Palestinian equal rights joins the progressive agenda on ‘The Daily Show’‏

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The War of Ideas in the Middle East

Palestinian equal rights joins the progressive agenda on ‘The Daily Show’

by Adam Horowitz on October 29, 2009 · 73 comments

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c

Exclusive – Anna Baltzer & Mustafa Barghouti Extended Interview Pt. 1

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Health Care Crisis

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c

Exclusive – Anna Baltzer & Mustafa Barghouti Extended Interview Pt. 2

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Health Care Crisis

As I entered the television studio, Aerosmith was blaring over speakers and the familiar set of The Daily Show stood empty. As can be expected, it looked much smaller in person, but everyone was excited regardless. A mixture of tourists, students and others filed in around an hour before shooting was to start. I noticed there were a few keffiyeh’s wrapped around some shoulders, a couple "Shalom" pins, and one cowboy hat covered in a huge Code Pink anti-war sticker. This was because of tonight’s guests – Dr. Mustafa Barghouti and Anna Baltzer. We were there to watch the struggle for Palestinian equal rights go prime time.
Throughout the day I had been hearing through the grapevine that The Daily Show was having second thoughts about doing the show as they had been getting pressure to cancel it. I sat towards the front, all the way to the left of the stage. In front of me was a pretty glamourous trio of three young people. The man directly in front of me wore his hair slicked back and a tailored black suit, while the woman he came in with was wrapped in a faux fur jacket that they promised wouldn’t bite. The third guy in their party had a shaved head and I noticed his jeans had a patch with an Israeli flag on it. In the pre-show tension it stood out, but it was the kind of thing you see everyday.
Slowly the studio filled up, and a warm up comedian came out to get the crowd going. Soon thereafter, Jon Stewart came out himself to take some pre-show questions. He seems to be as naturally funny as he appears on the show, and he answered questions about whether he had ever done the show stoned (no answer), or if Comedy Central ever exerts editorial control over the show (answer: Have you seen the things they show on this network?). Then the last question: "Jon, what do you think about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict?" He kind of rolled his eyes, as if to say here we go, and said that this show had been different than shows in the past because they usually have to wait until after the show to get calls complaining, but this time the calls started beforehand. He said whenever he gets calls about Israel/Palestine, from either side, he treats them like calls from his grandmother (and he mimicked holding the phone away from his ear as he went about his business). The crowd laughed. It was time to start the show.
The first two segments of the show were classic Daily Show. The first dealt with the health care debate and how the single payer option refuses to die. The crowd went wild as Stewart eviscerated Fox’s slanted coverage, and the Democrats mealy response to the progressive groundswell. The bit ended with an extended joke at Joe Lieberman’s expense where the crowd booed his name and the howled at Stewart’s droopy dog impersonation. The second segment featured contributor John Hodgeman (of mac/pc commercial fame) doing a parody of a corporate idea man who is looking to rehabilitate the country’s CEO’s as their popularity continues to plummet during the recession. Pitchforks were out as corporations continue to avoid accountability and get one over on taxpayers through government bailouts. All in all, both were a near perfect reflection of a progressive base in the US frustrated by Obama and raring for a fight.
Finally, it was time for the Barghouti/Baltzer interview. Until I saw them walking on stage I expected that it would be canceled and we’d get some last minute fill in instead, but there they were. The interview ran nearly 15 minutes and it was clear it would have to be edited down to air it. The full interview is posted above, and it is well worth watching the whole thing. Right off the bat it was clear this would be a historic moment:

Baltzer: "We’re part of a large movement of Palestinian and Jews working together. This is not new or novel."
Barghouti: "Jewish Americans have been in the avant garde struggling for justice, in this country at least, and for democracy and in this particular case it is just normal that people like Anna are with us because we are struggling for liberty, we’re struggling for freedom, we’re struggling for justice."

Then, as Dr. Barghouti said that Palestinians have been subjected to a system of segregation, the man with slicked back hair sitting directly in front of me pulled a Joe Wilson and yelled "Liar!" (it’s at 1:49 of the first part of the interview).
Dr. Barghouti was unfazed and explained his reason for working with Anna – "It’s just natural to have an alliance of people who believe in the same values." He returned to this theme of values several times and applause grew every time. He finally made it clear what the Palestinians are calling for – equal rights.
Over the next few minutes he mentioned the names of leaders in whose footsteps he’s following – Martin Luther King Jr, Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. With each passing mention the trio in front of me squirmed in their seats, and most of the rest of the audience grew more excited.
I think Stewart did a reasonable job with the interview. Although the version that ran on air made it look like he dominated the conversation, in fact he gave the speakers plenty of time to make their points. When he gave them the obligatory question on Israel’s security, Baltzer hit it out of the park:

There is nothing defensive about denying Palestinians water. There is nothing defensive about preventing people from having materials to build their homes. So many of the institutions that I understood to be defensive cannot be justified by security anymore. Building a wall between Palestinians and Palestinians?

This was too much for "Slick" in front of me to take, and he burst out again. You can hear him in the background at 7:47 of the first clip. He was escorted from the studio at 8:11 where he was belittled by Stewart ("Bye sir, you can, uh, certainly visit our sedar"). The crowd laughed and cheered as he was led away, and his faux fur clad friend was truly perplexed both by what Baltzer was saying ("Why is she saying that? What is she saying?"), as well as the crowd’s overwhelming support for the speakers.
I don’t want to recount the whole interview, you can watch it. I have to say, I was blown away. Although I was laughing out loud for the first two segments, I was on the verge of tears throughout the interview. Here was a Palestinian leader demanding equal rights and an anti-Zionist Jew calling for boycott, divestment and sanctions to pressure Israel towards peace on The Daily Show and they were being applauded, while the traditional pro-Israel hasbara was being shown the door.
Palestinian equal rights was placed directly next to health care and the economy on The Daily Show’s progressive agenda and the audience was totally along for the ride. I could hardly believe my eyes, and yet it made perfect sense at the same time. Who can argue that it is necessary to deny people water? Who can argue against equal rights? The answer is increasingly no one, and if The Daily Show’s audience is any indication, the next generation will be leading this fight in a much different direction.

{ 4 trackbacks }

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‘The Daily Show’ features Dr. Mustafa Barghouti and Anna Baltzer posted @ drew3ooo: October 29, 2009 at 11:46 am

{ 69 comments… read them below or add one }

2 potsherd October 29, 2009 at 8:43 am: Sure, and they make a joke of it.

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3 MRW October 29, 2009 at 1:55 am

Great report, Adam. “Slick.” lol. You know, if HuffPo didn’t censor all matters I/P to the degree they do, perhaps more people would know how this issue is a lot more important to Americans than most think it is. I’m convinced that the demise of newspapers started with the arrogance and elitism of the NYT pooh-poohing the objections to the Iraq War (Judith Miller) and drove people to the web in a fury to vent. Now the I/P issue is being handled the same way on major blogs (HuffPo, Daily Kos, and toothless, terrified sites like the once-interesting Crooks & Liars) and the pushback is going to hurt them as well.
Tonight Intelligence Online (fee) announced that “The CIA is investing in technology that will allow intelligence agencies to monitor social networks Twitter and Facebook.” Someone’s going to have to come up with something else.

4 MRW October 29, 2009 at 1:59 am: Here’s Wired’s story on it: http://z.pe/zpc

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5 matter October 29, 2009 at 1:56 am

I only managed to watch the first clip and part of the second. At that point, I overloaded on Stewart’s hasbara bullshit. No, Jon, only Shimon Peres threatened to “wipe Iran off the face of the earth,” not the other way around. No, Jon, there is no evidence to date that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. There is plenty of evidence that Israel actually has nuclear weapons. No Jon, the European Jews are not “from” Palestine; they are invaders and colonial occupiers. There was more bullshit, but I think you get the picture.
Maybe Stewart’s Zionist bias is unconscious, but either way, he’s hardly taking an honest point of view. Looks like the freaky trio mentioned above aren’t the only ones needing some de-brainwashing.

6 ... October 29, 2009 at 2:02 am

as MRW points out, you can always read and follow HuffPo, Daily Kos, and toothless, terrified sites like the once-interesting Crooks & Liars if you insist…

7 JGlatzer October 29, 2009 at 2:11 am

i totally agree. there is only one nuclear power in the middle east (Israel), whose ally (the US) is occupying the other country’s (Iran’s) neighbors (Iraq and Afghanistan). Not to mention that Israel is still violating Lebanon’s sovereignty every single day, and that it has already violated the Geneva Conventions by threatening aggressive war against Iran.
Jon’s hasbara made me sick! It was like he was reciting the greatest hits of StandWithUS: the Jews had refugees too, Palestinian children learn hate from their TV shows, why don’t the Arab countries help Palestinians, Iran has nuclear weapons. This last one is the worst.
The false guilt by association of what any Arab, ME, Muslim country does to be blamed on Palestine. Was it Palestinians that threw the Jews out in 1948 from the other Arab countries? It’s just plain racist to lump them all together like that. It’s like saying to a Honduran angry about Zelaya being thrown out of office, “Well, you know the Latin countries have their faults too, look at what Daniel Ortega does in Nicaragua. Why doesn’t he help Hondurans.”
Actually the dumbest part was when Jon suggested Palestine just declare statehood as if they didn’t already in 1988.

8 AM October 29, 2009 at 11:50 am: You know that John Stewart, in his interviews, often goes through many basic points that we think is obvious, but that the general population doesn’t know about. If I had to bet, most people probably don’t know about the Palestinians, and many are completely mis informed on the most basic tactics. True, they (correctly) didn’t challenge the Iran question because its not directly relevant for their cause. They are trying to raise awareness on Palestine. That doesn’t may they said, “Oh Yeah, Iran, big baddie!”…and if you have a specific point you want to emphasize, its best to stay on topic even if the interviewer (conciously or unconciously) takes it off topic.
9 wondering jew October 29, 2009 at 1:39 pm: JGlatzer- I don’t know specifically what declaring statehood involves, but apparently the statehood declared in 1988 was just on paper, because at the time there was complete occupation and there has been no de facto statehood established since, rather something called the Palestinian Authority. Recently Prime Minister Fayyad has declared that if the peace process does not move forward he plans to declare statehood in two years (2011) and he plans to build the necessary institutions to prepare for that eventuality. So although I am also unclear about what would be involved in the declaration of statehood that Fayyad envisions, obviously the declaration of 1988 is still less than complete.
10 Chaos4700 October 29, 2009 at 1:57 pm: WJ? States pretty much only exist on paper. Man, I thought you had problems with 21st century civilization — apparently you’re backlogged farther than I thought.
The reason Palestine doesn’t have a seat on the UN pretty much boils down to five words: United States Security Council veto.
11 wondering jew October 29, 2009 at 5:32 pm: Here is Daoud Kuttab on the Fayyad plan to build state institutions and declare a state in two years if peace talks do not progress:
“This is a brilliant plan that works with or without Israeli cooperation. If the Israelis want a negotiated settlement, the plan gives negotiators two years to reach it. However, if the Israelis drag their feet, a Palestinian state will exist in reality by then.
“Once these tangible elements of a genuinely viable Palestinian state come into being, all that will be needed is the political will to declare statehood and enjoy worldwide recognition.”
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daoud-kuttab/fayyads-brilliant-two-yea_b_270253.html

12 sky7i October 29, 2009 at 2:09 am

Hmm, can’t watch the above videos in Canada, and can’t seem to find the extended interview on the Comedy Network (Canada) site either. Anyone know any alternatives? Hopefully someone will upload this to Vimeo/Youtube.

13 DICKERSON3870 October 29, 2009 at 3:11 am

RE: can’t seem to find the extended interview on the Comedy Network (Canada)
THEY APPEAR TO BE UP NOW AT – http://www.thedailyshow.com/
Exclusive – Anna Baltzer & Mustafa Barghouti Extended Interview Pt. 1 (08:27)
Exclusive – Anna Baltzer & Mustafa Barghouti Extended Interview Pt. 2 (06:47)
If you still can’t view them, I can upload them for RealPlayer to RapidShare, SendSpace or HotFile.

14 sky7i October 29, 2009 at 3:26 am: If I go to that link, I’m redirected to the Canadian site, but the extended interview isn’t available there. So yes, I’d appreciate another way of getting ahold of them. If you need to e-mail me, mail me @hotmail.com
Thanks!

15 DICKERSON3870 October 29, 2009 at 3:32 am

RE: “Hmm, can’t watch the above videos in Canada”
MY COMMENT: You might need to update/install Adobe Flash Player. The latest version is 10.0.32.18
Adobe Flash Player version 10.0.32.18
Windows, Firefox, Safari, Opera – http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
P.S. IF YOU RIGHT-CLICK ON THE LOWER RIGHT CORNER OF THE FLASH PLAYER AT thedailyshow.com, IT APPEARS TO ALLOW DOWNLOADING FOR RealPlayer.

16 Nolan October 29, 2009 at 4:45 am

I suspect Comedy Central’s website might be configured so that it can detect where you’re located (i.e. through your IP address). That’s why it keeps directing you to the Canada-specific content.
You will need to use an IP proxy.
I’ve set it up for you. All you have to do is click on the link below.
http://proxify.com/p/001010A1000100/687474703a2f2f7777772e7468656461696c7973686f772e636f6d2f766964656f73

17 Nolan October 29, 2009 at 4:51 am

Jon’s body language at 3:56 (+/- 5 seconds) of the first part is interesting.

18 former coMMenter October 29, 2009 at 11:22 am: I admit I was paying more attention to Anna’s body language.
Who were those other two guys, and why were did they keep interrupting the show?

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19 Nolan October 29, 2009 at 5:18 am

I’ve just finished watching both parts. There were so many good points that were edited out in the version that aired on TV that I’m inclined to say the entire interview was butchered in the editing room. Whoever had the final say on the editing didn’t miss any chance to include all the talking points often brought up in the mainstream media. Anna’s points were very poignant, alas most were not included in the final cut.
That’s unfortunate, especially the exclusion of the water issue and the wall. Nonetheless, this is better than nothing at all I guess.
On a side note, twice Jon described himself as an “outside observer”.

20 Richard Witty October 29, 2009 at 6:33 am

I had a different impression from the clips.
I was impressed with Barghouti, particularly the statements that inferred that he accepted the two-state solution, rather than his prior non-violent movement emphasizing a single state.
Anna Balzer was a little more deceptive. When asked about their impression about how to resolve conflicts between Hamas, Fatah and non-violence, she/they entirely avoided the question, didn’t even say “we don’t have an answer to that”.
I guess its necessary to spin, to emphasize the parts of the argument that they will later play on.
Is that car sales repping or honesty?
A single-state will not in a century result in the degree of security that Israelis need. There is too much anger on both sides, rationally.
I also questioned the presentation of attractive women (partially as a prop sadly) in Phil’s depiction of the Shministin movement and hear. I guess you have to put your softened image forward, rather than the strident.
But, the REALITY is that stridency is what gets expressed. Not non-violent speech, but taunting speech, not “non-violent” rock-throwing but actual rock-throwing.
Neilim, Beilim is not non-violent currently. 99.5% of Palestinian demonstration is not non-violent. Even in the last six months, when Hamas has not shelled southern Israel, and Al Aqsa Martyrs have been closed down by Fatah, the “non-violent” demonstrations still cut fences, throw rocks, taunt.
That is not Martin Luther King’s standard of non-violence.

21 Donald October 29, 2009 at 7:05 am

This from the guy who had nothing critical to say about Bernstein’s attack on HRW.
Taunting, cutting fences, throwing rocks–golly, no wonder the Israelis can’t treat Palestinians like human beings. And Witty talks about the Palestinians not being as good as MLK, when he supports Israel behaving worse than Bull Conner.
Nothing new here.

22 Citizen October 29, 2009 at 7:08 am

Contacting the Daily Show to cancel the show in advance is regression under any
name.
Selective editing based on content is also regression, just slightly less.
The stridency expressed by the heckler was the only stridency expressed.

23 Chaos4700 October 29, 2009 at 7:16 am

How come you don’t advocate for non-violence among Jews? How come you don’t advocate for non-violence among Israelis, and most especially the settlers? You endlessly decry “Well where is the Palestinian Martin Luther King?” (He’s in prison, incidentally and you keep dodging that topic)
Witty… where is the Israeli Martin Luther King? At what point has Zionism ever been about nonviolence?

24 Colin Murray October 29, 2009 at 9:18 am: These are good questions.
25 ... October 29, 2009 at 3:51 pm: if witty was capable of asking the same objective questions to the zionists who are always spinning shit he would have a modicum of integrity.. as it is, he is only capable of questioning those he doesn’t agree with and leads others to assume he agrees with those he doesn’t question… so i would ask witty the same question :Is that car sales repping or honesty?”

26 Nolan October 29, 2009 at 7:27 am

Wait, they taunted and cut fences? Oh, the humanity.
Meanwhile, colonizers (aka settlers) are burning vines and olive trees belonging to Palestinians in retaliation for every Zionist outpost the Israeli army takes down.
Palestinian teenagers were kidnapped from Bil’in recently by the army and various newspapers are reporting that the Israeli army is using Mista’revim – (Hebrew for pretending to be Arabs) or in Western parlance “agent provocateurs” – more often to justify quashing non-violent demonstrations.
There are videos on YouTube showing what starts as a peaceful march. It soon escalates when a few individuals within the demonstrators start throwing rocks. The Israeli army responds with tear gas and live ammunition and then the marchers start dispersing and more and more start throwing rocks. Then, out of nowhere a group of men emerges among the marchers, they pull out hats from their back pockets and put them on. The hats read “police” and they start grabbing Palestinians, hauling them off into jeeps for “throwing rocks”.
RW seems to have some psychological syndrome where every time the truth is told in the media, he reverts to his honest yet bigoted and hypocritical inner self. A few days pass and he cools off and starts rationalizing the occupation. Then another report shows up in the media (First Bill Moyers and now Jon Stewart) and he snaps again, panics and the true ideologue in him emerges again, more blatant and propagandizing.

27 Eva Smagacz October 29, 2009 at 6:40 am

Utterly frustrating.
Can’t watch it at all, even with several proxy services, and different browser, or on link set up by Nolan (thanks for your help, Nolan).
Tried also all the above on a Mac with Safari, to no avail.

28 OhioJoes October 29, 2009 at 9:47 am

Is Smegma setting us up for some sort of Polish joke? Probably not, so here’s a try. Download the latest version of Safari and TURN ON the computer.

29 marc b. October 29, 2009 at 11:03 am: Good god, what a revolting piece of work you are, OhioJoes. And not even the testicular fortitude to use your real name when slinging such crap. A vulgar coward. That about sums you up, eh?
30 potsherd October 29, 2009 at 11:34 am: I have reported this comment as abusive.
31 Chaos4700 October 29, 2009 at 12:42 pm: I suppose I should have weighed in on this too, but admittedly I skipped over it pretty quick. As someone with Polish heritage myself, it’s not that I haven’t heard stuff like this before. I figure my time is spent more valuable defending other people’s ethnicities. :)
But really, have we come to expect anything different from OhioJoes?
32 marc b. October 29, 2009 at 2:10 pm: My mother is Polish, and OJoes’ vulgarity and this whole JStreet slight of hand is setting me on edge. Must . . . calm. . . down.
33 Chaos4700 October 29, 2009 at 2:20 pm: He’s a racist, plain and simple. I kind of got that sense from Mr. Sutton pretty early on with his posts. Oh sure, he dances around his bigotry — not with as much grace as Witty, mind you — but every now and then? It kind of hits you overtly, like now.

34 Citizen October 29, 2009 at 10:25 am

I don’t know why, Eva. I was able to view it on an old Mac with an old version of Safari. Where do you live? Also pay no attention to OhioJoes’s vulgar and bigoted slurs. Most of us value your contributions here.

35 kapok October 29, 2009 at 11:37 am: It’s “Canadian Content” rules a la CBC. Canada subsidizes lame clones of popular Yanqui programs which CBC shows over and over again and only us ruralitos without cable or satellite ever watch. I am convinced that they have a hand in making it difficult for Canadians to access US media. CTV (Cock-Tease Vision) slips in a few Merkin shows, Dailyshow, CSI, the hospital one with the Chinese actress…through some sort of loop hole.
36 OhioJoes October 29, 2009 at 12:58 pm: Ny name is Joe Sutton, and I live in Berea Ohio. Come and visit me any time, Marc “b”!
37 Chaos4700 October 29, 2009 at 1:11 pm: You still haven’t figured out how to make the Reply button work quite yet, have you, Mr. Sutton?
38 OhioJoes October 29, 2009 at 1:16 pm: The reply button didn’t appear below either your or “Marc” s name. But thanks for outing yourself as Polish. I never would have guessed!
39 Chaos4700 October 29, 2009 at 1:37 pm: “Outing?” Seriously? I thought we dealt with your type at Nuremberg, huh. Guess we missed a couple spots.
40 Eva Smagacz October 29, 2009 at 2:07 pm: The problem with not being able to see the above videos is likely to be caused by my location: England.
I am getting a message that the video is not available in my country. I hoped I could get round it by using proxy server but it didn’t work.
41 marc b. October 29, 2009 at 3:26 pm: Ny name is Joe Sutton, and I live in Berea Ohio. Come and visit me any time, Marc “b”!
Really. And what is your pedigree “joe” since you seem to have a fixation with us Poles? Or better yet, in the spirit of glasnost, why don’t you educate me more fully about your racial world view. Or is it just ‘Polacks’ that you have a problem with?

42 Citizen October 29, 2009 at 6:54 am

I watched the edited version on cable, and just now, the full event. I agree with what everyone above here says about the content. I guess with this Daily Show episode, we have to be thankful it was done at all, I feel the same way about the J-Street conference. Reminds me of Obama’s Cairo speech; at least it was made…

43 Citizen October 29, 2009 at 6:56 am

I don’t agree with Richard Witty–his comment was posted before mine was.

44 Chaos4700 October 29, 2009 at 7:53 am: Having watched the full interview (and I can’t bring myself to watch the edited one) I actually have to say I had a lot of appreciation for it. There has been some criticism here about how Jon Stewart handled it but I have to say, he was pretty even handed. I don’t like that he dredged up the “Iran wants to kill all the Jews” and “Iran has nuclear weapons” canards but — and maybe I’m being too forgiving — he’s speaking from the perspective of the vast American populace who for the most part have been bamboozled into buying the newest re-branding of what we did in Iraq.
Kudos to Dr. Barghouti for having the courage to point out matter of factly Israel’s connection in our target selection for our recent wars. Though perhaps that’s only courage for Americans — for the rest of the world it’s gotten rather painfully obvious that Israel runs our “foreign policy,” military or otherwise.
45 Chaos4700 October 29, 2009 at 7:54 am: That was not actually meant as a reply but as a standalone post. Oops :)

46 Taxi October 29, 2009 at 7:21 am

Why did you even bother, Jon?
You know this should’ve been John Oliver’s piece.
We would have seen less sickening hypocrisy from him than from that “outside observer” (yeah right!) Jon Stewart.

47 potsherd October 29, 2009 at 8:59 am

There will be no progress on this front until the anti-Zionist side can muster a dedicated cadre of thousands, who monitor the news for anyone about to present an Israeli point of view and notify members to call and protest against war criminals being given a forum; to call merchants like Amazon and complain that books by war criminals are being sold, etc.
Until then, the Zionists will continue to succeed in preventing the opposing side from being heard.

48 Richard Witty October 29, 2009 at 9:16 am

And, if you pursue that, you will have to be ugly, willingly lying, willingly denying the humanity of half of the world’s Jews (those that live in Israel and are Zionist).

49 Colin Murray October 29, 2009 at 9:28 am: Exactly how is “[monitoring] the news for anyone about to present an Israeli point of view and [notifying] members to call and protest against war criminals being given a forum, and [calling] merchants like Amazon and complaining that books by war criminals are being sold” a denial of humanity? Denying humanity to me means dehumanization. The only dehumanization I see happening is that of Palestinians. Monitoring, notifying, and calling sound to me like simple lobbying. Only the Israeli Lobby should be able to lobby on the issue of peace in the Middle East and an extraction of America from conflicts that have nothing to do with us? I don’t think so.
50 Cheryl October 29, 2009 at 9:32 am: And that is what has been done to the Palestinian viewpoint…..CAMERA and Stand With Us are just two of the organizations that concentrate their efforts in this direction and Mr. Witty their efforts have gone a long way in denying the humanity or rather smearing the character of anyone who stands up to the Israeli narrative be they Palestinians, Americans, Muslims, Christians, or Jews. Furthermore, the effect they have is really unknown because it is almost unspoken. We simply do not know how many plays, how many news articles, opinion pieces etc. did not occur because groups/individuals that want no criticism of Israel to appear were hard at work and indeed this is ugly.
51 Chaos4700 October 29, 2009 at 9:36 am: Just so we’re clear, Witty, that you agree with us that Zionists are ugly, willingly lie and willyingly deny the humanity of others. I mean, because, that’s basically the logical extension of your point, when you castigate potsherd for suggesting that we have to do the same thing that Zionists do.
52 potsherd October 29, 2009 at 10:10 am: As ugly as the Zionists, denying the humanity of ALL the world’s Palestinians? And denying them a voice, attempting to ensure that their views will never be heard? This is the sin of hasbara, but as always you forgive one side and demonize the other for doing the same thing.
And of course war criminals are perfectly human – all too human. It is humans who perpetrate evils and humans who make excuses for them.
53 Citizen October 29, 2009 at 10:51 am: Does AIPAC’s ugly, willingly lying pursuit of it’s agenda deny any humanity at all?
54 marc b. October 29, 2009 at 10:58 am: I have tried to take RWitty’s commentary at face value, investing a sincerity and honesty that in reality it lacks. Is there a point in continuing to engage him? I’m not so sure.
55 kapok October 29, 2009 at 11:40 am: half of the world’s Jews…Zionist
a fading marque

56 Cheryl October 29, 2009 at 9:18 am

I think you are correct potsherd. So if we want Stuart and others to continue down this path it seems like sending a note saying we value these discussions, even if they create controversy, may be one route to go. I have long believed that no one (including the press, Congress, etc.) could very much like the feeling of having to tow the line for a vocal and aggressive constituency.

57 Chaos4700 October 29, 2009 at 9:38 am: A fair fight is exactly the sort of thing that people like Witty fear the most, if you don’t mind my getting speculative (I dare say it’s an educated guess based on personal experience).
58 potsherd October 29, 2009 at 11:36 am: I have done so, but I know it’s not enough. The opposition has highly organized masses and the isolated efforts of individuals won’t be able to counter their campaign.

59 Cheryl October 29, 2009 at 9:04 am

Glenn Greenwald just did a fantastic job of pointing out the U.S. footprint in the Mideast including supporting Israel in its wars…..Most lucid argument I have heard for removing the military footprint from Afghanistan. When neocon Dan Senor challenged Greenwald with the number of Al Queda training camps in Afghanistan prior to 9-11, Greenwald rebutted with the U.S overthrow of the Shah, supporting Israel’s wars and thee bases in Saudi Arabia as support that America has been interfering in this neighborhood for a long time.
Wikipedia suggests Dan Senor (who has just written a book on the success of the Israeli economy linking it apparently to the discipline of IDF service – I haven’t read it yet- and who has been on MSNBC programming at least three times in the last three days )is very connected to AIPAC, Bill Krystol etc. and Israel. Two days ago he supported Cheney’s “dithering” comment and Mika Brezinski (MSNBC Morning Joe show) was incredulous – could not believe it-….obviously she was unaware of Senor’s footprints.
At any rate the Stuart show and now Ratigan’s show have both presented a viewpoint the rest of the media has been slow to include. Why would they when prior to the program showing, at least in the Daily Show case, they were having to field protests, during the show they field protests and I am sure that they will get an earfull if not more. Breaking through that stranglehold has to be wearisome and treacherous.

60 David Samel October 29, 2009 at 9:27 am

During the Gaza invasion, Stewart was actually quite daring.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy1H_r5GUGo
The best part is at the very end, with his rebuttal to Bloomberg.
As I recall, he also did an excellent bit at the AIPAC conference in 2008, where the presidential candidates prostrated themselves with great indignity

61 Chaos4700 October 29, 2009 at 9:56 am

Yeah. People are being a bit hard on Stewart for how he handled the interview and admittedly, I can often be one of the hard-asses around here. But in this case I really need to give Stewart credit. I think like a lot of people, Operation Cast Lead has opened his eyes to what is really going on in the Middle East.

62 potsherd October 29, 2009 at 10:12 am: If we support his partial efforts, it can only encourage him to go further towards the truth.
63 v... October 29, 2009 at 1:23 pm: Not that I dislike the venue, but it is a shame that the only individual progressive to handle this was Jon, that a national introduction of this had to take place on a comedy show. Lets keep encouraging him.

64 potsherd October 29, 2009 at 11:55 am

Daily Show online forum: http://forum.thedailyshow.com/tds/board/message?board.id=1118&thread.id=4344
Weigh in!

65 Chaos4700 October 29, 2009 at 1:00 pm

Wow, I’m actually impressed. I’ve only skimmed the forums but I’m not seeing them completely overrun by hasbara stooges, like I’m used to seeing pretty much anywhere else on the internet. Myself and a friend of mine once witnessed in real time how a hasbara sting flooded a YouTube posting and dropped it from 4-5 stars to 1-2 stars in fifteen minutes flat. And then of course there are my post-January experiences on HuffPo.
I see that as a pretty good sign. Also, while there are tons of comments and I haven’t read them all, I did stumble upon a historical essay posted by Nolan (I assume of the same name here) Good work on that! The Daily Show has an intelligent audience base and factual information is going to win the day with them, I think.

66 Nolan October 29, 2009 at 5:28 pm: Indeed, Chaos that was me. Thank you.

67 Citizen October 29, 2009 at 3:09 pm

Thanks, potsherd, I weighed in.

68 Koozie October 29, 2009 at 1:01 pm

The version that aired was so badly editted that the effect was completely lost. Two significant points here (1) the Jewish-American woman was completely muzzled save for a few meaningless slogans about cooperation (2) not one word about the 1,600 Palestinians killed in Cast Lead (3) not one word about the Goldstone Report.

69 robin October 29, 2009 at 4:00 pm

I’m actually more satisfied with this interview than with Moyers-Goldstone. This is mostly because a Palestinian was actually allowed to speak! And to make the most important point that can be made in this whole issue, which is that the Palestinians demand and deserve equality! (And it wasn’t even edited out!)
Stewart strikes me as a guy who has a solid background in the pro-Israel narrative (he mentions Hebrew school), but who is sincerely interested in questioning that and supporting the right things (while also mocking everybody to comedic effect). So yes, his hasbara talking points were distasteful and distracting, but they represent the real concerns of people like him (in which I include most American Jews and progressives). And the most important thing he did was bring Barghouti and Baltzer on the show, to answer those concerns and refocus the discussion when necessary. Hopefully meeting a man of Barghouti’s moral stature will help open his eyes and spur his curiosity even more.
To hear Adam Horowitz describe it, this was a really important and powerful moment for Palestinian rights advocacy in America, and I hope he’s right.

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