Short answer: Yes. As of August 2026, Bill Maher has been one of the most consistent pro-Israel voices in mainstream American entertainment since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack. On his HBO show "Real Time with Bill Maher," he has repeatedly defended Israel's right to exist, argued that antisemitism (not legitimate criticism) drives much of the harshest anti-Israel rhetoric, and challenged fellow liberals, Democrats, and celebrities he believes hold Israel to a double standard. He is alive and remains an active television host.
What Bill Maher has actually said and done
- November 10, 2023: On the Real Time episode that aired that Friday, Maher defended a 43-minute uncensored screening of Hamas October 7 attack footage, the film "Bearing Witness," held separately at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, and criticized pro-Palestinian student protesters, saying many preferred to view Hamas as "a kind of a rag-tag bunch of underdogs," according to The Hollywood Reporter.
- December 15, 2023: In an eight-minute Real Time monologue, Maher told Palestinians that Israel is "here to stay," acknowledged that Palestinian displacement decades ago was "unjust" but argued that territorial change has occurred throughout history, and criticized the "river to the sea" slogan used by campus activists, as reported by The Times of Israel.
- April 26, 2024: On that Friday's broadcast, Maher criticized pro-Palestinian activists who blocked highways and bridges, calling the tactic "kind of privilege-y" since it mainly inconvenienced ordinary commuters rather than changing minds, per The Times of Israel.
- October 2024: Maher said on Real Time that singer Chappell Roan, after she reinterpreted the Statue of Liberty poem as a call for freedom for people in "occupied territories," would be thrown "off a roof" if she lived under Hamas rule in Gaza, using the remark to argue that Western progressives underestimate the treatment of women and LGBT people under Hamas governance. Reported by The Times of Israel and Deadline.
- May 15, 2026: On the Real Time episode airing closest to the 78th anniversary of Israel's Declaration of Independence, Maher delivered a monologue arguing that global outrage focuses on Israel while far worse abuses in China, Russia, Sudan, Iran, Myanmar, Haiti, the Congo, and North Korea draw comparatively little attention, concluding "that's how you know it's antisemitism, it's the inconsistency." Covered by VINnews and JNS.
- June 28, 2026: Maher received the Kennedy Center's 27th Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, after an earlier White House-linked denial was reversed, per CNN. The award recognized his comedy career broadly, not his Israel commentary specifically, but it confirms he was alive, active, and publicly prominent through mid-2026.
Context: who is Bill Maher, and why does he talk about Israel so often
Bill Maher (born January 20, 1956) is an American comedian, political commentator, and longtime host of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher." He has a Jewish mother (Julie Berman, of Hungarian Jewish descent) and an Irish Catholic father; he was raised Catholic and did not learn of his mother's Jewish background until his teens. He is a self-described atheist or agnostic who does not practice Judaism religiously but has repeatedly identified with Jewish cultural heritage and history in his commentary, particularly since October 7, 2023.
Since the Hamas attack, Maher has used his weekly monologues to make a sustained, public case that Israel's existence is justified by the historical persistence of antisemitism, that much of the harshest "anti-Zionist" rhetoric on college campuses and the political left functions as antisemitism rather than legitimate policy criticism, and that Democrats have been too slow or too reluctant to correct anti-Israel positions within their own coalition. He has criticized specific celebrities, activists, and protest tactics, such as blocking bridges and highways, that he sees as either factually wrong about the conflict or applying standards to Israel that are not applied to other countries with far worse human-rights records.
He is not a monolithic booster with no criticism at all: he has criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at points and has occasionally acknowledged Palestinian civilian suffering as tragic, even while rejecting calls to boycott or delegitimize Israel. No reporting reviewed here shows Maher participating in or endorsing any boycott of Israel; the opposite pattern holds, he has consistently argued against boycotts and against the "apartheid" and "colonizer" framings used by BDS-aligned voices.
The bottom line
Bill Maher is a living, active television host who has been a vocal, repeat, on-air defender of Israel's right to exist and a sharp critic of what he calls antisemitism disguised as anti-Zionism, especially since October 7, 2023. The record supports describing him as pro-Israel, delivered with a nuanced, sometimes blunt comedic style, not as a one-note advocate or as a critic of Israel's legitimacy.
Show your own support for Israel
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Last updated August 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
