Aaron Regunberg says Piker's Hamas comparison is not antisemitic
Aaron RegunbergContributing editor at The New Republic, writing in his interview article
In his New Republic interview with Piker, Regunberg wrote that a quantitative comparison of Hamas and Israel has limits but that Piker's underlying observation about the scale of harm was not antisemitic.
“Personally, I think there are limits to a quantitative comparison of Hamas and Israel, both of which have done horrendous things—but it’s not antisemitic of Piker to make the observation that Israel has killed more innocent people and caused more suffering and destruction than Hamas.”
Interview
Where this statement fits
Hasan Piker’s “Hamas over Israel” comparison
Hasan Piker affirmed a hypothetical preference for Hamas over Israel through lesser-evil reasoning. Jon Favreau disputed the moral comparison, while the ADL cited it as whitewashing terrorism. Piker later acknowledged Hamas war crimes and denied endorsing its domestic policies, while maintaining that Israeli occupation was the overriding concern.
Source and context
Interview
About this source
The New Republic interview by contributing editor Aaron Regunberg. Regunberg puts comments cited by Third Way to Piker one at a time, including the January post calling Hamas "a thousand times better" than Israel, and adds his own assessment after each answer.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
Piker said Hamas did not commit genocide and Israel did, and that this was hard to argue against.
After the quotation
The article moved to Piker's comparison of liberal Zionists to "liberal Nazis."
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
The reference point is Piker's preference for Hamas over Israel and what it justifies. Regunberg disputes the charge that the comparison is antisemitic while saying such comparisons have limits, so he rejects a description without endorsing the preference. Defended or excused is the closest alternative, but he does not say Hamas is better than Israel or that the comparison is justified as stated. Evidence: his own published article.
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More from this case
Read the full casePiker defends his Israel–Hamas comparison in Axios interview
“This is intentionally a provocative statement, but it’s also something that I personally believe as well. I’m not being insincere when I say this.”Read statement
Symone D. Sanders Townsend rejects Piker’s policing analogy
“I’m going to let Eugene move on, but I just want to note, it sounds like the example that you just gave that the people who are protesting the police are Hamas. And I just would reject that as somebody who has protested the police before, but we can move on.”Read statement
Piker reaffirms the comparison on MS NOW: “I do believe that”
“Is Hamas a religious fundamentalist operation that have engaged in violent actions? Of course they have, absolutely. But that violence is directly born out of, and even that repression is directly born out of, the conditions brought about by the occupation that’s been going on for 80 plus years.”Read statement
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- Aaron Regunberg says Piker's Hamas comparison is not antisemitic
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The Dispute Index. "Aaron Regunberg says Piker's Hamas comparison is not antisemitic". First published: 2026-10-06. Last updated: 2026-10-06. https://disputeindex.com/events/4816-in-his-new-republic-interview-with-piker-regunberg