During a heated exchange on British journalist Piers Morgan’s talk show about Israel, New York Post columnist Douglas Murray blasted "The Young Turks" host Cenk Uygur as a "low-rent racist" and a "low-grade thug."
Murray also accused the pro-Palestinian commentator of only caring about defending innocent people when it involves slamming Jewish people.
Appearing on "Piers Morgan Uncensored" on Thursday, both Murray and Uygur went toe-to-toe on the Israel-Hamas war, which devolved into insults and intense rebukes exchanged between the two men opposed to each other over the conflict.
'SNL' MOCKING STEFANIK INSTEAD OF COLLEGE PRESIDENTS WAS A 'COMPLETE BREAKDOWN OF COMEDY'
Murray, who has recently visited Gaza to cover Israel’s offensive into that territory following Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre, defended the Jewish state’s war effort in the argument with Uygur, who alleged that Israel is killing innocent Palestinians.
After going back and forth over whether Israel doesn’t care about how many innocent Palestinians are killed in its war, Murray took the gloves off, telling Morgan, "Your other guest, I mean, I don’t know what kind of creature he is. He’s a kind of low-grade thug, as far as I can see. He’s listened to nothing I’ve said."
Uygur interjected, saying, "Yeah, yeah. I know, because I’m Muslim. That’s what you call all Muslims. I got it, racist."
Murray replied he thought Uygur was a "low-rent racist." He then rejected Uygur’s premise that he and other pro-Israel supporters don’t care about Palestinian children.
He said, "First of all, you say I don’t care about the death of Palestinian children. Yes, I do care. I care very deeply about it. But I also know that the responsibility for their deaths lies on Hamas, which has misgoverned their society for the last 16 years and now has been leading the country into being in a war with Israel."
As his rebuttal continued, he then cited his experience as a journalist in the field to prove that he knew more about the issue than Uygur.
"I don’t know if you ever even leave your own bedroom, and I can tell already that you don’t because you’ve already said something that demonstrates you know nothing about this conflict," he said, before mentioning Uygur’s assertion that "we need to push for a two-state solution and give legitimacy to the Palestinian Authority."
Grilling Uygur even harder, Murray added, "You have gone on and on tonight throwing accusations out against the Jewish state, against me. It’s the sort of thing you do. I know you’re a sort of online pugilist and think you can run for office and good luck with that. But I’d just like to point out that you only really get animated if the Jews are involved."
When Uygur got his chance to respond, he ripped Murray’s alleged apathy towards Palestinians and defended himself as a friend to Jewish people.
He first said, "In terms of every right-wing supporter of Israel, their only tactic is, ‘Hey, don’t look at the 8,000 murdered children. Don’t look at the 6,400 murdered women. Don’t look at the fact that all the hospitals in northern Gaza are being shut down. Don’t look at the fact that four out of five people in northern Gaza are starving right now and half of the people in southern Gaza are starving.'"
"Instead, ‘Anti-Semite, anti-Semite!’," he said, giving his impression of Israel supporters.
While Murray kept trying to interrupt, Uygur continued, "I just told you how much I want peace and security for Israel, how much I hated what happened on October 7. What you don’t know is I started The Young Turks with two Jewish friends. And so the whole program is both Jews and Muslims. You know nothing, you know nothing. I have Jewish family and friends."
He then accused Murray of having "hatred," and seeking the deaths of Muslims and Palestinians while blaming them for their deaths.
