. They didn't know what to do. They were afraid. So they need to have refuge. They need to have something to take care of. They need to have a reason for everything.

2:08:24Because if there's no reason, it's chaos. It's chaos. It's terrifying. There's nothing. There has to be a reason. There has to be a purpose. There has to be a cause. Something. I'm not just going to be like, die like a cockroach being stepped on. That's kind of like part of this ego. Every whole world rotates around you in a way. So religion actually got a lot of it from humanity itself, like us being humans. And many religions are collections of stories. And those stories based on things that humans did themselves and they attributed to gods. And there's an aspect of religion where you humble yourself before a thing that is much greater than you.

2:09:12So that has a, I would say a very positive effect of humbling. It will be great if you stop there. But here's the thing, if you humble in order that your ego kicks in and feel that you are better than someone else who's not humble than the friend of the same guy. Oh, go there. That means that I will have all that trade that I can use that because now, what does mean being humble? I'm divine. Yeah. But I'm so, I'm way more humble than you. But you're not. So you see how they kind of like the oxymoron I'm humble and I'm surrendering but in the same time I am better than you know more entitled. Is it it crazy?

2:09:48Yeah It's beautiful. It's crazy. I mean look at look at like like that Muslim Christians and Jews and every like it's like all right Muslims we surrendered. I mean talking about the extreme ones. I mean like people like people like I surrender to God good Keep it that way. Yeah, like if you go to I surrender to God but that means that I am closer to God than you, than you should die. Okay, Christians. Christ is love and He loves me and we're gonna be together, but He don't get into His Kingdom and you die. You see, it's the same thing. Yeah. It's just, if you make it, like stop, stop there, stop where you are humble and you feel that you're a piece of shit and you are worthless human being and you are there.

2:10:29Stop there. But once you say like, oh, that makes me a better person than you And it makes me more with God than you so that would give me the entitlement to kick your ass. Yeah, we always ruin a good thing Don't we? There you go You've been outspoken You know with Pierce Morgan, but just on this topic and you Talked about the Superman story Which I would love it if you were in a Superman movie But have you lost your opportunities? Because of this? There was other, a couple of things that were going on, but they stopped. Again, I don't know if it's September 7th. Or the Superman's story. Yeah, yeah.

2:11:14What role were you? Okay. Why did you audition for? Yeah, it's okay. Okay. So in June, I was traveling to Dubai. And right an hour before I get into the car and go there, my manager's like, best, I'm I send you script, read it for Superman. Oh, Superman. I'm not really good in auditions. I'm not an assistant actress. So I'm just going to do it, send it to you. I do that. I send it. I go to the airport. And I read, and I think I can talk about it now, because they said they changed the script. So basically, what I found interesting in that new script is that there is a dictator in a country that invades another country and Superman interferes.

2:11:58politically. That's the first time we ever see Superman interviews politically. So basically, it was like Russian Ukraine, but because of me, it was like it couldn't be Russia and Ukraine, so it had to be something kind of like with a flavor. So I read the role as if as a mixture of Trump and Mubarak. I did this mix of like, you know, like kind of the mix, but also like kind of like the essence of Trump into it. I went to the airport. It's like an hour. Like James Gunn saw it. He loves it. Like what? I never had a audition that fast. I mean, I had a few roles, but not that fast, not like that.

2:12:35And then I said, like, well, the strike starts tomorrow and we need to be on the forum. But after the strike, we cannot talk the sag after strike. Like we're the writers and the actress strike. So like, well, I'm going to be on a plane right now. It's like, once you land, and he can have a Zoom call with James God. Have a call with James God. He's, I am a huge fan of him. The guy took like something, like Garden of the Galaxy, nobody knew about it, made amazing trilogy. And he is like a really cool guy. I like what he did. And it was like really nice. And he started to talk to me about the movie and like I talk to people before casting them.

2:13:11So I know that everybody is an on set, have a good chemistry. It was amazing. So in your mind, if you're an actor, what does that mean? You got the part and it told me you got the part month goes by Strike goes by October 7th happens. I do Pierce Morgan one and two and then I go to my Australian tour My manager called me pass him that suck was over. It's like you don't get the part anymore I was sad very sad but for three days and said like I'm need to stand up for this class. I like you doing very well I'm do learn and then And then when I went to Chris Como, after I finished the show, he told me, did you lose any opportunities?

2:13:58And that was off record after the show was like we concluded. And I said, I talked about Superman. And I found myself when I was talking, I was angry. I was bitter. And I went to home and was like, why was I angry? Why was I bitter? It wasn't meant to me. And I'm living a good life now. I don't need to do it. So when I was asked again the next day, two different interviews, the BBC and another one was alone with my friend, you know, with Allah. I said the story in a different way. I said, I don't have any anger. As a matter of fact, maybe if I was wonder brothers, I didn't talk about gyms, and I thought it was the studio.

2:14:35If I was wonder brothers and I'm a Muslim, I wouldn't have a like a Zionist or a pro -Israeli in my movie. But I want to tell them that like when I criticize Israel, I am not a threat to you as a Jew. And we can actually have more in comments. I was more of a kind of empathic. So when I said that, the internet went crazy. And you know, Jim's gun have haters because you know the the Snyder verse and all of the, it's a word that I don't understand. And James Gunn one had all of these attacks on him. And I was pissed of how it was handled. I wasn't angry at Jim's gun, but I thought it was... So my public system measures like Bessim, Stacon, don't speak, it's better to not talk about it.

2:15:21I said, okay. So there's nothing wrong about me, but I see the heat is rising against Jim's gun. And that is a guy that I had a personal connection even through Zoom. And I didn't like what was happening. And then he called me and he explained to me, as I said, you know, I actually use like half camera tests before people before finally I didn't know that. And then we changed the script and it was the strikes who I didn't call. And also I thought to myself, I'm small, I'm a small actor, I'm not that important for him to call me, to say we're gonna change the script. So I still think that like the timing sucks and everything.

2:15:55But then I went and I did a video explaining exactly what I'm telling you, because I didn't want to be famous for the wrong reasons. Because that would be unfair. Because that was, already people worked out, and I was having interviews, can you come about to someone else like, that's it, I'm not going to talk about it, because this is an issue. And I didn't, when I talked to James on the phone, I felt how sincere he was. So I didn't want someone to, because of me, will have that kind of attack, because I know what it means to be on the other side of that kind of attack. It's terrible. And it ruins your life and it ruins your day and nobody deserves to be doing it And I don't want to be the reason for somebody else to go through that 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.

2:16:39I'm doing great. I'm selling out everywhere I'm having a wonderful loyal audience is coming to me Why would be angry about the role of its superman? Yes, it's great to be in a superhero movies, but so what you know, but you know there's So there's a wisdom in that, even if you weren't doing great, that's a choice a lot of people can come to, which is like, do I play victim here or not? It's greed. It's greed. They want more attention. They want to be more into the thing. They want more and more. And there's so much to go around to be enough for all of us. But it is greed. It is ego, ego, ego, ego.

2:17:18I need to be in the center. I need to be victimized. I need to be people, feel sorry for me and love me. And it is not the right way. It is not because it is fake. It is fake. It is made up. And I did not victimize myself when I left for Egypt. I mean, in the time that I was, and now I speak about it now. But in that dark times, I was detained in airports. I didn't have them. I American passport, yet I was still traveling from my Egyptian passport. And I was detained in an Arab airport. And I was going to be delivered to the Egyptians. I had shows when I was still starting, I had Heckler's being sent to me by the Egyptian Embassy and Egyptian Council in New York and in London to curse me and to take videos of that and then send it to the State of the Media and Egypt.

2:18:03And I didn't speak about that because I felt that if I speak about that, I feel that what was going on to me would be victimizing myself. Like if I'm going to be good, I'm going to be good because of what I do not, because what people's perception of what I'm going through. Yeah, and that becomes a slippery slope and somehow victimizing yourself goes to more victimizing. Yeah, and then you cannot leave that habit. You can only exist and thrive if people feel sorry for you. Yeah, I mean, Israel and Palestine currently both have that temptation. I would always push back when you do the comparison because one of them is not really in the same kind of power.

2:18:41I mean, yeah, for sure. For you, by the way, I mean I am very easy to say why Palestinian will victimize themselves. But Israel with all of that military might man, it's so much. What Israel is doing is the de -vectimizing the Jewish experience. And I don't think a lot of, I and I don't think it is fair for a lot of Jews. I don't think that they should use the Holocaust and the persecution that happened to Jewish people all through history in order to push an equally oppressive agenda. That is not fair and it's not good for the Jewish people living and it is basically a disrespect to the memory of the Holocaust.

2:19:19I told you, I want to make a movie about the Holocaust. I do. Because what happened was that kind of engineered torture. Should never happen again and it should not be happening now. So to you, what Israel is doing is leading to more anti -Semitism in the world. 100%. And I think, and you know, can I be a conspiracy theorist for a second? Please, there is this flat. We all know this part of me thinking Maybe they are doing that intentionally because if there's a rise of anti -Sitvin and Jews There will always like points like see their hate us so we can do whatever we want Because if if because you see if we Let let go of our might and our strength We're gonna go back to a concentration camps because you see how the word hates you And again when you say they are people in power.

2:20:06Yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely listen It's always the people in power. I believe that humans are easily corruptible and easily repairable, but the corrupt party part is much easier. But people could change, but power, people in power are very dangerous. Very, very dangerous, especially if you have religion, which is power by itself, military might, political support and money, dude. That's a very, very, very dangerous recipe. You know, all that said, I do believe in the power of the little guy, the individual, to overthrow the government. You know, I don't know if you heard, but the Arab Spring will, you know, happen.

2:20:47But, but, but, but, but, okay, here we are. We are here. And among friends. We are Americans, right? We're Americans. Yeah. Allegedly. We're Americans. And. How funny is that? Like just giving out two backgrounds. We're Americans. We're Americans. It's like... We're Americans. There's one thing about the power of the little guy that I am very sad about. Because you see, I love America, by the way. I consider it my new home. And I want my kids to grow up here. I'm very grateful for the opportunity that I have in the United States. And I criticized the United States politics, and I criticized it out of love the same way that I was criticizing what's happening of Egypt out of love.

2:21:37What is worrying for me is how the power of the little man is diminishing. It doesn't matter now who do you vote into power? They will not listen to you, they would listen to the people who paid them to be there. And it is very concerning because I can see the American democracy is turning not even slowly very rapidly into an oligarchy. If I'm sure that all of the millions of people who are voting, they don't vote for the NRA, they don't vote for APAC, they don't vote for the pharmaceutical companies, they don't vote for the military industry complex. And yet, the people in power, they come in, they take your vote, and my vote, and they are loyal to those people, not to us.

2:22:25And it is very, very, very concerning, very concerning. And this is the danger of American policies, American politics and American democracies. It is dangerous because basically, the vote becomes just like a ceremony. that the someone with the more like funding will get to power and then he's not loyal to you. So the fire, I mean we are in Texas, everybody's armed to the teeth here. Yeah, but like what are these armed going to do in front of tanks? Well, you said the American military is unique in this way. I know, but for now. For now the tanks are, for first of all, I believe Russia has more tanks than the United States.

2:23:13Tanks, I don't know, you know, I'm not an expert in military strategic deployment of arms, but the United States uses different kinds of weapons. They have drones and they have the lasers and they have the sitting comfortably behind the screens. It's kind of like it turns like a big Xbox game. Yeah. And they they saw a lot of those things to everybody. It's crazy because the The defense budget is 68 % of American military. It's like almost $850 billion each year. And most of that weapons we don't even need it. We just do it because of the contract. There was like an incredible 60 minutes. I'm sure that you saw it.

2:23:54The one about the gouging of the prices of the department, it was one of the most fascinating things that I've ever seen. They said like a valve, a safety oil valve that used to be sold for $329. dollars now it is sold for $9 ,000 why because there is only five weapon companies and they can control the prices and in 2006 the whole Apache fleet over the American army in Iraq was grounded because there is one valve that they were like gouging the price and didn't want to give them. The Stinger missile, just like the missile, the one that you carry and it's like the anti -aircraft. I choose to be sold for 25 ,000 dollars.

2:24:34Now it's sold for 400 ,000 dollars. And nobody is doing that. You know what I ask? Because the DOD has fired 130 ,000 people, including engineers and negotiators. So now, in order to cut expenses, now we're paying more money. And the thing is, we do not have a say in this. We do not have a say in how my tax money and your tax money is being spent. Because I'm sure you don't want your money to be sent to Israel like that. I'm sure. Even if you choose, I'm sure. I'm sure that like I don't want my money to be given to some Muslim countries who kill other Muslims. I'm sure. But it is not, he's the thing.

2:25:09What kind of power do we have other than speaking? So what is left for us is free speech. And now when you speak they call you antisemitic. You see why I'm angry? But still, I mean America is holding pretty strong despite the criticisms on the free speech front. But if you look at the free freedom of the press, freedom of the speech index America is not at the top. It is not. And this is why, for example, it is very disheartening for me to see that the Western media, Western press, that used to be the beacon of freedom as now using as mouthpieces. And it is funny how the New York Times, Nixon got angry in the New York Times in 1971 when they found leaks about Tim lying about the Vietnam War since the beginning.

2:25:59And now he hired the plumbers, you know, the special unit in order to go in and find the leaks. This was Watergate basically because he was angry to see who leaked that instead of fixing the problem. Now the New York Times have published a story about the rape that was a hoax that was written by Anna Schwartz, who someone will have no experience. And now, when it was leaked, instead of them correcting themselves, they went in and they had their own investigation to see who leaked. The New York Times in 2003 became the mouthpiece for George W. Bush of the WWMG. And now, as an American, I see that the New York Times becoming a mouthpiece of a foreign country, why do you do that?

2:26:37One of those things that's really difficult to know is where to find the truth. it does seem that both sides use propaganda and both sides lie a lot. Both sides as in both Israel and Palestine, pro -Israel, there's a lot of lies. I know, but it's a lot of inequality man. There's a lot of people on the internet, but who have the mainstream media siding with. Yeah, but you know, thanks. And I'm talking about media. Yes, thank God for social media, because now it's individuals. There are people. Yes. There are people you're comparing BBC, New York Times, Washington Post, what's it, John, we're just people with a TikTok account.

2:27:22Yeah. Yeah. More power in your view. Now it is actually very, very fascinating to see the little man having that power over the media. And because this proportionally so like, hey, But you cannot call people with TikTok propagandist while people being paid to, can you give you the news and they deliberately lie to you? Yes, I can. They're both propagandists. Yes, but the mechanisms and the intentions are different because here's the thing. I'd rather have the TikTok guy. The TikTok guy is a TikTok guy. Right. But if you have the New York Times being told that they're being exposed to be lying and then they get this like you and report which is like a disgrace and you just put the title and you don't talk about it.

2:28:09Like I'm fine with CNN and Jake Tapper and all of those people like spreading the rape allegations for years. They didn't, I don't even want them to refute them. I want them to bring the Israeli reports saying that they didn't have. They are Israeli media and they didn't even bother, not once. Is that balanced? That's not. So that's why people in TikTok, because they have to take matters on their own head. Yeah, but the problem with the people in TikTok is the drug, the dopamine rush of getting a lot of likes. So instead of talking about the death of civilians, they'll talk about beheaded babies or the equivalent of their, they're going to actually make up stories because the make made up stories are going to be more viral.

2:28:51And so now we're just in the scene, it's muck of lies. And there's a lot of people who actually exposed the lies on TikTok. So you have both. Yeah, you have both. And it's like kind of like the democracy of the social media, as we always call it. But if you have the street from media that is the legacy media scene and BBC New York Times, fuck news, all of those people and they are like spreading lies and they're not even doing their journalistic job in order to at least bring the other side. Yeah. That's problematic. And that's worse. You're supposed to be journalists. Yes. It's supposed to be reports.

2:29:24Reports. Don't you know, report. Yeah, but I see that this is like a catalyst and inspiration for the citizen journalists to rise up. This is what you're doing. Or this? Yeah. This is what you're doing. No, this is what you're doing because you go into a deep dive. This is like a no filter thing. There's no spin. the long form. The long form is gonna save us. I see why you hate the tiktoks like a dopamine rush. You know what I'm saying? Stupid tecta. I saw five hours later. I saw the resentment in your face. I can't, can't look away. Before like like lose like 30 seconds, I do four hours. I mean both have a place, both are exciting.

2:30:05And you know, but I can't, it is very dangerous. Like as you can't look away. And I almost never, maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I almost never feel better ever after having used TikTok. Make stew of us. I can't. I cannot. I have a team. By the way, I give my past work to a team. I don't even go there. Because I went in a dark night, very late at night. I went to TikTok and it was like two hours. What? What? What? I said, no, no, no, no, no, this is dangerous. I'm really like an Instagram and Facebook guy. I don't need that. And I barely get out of Twitter. I mean, like, X, I don't, I can't. X is a cesspool.

2:30:51X is just like, the concentrated hate in X too much. Too much, I can't. So you don't check it at all. You try not to check it at all. It is very intense. I don't, I don't, I don't, I can't, I can't. I just like, I post something and I run. post and ghost. So you're doing comedy here in the United States right now. Joe Rogan has the comedy mother ship. This is an incredible club. Have you considered doing that club? I would love to. I mean, do you know Joe? Of course, no. I feel like it's a small world of comedy. That's why I know I think like Joe Joe's story was like what he did and stuff that he that didn't they UFC and his podcast and it's very impressive.

2:31:38The fact that he's there and he's bringing all of those people, whether they're in comedy or his podcast is very impressive. And this is what the media is all about. What is like the internet is all about to give you the experiences of stuff that you might never experience. And that is very important. I mean, you do it with people, like you go into their brains. He goes take people and they take their experiences and their lives and their stories. It is very interesting. This is the beauty of that art form because you have all of these experiences at the tips of your hands and it is there for you to learn from.

2:32:16What he's doing, when he moved to Texas and we did the comedy mothership, anybody who would push comedy forward, that is the most difficult art form and the most demanding. And the fact that you do that and he might not even be making money out of it But he doing that because of his passion that is enough. Yeah, he's he's he's it really believes in creating this like Place or comedians can be really free and one of the cool things about the comedy mother ship is like Comedian is king there. Yeah, like there We have to like you have to bow down to the because you know the comedian who came back came after like eating shit Yeah, he's out there everywhere else If you pit you have basically you're a saint.

2:33:00I have eaten shit for me. Now I'm gonna give you shit. It's great. You already told me what you think about the state of politics in the United States, but now tell me what you really think. What do you think of the choice of Trump versus Biden? How do we end up here? I don't know. I mean, like the fact that like you have two people over the age of 90. Yeah, it is. I think it's over 100, but that's all right. It's all combined, like under 70. It is so sad. It is so sad that this is what we can produce as a society. Like a demagogue and a sleepy Joe idea. I just, he's too. He's not there, man. He's gone.

2:33:45He's gone. I mean, he could, you know, like when all people could be like a danger for themselves, he's a danger for the whole world. I mean like the whole world. Like if an old person would die who would like, you know, have like a hip replacement, we can need them and they can new planet because of one decision. But it's not just that. It's not it. It's, um, what are when I came here and listen, I am, I'm a, I'm a democrat. I always like, and I told you like I vote for Bernie Sanders. I, I, I, I, I supported him like 2016, but I couldn't vote then. And of course, a huge I've had them for one.

2:34:26And one of my friends is like, he's the first Muslim president. But he killed Muslims. Look, that's things Muslims do. But anyways, I love that line.

2:34:39And it just, I think the whole idea, like, my shock is, I thought you were about what Biden said about like, like Amazon is okay, we are science. But then like Jews are not safe anywhere other news. It's like, dude, what the hell are you saying? And if you don't care about me, and you don't care about my misery, why would I care about you winning or losing? You know, and I have a joke that I told people, like why would even Biden listen to us? He just raised $145 million in California alone from pro -Israeli groups. I mean, what can we Arabs working in the vape business due to him? You're gonna be like, we cannot compete with that.

2:35:26I mean, practically, life is unfair. The guy is a politician, he needs bills to pay, he needs a campaign to run, he needs money. He will go to the people who will give me money. Joe Biden is the highest paid politician from Israel. Love is $4 .6 million over the years. Yeah, but I also believe in great leaders that go against all of that, but unfortunately, you know Bernie Sanders was like that Bernie Sanders Yes, but also age I don't want to be a Of course, of course, no, no, but even with like because I I remember listening to Bernie Sanders 20 years ago on Tom Hartman show and I don't want to say anything Against Bernie, but like he was sharper then of course.

2:36:11There's a thing with age Yeah, of course. No, I think I'm a huge fan about like putting a limit on your working years because you don't want to have like a Mitch McConnell moment every now because now the whole thing I like, what is this? Isn't this not like a house by scare home? It is unfair. It is unfair. And the whole idea that you have like unlimited, like you have a limit for the present but you don't have limit for congresspeople and senators. That's what do you mean? This is basically you can go and be in the governance forever, and you know, the longer that you can get, the more corrupt you will get.

2:36:44Yes, that's the best. And that is very concerning for Americans. Everybody becomes corrupt after you're afraid. I mean, that's why two terms is a good limit for everybody. Yeah, and maybe half a term for your Egyptian leaders. Well, you know, our half term is 15 years. Quarter term. You should come back for office there. Oh my God. No. No, there's a curse in the Egyptian presidency. Nobody comes there. He's like dead during jail. It's not the most appealing job. They might make a statue of you though. Make you look good. After my death. I look very good. And it's like you. Yeah, when you look at what happened when Navalny, since you really thought about this in Egypt, what happened when Navalny in Russia?

2:37:47What do you think about that? Yeah, but what happened in Navalny in Russia is not something new in Russia. I mean, Putin has this whole history of poisoning and killing people. and it's pretty much... I would have to say credit Putin is bringing us the essence of the dark ages, the Middle Ages. You know, when all, basically Putin is the living example of what happens if Game of Thrones was reality. It's like death by poison. Like a blow up a plane. It's mysteriously disappears. It is so... It is very dark, but it's like, wow! It's like it's a television show. Maybe that's what attracts us to that part of the world is that it's so much undisplayed as game of power, of geopolitics, of war.

2:38:41No, the same happens in the West, but I'm behind closed doors. It's not that open. It's not pronounced. It's like oops. Epsteen.

2:38:56I think because of the West is more advanced in movies and cinemas, we kind of directed better. I think the outcomes, the way you kind of like said the scenes, like scene and scene. That's why people are like landing on the moon. They're like, oh, I get it, but we haven't gone back. I don't think there will always be war in the world. Always be suffering. Yes. But here's the thing, I don't think for long. I don't think that will happen for them. Wait a minute. Yeah. Yeah. Because here's the thing. Humanity is destined to have war. Especially it will have war. but that's something happened in the last 50 years.

2:39:47Now we have much more lethal weapons. The problem is, the beginning is like swords against horses, cavalry, cannons, catapults, medium -sized, but now you're like a press of a button, you can annihilate the whole planet. And this is the problem. Wars will all continue. The problem is when is going to be the tipping point where we are actually going to destroy yourself and it is so easy now to destroy ourselves the amount of weapons and the quality of weapons that we have. It is designed to kill more effectively more It's just it is crazy. It's like we can create our own destruction in ourself And I think we're not that far away from it.

2:40:29Just looking at nuclear weapons The fascinating thing about nuclear weapons they've gotten to learn recently Just how few people are involved in a full on nuclear war that kills basically kills everybody. Yeah. Well, three plus billion people right away. And the consequences of the nuclear winter, it's unlivable. But all it takes is, I mean, one president can do it. So it could be even a false alarm, misunderstanding, like what happened in the Cuba missile crisis. But again, and now there's more nations are prepared and ready to launch. I know. And you have a media and a 24 hour kind of like thing that makes you like at edge the whole time.

2:41:21That's crazy. There's a dark perspective on this where there's certain members of the media that would kind of enjoy the prospect of nuclear war. Like a little bit. Just let's get as close to it as possible. You have another factor that will contribute to that. Religion. And remember how like the radical Islam is talking about, like the end of time and whatever, but like most of the Islamic ones don't have that much power. Problem is with Christian Zionist, now being on the top of the world of the America. They have been pushing for that kind of conflict to kind of escalate. Eschelat, listen to Sarah Palin.

2:42:01It's like God wants us here. Like a guardian drove all of the new gods. The dispensation is straying. Here's an incredible book called Like Forcing the Hands of God's. Oh beautiful book. I read it's like it's published 1998, but it still matters today. The whole idea about like, especially the designist Christians who love Israel, but they hate the Jews. They're anti -Semite, but they love Israel because of its This is all basically formed because of the interpretation of the Bible of Scofield and how they talk about the end of time that Amar Geddin and then the late great planet Earth and then left behind Sirius and all of that.

2:42:37It's all about like we're heading to Amar Geddin. The problem is Islam has the people that believe that they end of time and then we have the Christians that believe in the end of time and then you have Israel happy that those people are using it for the end of time and then the whole idea about them pushing as many weapons and and troops and people in the Middle East to be there for the nuclear holocaust. And John Hagg, one of the pastors talk about that, about the primstones, and it's not going to be a nuclear holocaust. All of that people, it's crazy how people are so despised in life that they are wanting death.

2:43:11So now you all would have these revelations, but these revelations mean nothing if you don't have an effective weapon in order to make it happen. And this is the crazy thing. And I'm worried that the end is going to be by someone that wants to meet God a little bit earlier.

2:43:30Somebody who's really in a hurry. Well, I have good news for you. Maybe we'll become a multi -planetary species. Maybe Elon Musk will lead us on the way. To get out in space. Maybe he's one of them.

2:43:49I asked you offline to not mention the lizard people. There's like a whole people that believe in the lizard people. It's great. I actually have to be honest. I haven't fully looked into the lizard people. I probably should. You should. Yeah. Well, maybe I'm afraid of the truth.

2:44:08Then. Then. Then. That's right. We're moving my face down. I mean, so let's say you're wrong about the end of the world. And we, it all turns out great. And humanity flourishes. Why would that happen? What gives you hope for that trajectory for humanity? younger people. The people of Tik Tok that you don't like. Yeah, there is a lot of like cripples shit there. You know, after you say this, people just keep saying you take talk videos. These younger people. This woman showing her boobs. That woman. That's gonna save us. That's gonna save us. All right, awesome. Thank you. No, there's like I think there is a wealth of it.

2:45:06You know, remember like the joke that said like we thought that like when we have internet we're going to have like be more, you know, more informed and now we're watching twerking videos and that is true. But on the other side, the fact that you have the invalability of information. I am learning a lot. And there's people who are using that platform, it's not the majority because it's not very interesting and exciting. But I think there might be a tipping point where there's enough people that would be aware. And maybe they would collectively do something in order to bring back the power to the small man.

2:45:45And maybe it sounds very naive. But we don't know. We don't know because we we have already seen the legacy media and the legacy politicians shaking in the past few months They're getting nervous. They're getting nervous because people are calling them out and those people were like hiding behind the Vis behind in their office and not like not to holding a couch for that but like people now are calling them out and It is not gonna happen like this year or next year, but I think it's something what advice would you give to those young folks? I will never give advice to those people Get off take talk.

2:46:18I will never, I will never because like their input is different on mine. But like there's one thing I learned when people saw me, did the revolution fail in Egypt? Did people that the people are like, listen, the revolution is not an event. It's not like, hey, we go in with toppled the government, it's not an revolution. A revolution is a process, it's a very long process. And maybe that process, I mean, as much as we don't like what happened in the Arab world, but the people there, the awareness that happened and the discussions that have been open that you didn't even imagine what happened in the Middle East.

2:46:47It's happening. And maybe the beginning of any hope of change is that people start talking, speaking out, talking about stuff they were not allowed to speak about. Like for example, Israel. The revolution continues. Ah, yes. Basin, you're a beautiful human being. It's truly a pleasure and honor to meet you. I just feel the love radiating from you. I hope I get to see your perform live. I hope to get to see you many more times. Thank you for being who you are. Thank you so much and I would love to invite you for my new special, the Islamunatsibhasim. That's for the title of your autobiography. Thank you so much.

2:47:32Thank you brother. Thanks for listening to this conversation with Basim Yusuf. To support this podcast, please check out our sponsors in the description. And now let me leave you some words from Jount Stewart. The press can hold this magnifying glass up to our problems, bringing them into focus, illuminating issues here to fore unseen, or they can use that magnifying glass to light ants on fire, and then perhaps host a week of shows on the sudden unexpected dangerous flaming ant epidemic. If we amplify everything, we hear nothing. Thank you for listening and hope to see you next time.