Why Ben Shapiro Won’t Debate Dave Smith on Israel. Even Joe Rogan Called Him Out

Joe Rogan just outed the one debate the “facts don’t care about your feelings” guy will never have – and the reason will shock you.

Last week, on The Joe Rogan Experience #2474, comedian and libertarian podcast host Dave Smith threw a truth bomb that’s still resounding across X and YouTube.

In a discussion of Israel’s impact on American foreign policy, Dave Smith said that Ben Shapiro had been obsessing over Israel as his signature issue for the last two and a half years, but had yet to accept a debate with any of his critics.

Even Joe Rogan weighed in, it’s like a boxer shadowboxing with imaginary foes and dodging the ones that are real. Dave Smith even offered to debate Shapiro anytime he wants. The result? Crickets.

Just more name-calling by the Daily Wire’s founder. This was no gotcha moment. This was just the latest installment of a very one-sided feud.

Let’s start with the men themselves, whose worldviews are worlds apart. Dave Smith, host of Part of the Problem and self-proclaimed Anarcho-Capitalist, is a Jewish comedian whose grandmother was a Holocaust survivor.

His stance on Israel is not based on hate; it’s based on principle. “The occupation of the West Bank and the siege of Gaza since 1967 have resulted in millions of Palestinians being denied their fundamental rights: freedom of movement, a trial by jury, owning property, or voting in elections,” says Smith.

“Netanyahu’s strategy of propping up Hamas for years has been a cynical ploy to ensure there is no Palestinian state ever. October 7th was a horrific reminder of a failed policy.” And what’s the solution?

“End the occupation, stop sending blank check after blank check to Israel, and let diplomacy win instead of war.”

This is classic libertarian foreign policy: non-interventionist, anti-empire, and focused intently on how government overreach breeds terrorist blowback.

Ben Shapiro, on the other hand, is Israel’s most polished American apologist.

The conservative commentator has a different view of every Israeli military action: it’s all self-defense against existential threats. Shapiro celebrates IDF operations in Gaza, “Israel takes extraordinary efforts to avoid harming civilians while Hamas deliberately fires missiles from within civilian populations.”

He waves away the “occupation” charge, references rejected Palestinian peace deals, and immediately accuses anyone who disagrees of antisemitism or ignorance. For Shapiro, debating Israel’s foreign policy is akin to blood libel.

He’s built a media empire on his stance: “facts don’t care about your feelings” is his slogan, but Israel’s foreign policy is always moral and justified in his world.

Their paths have crossed many times before, publicly and painfully.

In early March of 2026, Smith was a guest on Piers Morgan Uncensored and referred to the IDF as “the worst terrorist organization in the region,” going on to say that “U.S. foreign policy under both parties has gotten us into a situation where there are massive amounts of deaths of civilians in the Middle East.

”Shapiro was not pleased. He took to his own show and referred to Smith as “a guy who hates America,” a “poorly informed comedian who steals from Noam Chomsky,” and went so far as to say that Shapiro would not engage Smith in a debate.

Smith responded on Part of the Problem with an episode entitled “A Response to Pathetic Ben Shapiro,” where he took Shapiro apart point by point. Smith reminded everyone that “if you criticize endless war, it’s not because you hate America. It’s because you love America.”

Shapiro responded by saying nothing. No debate, no engagement. Just more attacks from a safe distance.

And that’s where the story gets uncomfortable for Shapiro fans, and why Shapiro is justified in his fear of debating Smith.

Because Smith is no shouting activist on a college campus. He is a Jewish voice with receipts. decades of settlement expansion, over 40,000 civilian casualties in Gaza since October 2023, and Netanyahu’s own admissions of weakening the Palestinian Authority to empower Hamas.

Public opinion in America has shifted; support for Israel’s policies has plummeted among younger Americans. Shapiro has built his brand arguing with gender-confused teens and left-wing activists.

Debating a Jewish libertarian who knows his history, international law, and American aid money? That’s a different story. A story that could reveal the disconnect between Shapiro’s bombast and the reality of occupations, checkpoints, home demolitions, and a cycle of violence fueled by American tax dollars.

Smith has debated many of the biggest names on the topic: Coleman Hughes, Douglas Murray, always basing his arguments on principles rather than personal attacks. Shapiro, on the other hand, calls him an “intellectually dishonest troll” and says he has better fish to fry, or rather, easier debates to win.

And then there was his Rogan show, where Smith scored a home run. “You can’t say someone’s ‘beyond the pale’ and then refuse to have the conversation your audience desperately wants to have!” said Rogan, ever the seeker of truth, saw through the dodge for what it was … a dodge. Not courage, but calculation.

You know what? I’m with Dave on this.

The current policy of the Israeli government is endless occupation, civilian casualties that even old allies find shocking, and dragging America into Middle Eastern quagmires.

It hurts everyone, even Israelis who want peace. Dave Smith is NOT “anti-Israel”, he’s anti-endless-war and pro-reality. The guy who has the courage to say the emperor has no clothes while Shapiro sells the same old suit.

The ball’s in Shapiro’s court: debate Dave Smith … live … no edits, and let the audience decide for themselves. Because if the facts don’t care about feelings, what’s there to fear?