Coleman Hughes Special: Israel, Hamas & the Myth of Moral Equivalence

Conversations With Coleman

The Free Press

Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.8 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 August 2025

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this special episode, I take on probably the most controversial and emotionally fraught topic of the moment: the Israel-Hamas conflict. I think war crimes have been committed on both sides. But that doesn’t mean I think the two sides are morally equivalent. Today, I argue that there’s a fundamental asymmetry between Israel and Hamas, one that’s too often blurred or ignored by the mainstream media. Israel’s actions, while sometimes flawed or tragic in consequence, are ultimately rooted in a defensive logic. Hamas, on the other hand, has explicitly genocidal goals. But where does that leave us when we see images of children starving and hear reports that Israel is responsible? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to another episode of Conversations with Coleman.
0:03.9	Today I'd like to share a few thoughts about what's happening in Gaza.
0:15.6	This is a difficult topic and there's no way to say anything meaningful about it without offending people. But I think
0:22.4	it's important to discuss nonetheless. As I've said on this show and on a few of my Joe Rogan
0:28.4	appearances over the past few years, I believe that in the war between Israel and Hamas,
0:35.0	the Israelis are the good guys and Hamas are the bad guys.
0:39.0	That may seem like a cartoonish way to describe the situation, or it might seem like an obscene
0:44.8	opinion given the images of emaciated children that you've probably seen over the past
0:49.3	few weeks, but it's still the truth. And it's a truth that's incredibly easy to lose sight of
0:55.3	amid the day-to-day coverage of this war.
0:58.5	In my view, the deepest tragedy in the war right now
1:02.5	is that both sides have committed war crimes,
1:05.8	and in both cases, those war crimes are falling on Palestinian civilians.
1:12.9	The truth, of course, is that every war features war crimes, but usually each army commits those crimes against the enemy's
1:20.0	population. In this case, the Palestinians of Gaza have received a double dose of the excesses
1:26.1	of each side. But here's the crucial point.
1:29.3	That doesn't make both sides morally equal. Let me begin by making something clear.
1:37.3	When I say that the Israelis are the good guys in this war, I'm not saying that everything the IDF does is justifiable, far from it.
1:46.7	And I'm not saying that Israeli soldiers haven't committed war crimes. Certainly they have.
1:51.8	What I mean is that Israel's goals as a country are far more benign and ethical than Hamas's goals.
1:59.7	Israel's goal is to live in peace with its neighbors.
2:04.0	Now, you can focus on the far-right faction within Israel that wants more than that,
	...

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