‘I Don’t Understand!’ Jon Stewart Baffled as Fetterman Refuses to Criticize Israel

Jon Stewart expressed disbelief at Sen. John Fetterman’s (D-PA) refusal to condemn Israel’s treatment of Palestinians during a Wednesday podcast interview, exclaiming, “I don’t understand!”

Speaking on The Weekly Show, Stewart asked the Pennsylvania Democrat if he’d classify all of Israel’s conduct in the region as essential “for their own self-defense.”

“Just destroying its enemies, yeah,” responded Fetterman.

“Or flattening a tiny area and pushing two million people into 35 to 40% of that territory and having a siege of that area,” countered Stewart. “Is that in their self-defense?”

“No,” admitted Fetterman. “What I’m saying — it’s like people forget that Hamas were just rapists, and they were terrorizing and killing civilians, and then they stole five — no. How many? 250 people from their families, and they kept them underground and brutalized them and raped them and starved them for over two years.”

“And there is nothing in the prosecution of that war that gives you pause?” clarified Stewart.

“What do you mean?” asked Fetterman.

“The killing of tens of thousands of children,” Stewart cited.

“Absolutely awful,” declared Fetterman. “Because Hamas has embedded themselves, you know, behind these people, and is using the Palestinians as human shields… That’s how Hamas has designed that.”

“There are people in [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s cabinet who have said they would like to nuke the Palestinians,” pointed out Stewart, his tone of voice growing more stern. “Not Hamas. The Palestinians.”

He continued:

I don’t understand why we can’t criticize even someone that you think is an ally for actions that we deem to be morally reprehensible. Like, I don’t understand how you can defend the settlements in the West Bank. Like, I don’t understand how you have no criticisms over their actions, over their increasingly messianic, ultra-right-wing government that seems to think relentless war — like that you can bomb people out of resistance.

Watch the full clip above via YouTube.

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