"I will vote for Hamas over Israel": American internet star shakes up the Democrats
Hasan Piker, who has millions of followers and is considered a prominent voice on the American left, refuses to apologize for his harsh statements against Israel. At the same time, his influence on the Democratic Party is growing.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, provocative internet commentator Hasan Piker clarified that he has no regrets at all about his extreme statements against Israel. Piker, who regularly attacks the State of Israel and its supporters in live broadcasts lasting many hours, claimed that his comments do not cause any harm, even in this tense period when hostility toward Jews is rising around the world. Among other things, Piker has previously compared liberal Zionists to "liberal Nazis" and even explicitly stated that he would "vote for Hamas over Israel every time."
Despite the sharp criticism and repeated accusations of antisemitism, Piker refuses to apologize and insists on defining himself as an "anti-Zionist." According to him, "There are people out there who talk about Jews from a very antisemitic perspective, some of them on the right to be honest, and they don't get the same level of scrutiny and criticism as I do."
35-year-old Piker, a New Jersey native who grew up in Turkey in a wealthy family, has become one of the most controversial yet influential voices on the web in recent years. He holds a huge audience of about 3.1 million followers on the Twitch platform and millions more on social networks like Instagram, YouTube, and X.
Although he defines himself as a Marxist, Piker operates a media empire from his home that draws quite a bit of criticism, against the backdrop of his extravagant lifestyle that has become a real political force. He promotes candidates from the radical left in the United States, calls for special taxation of billionaires, demands rent control, supports the establishment of a free Palestinian state, and calls for an immediate cut in American military aid to Israel.
Piker's name has become a kind of charged political test as Democrats struggle over the future of the party. While moderate figures and strategists like James Carville threaten to leave the party because of the rise of this force, prominent progressive figures like Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders collaborate with him publicly. Recently, he even helped candidate Abdul El-Sayed win a tight primary in the Michigan Senate, an achievement considered a painful blow to the traditional Democratic establishment.
Piker's provocations, which began his career on his uncle Cenk Uygur's left-wing channel, "The Young Turks," do not stop at criticism of Israel. In the past, he claimed that America "deserved 9/11," a statement about which he later said he could have phrased more carefully. Today, he is banned from entering the UK because his presence there was defined as "not conducive to the public good."
Nevertheless, he does not apologize for his blunt style. Republican Senator Rick Scott, with whom Piker has a bitter history, called him a "crazy America-hater and terrorist sympathizer." To this, Piker responded to the Wall Street Journal: "I am rude, and sometimes I will bully bullies. But I would rather be someone who doesn't stand by the rules of etiquette, but is on the right side of history."
The big question now hovering over the political system in the United States is whether the candidates supported by Piker can go all the way and win, and whether the Democratic Party can survive this internal rift. Piker himself dismisses with contempt the claim that the party must turn to the center to remain relevant in the upcoming elections: "The 'everything is fine, we must turn to the center' concept is exactly what caused the Democrats to lose to Trump twice. The difference this time is that the voters are aware of it."
