Jon Stewart – ‘Wantonly’ Attacking Israel and Misunderstanding the Lessons of WWII

One week after beepers assigned to 3000 terrorists exploded all over Lebanon and 3 days before Nasrallah, the arch-terrorist leader of Hezbollah, was killed by Israel in a targeted assassination, John Spencer, Chair of Urban Warfare at West Point, was on Chris Cuomo’s show. During his discussion with Cuomo, Spencer said:

“People have lost their mind on who are terrorists and who are defending their civilians.”

Sadly, this statement aptly describes Daily Show host Jon Stewart, as exemplified by many of his ahistorical segments on Israel.

Perhaps none more so than Stewart’s September 23, 2024 segment on the Daily Show called the “Futile Crescent” – where Stewart equated Israel’s democratically elected government with the Iranian terrorist proxies on Israel’s southern & northern borders (Hamas & Hezbollah).

Stewart claimed that Israel has no basis for militarily responding to what Israel’s Prime Minister characterized as Hezbollah’s “wanton” rocket & missile attacks on Israel, because – according to Stewart – “what was Israel doing if not wanton rocketing of other nations.”

There are many issues with this “blame Israel” analysis (which anyone with knowledge about the history of the Arab/Israeli conflict should appreciate):

First, on October 8^th, Hezbollah attacked Israel without provocation – other than Israel’s existence. Hezbollah admitted at the time that it did so in “solidarity” with Hamas’ unprovoked, literally “wanton,” & very intentional mass-murder, rape, mutilation, & kidnapping October 7th attack.

Second, Israel doesn’t “wantonly” bomb. Israel attacks military targets. And before it does so, if those targets are in civilian areas (as both Hamas and Hezbollah embed their fighters & weapon systems – including rocket & missile launchers – amongst & under civilian infrastructure), then whenever it reasonably can, Israel warns the civilians  to evacuate, often giving them hours and sometimes more than a day to get out of harms’ way.

Third, as John Spencer (and practically every military expert in the free world) has repeatedly noted, no country in the history of modern warfare has done more to avoid civilian casualties than Israel since it began its operation to end Hamas leaders’ ability to make good on their threats to repeat the Oct. 7^th massacre “again & again” until Israel is destroyed.

Fourth, thanks to Israel’s unprecedented efforts to avoid civilian casualties, the civilian to combatant casualty ratio in Gaza is the lowest in modern history. Practically 1:1 (as compared to the worldwide average of 9:1 and even the USA’s, Britain’s & France’s casualty rates for their wars in the 21^st century – which have averaged 3:1).

Plainly, Stewart didn’t let these facts intrude on his anti-Israel segment. After accusing Israel of being the moral equivalent of Hezbollah with its “wanton rocketing,” Stewart ridiculed what one reporter described as Israel’s effort to achieve “de-escalation through escalation,” as Stewart quipped that this strategy could also be “called the footnote to WWII.”

That complaint by Stewart is illuminating, as it reveals a deep flaw in Stewart’s ideas about Israel and its enemies. The notion that war with dictatorships – which are determined to destroy democratic countries – can be avoided by the democracy agreeing to stop fighting or by it sufficiently appeasing those dictatorships.

While Stewart referenced WWII in his diatribe, he plainly didn’t learn its most important lesson. The lesson that when one side is led by dictators animated by a rapacious and deeply racist/antisemitic ideology, there is no compromise that can prevent the dictatorships from continuing to try and conquer/destroy. Seemingly channeling “Horseshoe Theory” as he made light of the “escalations” that led to WWII, Stewart sounded adjacent to a Tucker Carlson revisionist historian claiming the USA and Britain could have avoided WWII by simply making more concessions to Nazi Germany.

What Stewart does not appear to understand, or care to acknowledge, is that since October 7, Hezbollah – without provocation – has fired over 9000 rockets & missiles at Israel and caused anywhere from 80,000 to 100,000 Israelis to be displaced from their homes for nearly one year. A situation no sovereign nation can tolerate.

Stewart also doesn’t appear to understand that the casualties in Israel from Hezbollah’s relentless and (actually) “wanton” barrages of rockets & missiles are relatively low because, unlike both Hamas & Hezbollah, Israel enables its civilians to leave areas under attack. And Israel, unlike Iran’s terror proxies, uses its soldiers and weapon systems to protect its civilians, while Hamas & Hezbollah use their civilians to protect their fighters and weapons.

One part of Stewart’s ahistorical segment was perhaps most dangerous – particularly given the popularity shows like his have with a significant segment of the Democratic Party.

During this latest anti-Israel attack, Stewart made it clear that he wants America to try and force Israel into ending the war. Meaning, Stewart wants America to pressure Israel into surrendering to the idea of Hamas’ leaders continuing to control Gaza, as well as to accepting that Hezbollah can continue to be able to rain rockets on Israel whenever it wants, as it amasses terrorists on Israel’s border (in clear violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701) – in order to be able to perpetrate in Israel’s north – the same massacre Hamas perpetrated in Israel’s south. A plan to invade Israel’s Galilee, which Hezbollah has been quite open about for years.

It is no small matter that Stewart’s latest diatribe attacking Israel – occurred after more than 11 months of diplomatic efforts to try and get Hezbollah to stop firing rockets at Israeli citizens – clearly failed. Despite Israel tolerating the intolerable for over 11 months, Stewart blamed Israel and America for the war with Hezbollah “escalating” by adding “here’s the worst part. the country that is providing all the bombs to the Middle East seems to have no idea when these bombs would be used …”

Is it possible Stewart thinks America is providing to Hamas and Hezbollah the approximately 20,000 rockets and missiles these openly genocidal terrorist groups have fired on Israel since October 7, 2023?

Is it possible Stewart doesn’t know that Iran is supplying bombs to Hezbollah and Hamas (and that Hezbollah and Hamas are in the “Middle East”)?

Of course, none of these are possible. Stewart must know that Iran – a country whose tyrannical leadership is sworn to both Israel’s and America’s destruction – is providing around half of the “bombs” in this conflict. Nevertheless, Stewart sees no reason to apply any pressure on Iran or its proxies to stop the fighting or for Iran to even stop arming groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.

Stewart ignores the Iranian dictatorship that is behind Israel’s wars with the terrorist regimes on both Israel’s northern and southern border. Claiming to care for humanity, Stewart wants America to stop Israel from fighting. More aptly, from fighting back. Or even more aptly, from even being able to fight back. In that way, Jon Stewart sounds a lot like the American far-right critics of Churchill before 1941, who from the relative safety of America, called Churchill a warmonger, and demanded that the US stop supporting Britain in its war against Nazi Germany.

Of course, from the relative safety of his 45-acre home in New Jersey, Stewart can make mendacious calls for Israelis to stop fighting back and to just agree to Iran’s terror proxies controlling land directly on Israel’s border. But for the overwhelming majority of Israelis, particularly those whose ancestors were among  the over 850,000 Jews ethnically cleansed from Arab-controlled dictatorships, and for the hundreds of thousands of Israelis whose ancestors survived the Holocaust, it is clear what not fighting back, particularly in the MENA, means: The very thing Hamas’ leaders all promised after October 2023 – repeated attacks like October 7^th – until Israel is destroyed.

But, if “Never Again” is to mean anything, it must mean that we never again listen to appeasers and apologists for fascist tyrants committed to mass-murdering Jews, even if they tell good jokes like Jon Stewart.

It also means that when our enemies say they plan to kill us, we should take them at their word. In 2002, Nasrallah, gave a speech talking about the blessing of having all the Jews gather in Israel, because it will save Jihadists the trouble of chasing the Jews all over the world in order to kill them. After giving that speech, Nasrallah continued to create a proxy army and murder for Iran, as he repeatedly promised a relentless war to destroy Israel.

Today, thanks to Israel listening to the majority of its citizens and not to the Jon Stewarts of the world, Nasrallah and most of his Jew-hating gang of tyrants are dead. Just as America & Britain were right to insist on either the destruction or the unconditional surrender of the Nazis before ending WWII, Israel must continue to insist on either the destruction or the unconditional surrender of Hamas and Hezbollah. Anything else, will just defer the current war, and all its terrible costs in blood & treasure, to another round of fighting. History has made that clear, as have the words and actions of Israel’s enemies.

Micha Danzig served in the Israeli Army and is a former police officer with the NYPD. He is currently an attorney and is very active with numerous Jewish and pro-Israel organizations, including Stand With Us and the FIDF, and is a national board member of Herut North America.