Following in the steps of Seth Meyers last week, “Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver used his show on Sunday night to call for U.S. aid to Gaza. But first, the HBO host called out Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his “insulting” attempts to “deflect” from the starvation that’s happening.
To kick off the episode, Oliver noted as usual that a lot happened in the week. But, he couldn’t dig into much of it “because, to quote the least horny message you could possibly get on Hinge, we need to talk about Gaza.” More specifically, Oliver wanted to take the time to discuss the lack of food available in the region.
But, despite images and video footage of families struggling to obtain food to survive, Netanyahu has said in recent press briefings that there is “no starvation” in Gaza.
“Yeah, are you sure about that though? Because we can all see it, right in front of us,” Oliver retorted. “And it’s frankly insulting to think you can deflect our attention with all the skill of a s–tty magician.”
At that, a graphic of Netanyahu dressed as a magician popped up onscreen, showing the man holding a top hat with bunny ears sticking out.
“‘Ladies and gentlemen, there is nothing in this hat,’” Oliver acted out. “Oh. f–k off! I can see its ears and it smells like rabbit s–t in here! How stupid do you think we are? And it is notable that, at this point, even Trump isn’t buying it.”
Indeed, when asked directly whether he agrees with Netanyahu that there is no starvation earlier this week, Trump did not. “I mean, based on television, I would say not particularly, because those children look very hungry,” he said during his visit to Scotland.
Of course, Oliver didn’t think that was a good enough answer by any means.
“OK, describing starving children as looking ‘very hungry’ is a massive understatement, right up there with ‘We were just friends,’” Oliver sniped, as an image of Trump and convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein appeared onscreen.
Oliver conceded that Trump’s response was a “rare moment” of the president “resembling empathy,” but immediately pointed out that “he still managed to make everything about himself” by complaining that Gaza hasn’t thanked the U.S. enough for aid sent so far.
As the segment went on, Oliver eventually called on the U.S. to intervene on the crisis in Gaza and pressure international officials to make sure aid is actually getting distributed.
“What’s so frustrating is that most humanitarian disasters don’t come with solutions as straightforward as this one,” Oliver said. “Hurricanes don’t tend to have kill switches that you can flip. You can’t stop a pandemic by simply hanging a ‘Do Not Infect’ sign on your door.”
“But this famine truly does have an off button, as it’s entirely man-made and we need to f–king press it,” Oliver finished.
“Last Week Tonight” airs Sundays at 11 p.m. ET on HBO and is streaming on HBO Max.
