Of all the anti-Israel activists in the US, Miko Peled has to rank among the most disagreeable. Born in Israel, the son of an Israeli general, Peled currently resides in Southern California and has hitched his wagon to the forces that wish to destroy Israel, which Peled describes as an apartheid state. Like many other anti-Israel activists, Peled is on the lecture tour, mostly speaking at universities on behalf of this or that radical group. Easily rattled, in the style of his compatriot, Norman Finklestein, Peled doesn't do well when confronted by opposing opinions. An ornery individual, indeed.
In May 2013, Peled came to speak at UC Irvine. I dropped in and videotaped his presentation, much to his displeasure, but he couldn't stop me. You can watch the videotape here.
Quite by accident, I happened to catch one of his latest appearances last night on YouTube where he debated a pro-Israel activist named Joseph Cohen about the current Israeli-Hamas war. The debate was moderated by Eli Hassell, who has a podcast entitled, Insightful Conversations". It only lasted about 25 minutes because at that point, Peled, who was taking a licking from Cohen, abruptly stormed away from the interview presumably to find refuge in some tunnel underneath Gaza.
Incredibly, Peled, when confronted by the sheer inhumanity and butchery of Hamas's attack on October 7, implied that many of the Jewish dead were, in fact, killed by Israeli Defense Forces responding to the attacks! When Cohen listed the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7, Peled replied that he saw no evidence of that and that Cohen was a liar. He even defended the hostage-taking by Hamas saying that it was the whole purpose of the attack-to take hostages that Hamas could exchange for Palestinians "kidnapped" and "tortured" and "languishing in Israeli prisons.
Watch for yourself.
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