Jon Stewart wantonly rockets the U.S. and Israel's "wider wars"

Now that The Daily Show has won even more Emmys, Jon Stewart returned to Comedy Central victorious, ready to take on an easy subject with the vigor of someone suffering from a severe case of senioritis. Just kidding, he was talking about Israel. Stewart wasted no time tonight getting into the thick of whatever the hell was happening in Israel this past weekend. “James Bond shit,” Stewart called it.

Nearly a year after October 7’s bloodshed and horror begat another year of bloodshed and horror, the “wider war” the Biden administration keeps claiming they’re trying to avoid has once again widened. How much wider does a war that’s killed more than 40,000 have to get before it ends? At least a year, apparently. With pagers exploding throughout Lebanon in a way that may violate international law, Stewart dared to do the unthinkable: He criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Daily Show cut deep with its criticism of Israel and the Biden administration’s failure to contain the war in Gaza—let alone secure that cease-fire deal they’re supposedly working around the clock on. Pagers spontaneously erupting throughout Lebanon is not a cease-fire. But Israel has adopted a new strategy, one that, according to one of the many mealy-mouthed explanations for why this war is still happening, the U.S. agrees with. It’s called “escalation through de-escalation,” also known as “war,” Stewart points out after consulting his sacred Garfield collection.

Stewart’s criticism was sharp and direct. The U.S. has failed to contain the war it supplies arms for and, therefore, is culpable in the continued violence. In August, the Biden administration approved $20 billion in weapons for Israel, and according to tonight’s Daily Show, no one in the Biden administration seems to know how those weapons are being used. It’s being used for rockets and exploding beepers, guys. Use your heads! Instead, the U.S. has simply changed the word, de-escalating from “war” to a “difficult and volatile situation.”

Stewart’s final point was a poignant one. Pulling clips of Israeli voices also willing to speak out against the war “difficult and volatile situation,” Stewart argued that it’s not anti-semitic to criticize Israel’s wars because anti-semitism will thrive regardless of the circumstances.

“Anti-semitism will survive this war like it survived all wars going back to the brave Hebrews at Masada,” Stewart said. “You know what? Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe blaming the Jews for the Black Death to the Spanish inquistion to the space lasers will all go away if Israel does right, and peace will reign and people will no longer baselessly and conveniently blame Jews when things don’t work out exactly the way they want them to.” Proving his point, Stewart played a clip of Trump already blaming the Jewish vote should he lose in November. Yeah, anti-semitism is going to be just fine.