John Oliver’s callous response to Oct. 7, and spurious moral equivalence between Hamas and Israel, can be found here: “John Oliver on Danger That Hamas Will Repeat Oct. 7 Massacre: Oh Well!,” by Karen Bekker, Algemeiner, December 15, 2023:
Oliver says that “this country has emphatically picked a side. In recent years, we’ve given Israel $3.8 billion a year in military aid.” But the US has also given hundreds of millions of dollars to the Palestinians, some of it allegedly in violation of the Taylor Force Act.
Yes, Israel does receive $3.8 billion annually in aid from the United States. But it spends almost all of that aid on American weaponry. Israeli scientists and engineers make improvements in some of those weapons, including the top-of-the -line airplanes, and they share those improvements with the Pentagon. Israel also puts American weapons to the test of real combat, acquiring vital information about performance that, again, is shared with the American defense industry. And Israel’s success in using those American weapons on the battlefield has boosted sales of those weapons to other countries.
Meanwhile, the PA also receives large sums, too, from the Americans, even though it refuses to halt its “Pay-For-Slay” program that provides generous monthly stipends to imprisoned terrorists and to the families of terrorists who were killed while committing their acts. Such money should not be given to the PA, according to the Taylor Force Act, as long as the “Pay-For-Slay” program continues. The Biden administration continues to violate the Act. Perhaps John Oliver would like to discuss that blatant violation on his program.
Oliver repeated the canard that Gaza is an “open-air prison.” This claim totally ignores the fact that, as mentioned above, Israel completely evacuated Gaza in 2005, and there was no blockade at that time. Moreover, social media posts since the start of the Israeli military campaign decrying the destruction of previously-beautiful Gaza have inadvertently given the lie to this claim.
Gaza is not a prison. Since 2005, there has not been a single Israeli in the Strip. In the last decade, young Gazans, seeking work, have left the Strip for other Arab countries and Europe. Until October 7, 20,000 Gazans went every day to work in Israel. Had the Hamas attack not occurred, Israel would have implemented its plan to raise the number of work permits distributed to Gazans so that they could work in the Jewish state. Israel has imposed a partial blockade on Gaza, in order to prevent “dual-use” products, such as cement and steel rods, that can be used to build weapons, or tunnels, or bunkers, from entering Gaza, save In limited quantities approved by Israel. Israel has never imposed a blockade on food or medicine.
Oliver has much to say about the conditions of extreme poverty in which many of the people of Gaza live, but nothing to say about the billionaires who manage Hamas from luxury hotels while living in Qatar. He also has ample time to show his audience the tragic suffering of the Gazan children who have been displaced by the war, but not one minute for Israeli children whose parents or other relatives have been killed or taken hostage, or who have themselves been displaced from the kibbutzim in the south….
Why hasn’t Oliver discussed the Hamas leaders who have for years been leading lives of luxury in Doha? Why didn’t he let his large audience know that just three Hamas leaders — Khaled Meshaal, Mousa Abu Marzouk, and Ismail Haniyeh — have managed to steal from the aid meant for the people of Gaza a total of $11 billion? Doesn’t that grand theft help explain the poverty in Gaza? And how much better off would the people of Gaza be if the billions of dollars Hamas spent on a vast tunnel network instead had instead been spent on electricity plants, agriculture, vocational education, roads, and so much else that Gazans need?
Burn the midnight oil, John Oliver. Perlustrate. You have the time. Find out he main reasons for poverty in Gaza: the three thieving leaders who stole $11 billion, and the colossal waste of billions of dollars spent on the tunnel network, a network which did nothing to improve the lives of Gazans. Find out about all the ways that the IDF minimizes civilian deaths: the messaging, the telephoning, the leafletting, the “knock-on-the-roof technique.” Share with your audience the news about the tens of thousands of Gazans who until October 7 had well-paid jobs in Israel. Discuss the whole matter of civilian-to-combatant death ratios — the 9 to 1 average for all wars since 1945, the much lower ratios that the American and British forces attained in their wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the stupefyingly low 10 to 7 ratio that the IDF has managed to maintain in this war — with your audience. So much of this indispensable information is simply not being covered in the mass media. Make amends, John Oliver. Tell the truth about the last 10 weeks in Gaza — tonight.
Kenneth Johnson says
Where dohese idiots come from?? KEN
puzzled says
Just the drinking water alone the muzzies used to make cement for the “terror tunnels”, left children and families thirsty, farms unable to grow more food and for hospitals to have greater sanitary abilities.
islam, the very evil curse of SATAN.
jaime says
If its open air prison its equal to club fed if not higher
Massive shopping centre
Large community centre
Large parks and plaza’s
Theme Park
FYI says
I would love to be able to draw like Bosch Fawstein.
I have drawn cartoons of muhammed but it feels wrong for me on so many levels:I mean how do you draw a fat crossdressing polygamous illiterate terrorist midget{Yes i have all the sources} without causing offence to so many groups of people..I have nothing against Fat polygamous midgets.As pope francis might say ‘who am i to judge”?That’s their choice isn’t it?If you want to be a fat polygamous midget well that’s your choice.
Siddi Nasrani says
Your quote, ” a fat crossdressing polygamous illiterate terrorist midget ” & his proclivity to necrophilia !!!!
tgusa says
John is doing a parody of classic SNL Weekend Update. The primary difference is, back in the day, Weekend Update was funny. Next up, John does his best rendition of Father Guido Sarducci.