The comedian accused the U.S. government of lacking the “courage” to stand up to Israel on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Jon Stewart has hit out at Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war in a scathing monologue, accusing the government of lacking “courage.”
On Monday night’s episode of The Daily Show, Stewart compared the Biden administration’s reaction to the Ukraine war to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, which began six months ago.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking roughly 240 more as hostages. Israel declared war on Hamas, which is based in the neighboring Gaza Strip.
Israel fired airstrikes into Gaza, before cutting off supplies of food, fuel, energy and medicine into the territory. A ground offensive was launched into Gaza in late October.
According to The Associated Press, citing cited Gaza’s health ministry, 33,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and soldiers in its death count, but says that women and children make up the majority of the deceased.
“As the war has grinded on, justice is beginning to seem more like cruelty,” Stewart said. “But not to worry, America, the shining city on a hill, is on the case.”
The comedian then cut to footage of Biden addressing reporters in Warsaw, Poland, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“We have a great battle for freedom between a rules-based order and one governed by brute force,” the president told the crowd. “In this battle, we need to be clear-eyed.”
In response to the clip, Stewart said: “Just to clarify, we’re the freedom folks, we’re the rules people. We’re not the brute force ones.
“I think we all know who the brute force ones are. In this case, Vladimir [Putin].”
“Know that America will call you out when you violate the basic tenets of humanity,” Stewart continued, before jumping to a video of Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“Weaponizing food, using it as a tool, as a weapon in its war against Ukraine, is unconscionable,” Blinken said during a press conference in July 2023.
In March, international aid charity Oxfam said 1.1 million people in Gaza were experiencing catastrophic food insecurity, roughly half of the area’s 2.
