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Tensions Flare Between Rabbi Boteach and Mohammed Hijab in Wild Israel Debate

On Piers Morgan’s “Uncensored,” Mohammed Hijab mocked Boteach’s family members, would not call Hamas a terrorist organization and refused to shake Boteach’s hand.
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November 16, 2023

“You don’t actually know what you’re talking about,” Piers Morgan said to influencer Mohammed Hijab, who was debating Rabbi Shmuley Boteach on Morgan’s British talk show, “Uncensored.”

Morgan made the statement after Hijab called Winston Churchill a war criminal for the bombings of Dresden and Hamburg, but could not cite any numbers involving German civilian deaths at the hands of the British in World War II.

In a previous debate on the show, between Boteach and Cenk Uygur, host of the podcast “The Young Turks,” when Boteach asked if he would call Churchill a war criminal, Uygur declined to do so, saying they were different time periods.

Morgan has devoted the majority of his shows in the last weeks to pro-Israel or pro-Palestinian representatives, official or unofficial.

The debate Nov 15 between Boteach and Mohammed was wild. Boteach and Hijab often talked over each other.

Boteach criticized Hijab for posting a video where he said he wanted the wife of Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro to know her husband was not a real man. Boteach challenged Hijab to say that Hamas was a terrorist organization, and he would not do so.

Bizarrely, Hijab told Boteach he was being “more slippery than the lubricants that he sells in his daughter’s sex shop,” prompting Boteach to laugh and tell him to “Get you head out of the Jewish bedroom.”

Boteach’s daughter has a shop on Israel that sells such products, and Boteach rebuked Hijab, saying “you’re speaking about sexual lubricants while people are dying.”

Hijab also made a lewd comment about Boteach and his daughter.

When Morgan asked “why, if you’re Israel, would you ever agree to a ceasefire if those hostages aren’t released?” Hijab didn’t answer the question and said the deaths of Palestinians to Hamas was disproportionate.

Asked if Hamas was a terrorist organization, Hijab would not say it was but said “if you say yes to Hamas, you could say yes to IDF.” He also refused to shake Boteach’s hand.

Hijab held up pictures that were blurred but apparently were of killed Palestinians.

“Your son could be returned in a black bag,” Hijab said, mentioning Boteach’s son, Mendy, who serves in the IDF.

Hijab also called Boteach’s son “a coward.”

Boteach replied that Jews would not cower.

He also told Hijab “you’re not a real man, you’re a bully.”

Boteach said he was safer as a Jew wearing a yarmulke in Dubai and Abu Dhabi than on the campus of Columbia University. He said after Hamas is destroyed, democratic elections should take place.

“The fact that he has not been challenged by you is unacceptable,” Boteach said to Morgan.

Morgan told Hijab the real moment when peace could have been achieved was at the 2000 Camp David Summit, where Yasser Arafat rejected the deal offered by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak with President Bill Clinton.

When Morgan asked if anything was achieved in the debate, Boteach said there was and noted he would not be intimidated.

“They believe that Israel is going to disappear,” Boteach said. “They believe we are afraid of them. They believe that we Jews won’t debate them. They believe that we tremble.”

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