Bill Maher Corrects Gaza Narrative Using Actual History
Bill Maher used a conversation with Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania to challenge one of the most common slogans surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, arguing that many Americans embracing the “Free Palestine” cause have paid little attention to the history behind it.
The exchange originally aired in the spring on Maher’s “Club Random” podcast, but a clip resurfaced over the weekend and gained renewed attention online.
Maher began by taking aim at the popularity of pro-Palestinian activism among entertainers and other celebrities in Hollywood.
“As if Palestine would be liberated by living under Hamas,” Maher said.
He then turned to Israel’s 2005 disengagement from Gaza, when Israel withdrew its military presence and removed more than 9,000 Israeli settlers from the territory.
“By the way, [Gaza], geniuses educated on TikTok, was liberated in 2005 by Israel,” Maher said. “Israel gave it back and said, ‘Here, you have your land again. You do something with it.’ And this is what they did with it: They made it into a fortress, didn’t spend it on the people.”
Maher argued that Gaza’s Mediterranean location could have provided the foundation for significant economic development, saying, “It could have been Dubai.”
Fetterman agreed with Maher’s broader criticism and pointed to the failed peace negotiations during the Clinton administration.
In less than 150 seconds, Bill Maher explains how Israel gave back Gaza to the Palestinians in 2005, and instead of turning it into a Dubai, they chose Hamas and wanted war.
They refused every peace deal Israel offered them. pic.twitter.com/OdUM8FKvxH
— Vivid.🇮🇱 (@VividProwess) August 15, 2026
Those negotiations culminated in intensive talks in 2000 and early 2001 over the borders of a potential Palestinian state, the status of Jerusalem, refugees and security arrangements. President Bill Clinton presented proposals that envisioned a Palestinian state encompassing Gaza and most of the West Bank, with Palestinian sovereignty over Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. Israeli and Palestinian leaders did not ultimately reach a final agreement, and historians and participants continue to dispute precisely how responsibility for the negotiations’ collapse should be apportioned.
Fetterman nevertheless characterized Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s response as evidence of a deeper rejection of a two-state settlement.
“They did not want a two-state solution,” Fetterman told Maher.
He then referenced the slogan “from the river to the sea,” which refers geographically to the territory between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea, including Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.
Bill Clinton: “I killed myself trying to give the Palestinians a state. I had a deal they turned down that would have given them all of Gaza and 97% of the West Bank. You name it. They turned it all down.”
The Palestinians never wanted peace.pic.twitter.com/d3iUGiusQ0
— Vivid.🇮🇱 (@VividProwess) March 17, 2026
“Their one-state solution, as you always point out, is from the river [to the] sea. What’s in there?” Fetterman asked.
The meaning of that slogan itself remains fiercely disputed. Critics view it as a call for eliminating Israel as a Jewish state, while some pro-Palestinian activists say they use it to demand equal rights or Palestinian freedom throughout the territory.
Maher’s larger complaint was directed less at the wording of individual slogans than at celebrities he believes adopt political causes without examining their history.
“People out here, they’re actors. They just want a cause,” Maher said. “They want to do something about it: ‘Free Palestine.’ But that’s as far as they’ve looked into it. They don’t look past the buzzwords.”