During the online “Overtime” segment of Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” CNN Political Commentator and former Obama Adviser Van Jones stated that American adversaries like Iran, Russia, and China are “jumping on” “reductionist ideas on the left” to drive a wedge between black people and Jewish people on the left.
In response to a question among Jewish people and black people on the left, Jones stated, “There is a deliberate effort on the part of Iran and Russia and China to drive a wedge and to make sure that every African American under the age of 30 –.”
Host Bill Maher then cut in to say, “Well, they’re getting a lot of help from people who want to divide the world into colonizers or colonized and the oppressed and the oppressors. This is how a lot of the youth come to see what’s going on in Gaza as some sort of extension of the Civil Rights movement in America, when it has nothing to do with it.”
Jones agreed and added, “[T]here are some dumb ideas on the left — or some reductionist ideas on the left, but we also have geopolitical adversaries that are jumping on that and making it worse than it should be. And I think what we’ve got to remember is, even if we don’t agree on what’s happening overseas, black people can agree that hostages should be free. We came over here as hostages. We’re not for hostages. Black people should be able to agree that hate crimes against Jewish people are wrong. We stood up for Muslims when they were getting jumped on after 9/11. We stood up for Asians when they were getting jumped on after COVID, we should stick up for Jews. We should be able to agree that Hamas is not a freedom-fighting organization. They’re a freedom-taking, Nazi organization. They do not deserve black support. And we should be able to agree that both Palestinians and Israelis deserve a secure homeland.”
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