\n<\/p>\n
John Oliver targeted Israel\u2019s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in a fiery episode of his HBO show Last Week Tonight.<\/p>\n
The host joked that Netanyahu was the \u201coriginal source material for Mr Potato Head\u201d as well as being the leader of the country on and off since 1996, making him their longest serving prime minister.<\/p>\n
He has repeatedly claimed he is \u201cthe only person capable of keeping Israel safe\u201d and has tried to market himself as \u201ca big strong guy who won\u2019t let Israel get pushed around\u201d.<\/p>\n
But Oliver said he has also been in charge of the \u201clongest and deadliest war in Israel\u2019s history\u201d and one that is \u201cnot currently that popular in Israel\u201d with polls showing he would lose an election if held today.<\/p>\n
He said that Netanyahu is \u201ca man so singularly focused on remaining in power, he\u2019s allied with the most extreme voices in his country\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
He then detailed a brief history, explaining his formative years in the US before he went into international diplomacy back home and then politics.<\/p>\n
Oliver said he publicly \u201cwent scorched Earth\u201d on rival Yitzhak Rabin who was then assassinated, something his wife blamed on Netanyahu on television.<\/p>\n
He has long promised that he can bring the US along with whatever he does, claiming that America can be easily pushed. \u201cEven if that is true, it\u2019s insulting to hear out loud,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
During Donald Trump\u2019s first term, Netanyahu had him help push the Abraham Accords which would freeze the Palestinians out. \u201cOf course it was a fuck you to the Palestinians,\u201d Oliver said, joking that if Netanyahu \u201ccould pour a bowl of cereal in a way that would meaningfully make conditions in Gaza worse, he would do that\u201d.<\/p>\n
His career has been increasingly \u201cdefined by attempts to cling to power\u201d despite allegations of corruption, bribery and fraud.<\/p>\n
Oliver also spoke about his wife, Sara, known as \u201cIsrael\u2019s Marie Antoinette\u201d for her indulgent lifestyle and alleged abusive behaviour toward household staff.<\/p>\n
He said that the \u201cdrumbeat of scandals led more centrist parties in Israel to decide they wouldn\u2019t form a coalition with him\u201d so he had to go further to the right with extreme voices.<\/p>\n
One of them is Itamar Ben Gvir, who has been referred to as \u201cthe David Duke of Israel\u201d, which Oliver said is \u201clike calling someone the JK Rowling of trans people\u201d.<\/p>\n
Another is Bezalel Smotrich, a proud homophobe and \u201cwillful provocateur\u201d who has said there\u2019s no such thing as the Palestinian people.<\/p>\n
He called them both \u201cabsolute nightmares central to Netanyahu\u2019s coalition\u201d and that the prime minister is \u201ccommitted to delivering for his extremist partners\u201d.<\/p>\n
Oliver then got to what happened on 7 October with the Hamas attack. \u201cNo one would say Netanyahu personally caused 7 October but he has definitely ensured that what\u2019s come after has caused exponentially more suffering that might otherwise have been the case,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He spoke about how Netanyahu had strategically tried to keep Hamas in power so he could more easily target a divided Palestinian government and has blown off a warning from Israel\u2019s security chief about an attack.<\/p>\n
What has happened since has been termed a genocide by major organisations and the international criminal court has issued arrest warrants charging Netanyahu and his circle with war crimes. Oliver said Netanyahu is \u201cpersonally responsible for keeping this war going\u201d after breaking a ceasefire in March and caving to far-right ministers.<\/p>\n
Oliver said it\u2019s \u201cimpossible to overstate the death and suffering Netanyahu\u2019s decisions have caused\u201d reminding his audience that over 65,000 Palestinians have been killed.<\/p>\n
Oliver added that what is happening is \u201call truly horrifying\u201d and also referenced Israel\u2019s attack on Iran, a decision that even annoyed Trump. Netanyahu then went on Fox News to nominate the US president for a Nobel peace prize.<\/p>\n
Oliver said it is \u201cvery clear that Netanyahu is desperate to stay in power and will do whatever it takes\u201d.<\/p>\n
His popularity has been waning with many Israelis \u201cunderstandably furious\u201d and only 21% of Americans supporting him. \u201cI think people have seen a little too much at this point,\u201d Oliver said.<\/p>\n
Oliver added: \u201cIsraelis removing this fucking guy from power might at the very least bring a stop to the horrific suffering in Gaza and bring the hostages home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John Oliver targeted Israel\u2019s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in a fiery episode of his HBO show Last Week Tonight. The host joked that Netanyahu was the \u201coriginal source material for Mr Potato Head\u201d as well as being the leader of the country on and off since 1996, making him their longest serving prime minister. He<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[262,107,7278,1899,9545,6668,261],"class_list":{"0":"post-24857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-john","9":"tag-keeping","10":"tag-netanyahu","11":"tag-oliver","12":"tag-personally","13":"tag-responsible","14":"tag-war"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}