Review of Honestly's "Is Israel's War Just?" Debate
This is a response to The Free Press and Honestly’s recent debate. You can find it here: https://www.thefp.com/p/is-israels-war-just-eli-lake-and-845
Note, this debate came a week before the UN confirmed that ~11K of the ~32 total deaths in Gaza were unverified. So that “one thing the four panelists agree on” wasn’t true. The Israel side articulated doubt in the numbers, while the Palestine Supporters admitted to blind faith in anything they can use to condemn Israel.
Briahna Joy Gray either believes she knows more about Arabic than Arabic speakers, or feels compelled to lie to defend Hamas. Either is gross.
“No record of gay lynchings” is such an insane lie to make out loud when anyone can google this.
The Free Press usually gets it right, but this debate can only be described as awful. The problem wasn't the emotions; it was the lack of moderation, especially with grifter Briahna Joy Gray involved.
I really have nothing to write about Eli Lake or Michael Moynihan. They’re good orators, but they were interrupted over and over by Briahna. They rightfully let her expose her ignorance.
Listening to Jake Klein and Briahna Gray "debate" against anyone has cost me more brain cells than all the alcohol I've ever consumed. Hitting your head against the pavement would be better than listening to either of these two, especially Briahna Gray.
On a few occasions, the pro-Israel side asks Gray and Klein whether they would recognize any Israeli state. They seem incapable or disinterested in answering. Despite not being able to answer basic questions, both regularly interrupt their opponents when they have a placcard strategy statement to throw out.
Gray is incapable of actual debate. She simply rapid fire spits out blood libel and placard strategy claims. She is incapable of elaborating on her claims because they’re nonsense. Gray convinces the audience that Israel's war is just by simply showing what Israel haters are like, i.e., dishonest, violent people. Gray is embarrassing, even for a terrorist group known for suicide bombers and conspiracies of England having “stolen Big Ben.”
At one point, Gray actually says, "“When Hamas is talking about eliminating Israel, it’s talking about not killing all of the Jews. It’s about eliminating the idea of a Jewish state, an ethno-national state, and having a state more like what we have in America.” This wasn't even in response to (pro-Israel) Michael Moynihan mentioning Hamas' charter and revised charter both explicitly call for the murder of Jews worldwide, or a response to the many speeches by Hamas where they call to kill Jews worldwide. No, Gray just throws out this line amid a bunch of other nonsense, long after evidence was provided of the contrary. It never occurs to Gray that she's fighting for an Arabic, strict Sharia Law, ethnostate, as she denounces Israel as the one ethnostate.
Naturally, Eli Lake couldn’t hold in the laughter by this point. Who could?
Apparently, Briahna stormed off stage and threw her headset at an event organizer after the debate. She felt disrespected over her views like, ‘Hamas is a tolerant org.’, something that is as laughable as dangerous.
Gray doesn’t come off as a "Hamas supporter." That would be an understatement. It would imply she listens to what Hamas says, which she clearly does not. Rather, Gray comes off as a Hamas fetishizer. She builds an idealized image of Hamas, despite vaguely denouncing their actions on October 7 early on. It becomes clear from listening to Briahna that she doesn’t actually care what Hamas or Palestinians say, but rather what she sees online. She is unable to sympathize with Gaza civilians who deserve better than Hamas, let alone Jews.
Gray repeatedly references the gory content she fixates on social media. She gives several dog whistles to justify the murdering of Jews. Like the “woke Candace Owens” Gray has come to be seen as, she moves past some of her old, discredited, racist beliefs. She doesn’t repeat her beliefs that Netanyahu was born in the US and that Jews all come from Europe, delusions she’s known to hold. She moves on to new insane ideas.
Compared to Gray, Jake Klein appears quiet throughout the debate. It’s as if he’s in shell shock, realizing last minute how absolutely evil and greedy his partner Gray is. Maybe one day Klein will realize he’s a Jew, and standing against half the Jews on Earth won’t do him any favors.
When Klein does chime in, it’s minutes of comparisons between Israel::US and Palestine::Native Americans. Over and over, Klein repeats his qualms with the US treatment of Native Americans, eventually suggesting that the solution for the crisis is for Israel to naturalize 10+ million Arabs into a country the size of New Jersey. These false comparisons are not addressed, because Gray interrupts everyone.
Real quick: The idea that "Palestinians are basically Native Americans" is offensive as hell. Natives are in no way like Islamist terrorist groups. The 18th century is not like today. This wild comparison downplays the brutality of Hamas, known for engaging in modern-day sex slavery, child brides, child soldiers, etc. Jake’s false comparison attempts to hide that Jews are indigenous to the Levant, something backed by archaeology, genetic studies and Abrahamic religious beliefs. Any comparison between the US and the Levant distorts the geographic reality that we are talking about a small piece of land, once barren, now in holy war. The only accurate comparison is that there is diversity within Native American culture and thought, like there is diversity among the Arab tribes. We can hope people arent stupid enough to fall for this comparison, but then again, Flat Earthers exist, and Briahna believes Hamas doesn’t want to kill all the Jews.
One of the hardest parts about being an Israel and Jewish ally is expecting valid arguments against us. Due to generational guilt and inherited trauma, we want to believe there is a valid reason people have hated us so long and so deeply. We want to believe there is a reason Gray—having known nothing about Gaza prior to it becoming a viral discussion on social media—is so open about blood libel. We listen to our haters. And we get the answer immediately: The people who hate us are desperate for a scapegoat, not a solution.
The whole debate is a reminder that Palestine Supporters are not coming from a place of intellectual honesty or even care for Arab refugees. No. They’re just pure evil, ranting about how Western society is worse than Islamist rule, where gender apartheid exists. Both Gray and Klein seem desperate to make the situation in Gaza about themselves while demonstrating that they have less skin in the game than their debate rivals. While the Israel advocates discuss their real connection to the Levant, the Palestine advocates discuss their obsession with social media, Gray repeating that she is fixated on Pallywood gore videos.
At no point do either Gray or Klein try to explain how Jews can defend themselves or why leaving Hamas in power benefits Gaza. The only focus these two have is blaming Israel and US, while demanding that Palestine takes no accountability, even for actions like ripping out water pipes to make shoddy missiles. Like Rat Fink, both Briahna and Jake seem more interested in profitting on the war than looking for solutions. We all know that Gaza is better off without corrupt Islamist leaders who kill people without trial and steal international donations. Some people, like Gray and Klein, simply don’t care about freedom.
After the debate, the moderator says the audience went from 70% favoring the resolution that Israel’s war is just to 74% favoring it. These numbers match polls of the US, minus the easily influenced Gen Z, which has a scary percentage idolizing Hamas, Houthis, Taliban and other terrorist groups. Again, neither Eli Lake or Michael Moynihan say anything profound in the little time they speak before interruption. Simply listening to the evil people behind Palestine, whether it is the brutal leaders of the Islamic Republic, North Korea, or race-baiter and grifter Briahna Joy Gray, is enough for a rational person to run away from the Pro-Palestine cause.
In due time, the so-called Palestine Supporters will get support for Israel from 74% to 90%. There is only so much lying, threats, violence and destruction of property people can take. The othe 10% will always hate Israel, because people like Briahna Joy Gray simply don’t respect Jews being alive.
I repeat this too often: Arab refugees deserve better than Palestine and Palestine Supporters.
Update: The Free Press’ Eli Lake added more details to how horrible Briahna is.
After the debate, Gray told the moderator, Triggernometry’s Konstantin Kisin, “This is the most Islamophobic, racist audience I’ve ever seen. I hope someone drops a bomb on this entire building.” Again, she chose to tell her audience she is violent and intolerant. Nobody made her do this.
If you want people to believe that you’re a tolerant human being, don’t talk about your fantasy of bombing people you disagree with. Briahna, of course, could care less what people think of her, so long as she’s paid.
Briahna was then ridiculed on X because of her insane comments. Rather than take accountability for saying something objectively wrong and dangerous, she doubled down on it.
Race baiter Briahna repeats that Hamas are not antisemitic, and we should ignore there recent calls to murder all the Jews worldwide. She cites someone else, doesn’t matter who because this isn’t valid and just shows how little care for Jewish life she has.
Eli Lake wrote about this response on TFP’s June 4 email, “But the document in question was never ratified to replace its original charter from 1988 that explicitly calls for the murder of Jews (as opposed to Zionists). Even still, the 2017 document was likely crafted for the organization’s many useful idiots in the West when confronted with the fact that this death cult revels in Jewish bloodshed.”
Do I need to share all the videos of Hamas spokespeople calling to murder Jews worldwide since this never ratified document? In 2021, they begged their followers, people like Briahna, to buy cheap knives to behead Jews worldwide. In response, Arabs in Beglium made a band called Use Knife, which antisemitic (but admittedly good taste in music) radio station NTS championed.
I’ll repeat: Briahna is not just a Hamas supporter. She fantasizes about them. Of course she wants to bomb the “Zionist Jews” who laugh at her. Violence is their thing.
