John Oliver Torches Israel’s Netanyahu for 30 Minutes Straight: ‘This F*cking Guy!’
John Oliver torched Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu throughout the full half-hour monologue to kick off Sunday’s episode of Last Week Tonight, arguing he will do anything to “cling to power.”
President Donald Trump is set to host Netanyahu at the White House on Monday for talks on concluding the Israeli war against Hamas in Gaza. The meeting follows Netanyahu’s address to the United Nations General Assembly on Friday.
Opening his monologue late Sunday, Oliver said: “Years from now, when people tell the story of Israel’s brutality in Gaza, they’ll need to talk about the history of Israel founding mission, the complex politics of the Middle East, America’s choice to give more military aid to Israel than any other country in history, and a thousand other things.”
He added: “But they’ll also need to tell the story of one Benjamin Netanyahu, a man so singularly focused on remaining in power, he’s allied with the most extreme voices in his country.”
The comedian tied that instinct to a present-day strategy of appeasing coalition hardliners such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has declared “there is no such thing as the Palestinian people,” and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, once shunned by Netanyahu himself.
“Netanyahu is desperate to stay in power and will do whatever it takes,” Oliver said.
The host also jabbed at Netanyahu’s long record of goading U.S. support, replaying the then-opposition leader’s 2001 boast that “America is something that can be easily pushed.”
“Wow! Even if that is true, it’s insulting to hear out loud,” the host commented.
The host revisited Netanyahu’s corruption trials and accusing him of a 2023 push to neuter Israel’s Supreme Court, casting both as he moves to shield his political survival.
On Gaza, Oliver accused Netanyahu of prolonging war under pressure from right-wing partners, and contrasted that with the prime minister’s “embarrassing” courtship of Trump – spotlighting Bibi’s more recent line: “If anyone deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, it’s President Trump.”
The through-line, Oliver argued, is a leader who repeatedly chooses coalition math and personal impunity over de-escalation or compromise despite growing unpopularity at home and abroad.
“That’s kind of the problem with electing someone because he’s an a**hole son of a bitch. You do wind up being governed by someone who’s an arsehole and a son of bitch,” Oliver went on. “The point is, Netanyahu is not popular in Israel, and he’s increasingly unpopular here too. A new poll found just 21% of Americans have a favorable view of him. Meanwhile, support for Palestinian statehood is currently at 58% in the U.S., and just recently, a wave of countries, including France, the U.K., Canada and Australia, all officially recognized a Palestinian state.”
He continued: “And let me be clear, to attribute the atrocities in Gaza to just one man would be naive. It’d also ignore that while many Israelis vehemently disagree with choices that Netanyahu has made, there’s also a fair amount of consensus there when it comes to deeper issues like the inevitability of ongoing Israeli occupation in general and the acceptability of denying self-determination to Palestinians.”
He added: “Those are conversations and issues that are gonna take much longer and be much harder to resolve. But in the short term, Israelis removing this f*cking guy from power might, at the very least, bring a stop to the horrific suffering in Gaza and bring the hostages home.”
Rounding off, he asked: “Just who is Netanyahu really looking out for? Is it the people of Israel who’ve been put at risk by endless war, or is it the man who spent 17 years as prime minister and seems willing to do whatever it takes to squeeze out a few more? I would argue that it is the second one.”
“And I, for one, am looking forward to the day that Netanyahu is politically done,” the host concluded.
Watch above via HBO.
