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Jon Stewart’s Take on Netanyahu’s Election Win

The Daily Show host says Bibi’s last-minute scare tactics are ‘our thing’

by
Stephanie Butnick
March 19, 2015
(The Daily Show)
(The Daily Show)

Jon Stewart is leaving The Daily Show later this year, and he’s ready to go out with a bang. Case in point: his take on this week’s Israeli election, in which Benjamin Netanyahu surged to a last-minute victory after a disturbing 11th hour call to his far-right base warning them that Arab voters were coming out “in droves” to vote for the new Arab Joint List.

Offering a visual rendering of the Israeli political spectrum that includes everyone from J Street to ‘your bubbe’ and ‘father’s second wife (converted),’ Stewart concludes, “Holy shit! Netanyahu just decided to go full settler!”

“How dare you,” Stewart deadpans soon afterward. “How dare you gin up racist fears of minority turnout for short-term political gain. That’s our thing!”

And scene.

Stephanie Butnick is chief strategy officer of Tablet Magazine, co-founder of Tablet Studios, and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.