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Against the backdrop of intensifying celebrity commentary on the Israel-Hamas conflict, Bill Maher used the opening night of Rosh Hashanah to go after Macklemore directly.
On Friday's episode of HBO's "Real Time," Maher argued that the rapper's characterization of the war in Gaza as a genocide represents a pattern of "moral confusion" feeding a global rise in antisemitism.
Macklemore, whose legal name is Benjamin Hammond Haggerty, had made headlines in early September after calling for "Free Palestine" from the stage at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, while opening for Ed Sheeran.
He wore a keffiyeh and told the crowd he wanted those words to reach people "all the way in Gaza to the occupied West Bank." Maher pushed back on the genocide framing directly.
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