“Are you ready for the backlash you’re going to receive?” Hasan Piker asks jokingly at the start of our video interview.
This is the first time that Piker, an anti-Zionist Twitch streamer who has become a boogeyman for many in the Jewish-American world, speaks to the Israeli media. At 35, Piker boasts over 3 million subscribers to his livestreams mixing left-wing politics, news commentary and internet culture, and frequently draws controversy over his rhetoric on Israel, Hamas and U.S. foreign policy.
Being the enfant terrible of the online left would not, on its own, merit an interview. But Piker, a former producer and host at The Young Turks (founded by his uncle Cenk Uygur), has become an increasingly influential figure on the U.S. progressive left thanks to his marathonic livestreams. He has hosted Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna on his stream and interviewed Zohran Mamdani during the New York mayoral race as well as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Over the past election cycle, he has also become a campaign surrogate, rallying for anti-Zionist progressives Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier, who won their New York primaries, and Francesca Hong, who narrowly lost the Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor.
His influence was particularly evident in Michigan, where his support for Abdul El-Sayed drew criticism from the Jewish establishment. El-Sayed’s victory, after pro-Israel groups spent heavily to defeat him, suggested that Israel will remain a defining issue in Democratic primaries through the midterms and, Piker believes, into the 2028 presidential race.
But Piker says much of the outrage against him stems from misunderstanding – some of it by “professional misunderstanders” – and from the nature of streaming eight hours a day, leaving behind more than 21,000 hours of live video since 2018. Though he has apologized for some remarks – including calling ultra-Orthodox Jews “inbred” and saying America “deserved” the September 11 attacks – he doubled down on others, including his claim that Hamas is “a thousand times better” than Israel and his frequent comparisons of Zionism to Nazism, liberal Zionists included. The United Kingdom denied him entry, saying his presence “may not be conducive to the public good,” and the University of Washington recently canceled a planned talk.