“I’ve condemned October 7, I’ve talked about the crimes that took place. I’ve talked about the heinous violence we saw unfold, as did everyone else,” he says. “I see it as an unfortunate and tragic consequence of 75 years of apartheid and occupation, where desperate people are leaning into unfathomable acts of violence as a final way to try to remind people that they’re there and to make the occupation as costly as possible.”
– Hasan “not a liberal Zionist” Piker
I don’t understand why suddenly so many people on the left are accusing Hasan of being a zionist. Is it because he’s on the news all the time so he faces more scrutiny for being more famous? Is Finkelstein also a zionist? Is Hamas a zionist organisation for publicly supporting a 2 state solution?
I understand that people criticise his moves in electoral politics but the accusations of him being a zionist are a recent development.
With these standards most Palestinians would even be considered zionist because they usually lean very pragmatic in their political demands.
Most Palestinians wouldn’t be arms in arms with Brad Lander.
Is he arms in arms with Brad Lander? Did he even endorse the guy? I think he’s naive in thinking he can change the democratic party through their official channels and also he’s naive for thinking that you can just overlook someone’s recent past if their platform is progressive enough but it’s pretty clear that Hasan is genuinely trying to influence politics to stop the genocide.
It’s good to scrutinise him as he’s a big figure representing leftist politics but scrutinise him on endorsing Lander if he actually did that, rather than vagueposting about him being a zionist because he did an interview with an israeli newspaper in which he says that zionism needs to be treated the same way as nazism.
Is it true what he says about Lander divesting from isntrael bonds? I assume everyone hates him for a reason so what’s the the full story there?
Brad Lander did not actively sell or boycott Israel; he allowed existing bond holdings to mature without reinvestment, a move he describes as standard fiduciary practice rather than political divestment.
When Lander took office as NYC Comptroller in January 2022, the city held ~$39 million in Israel Bonds. By 2023, these bonds matured, and his office chose not to renew them, citing a policy of avoiding foreign sovereign debt and noting the original purchases lacked proper credit analysis or risk management. Lander maintains that the city still holds over $315 million in other Israeli assets, including stocks and real estate, and explicitly opposes the BDS movement.
Piker, conveniently, mentions this.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
I really thought we solved the whole radlib platforming/deplatforming discourse years ago; if they’re bigger than you, you’re the one being platformed
Anti-zionism advanced in any medium is good
Hasan arguably has more reach/is more relevant than haaretz tbf lol
Anti-zionism with liberal zionist ally characteristics.
Usually one doesn’t declare “allies” should be “named and shamed”
So if someone in Israel yells “Come and get it, Anti-zionist!” And we respond, that’s helping Zionism?
if you respond by saying “I condemn hamas” you are, if you respond with talking you also are. There is only one correct response but it’s a fed post.
You know, I might be taking a little frustration with organizing with people out on you.
There is a concept of knowing your audience. Not every part of organizing has to be the maximalist pronounced position. It’s clear that Hasan recognizes the extent of the Overton window in the US and he speaks to that window.
It’s super frustrating to me to hear all these criticisms that he isn’t radical enough. Yeah, no shit that’s how he’s built an audience and influence. Furthermore, it seems to me like he knows that.
He’s a fucking twitch streamer who’s pushing politics left in America.
He’s talking to millions of people who are starting to hate the neoliberal democrat party.
YOUR JOB IS TO HAVE A MORE RADICAL ORGANIZATION READY FOR WHEN PEOPLE RECOGNIZE THE LIMITATIONS OF SUCCDEM ELECTORAL POLITICS.
I don’t fucking care if you think this is the best part forward. The DSA and Hasan Piker are having a tangible affect on US politics. So adjust your approach accordingly.
He’s a fucking twitch streamer who’s pushing politics left in America. He’s talking to millions of people who are starting to hate the neoliberal democrat party.
if he’s moving them away from the democrats that’s good, if he’s sheepdogging radlibs into voting for kamala harris that’s bad.
i’m a centrist here i think we could do actual academic work on the effect he has instead of vibes based analysis of the clips we happened to see
I mean what did you want Hasan to do at that terrible junction? The PSL and other orgs didn’t have the time or organization to be ready to run a candidate against the mainstream candidate. Kamala is only a hair’s breadth better than Trump, but backing a total loser candidate would not have helped. Even if Hassan fan went out and voted PSL in 2024, it would have still been a Trump victory. Plus, with a 50.1% beating a Kamala 30% would have given the fascist an even bigger ego over “How much of Mandate they have.” I wouldn’t be able stand seeing that comment everywhere!
I don’t understand why people here have such strong opinions on the matter. He is useful to us. Dude is a fucking streamer, one who openly praises AES. Rip him when he sheepdogs, laud him when he advocates for revolutionary tactics or other shit we like. The binary thinking here is so strong sometimes.
I wonder if somewhere in the past a bunch of comrades sat around whining about Stalin appearing on the BBC as Stalin finally showing his true pro-capitalist self.
YOUR JOB IS TO HAVE A MORE RADICAL ORGANIZATION READY FOR WHEN PEOPLE RECOGNIZE THE LIMITATIONS OF SUCCDEM ELECTORAL POLITICS.
That is none of my business, I am not American, I don’t give a shit if a nicer democrat is the mayor of fuckass town in the U.S., I am a third worlder, I live in the part of the world that you “not radical enough” fellas would sell out to get closer with democrats.
I geniunely don’t understand how you’re defending this, Palestine is being genocided, and this guy your supposed hero goes and has an interview with an israeli newspaper and says I condemn kkkhaamaaas.
The only optic you have is America and the Democrat “”“”“socialist”“”“” party, you don’t care about Palestine, you don’t care about us, you’d sell each one of us brown, asian and black people from all over the world just to have “Mamdanicare” for 4 years.
Oh ok.
I have some bad news for you then.
No matter how radical I am or the people I might organize with, Hasan Piker has moved the discourse in American politics against the genocide in Palestine more than any of the marches and protests we’ve maybe been involved with.
And I don’t care for any of this liberal politicians in particular nor do I think that electoralism is the path.
There is objective harm reduction with succdems.
I’m begging people to touch grass on this. Hasan is being attacked by the entire mainstream media apparatus right now, with Democrats and Republicans tearing into him for pushing anti-Zionism.
Seriously, he is not your enemy in this lol. He might not have your same exact approach in fighting Zionism, but that doesn’t matter. Be normal and realize when an ally is an ally.
Why does he keep defending our enemies? The democratic party? The same party that wants him gone?
What do you think he actually says all day lol?
He’s not a blue-no-matter-who person. Probably half of his rants are about corrupt Democrats that he despises. I think him moving a bit more towards orgs like PSL would be good, yes, but I can also see the bigger picture here.
I don’t say this often, but this is unironic wrecker shit. He’s one of the highest profile anti-Zionists in the US right now, and he’s being increasingly persecuted by the state. Seriously, pay attention to larger currents.
He is infact a democrat.
Doesn’t it seem a little odd that the publisher puts in an aerial view of Khan Yunus, where you can see a square mile in which every single building is reduced to rubble?
Normally the Zionist sources are saying “it’s not that bad, it’s exaggerated” but then they show the entire city destroyed, in comparison with a photo of a few burnt cars allegedly from the Nova music festival.
The choice of pictures is almost making Hasan’s point for him.
Small arms did this /s
Khamas did Nord Stream II, no I will not explain
I apologize for making two comments in a row defending Piker, but I really don’t think Piker is platforming a big newspaper like Haaretz in this situation. Aside from problems in his message that are true wherever he gives it, it’s generally good to go on reactionary major media platforms to be able to present your arguments to their audience. If it was some tiny zionist rag, then of course he shouldn’t go there and give them air, but this is not that situation.
You can’t beat someone on their turf where they make up the rules.
Hasan on Der Sturmer
If he was using it to argue anti-Nazi points as he is arguing antizionist points here, literally yes, but I’m not sure that the comparison makes sense because I don’t think Der Sturmer would print it, just as I don’t think most of the other major Israeli newspapers would print this interview.
I read the interview and it has a lot of silly Zionist editorializing, but I think Hasan correctly estimated that it would allow him to present his case, even to the incredulity of both the narratorial and interviewing voice. I don’t think the fact that there would ve Zionist editorializing is a reason not to do it so, that’s what most of their articles have anyway, what their audience is reading anyway, the main difference is that what most of their audience does not get from the paper most of the time is people giving simple, clear descriptions of why Israel is a fundamentally malignant project.
he is going there, to be convinced by the right wingers, he is becoming more reactionary and not the otherway around
he is becoming more reactionary
how? He was always kind of a radlib but I don’t really see a shift in his tone.
a few months ago he was supporting a Nazi war criminal SAer candidate
So did a lot of self proclaimed leftists, it was clearly a tactical error but I don’t see that as evidence of him becoming more reactionary. Platner’s platform by itself wasn’t more reactionary than AOC’s or any other mediocre socdem candidate. It’s not exactly the first time he glazed a bad candidate, he gets caught up in electoralist bullshit regularly.
nobody should have supported a 4-time troop let alone a blackwater merc. and that was known before the reddit stuff, the tattoo, or the sex crimes against white women.
tactical error
It was not just a tactical error, it was an ideological error. Candidates are much more than what they had someone write on their policy page.
the tactical error of platforming a nazi, get out
It was more about the incredibly heinous public personal history which could and would have been rejected by anyone with a shred of principle.
has AOC called for expanding the US military?
He is probably only going to be more reactionary, but it’s because of the DNC, not fucking Haaretz. Why would Haaretz convince him of anything? They just gave the same dogwater talking points that he has been refuting for years.
This seems like a bad idea, you generally shouldn’t give interviews to the people who have done everything in their power to smear you and lie about your position, all it does is legitimize their claims about you, and they won’t play fair in the interview at all.
Also Hasan when meets and praises Bernie Sanders and Brad Lander: “They are not like other liberal zionists.”
he’s right. many people are passive lib zios because they don’t understand. these two do understand and want to preserve israel as a jewish state through reform and “being nicer to the colonized”. sanders was a settler on a kibbutz and is nostalgic for the israel of the past. lander actively worked to tie israel to new york as comptroller. they aren’t like other liberal zionists, they’re worse
in case you’re curious about golda mier
https://imeu.org/resources/resources/quick-facts-golda-meir/163
Lander’s views must be condemned, but it’s true that he has unusual views for a self-identified Zionist, because most of them explicitly support ethnonationalism over democracy and he, despite this being a Zionist and this being contradictory, says that everyone in Israel should have equal standing under the law regardless of ethnicity.
I think Lander is an awful fool of a lib Zionist and he shouldn’t be supported, and furthermore that Hasan is too soft on him, but Hasan is correct that Landers has unusual views.
I say this as someone who dislikes Hasan and his apologists here.
New York City public pension funds increased their investment in Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons supplier, by 268% under Comptroller Brad Lander’s management between June 2024 and June 2025.
The holdings grew from approximately $280,000 to over $1 million in the arms manufacturer in the middle of Israel’s livestreamed genocide of the Palestinians. Lander defends the investments as strictly adhering to a “fiduciary lens” required by law to secure maximum returns for retirees, stating he does not bring politics to pension management.
Brad Lander has consistently stated that he opposes the Global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, arguing that its tenets are incompatible with Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.
Brad Lander left the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) in October 2023 because the organization promoted a pro-Palestinian rally in Times Square on October 8. Lander described the rally as “heinous” and “vile” for the way it spoke about Hamas, stating he could no longer remain a member after 30 years.
I have no interest in arguing that Landers is in any way good, he is still a reactionary running dog, and I told you he should be condemned and Hasan is too nice to him, it’s simply a fact that while he is a Zionist, he has some strange views compared to the Zionist establishment. Strange, not materially better, just strange.
oh no, the newest influencer sweetheart of Usian established liberal zionist politicians is… gasp! a liberal zionist? never meet your heroes, kids.
that being said i was a baby leftist once, and Hasan was an integral part of that development. is he actually a principled socialist playing both sides to keep his job/mansion? has he actually sold out for the clout (and the “hella israeli hasanabiheads”)? who the hell knows, but actions speak louder than words or thoughts. wouldn’t be the first demsoc to sell out ig
He just confronted a zionist rag and flat out stated liberal zionists should be “named and shamed” while properly contextualized October 7th to a rabid zionist audience
In what universe is this “selling out”? The distress zionist scum will get reading this interview is worth it on it’s own
might be true, didn’t read the article tho because idc that much. also am not Usian so their local politics isn’t really my jam, but i have seen him be really chummy with a lot of the establishment, while also being maybe the next most talked about man at Fox, right after Trump. but then again the whole discussion about entryism vs wider political organizing alongside/within the current system isn’t something i’m really looking to get into right now.
No investigation, no right to speak.
I haven’t read the article, yet, either but it’s probably worth reading it before declaring him persona non grata.
Edit:
Politeness aside, Piker doesn’t tone down his politics. When confronted with some of his most provocative lines – that “Hamas is a thousand times better than Israel,” and that he’d “vote for Hamas over Israel every single time” – Piker doesn’t budge.
It sounds pretty strident.
aight, is cool.
The inevitable conclusion to any debate pervert’s story arc
Better than the Kirk ending atleast.
and this is how they repay him lmao, why aren’t you nicer to us
This says a lot however, it shows that his rhetoric is making liberal Zionists in America to actually consider what they are supporting and what they are belonging to. Pushing against the idea that one can just be a Zionist who doesn’t believe in apartheid and occupation, just this vague idea of Jewish self-determination that is all positive and no contradictions, is good precisely because it is forcing the liberal Zionists to recognize they are being used as momentum and defense of the apartheid state that exists now. Israel is no longer a fantasy or an utopia, it is an actual state with actual politics that is proactively co-opting those liberal Zionists to use the very same Zionist label to commit genocide. It’s at this point getting similar to wearing a swastika and saying it is a good luck charm. Jews in US are not Hindu or Buddhist unrelated to the Nazism, they are part of the very same political, economic and military entanglement that is committing the genocide.
it shows that his rhetoric is making liberal Zionists in America to actually consider what they are supporting and what they are belonging to.
Inside every single liberal Zionist is a Gvir and a Smotrich struggling to get out. There will not have a change of heart. They didn’t have a change of heart on Oct 7 and they won’t have a change of heart now. The main point of attacking liberal Zionists is to force their inner Gvir and Smotrich to come out so that the rest of the world can properly see them as the enemies of humanity that they are. The world would be better off if every single liberal Zionist cut the bullshit and quit pretending they’re not just another Gvir and Smotrich.
