“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”
Courtesy of HBO
John Oliver took a moment to share his thoughts on the Israel-Hamas war at the start of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight.” In a rare move, the host addressed the audience before the title sequence aired on Sunday’s show.
“Without all the music and the lights and – at least in theory – the laughter, I wanted to talk to you briefly about what has clearly been a terrible week,” he began. “The sight of the immense suffering in Israel and Gaza is sickening and we will not be covering it in the main part of our program tonight for several reasons. Firstly, it’s terrible. I don’t really want to tell carnage jokes right now, and I’m pretty sure you don’t want to hear them. And secondly, we record this on Saturday afternoon and you will watch it on Sunday evening or Monday morning using an illegal VPN. “I know who I’m talking to,” he joked.
He added that due to the timing of the taping, “a lot could change” between now and the episode’s premiere.
“But I have a few general thoughts that I think will still apply, and they have to do with sadness, fear and anger,” he said. “Now sadness is the first and most overwhelming feeling. The images we have seen this week since last Saturday have been absolutely heartbreaking – thousands have now died in Israel and Gaza. It would be devastating, not only for the people of the region, but for diaspora communities around the world. Whatever you think about the history of this region or the current state of affairs… it should be impossible to see grieving families and not be moved. So this week there was a lot of grief, but also fear – understandable fear of more attacks in Israel and of the hostages, and fear of what is to come in Gaza, as Israel’s leaders appear intent on launching a relentless bombing campaign. Mass displacement and a possible ground invasion.”
Referring again to the time between the recording and the broadcast of the program, he continued: “I don’t know how things are in Gaza as you watch this. But all signs seem to point to a humanitarian catastrophe. Israeli officials announced plans to cut off food, water, fuel and electricity. Hospitals run on generators. This has the appearance of collective punishment, which constitutes a war crime. And I think that many Israelis and Palestinians are feeling justifiable anger right now, not just at Hamas, whose heinous terrorist attacks set this week’s events in motion, but also at the bigots and extremists across the board who have continued to do so over the years thwarted attempts at peace. Israelis and Palestinians have been continually disappointed by their leadership. And I don’t have much faith in the current leaders who are supposed to lead us to peace.”
Oliver said he still had some hope given the large number of ordinary citizens, both Israeli and Palestinian, who “called for restraint and not revenge this week.”
He played an interview between CNN’s Jake Tapper and Noi Katzman, whose brother Chaim was killed in the Hamas terrorist attacks last weekend. Katzman ended his interview by saying he didn’t want his brother’s death “to be used to kill innocent people.” … I don’t want anything like what happened to my brother to happen to the people of Gaza, and I’m sure he wouldn’t do it either. So this is my call to my government to stop killing innocent people. And that is not the path that brings us peace and security for the people of Israel.”
Oliver agreed.
“People want and have a right to peace, and I will not tell either side how to achieve it – especially not in this case [British] Accent that, quite frankly, has done so much damage to this particular region that it lasts a damn lifetime,” he said. “But just know that in the long run, all the people who want to live in this region will continue to live there. So peace is not an option and requires some difficult decisions. And I can’t say where a peace process ends, but it just has to start with that ability to recognize our common humanity.”