Mark Levin Slams 'Brilliant Comedian' Jon Stewart: He's Not Funny or Smart
On Tuesday night’s Hannity show on the Fox News Channel, talk-radio
star and author Mark Levin attacked Jon Stewart for trashing Israel --
and then mocking critics
by insisting he should be allowed to have nuance. “Just merely
mentioning Israel or questioning in any way the effectiveness or
humanity of Israel's policies is not the same thing as being pro-Hamas,”
he said. When he trashes Israel, he's "made it okay to care about Palestinian suffering."
Hannity said Stewart is rarely attacked in the media. Levin said “he’s
held up as a brilliant comedian,” but “I don't think he's funny. I don't
think he's smart.” He made the obvious point that if Hamas had Israel's
nuclear arsenal, Israel would no longer exist. (Video, transcript
below)
MARK LEVIN: I'll tell you why. Because he's held up as this really
smart guy, this -- he's held up as a brilliant comedian. He's not a
smart guy. He's got 10 writers. He's a clown.
SEAN HANNITY: Ten? He's got 30!
LEVIN: And that particular segment -- I don't watch him, but I watched
this -- well, I watched this segment on the Internet, and the
disinformation and the propaganda he was putting out in the form of
jokes was outrageous! And I would just tell Mr. Stewart that it really
doesn't take a lot of courage to criticize Israel and trash Israel. It's
done all the time. It's done by Israel's, quote, unquote, "neighbors."
It's done in Europe right now, where Jewish stores and so forth are
being burned down and there's riots. It's done in Boston and New York,
where the police have had to come out and protect pro-Israeli rallies
and so forth. So you're not really a tough guy. You're not really
cutting-edge.
And the fact of the matter, Mr. Stewart, is that if Hamas had the
weaponry that Israel had, nuclear weapons and other weapons, Israel
would cease to exist. And if Israel wanted to take out whole communities
in Gaza, or the whole Gaza strip, they could do so in about 30 minutes.
And it doesn't.
This is the only country I know of that has thousands of missiles
rained in on it, missiles coming from Iran through Hezbollah to Hamas, a
country that agrees to a ceasefire that was negotiated by Egypt and the
Arab League, and still has to tolerate these attacks. And even today,
Sean, a missile came very close to Ben Gurion airport. They shut down
the airport now to international traffic. The United States did. So now
Israel is isolated in that way.
Can you imagine? The Gaza strip is relatively distant from Ben Gurion
airport. The West Bank is very close. So what this demonstrates is
Israel must never demilitarize or give up the West Bank because it will
lose all control over its security!
So I thought Jon Stewart -- I don't think he's funny. I don't think he's smart. How can he be, 10, 30 writers? But I thought this particular segment was really putrid.
— Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center. Follow Tim Graham on Twitter.
