Woe to the person who tries to go up against Ben Shapiro in a public debate. You may get an A for courage, but you kind of get an F for lack of sound judgment. Shapiro is famous for obliterating ill-informed and ill-prepared opponents in public forums, and he will take on all comers.
Last night was no different. At Oxford University, Shapiro was speaking at the Oxford Union (an event that, like most university appearances by Shapiro, was protested because the esteemed students at Oxford are triggered by free speech) and spoke about several topics, but obviously, the war between Israel and Hamas took center stage.
When a pro-Palestinian student rose to question Shapiro about the conflict, the results were pretty much what you'd expect.
Epic exchange between @benshapiro and an anti-Israel activist at Oxford University today. This “highly educated” student doesn’t know basic history pic.twitter.com/vbpfDnetgu
— Chaya Raichik (@ChayaRaichik10) October 31, 2023
The quality of the video isn't stellar, but you can still see and hear the entire exchange, in which Shapiro dismantles the activist's rehearsed points one by one, methodically and calmly as he always does.
The video begins with the student trying to condemn Israel for civilian deaths in Gaza, to which Shapiro responds, 'The costs of war are terrible and horrifying. There is a vast difference in moral scope between deliberately going into a civilian area and murdering everyone you can find, and trying to kill a terrorist who is deliberately hiding beneath a civilian area, hiding their rockets in civilian areas, starving their own people ... there is a vast difference.'
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The student then pointedly refuses to answer Shapiro's question about drawing a moral distinction between Hamas and Israel. Shapiro responds by rhetorically asking, 'So, does Hamas have immunity?'
ben always destroying these kids
— aka (@akafacehots) October 31, 2023
Shapiro draws parallels between the Israel-Hamas war and World War II throughout the exchange. The student demonstrates her lack of historical knowledge by claiming that Great Britain never bombed civilians (to an audible gasp from the crowd). Shapiro calmly advises her that she should talk to people in Dresden about that.
“If based on the numbers, more Germans died in WWII than Brits, does that mean the British were wrong in WWII?”
— AG (@AGHamilton29) October 31, 2023
“Britain wasn’t bombing civilians” https://t.co/cnAKTwhna5
A reminder that political & religious extremism is often based on rank ignorance. 'The British didn't bomb German civilians in WWII.' Yes they did. The Western Allied bomber offensive killed about 500,000 Germans. She also rejects a two state solution of course. https://t.co/RgOgVvnHhK
— John Duffield (@jfwduffield) October 31, 2023
Shapiro also lures the student to admit that she believes that Israel occupies 'the entirety of Palestine,' which basically means she does not recognize Israel's right to exist (none of them do).
Look, it’s pretty obvious at this point that the Free Palestine people want the Jews to shut up and die and let the terrorists successfully take over their country. No big riddle to decode here. https://t.co/KcHSQocxw5
— A🌷 (@LeftTheCoast) October 31, 2023
Shapiro is very good at getting his adversaries to say the quiet part out loud, without them even realizing it.
This isn't even fair. @benshapiro completely dismantled her argument. https://t.co/tcwsnmEDgC
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) October 31, 2023
Not a great showing for the "highly educated" student https://t.co/uxjVpW8beX
— Sean Fitzgerald (Actual Justice Warrior) (@IamSean90) October 31, 2023
Ben wiped the floor with this silly woman, I would guess, because she has little experience with counter arguments. Make sure you know what the best opposing arguments are before you stand up and speak - and certainly before you try to lock horns with a professional arguer. https://t.co/UkXPaRhs0y
— Peter Hague PhD (@peterrhague) October 31, 2023
I learned a few things from this 'wise' Hamas apologist: 1) terrorists who hide behind civilians have immunity; 2) no civilians were killed in Nazi Germany by the Allied powers; 3) all of Israel is occupied and Jews should live under Hamas instead. WOW! https://t.co/BvtyCuZePZ
— Conservative Wonk (@Con_Wonk) October 31, 2023
That's a pretty good summary of this exchange. But there is more to come, according to Shapiro.
We have been told that Oxford Union will release the tape of the full hour-long event within 48 hours. https://t.co/5vBAAkiJW9
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) October 31, 2023
We look forward to seeing that.
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