Jon Stewart responded, off and on camera, to angry comments over his coverage of the Israel/Gaza conflict and allegations that his criticism of Israeli policy rendered him a “self-hating Jew.”
“Look, there’s a lot of reasons why I hate myself. Being Jewish isn’t one of them … I’ve made a living for 16 years criticizing policies I don’t think are good for America. Does that make me anti-American?”
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Stewart was making biting remarks about how the Israelis were conducting the war and ridiculed the notion that the Gazans were warned to evacuate before areas were bombed. “And then, at that point, what are Gazans supposed to do? Evacuate to where? Have you seen f—ing Gaza? Israel has blocked this border. Egypt has blocked this border. What are they supposed to do? Swim for it?”
Jon Stewart has directed a film “Rosewater” based on Iranian journalist Maziar Bahari’s memoirs. Bahari was arrested not long after she appeared on “The Daily Show” on trumped up allegations that she was a spy. Stewart got criticism from some quarters for filming it in Jordan instead of Israel, which has a more advanced infrastructure for making films. “You’ve already got a Jewish guy directing it. They are already putting out seven minute pieces, the Iranian press, that I’m a CIA, a Mossad agent. So the last thing we want to do is to add fuel to that.”
