Daily Show's Jon Stewart skewers everyone involved in 'Speech-gate'
"It was the State of the Union Address the Republicans wanted, delivered by a leader they wished they had."
By NOA AMOUYALJon Stewart(photo credit: REUTERS)
Of all the criticism fired at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his controversial address to Congress, The Daily Show's Jon Stewart was probably the most scathing."Even though he was speaking only two weeks before his election, he wasn't using it as the most elaborate campaign ad ever," Stewart said sarcastically, giving voice to the cynics who claimed that delivering the speech was merely an elaborate ploy for votes on Netanyahu's part.In a play on words referencing Succot and Hanukah, Stewart called the spectacle a tribute to the "Jewish holiday of suck-on-it" and the "festival of slights." Stewart's mockery was evenly distributed, with President Barack Obama, CNN, Congress, Speaker of the House John Boehner and even Vice President Joe Biden all ridiculed for being part of the biggest media circus of the year.
Showing clips of Obama's benign, even aloof, response to Netanyahu's plans to address Congress, Stewart joked, "That's how powerful Israel is! The Prime Minister slaps our president in the face and his reaction is 'It's okay, I'll buy him gloves so when he hits me it won't hurt him so much,'" Stewart said in disbelief.And of course, A Daily Show segment wouldn’t be complete without depicting shouting talking heads shouting over each other – in this case a J Street spokesperson and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach duking it out on CNN."It was the State of the Union Address the Republicans wanted, delivered by a leader they wished they had," Stewart said, providing probably the one – and only – assessment of the speech that Republicans would agree with.
