When Russia suddenly attacked Ukraine more than two years ago, politicians on both sides of the aisle seemed to be briefly united in the fact that Russia’s move was a shameful miscalculation of power, and should be treated as such. But as Jon Stewart pointed out on Monday’s episode of The Daily Show, the general response to Israel’s ongoing bombing of Palestine has not been nearly as robust.
“Be more careful” and words along the lines of “Do more to protect innocent civilians” are just two of the obvious pieces of advice from the Biden team that were directed at Israel’s leaders—which Stewart found laughable.
“Hey Israel!!,” Stewart screamed. “Take it down a notch.”
“Could you please be more careful with your bombing?,” Stewart asked, mockingly. Though he admitted that, “It’s good advice. But, really, couldn’t the United States have told Israel that when we gave them all the bombs? They’re our bombs!”
Stewart went on to compare the situation in Israel to “your coke dealer coming in with an eight-ball and going, ‘Don’t stay up all night. Sleep is very important. You gotta sleep.’”
Surely, Stewart surmised, he’d be able to find some sort of “diplomatic leeway” in Hamas’ position regarding their ongoing war with Israel. But Stewart was wrong. Instead, he found video of Hamas leader Ghazi Hamad spewing the same sort of vitriol and stating that the “total annihilation” of Israel is the only way to bring peace to the region.
“I think we have to get real here,” Stewart remarked. “The status quo cycle of provocation and retribution is predicated on some idea that one of these groups is going to go away. And they are not.”
Fortunately, Stewart has a few ideas about how peace between these two factions might be restored. Unfortunately, one involves sending 15 million people to a camp in Maine to play racquet sports.
