John Oliver, the British-born host of a late-night show, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, has firm opinions about many things: “John Oliver on Danger That Hamas Will Repeat Oct. 7 Massacre: Oh Well!,” by Karen Bekker, Algemeiner, December 15, 2023:
More to the point, these superficially peace-loving words hide a deep, deep callousness toward Jewish life. Because both in this passage and earlier, when mentioning Ghazi Hamad, Oliver acknowledges that, if given the chance, Hamas will attack again, and then basically says, “oh well!”
Israelis must simply live with the danger of adults and children being killed, raped, tortured, dismembered, or taken hostage en masse. Too bad for the Jews, he implies, but there’s simply nothing to be done….
There is, of course, something that can be done, and is being done, by the IDF, in its methodical dismantling of Hamas, which so far has led to the deaths of 8,000 Hamas operatives (out of a prewar total of 25,000), the destruction of 800 tunnels, the seizure of vast hoards of weapons, the destruction of dozens of command-and-control centers, and the killing of more than half of Hamas’ battalion commanders.
Oliver quotes a few Israelis on the fringes of the far left who want to stop the war, misleading his audience into thinking they represent more than an infinitesimal fraction of Israelis.. The people of Israel are more united on the need to fight this war against Hamas than they have been about any war since June 1967.
Oliver’s correct assertion that there is a distinction between Hamas and the people of Gaza, as well as his long but facile explanation of the lack of control Gaza civilians have over their government, both miss the point, which is simply this: In the wake of the October 7 massacre, Israelis can no longer be expected to live with Hamas on their border….
I’m not sure that there is a great divide between Hamas and the people of Gaza, as John Oliver fondly believes. Public opinion polls reveal that nearly two-thirds — 62% — of Gazans support what Hamas did on October 7. The results are even more horrifying in the West Bank, where 85% of Palestinians support the Hamas attacks. Oliver would do well to look into the latest opinion polls before making pronouncements about the supposed divide between “innocent Palestinian civilians” and Hamas.
Oliver’s many other inaccuracies, distortions and material omissions about the conflict include:
Using Hamas casualty figures without caveat.
There is no way to know if the Hamas casualty figures are accurate. Salo Aizenberg has written an article analyzing the changing casualty figures put out by Hamas, where the number of men reported killed suddenly, and inexplicably, declines, while the number of women and children claimed to be killed just as suddenly rises. He notes that Hamas has a long history of exaggerating the number of those killed. It did so after the Battle of Jenin, when Hamas declared that the IDF had killed “500” people; the actual figure, as determined by Western intelligence services, was 52. Similarly, Hamas declared that an Israeli airstrike had hit the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, resulting in the deaths of 500 people. It turned out that there had been no airstrike. Instead, a rocket launched toward Israel by Palestinian Islamic Jihad misfired, and fell into the parking lot of the hospital, not on the hospital itself. And American intelligence believes that not 500, but between 10 and 50 people, were killed by the PIJ rocket.
Asserting that settlements “are widely understood to be against international law,” when in fact there is no consensus on the matter, and in any event, law is not decided by what is “widely understood.”
Many countries have voted at the UN on the settlements, declaring them — without any justification — as “against international law.” In fact, the Mandate for Palestine expressly called, in Article 6, for there to be “close settlement by Jews on the land.” What “land”? All the land that was intended by the League of Nations to be subject to the Mandate, including all the territory from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. That is the basis for Israel’s insistence on the legality of the settlements in Judea and Samaria.
He [Oliver] claimed that, “in response [to the October 7 attack], Israel has launched what’s now become a month-long siege of Gaza, cutting off nearly all water, food, electricity, and fuel to the territory.” But just two weeks before his segment, The New York Times admitted that Hamas had food, water and fuel stockpiled.
Who does the research supplied to John Oliver on subjects he intends to talk about? Does he have a whole staff to make sure he is, or at least gives the impression of being, informed? Or does he do that research himself, as his not very taxing schedule (five hours a week of airtime) gives him plenty of time to prepare? Couldn’t he at least have found out, and told his audience, that while ordinary Gazans have had to scrounge, Hamas has been sitting on huge stockpiles of food, water, and fuel that it has no intention of sharing with the civilians? That would have shown just how indifferent the terror group is to the people of Gaza. Oliver might also have mentioned that more than a hundred truckloads of food, fuel, and water now enter Gaza every day, and asked aloud how much of that aid is seized by Hamas.
DAVID MacKay says
Was John Oliver born stupid or did he just dedicate his life to wilful blindness?
rick says
The popularity of Hamas by the population of Gaza is the same as was the popularity of German Nazis by the population of Germany. Both peoples lined the street when the “military” of both governments marched. With Hamas the marches were often “Shaheeds” or martyrs devoted to killing Jews while killing themselves. Both populations allowed both governments to raise large armies and paid taxes fpr that purpose. The population of Gaza made no protests when Hamas stole millions of tons of concrete to build their tunnel systems instead of rebuilding those parts of Gaza which Israel destroyed in a prior “war” with Hamas. Both governments would not be able to function without the support by the people they claimed to represent.
Westman says
Oliver’s target is youth. Without them he has no audience just like Steven Colbert and Jon Stewart, before him. Their kitsch is joking about government and the previous generation with a demeaning attitude – just the thing to assuage youthful angst.
Like Zelenski, Oliver is the delivery vehicle, not the driver. The English(UK) elite haven’t got an army big enough to defeat California but they have a rather loud litany of uninformed opinions and prognostications, particularly from their active and retired military leaders.
Oliver is a jokester, this time in bad taste, with the usual ignorance of details that lie in the body of most jokes.
The real tragedy is the harm he is doing to the perceptions of the youth who watch him. If a war, broke out, say between the US and Iran, how many of Oliver’s viewers would flee from conscription? When entertainers do that to youth, external enemies only need to wait for their opportunity.
bill says
Excuse me but how is Oliver part of the UK ‘elite’, He started out in Uk it is true but his lucrative career has been spent in USA. I used to like him I am ashamed to admit, but he has turned into a turd, but he is largly a US creation, which has made him rich I am sure You are welcome to him.
Westman says
Sorry Bill, should have been more specific. He has a attitude of the UK elite. Can we give him back?
James Lincoln says
The inconvenient truth is that the overwhelming majority of Gaza’s “Palestinian civilians” support Hamas.
Pray Hard says
Typical liberal propagandist.
Scotsman48 says
Who thought this dumbass Limey should have a Talk Show in America are the ones responsible for the demise of Late Night TV across the USA.
Deport the wee prick just as was done to that other Limey moron Piers Morgan and learn there was a bloody good reason the Yanks kicked the Limeys outta the USA.
FYI.. I was born in Britain (Scotland) and Im a proud American Citizen since decades already and I always say the best thing the Americans ever did was kick the Royal BS out of America, otherwise we would be Canada and that aint a good idea as those idiots still have the Queen on their money.
Phil Copson says
” [Oliver] claimed that…… Israel has launched what’s now become a month-long siege of Gaza, cutting off nearly all water, food, electricity, and fuel to the territory.”
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Maybe Hugh Fitzgerald could examine and debunk this claim in a further article? There is a vast difference, for instance, between Israel suspending supplies of it’s own energy and provisions to Gaza, and preventing a third party from supplying them.
Does Oliver mean that Israel has suspended “nearly all” supply of Israeli water – or of all water? Given that Israel only supplied around 7% of Gaza’s water anyway, this is no great hardship.
The other obvious point is Gaza also borders on Egypt, and the crossing point is naturally controlled by Egypt, not Israel. The idea that the Arab world can’t supply as much of everything as is needed to maintain the population of a strip of land measuring just 25 miles long by approx 5 miles wide, is utterly absurd.
But the John Olivers of this world don’t care what the truth is: Any stick will do to beat Israel with – even if it’s the branch that we’re all sitting on.
Transmaster says
Egypt knows what happens to any supplies they send to Gaza, and remember it was Hamas like extremists that assassinated Anwar Sadat in 1981. And Obama permitted the Muslim Brotherhood to take over in 2011 in a fraudulent election. This Egyptian government was on its way to establishing a 2nd, but Sunni, theocracy like Iran. The Egyptian Army was not going to tolerate this and under General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi they toppled this government. Egypt has been burnt too many times by radical jihadist.
Transmaster says
Here is the thing like NAZI Germany in the 1930’s the people in the Gaza strip support Hamas because not to do so is death. To support them you can hopefully get food and maybe a job. It does not help when the UN in Gaza is completely staffed by Hamas operatives. These UN employees are in a position to divert the food, medicine, and money to Hamas. If I was Israel after they destroy Hamas they run the UN out. Sadly because of the the Palestinians are completely estranged from the Sunni Muslim world, and Shi’a Iran just wants to use them as a proxy tool against Israel they are stuck between a rock and a hard place. This is going to turn out to be the IDF’s “tar baby”, an 19th century US editorial cartoon artifice for an issue you are stuck with. It is going to take decades to fix this mess. Lebanon used to be the financial center for the Eastern Mediterranean. There is no reason why Gaza could not become a Eastern version of the UAE. But to get there it will take a long time, and complete isolation from Iran.
Billy Corr says
To “Transmaster” et al.
Any reader with access to a good paper archive need only pop down to the basement and read what even the most intelligent publications [Economist, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal etc.,] had to say about Gaza at the time the Israelis withdrew . . .
Oh, yes! Newly-free Gaza was going to be Hong Kong, Monaco, Dubai and Wall Street all rolled into one.
Not long afterwards, we were treated to the “enlightened” media hectoring us about the wretched living conditions which the distressed citizenry of Gaza were compelled to endure as a result of the Israeli “blockade.”
We now know that billions of dollars were simply pocketed by the terrorist chieftains and billions more were spent on tunnels of immense length and complexity.
Jerome from Layton says
What is that cat smoking?