John Oliver began his Sunday Last Week Tonight episode not by debuting a bunch of mascots but rather by giving a concise recap of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as it goes into its second week of horror in the Gaza Strip. “One side has suffered over ten times the casualties,†Oliver began, “something which speaks to both the severe power imbalance at play here and how that often gets obscured by how we choose to talk about it.†Recent New York Times reports suggest that nearly 200 Palestinians have been killed in the past week, with more than 50 of them children. Over the weekend, separate Israeli air strikes targeted a refugee camp and a high-rise building in Gaza City, the latter of which housed media organizations such as the Associated Press and Al Jazeera. The Israel Defense Forces have also taken to memeing their bombings, which stuns Oliver: “You should probably never meme a war crime.â€
“This isn’t tit for tat. There is a massive imbalance when it comes to the two sides’ weaponry and capabilities. While most of the rockets aimed toward Israeli citizens this week were intercepted, Israel’s air strikes were not,†he continued. “They hit their targets, including a house in a refugee camp, a building housing the Associated Press and Al Jazeera, and a 13-story office and apartment building. And while Israel insisted that there were military targets in that building and they destroyed it as humanely as possible, even warning people to evacuate it beforehand, destroying a civilian residence sure seems like a war crime, regardless of whether you send a courtesy heads-up text.†Oliver added, remarking at America’s support, “Life in Gaza is hard even when they’re not being bombed, and the U.S. government has implicitly co-signed on the brutally hard line Israel’s been taking.â€