How else to explain his recent interview with Anna Baltzer and Mustafa Barghouti? Clearly Stewart wanted in on the whole peace, love and understanding thing going on over at the J Street conference, so he invited the very telegenic Anna Baltzer, author of the book Witness in Palestine: journal of a Jewish American woman in the occupied territories and the granddaughter of Holocaust refugees. Which of course gives her a greater insight into the truth. But I digress. Mustafa Barghouti was a candidate for the Presidency of the Palestine Authority in 2005, finishing second to Mahmoud Abbas, with 19.8% of the vote. Barghouti was also Minister of Information in the short-lived Palestinian unity government of March-June 2007 where his greatest accomplishment was effectively killing off Farfour the Mouse, ahead of legal action by the Disney Corporation. He is currently the General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, a political party that seeks to further political reform, eliminate corruption while supporting peace with Israel based on two states with a Palestinian state in all territory occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, a capital in Arab East Jerusalem and rights for refugees.
What’s noteworthy is that Baltzer is more anti-Israel than Barghouti, who does not come off as anti-Israel at all. While voicing strong support for non-violent resistance and the BDS movement, she could not, after being repeatedly asked by Stewart, say that she supported the right of the State of Israel to exist. Barghouti on the other hand, had no problem stating his recognition of this right, although his relatively moderate views haven’t helped him much with the electorate and while he is respected, he’s basically nobody. In fact, so is Baltzer. Her book is 3 years old and she makes a living because certain audiences can’t get enough of Jews with Holocaust survivor parents or grandparents talking about what a shitty country Israel is. Baltzer, who is a graduate of Columbia University and a Fulbright Scholar, is basically a “hot babe” version of failed academic Norman Finkelstein. Much, much easier on the eyes, but just as one sided, intellectually dishonest, fundamentally flawed and kind of demented. Barghouti seems like a very nice, sincere man but like Baltzer, he exists on the fringes, with little or no support amongst his constituents.
So why invite these two to The Daily Show? Because of the J Street zeitgeist and because it might lead to a partnership that could result in “a hilarious buddy cop movie.” Sigh. The extended segments from the Daily Show can be viewed after the bump. That means click on the “more” link dummy.
Here’s Part I:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Exclusive – Anna Baltzer & Mustafa Barghouti Extended Interview Pt. 1 | ||||
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Here’s Part II:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Exclusive – Anna Baltzer & Mustafa Barghouti Extended Interview Pt. 2 | ||||
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What can I say? I like Jon
This is the best post ever on Jewlicious.
Except that I have to agree with the Middle on the sad state of Palestinian moderation.
I have heard Anna speak a few times on her college campus tirade tours. She reminds me of that famous line “Jane you ignorant Jew.”
She knows nothing about Judaism, the conflict. She has these stories and lies she tells. And she is making HUGE cash on working the Muslim-college circuit.
I don’t know if I can ever watch him again. What a stupid thing to do – give her a platform.
I gave her an inscribed copy of the Idiots Guide to Jewish History and begged her to learn something about Judaism, Jews, and Jewish history.
For Anna, Jewish life starts in 1948.
She is very telegenic, likable, and clever in her propaganda.
I watched these interviews on the Canadian version of Comedy Central (I can’t click through the links provided in this posting.) Assuming I saw the whole thing, I have to say that Baltzer came off as little mroe than eye candy. I didn’t hear her make any real contribution to the discussion and she functions as a get out of antisemetism free card. She can say whatever she wants about Israel, but how could she be anti-Jewish or even anti-western if she’s a Jew from the United States? She acts as a way of prempting the obvious charges against her obvious bias. Kind of like the Israeli Jew elected to Fatah.
Barghouti:
I guess that’s moderate by Palestinian standards, but I wouldn’t call him a moderate. At least he believes in non-violent struggle. Of course, as we’ve seen, the BDS movement has no problem disseminating misinformation or biased information about Israel, including censorship and the apartheid lie, to further its goals.
Anna Baltzer is a sad joke.
I felt Stewart was actually pretty fair in his interview.
Baltzer is a loon. Can anyone tell me what year a country called Palestine was founded? You can’t because there never was one, so there is no occupation of a Palestinian country.
There is absolutely nothing in religion, politics or history which justifies what Zionism has done and is presently doing, to Palestinians. Nothing. Zionism, in planning the ethnic-cleansing of Palestine before the holocaust…, negates the ethical content of Judaism. Indeed, there is a Judaism based on morality and universally applicable law, and then there is another version based on racial or religious supremacism. These two are in existential conflict and therefore nothing is more predictable than that tribalists will ALWAYS declare the moralists to be losers and nobodies. It is very hard to imagine that the tribe can control history, literature, media, and the US Congress long enough to ever live down the holocaust that it is imposing on innocent human beings who were NOT to blame for what Zionists brought down upon European, and in particular, Hungarian Jews. When the dust settles on history, Zionism will occupy a spot right next to Nazism as two manifestations of the same type of racist nationalism. And one of the worst of it’s crimes will be how it corrupted and manipulated the USA to it’s selfish and criminal ends.
Blah blah blah.
I agree- Barghouti came out looking like a moderate while Baltzer sounded crazy-radical.