Bassem Youssef on Triggernometry

Fiery Israel-Palestine Debate with Bassem Youssef - YouTube

Tactics
Dr. Yousey employed various strategies during the discourse to assert his perspectives. He often resorted to sarcasm, deflecting inquiries by treating them as absurd. Dr. Youself habitually imputed negative motives, responding to questions with further questions, a technique designed to unsettle the interlocutor and facilitate the unchallenged promotion of his views, while also seeking common ground when feasible. The hosts repeatedly called out Dr. Youssese for constructing straw man arguments. Dr. Yousseflini himself described his approach: he redirects conversations about Hamas to discussions on Netanyahu, and when a specific date like “October 7th” is mentioned, he shifts the focus to events preceding that date.

Justification for October 7th

Claim: Was no ceasefire before Oct 7th & Three weeks before Oct 7th, Israel bombed Gaza for 3 days straight
- In September, tensions escalated between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza and the West Bank. Over the course of three consecutive days, Israel conducted airstrikes on militant sites in Gaza, targeting a command center and a bomb-storage facility. The strikes were in response to Palestinian militants launching incendiary balloons into Israel and throwing an explosive device at soldiers stationed at the Gaza border fence. No casualties were reported in these incidents.
- In a separate incident in the West Bank, Asid Abu Ali, a member of Hamas, was killed by Israeli gunfire. The shooting occurred when Israeli engineering units were working to detonate a number of bombs that had been planted under roads in the area. During the operation, the Israeli forces came under fire and had explosives hurled at them, leading to the fatal shooting of Abu Ali.
- Israel strikes Gaza for the third straight day as West Bank violence escalates : NPR
- On September 28th, Israel reopened crossing points with Gaza allowing thousands of Palestinian workers to get to their jobs after two week closure prompted by violent protests along the border. This was mediated by Egypt, United Nations and Qatar to defuse tensions. Site Unreachable
Claim: Israel and their actions is what radicalized Palestinians in Gaza and pushed them to react violently, having no other options than killing civilians
- Hamas Covenant 1988: In the first section its says, “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it” (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory).” The Avalon Project : Hamas Covenant 1988
- Hamas’s 2017 Political Document: “Hamas rejects any attempt to undermine the resistance and its arms.” terrorism-info.org.il/Data/articles/Art_21201/E_093_17_956569418.pdf
- Interestingly, Dr. Youssef would say concerning the World War II bombings of Germany, “Something horrific that happened in the past doesn’t justify what you do in the future.”

Tactics
- Sarcasm
  - To not answer questions
- Assuming the other person’s intent (name?)
  - “Oh so we should be happy with us getting killed?”
- Question with a question
  - Hamas fault for Oct 7th -> But what about the West Bank
- Putting person on the back food with accusations and questioning intent
- Not talking to the other person, talking about other people and attacking some other people’s thoughts instead of engaging with the other person directly
- Describes his tactics himself
  - If you say Hamas, he’ll talk about Netanyahu
  - If you say Oct 7th, he’ll talk about what happened before Oct 7th
Justification for October 7th
- Before Oct. 7th
- Oct 2
- Sept 15
- Was no ceasefire before Oct 7th
- Three weeks before Oct 7th, Israel bombed Gaza for 3 days straight
- 234 killed in West Bank; 70 kids killed
- 100,000 P. killed and injured before Oct 7th
- If you’re a Palestinian what options do you have?
- Pushing people to the limit and they react violently.
- This idea that P. were just a peaceful people and suddenly Israel just wanted to oppress them AND THEN it made them do violent things
- Only choice is killing children and unarmed civilians
- Because: Claims 80% of Gaza is destroyed, 50% of victims were children and 100% of population displaced
- Surprised that if my whole family was killed that you wouldn’t go kill civilians as well
- Talks about how WW2 examples are bad because we evolve has human beings, why doesn’t he think the same about Hamas instead of justifying it?
- Rape of 2 million women, not sure if this is a WW2 accusation
- Bassem comes across as a pacifist; except if its Hamas
- Claims that people pushed against the wall causing radicalization
  - Absurd idea that Hamas wasn’t already radicalized before this and the idea that Israel made them radical
- Even if Hamas attacked Israel, it doesn’t justify killing all those people in Gaza
- “Something horrific that happened in the past doesn’t justify what you do in the future.”
  - Says this concerning WW2 bombing
  - Why doesn’t he apply this to Hamas and Oct 7th?
- Hostages
  - 5,000 hostages in Israel prisons
  - kidnapped in middle of night
  - 50% have no accusations against them
West Bank
- Israel confiscating land in West Bank
- Stealing
- “Pushing people out of their homes every single day”
- 40 children in West Bank in one month killed after Oct 7th
- Settlers can just go talk your land a house in West Bank
- To go 1 km you have to go through 7-8 checkpoints
- Yehuda Shaul - Breaking the Silence
  - Two units in Hebron: Mission, to maintain their presence, raid houses
- P. have no rights
- Can’t have fertile land in Area C
- Water share, 1/5 to 1/6 of settlers
- Been going like this for 75 years in West Bank??
- 10-15 years in prison without accusations
- 99.7% conviction rate
Israel is evil
- Sexual violence against P. women
- War crimes
- Israel has been getting away with genocide for years
- Christians have their rights taken away as well
- Israeli society know nothing but war and winning, so its good for them
  - Inferring Israeli wants war to continue and not have peace
  - Look at polls and history of initiating peace deals
  - Israeli’s don’t understand anything but the language of power
- Israelis happy aid trucks aren’t going into Gaza, claims theres videos on tiktok
- Israel is a war criminal
People don’t care about Palestinian blood
- Talks about how Israel is getting away with killing children on camera and getting away with it, nobody cares
  - Yet he can’t answer what he’d do after Oct 7th
- “If a million P. get killed in one day people will not care”
- Hamas voters, sympathizers, terrorists
- What was Bassem’s reaction to Yemen and other wars?
October 7th War
- Claims there has never been a war with the same casualties on a daily basis
  - Reference WW2 battles maybe
- Remote killing has desensitized people
- There was much more killing in wars previous to the modern wars of today, as well as more civilians
- How you used a sword to kill, but now you press a button and a whole block is gone
- If I take a knife and kill you, I’m a terrorist. But if I’m in a F-16 and drop a bomb, thats war.
  - If I kidnap you, its terrorism
  - If I go in with uniforms and a military unit, kidnap 100 per day, put in prison
- If people knew that the IDF killed many of their own, gang rape and decapitated babies was false; then invading Gaza was disproportionate.
- Talks about how the stories of “gang rapes” or “decapitated babies” or cutting babies out of wombs primed people to accept invading Gaza, yet when he talks about his claims prior to Oct 7, its primes and justifies what happened on Oct 7th.
- Unable to respond to the idea that Israel was attacked and was justified in responding to another government invading their country
  - Claims its a distraction
- Idea that resistance, i.e. invasion and killing of civilians is justified if 100,000 people are killed or injured.
- Israel tried to pull Iran into the war for no reason
- Doesn’t want to separate Israeli government from the people, because he says people don’t separate Palestinians from Hamas
- Israel is “nuking” an entire country
- Bombed 36 hospitals since the main one Hamas did
- Saying Israel killed 7 UN workers and Israel didn’t care
October 7th Invasion Day
- Hannibal direction
  - Israel activity involved in killing many of the hostages
  - Inflated number of casualties on Israeli side due to IDF firing into Kabbtz
- Tries to dismantle and minimize what happened on Oct 7th to counter the argument that Israel should of responded
- Gang rapes and decapitated babies didnt happen
- Oct 7th (references Israeli papers submitted to International Court to counter South Africa)
  - 735 civilians killed
  - 1 baby under age of 1 year was killed, not decapitated
  - 49 children killed under age of 19
  - Downplays rape, not systematic, maybe a couple “sexual violence”
  - 175-200 kidnapped — said it as a aside fact
  - Claims this doesn’t justify 30,000 killed
History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
- I/P isn’t complicated
  - Group of people that took other people’s land and continue killing them
- Gaza disengagement counter-argument
- Siege
- No access to air, sea, land
- Calorie count
- No rights to travel
- Authority that controls your food, electricity, water
- Some parts of Gaza two hours a day of water
- Books written on subject (Finklestein books he read?)
- Hamas only took 53% of the vote in the election
- Israel put them under siege without a single bullet being shot
- 18 months between election and stoppage of ceasefire
  - Israel killed head of security forces during this time
    - Hama retaliated and kidnapped Shalit
    - Then ceasefire ended
- Not truth that Hamas was elected, attacked Israel
  - Claims Jews came in from the holocaust, claimed 20% of the land
  - 55% of “our land” to 30% of the people
  - Then goes to, “After 1948 war, Israeli won and took 78% of the land leaving only 22% for P.”
  - 1967 all of that was gone
  - Horrible peace deals
- Israel has only given up land because they had to lose it for war
  - 1973 gave back Sinai Egyptians crossed the canal and went into war
  - Oslo Accords because of the Intifada
  - 2006 disengagement: Because Israel had too many loses
  - Withdraw from Lebanon: because Hezbollah and too many casualties
  - Have never given land out of peace, out of the goodness of their hearts
- Netanyahu financing Hamas record in 2019 recording
- Netanyahu talking about sabotaging Oslo accords
- Gaza is a concentration camp like condition and bombing them for 50 years
- History of Israel killed International workers without consequences
Oppressed vs. Oppressor
- Claims Israel is all powerful and P. people are powerless
- When challenged about solutions, everything goes back to Israel is the one with the power and they need to have the solutions
- $200 million of tax exempt money from charities that went to build illegal settlements
- Christians supporting Israel, but being anti-semantic
  - Robert Spender supporting Israel’s ethnic cleansing
  - Elise Stefanik supports Eric Paladino who said Hitler is the kind of leader we need nowadays
- Friends of the IDF charity
- Zaka Rescue Group
  - Behind the decapitated baby narrative
  - Raised $50 million by fear mongering
- APAC
  - Punishing people that don’t support Israel
- Claim that Israel has never gotten push back
Conspiracy Theories
- Praying for Armageddon documentary
  - End of days, second coming of Jesus
  - John Haggy - Founded for Christian United for Israel
  - $7 billion annual budget to influence support for Israel
  - Christians think second coming Jews will be killed or converted
  - Jews believe when Messiah comes everybody will be enslaved by the Jews
  - Using this to counter the idea that Islam is the most violent religion
  - Western world is led by a superpower whose politicians believe in biblical revelation of the end of days
    - He calls this scary, but doesn’t care about what the Islamic countries and their politicians believe
- Israel flying in red heefer cows to sacrifice one of their cows to signify the building of the third temple by destroying the Al-Aqsa Mosque
  - Temple Institute in Jerusalem
  - Flew in 5 from Texas for 500k
  - Take a bath with the water from burnt ashes
- Netanyahu talking about Amalik, people there in biblical days
  - They have all the right to kill children, wives, everybody from Amalik
- Claiming Israel has similar rhetoric to ISIS about tend of days and putting religion and politics together
Personal Thoughts & Solutions
- Doesn’t like Hamas or the Islamization of the conflict
  - Islam against Judaism is wrong
- Doesn’t know what Israel should of done after Oct 7th

MAIN POINTS TO HIT:

Israel is the attacker, not acting in self-defense; therefore when Israel is attacked its really just self-defense
- Israel’s actions are motivated by wanting to oppress; not defend its civilians
Idea that Israel is killing indiscriminately in Gaza and it’s the worst that anyone has ever seen
- Ignoring the fact that Hamas hides within the population for a strategic advantage
Idea how the killing has gone down since the start of the conflict
Everything viewed from the Oppressor, Oppressed lens

1st Notes

Before Oct. 7th
- Oct 2
- Sept 15
- Was no ceasefire before Oct 7th
- Three weeks before Oct 7th, Israel bombed Gaza for 3 days straight
- 234 killed in West Bank; 70 kids killed
- 100,000 P. killed and injured before Oct 7th
- Justification of Oct 7 because of prior acts
If you’re a Palestinian what options do you have?
Israel confiscating land in West Bank
- Stealing
- “Pushing people out of their homes every single day”
Pushing people to the limit and they react violently.
- This idea that P. were just a peaceful people and suddenly Israel just wanted to oppress them AND THEN it made them do violent things
Saying Israel killed 7 UN workers and Israel didn’t care
History of Israel killed International workers without consequences
War crimes
Claim that Israel has never gotten push back
5,000 hostages in Israel prisons
- kidnapped in middle of night
- 50% have no accusations against them
Sexual violence against P. women
40 children in West Bank in one month killed after Oct 7th
Idea that P. blood isn’t equal to Israeli
- What was Bassem’s reaction to Yemen and other wars?
Gaza is a concentration camp like condition and bombing them for 50 years
Bombed 36 hospitals since the main one Hamas did
Doesn’t know what Israel should of done after Oct 7th
Violating International Law
Israel is “nuking” an entire country
“Something horrific that happened in the past doesn’t justify what you do in the future.”
- Says this concerning WW2 bombing
- Why doesn’t he apply this to Hamas and Oct 7th?
Justifying Oct 7th
- Only choice is killing children and unarmed civilians
- Because: Claims 80% of Gaza is destroyed, 50% of victims were children and 100% of population displaced
- Surprised that if my whole family was killed that you wouldn’t go kill civilians as well
Israel has been getting away with genocide for years
Major Talking Point: People don’t care of P. get killed
- Talks about how Israel is getting away with killing children on camera and getting away with it, nobody cares
  - Yet he can’t answer what he’d do after Oct 7th
- “If a million P. get killed in one day people will not care”
- Hamas voters, sympathizers, terrorists
Claims there has never been a war with the same casualties on a daily basis
- Reference WW2 battles maybe
Talks about how WW2 examples are bad because we evolve has human beings, why doesn’t he think the same about Hamas instead of justifying it?
Rape of 2 million women, not sure if this is a WW2 accusation
Bassem comes across as a pacifist; except if its Hamas
I/P isn’t complicated
- Group of people that took other people’s land and continue killing them
Israel is evil
Gaza disengagement counter-argument
- Siege
- No access to air, sea, land
- Calorie count
- No rights to travel
- Authority that controls your food, electricity, water
- Some parts of Gaza two hours a day of water
- Books written on subject (Finklestein books he read?)
Settlers can just go talk your land a house in West Bank
To go 1 km you have to go through 7-8 checkpoints
Yehuda Shaul - Breaking the Silence
- Two units in Hebron: Mission, to maintain their presence, raid houses
P. have no rights
Can’t have fertile land in Area C
Water share, 1/5 to 1/6 of settlers
Been going like this for 75 years in West Bank??
10-15 years in prison without accusations
99.7% conviction rate
Doesn’t like Hamas or the Islamization of the conflict
- Islam against Judaism is wrong
Christians have their rights taken away as well
Remote killing has desensitized people
- There was much more killing in wars previous to the modern wars of today, as well as more civilians
- How you used a sword to kill, but now you press a button and a whole block is gone
If I take a knife and kill you, I’m a terrorist. But if I’m in a F-16 and drop a bomb, thats war.
- If I kidnap you, its terrorism
- If I go in with uniforms and a military unit, kidnap 100 per day, put in prison
Hamas only took 53% of the vote in the election
- Israel put them under siege without a single bullet being shot
- 18 months between election and stoppage of ceasefire
  - Israel killed head of security forces during this time
    - Hama retaliated and kidnapped Shalit
    - Then ceasefire ended
- Not truth that Hamas was elected, attacked Israel
Claims that people pushed against the wall causing radicalization
- Absurd idea that Hamas wasn’t already radicalized before this and the idea that Israel made them radical
Netanyahu financing Hamas record in 2019 recording
Netanyahu talking about sabotaging Oslo accords
Even if Hamas attacked Israel, it doesn’t justify killing all those people in Gaza
Hannibal direction
- Israel activity involved in killing many of the hostages
- Inflated number of casualties on Israeli side due to IDF firing into Kabbtz
Gang rapes and decapitated babies didnt happen
Tries to dismantle and minimize what happened on Oct 7th to counter the argument that Israel should of responded
If people knew that the IDF killed many of their own, gang rape and decapitated babies was false; then invading Gaza was disproportionate.
Oct 7th (references Israeli papers submitted to International Court to counter South Africa)
- 735 civilians killed
- 1 baby under age of 1 year was killed, not decapitated
- 49 children killed under age of 19
- Downplays rape, not systematic, maybe a couple “sexual violence”
- 175-200 kidnapped — said it as a aside fact
- Claims this doesn’t justify 30,000 killed
Talks about how the stories of “gang rapes” or “decapitated babies” or cutting babies out of wombs primed people to accept invading Gaza, yet when he talks about his claims prior to Oct 7, its primes and justifies what happened on Oct 7th.
Unable to respond to the idea that Israel was attacked and was justified in responding to another government invading their country
- Claims its a distraction
Idea that resistance, i.e. invasion and killing of civilians is justified if 100,000 people are killed or injured.
Solution:
- Arresting and putting Israeli gov people in jail for war crimes
Claims Jews came in from the holocaust, claimed 20% of the land
- 55% of “our land” to 30% of the people
- Then goes to, “After 1948 war, Israeli won and took 78% of the land leaving only 22% for P.”
- 1967 all of that was gone
- Horrible peace deals
Wants to go back to Oslo Accords
- Dont know how to deal with Right of Return
Claims Israel is all powerful and P. people are powerless
Israeli society know nothing but war and winning, so its good for them
- Inferring Israeli wants war to continue and not have peace
- Look at polls and history of initiating peace deals
- Israeli’s don’t understand anything but the language of power
Israel tried to pull Iran into the war for no reason
Israel has only given up land because they had to lose it for war
- 1973 gave back Sinai Egyptians crossed the canal and went into war
- Oslo Accords because of the Intifada
- 2006 disengagement: Because Israel had too many loses
- Withdraw from Lebanon: because Hezbollah and too many casualties
- Have never given land out of peace, out of the goodness of their hearts
Doesn’t want to separate Israeli government from the people, because he says people don’t separate Palestinians from Hamas
Israelis happy aid trucks aren’t going into Gaza, claims theres videos on tiktok
Praying for Armageddon documentary
- End of days, second coming of Jesus
- John Haggy - Founded for Christian United for Israel
- $7 billion annual budget to influence support for Israel
- Christians think second coming Jews will be killed or converted
- Jews believe when Messiah comes everybody will be enslaved by the Jews
- Using this to counter the idea that Islam is the most violent religion
- Western world is led by a superpower whose politicians believe in biblical revelation of the end of days
  - He calls this scary, but doesn’t care about what the Islamic countries and their politicians believe
Israel flying in red heefer cows to sacrifice one of their cows to signify the building of the third temple by destroying the Al-Aqsa Mosque
- Temple Institute in Jerusalem
- Flew in 5 from Texas for 500k
- Take a bath with the water from burnt ashes
Netanyahu talking about Amalik, people there in biblical days
- They have all the right to kill children, wives, everybody from Amalik
Claiming Israel has similar rhetoric to ISIS about tend of days and putting religion and politics together
When challenged about solutions, everything goes back to Israel is the one with the power and they need to have the solutions
$200 million of tax exempt money from charities that went to build illegal settlements
Christians supporting Israel, but being anti-semantic
- Robert Spender supporting Israel’s ethnic cleansing
- Elise Stefanik supports Eric Paladino who said Hitler is the kind of leader we need nowadays
Friends of the IDF charity
Zaka Rescue Group
- Behind the decapitated baby narrative
- Raised $50 million by fear mongering
APAC
- Punishing people that don’t support Israel