Jon Stewart Offers Serious Solution to Israel-Palestine Conflict: ‘Anything Is Better Than the Clusterf*uck We Have Now’

Jon Stewart was hoping to avoid controversy during his third episode back at The Daily Show, but instead, as the prompter rolled, he found himself covering the Israel-Palestine conflict. And in the end, he may have come up with a solution for it.

Stewart touched on many aspects of the war between Israel and Hamas, which has resulted in tens of thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza at the hands of Israel’s military. One point he made was that the United States was, perhaps, not showing enough “moral tough love” to its ally and telling it to “be careful”:

“Hey, Israel: Take it down a notch! Could you please be more careful with your bombing?” It’s good advice. But really, could the United States have told Israel that when we gave them all the bombs? They’re our bombs! This is like your coke dealer coming in with an eight ball and going, “Don’t stay up all night.”

But he also called out the United Nations for failing to pass a resolution for a ceasefire after delaying the resolution:

Why do you even have a building? Why? Why do you– we can use that! We have a housing crisis. Give us back our fucking building! This is not right. What is the United Nations even what are you, just a support system for a diverse and pleasing food court? What are you?

Later in the segment, Stewart points out the obvious:

The status quo cycle of provocation and retribution is predicated on some idea that one of these groups is going to go away, and they are not. If we want a safe and free Israel and a safe and free Palestine, we have to recognize that reality. And I know that there is a twisted and much contested history in the region that has brought us to this point. But we are at this point. And anything we do from here has to look forward.

And after a couple of joke solutions — bring everyone in the region to Maine to play a unifying game of tennis, ask God — Stewart actually offered up a possible solution:

Starting now, no preconditions, no earned trust, no partners for peace, Israel stops bombing. Hamas releases the hostages. The Arab countries who claim Palestine as their top priority, come in and form a demilitarized zone between Israel and a free Palestinian state. The Saudis, Egypt, UAE, Qatar, Jordan, they all form like a NATO arrangement guaranteeing security for both sides.

Obviously, they won’t call it NATO. It’s the Middle East treaty. It’s METO! Tweet it out! METO! Tonight, people, let’s get this region METO’ed. Now, obviously I have not worked out the exact verbiage, but anything is better than the clusterfuck cycle we have now, because honestly, what is the alternative?

Watch the video above via The Daily Show on YouTube.

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