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HBO and John Oliver’s Disgraceful Comparison of Israel to Nazi Germany in West Bank Analysis
John Oliver during the July 28, 2024, episode of his HBO show “Last Week Tonight.” Photo: Screenshot
What do you get when you mix a late-night comedy news show with complex political topics like the West Bank, Israeli settlements, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
The answer is, the litany of context-free assertions, mischaracterizations, and outright falsehoods that define the 30-minute profile of the West Bank on this past week’s episode of Last Week Tonight.
Instead of approaching the topic with sensitivity and nuance, British-American comedian John Oliver presented the topic to his audience through a black-and-white lens that pits the aggressive and wicked Jewish State against the innocent Palestinian victims.
In particular, Oliver’s misleading and superficial analysis rested on a litany of oversimplifications and context-free assertions, an almost complete disregard for the role of Palestinian terrorism in the ongoing conflict, and the use of morally-charged terminology meant to unequivocally tarnish Israel’s reputation in the eyes of his audience.
The Missing Context: What Oliver Left Out
Throughout his story on the West Bank, Oliver presented his audience with a simplistic overview of the topic, robbing them of the much-needed context and nuance to truly understand the subject.
Some examples of John Oliver’s misrepresentation of the facts include:
The complete disregard for the Jewish history of the region, including the fact that prior to 1948, there were Jewish communities and Jewish-owned properties in eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank. While condemning the Jewish presence in certain areas, John Oliver never presents his audience with the complex history that complicates his simplistic narrative.
The claim that Israel incentivizes its citizens to live in the West Bank, even using a lottery to subsidize housing there. Contrary to the way that it is presented, this lottery is not a special tool for sole use in the West Bank, but also exists for subsidized housing in pre-1967 Israel.
The claim that there is a two-tier justice system in the West Bank, one for Israeli Jews and one for Palestinians. Since Israel has not annexed the West Bank, it would be illegal to apply Israeli civil law to Palestinians. As well, all Israeli citizens (including Arabs) are subject to Israeli civil law in the West Bank, not just Jews.
The claim that the Israeli military court system (which applies to West Bank Palestinians) has a 99% conviction rate. As noted in an analysis by CAMERA, this statistic is based on one year (2010) and is likely due to the fact that military prosecutors have a high threshold for which cases to bring and, thus, only bring forward cases they are highly confident will lead to a conviction.
Oliver presents Hebron as being home to 200,000 Palestinians and “700 hardline Israeli settlers who have chosen to live literally above them,” implying some sort of ethnic supremacy. This presentation of Hebron ignores the city’s importance to the Jewish people, disregards the fact that the majority of the city falls under Palestinian Authority control (where Jews are forbidden to live), and dismisses the fact that, topographically-speaking, not all Jews in Hebron live above the Palestinians.
The Missing Puzzle Piece: Palestinian Terrorism
While John Oliver chose to focus his West Bank profile on Israel’s perceived sins, one thing the comedian almost completely left out is the role that Palestinian terrorism has played in the region over the past century.
For example, Oliver decries both the separation barrier and West Bank checkpoints as “physical obstacles placed in the path of Palestinians’ everyday life.”
However, while presenting these as examples of Israeli cruelty, John Oliver fails to inform his audience that Israel was forced to install the separation barrier and checkpoints after years of Palestinian terrorist attacks (including suicide bombings) in pre-1967 Israel that originated in the West Bank.
And when Oliver does mention Palestinian terrorism, he is almost dismissive of its importance and effect on both the Israeli psyche and the tumultuousness of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
When discussing what he believes caused the Oslo Accords to break down, Oliver does mention “Palestinian militant attacks” but sandwiches it between settlement expansion and the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, clearly placing the greater onus for the collapse of the peace talks on Israel while only paying lip service to the role of Palestinian terrorism.
Similarly, Oliver belittles the settler fear of Palestinian terrorism by comparing the number of Israelis killed in the West Bank over the past 16 years (150) and Palestinians killed (1,522). Clearly, for Oliver, Israel is a much greater threat than Palestinian violence.
However, to reach this conclusion, Oliver has to ignore the fact that these statistics don’t include the wave of Palestinian terrorism known as the Second Intifada (which ended in 2005), that Palestinian attacks are indiscriminate while the majority of Palestinians killed by Israel were either terrorists or engaged in violence, and that the number of Israeli deaths does not correlate with the daily threat of Palestinian terrorism.
For example, in June 2024, 57 terror attacks in the West Bank were foiled by Israeli security forces, while there were almost 400 instances of terrorism (the majority of which were in the West Bank), including shooting, rock throwing, pipe bombing, and firebombing.
Oliver’s “Moral” Case Against Israel
One of the most egregious aspects of this entire piece is Oliver’s use of morally-charged terminology to tarnish his large audience’s view of the Jewish State.
Early on in this segment, Oliver describes the founding of the State of Israel following the Holocaust and then quickly refers to the “Nakba” as the Palestinians’ “own collective trauma,” drawing a direct comparison between a genocide and the result of a war that was not initiated by Israel.
This diminishment of the gravity of the Holocaust is further made clear near the end of the piece when Oliver makes the grotesque implication that Israel is acting like the Nazis, saying:
A phrase that gets brought up a lot with regard to Israel is ‘never again,’ an anti-genocide slogan often invoked in memory of the Holocaust. And it’s always been open to two interpretations: There’s the one that means this must never again happen to the Jewish people and the one that means this must never happen again to any people anywhere. And in the West Bank, as in Gaza right now, it’s pretty clear which one the Israeli government has favored.
Only a complete perversion of morality could produce such a statement.
And yet, morality is what Oliver continually relies on to portray his view as the just one and those that disagree as immoral.
Oliver refers to the building of settlements as “immoral” and suggests the adoption of extreme steps against Israel by the United States as a moral step in the right direction, including conditioning military aid to the Jewish State and allowing anti-Israel resolutions to pass at the United Nations Security Council.
Oliver ends this piece by saying that the United States should “have the moral backbone that’s been shown by Ben & [expletive] Jerry’s,” a reference to the ice cream company’s decision to not allow its wares to be sold in the West Bank. (In an ironic twist, this decision was harmful for local Palestinians who worked for the Israeli ice cream company.)
I was very disappointed to see John Oliver use Holocaust inversion against the Jewish state. It’s one of the most harmful and hurtful forms of antisemitism.
It’s still so surreal that this is happening.
— Eli Klein (@TheEliKlein) July 30, 2024
The West Bank and Israeli settlements are complex and sensitive topics that deserve to be treated carefully and with nuance on the part of the presenter. While Israel is not above reproach, solely focusing on the perceived sins of the Jewish state is not conducive to fully understanding the reality in this contested part of the world.
Instead of acting responsibly, Oliver spent his half hour presentation on the subject spreading ignorance and misinformation, all in an effort to besmirch the Jewish state and inflame passions that are already at toxic levels.
Those who look to John Oliver and his alternative news show for information about current events deserve better.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post HBO and John Oliver’s Disgraceful Comparison of Israel to Nazi Germany in West Bank Analysis first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire
Explosions send smoke into the air in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing said on Friday that while the Palestinian terrorist group favors reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war, if such an agreement is not reached in current negotiations it could revert to insisting on a full package deal to end the conflict.
Hamas has previously offered to release all the hostages held in Gaza and conclude a permanent ceasefire agreement, and Israel has refused, Abu Ubaida added in a televised speech.
Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have hosted more than 10 days of talks on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce in the war.
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on a call he had with Pope Leo on Friday that Israel‘s efforts to secure a hostage release deal and 60-day ceasefire “have so far not been reciprocated by Hamas.”
As part of the potential deal, 10 hostages held in Gaza would be returned along with the bodies of 18 others, spread out over 60 days. In exchange, Israel would release a number of detained Palestinians.
“If the enemy remains obstinate and evades this round as it has done every time before, we cannot guarantee a return to partial deals or the proposal of the 10 captives,” said Abu Ubaida.
Disputes remain over maps of Israeli army withdrawals, aid delivery mechanisms into Gaza, and guarantees that any eventual truce would lead to ending the war, said two Hamas officials who spoke to Reuters on Friday.
The officials said the talks have not reached a breakthrough on the issues under discussion.
Hamas says any agreement must lead to ending the war, while Netanyahu says the war will only end once Hamas is disarmed and its leaders expelled from Gaza.
Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Over 250 hostages were kidnapped during Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught.
Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
The post Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel
People hold images of the victims of the 1994 bombing attack on the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) community center, marking the 30th anniversary of the attack, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Irina Dambrauskas
Iran on Friday marked the 31st anniversary of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires by slamming Argentina for what it called “baseless” accusations over Tehran’s alleged role in the terrorist attack and accusing Israel of politicizing the atrocity to influence the investigation and judicial process.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the anniversary of Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 300.
“While completely rejecting the accusations against Iranian citizens, the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns attempts by certain Argentine factions to pressure the judiciary into issuing baseless charges and politically motivated rulings,” the statement read.
“Reaffirming that the charges against its citizens are unfounded, the Islamic Republic of Iran insists on restoring their reputation and calls for an end to this staged legal proceeding,” it continued.
Last month, a federal judge in Argentina ordered the trial in absentia of 10 Iranian and Lebanese nationals suspected of orchestrating the attack in Buenos Aires.
The ten suspects set to stand trial include former Iranian and Lebanese ministers and diplomats, all of whom are subject to international arrest warrants issued by Argentina for their alleged roles in the terrorist attack.
In its statement on Friday, Iran also accused Israel of influencing the investigation to advance a political campaign against the Islamist regime in Tehran, claiming the case has been used to serve Israeli interests and hinder efforts to uncover the truth.
“From the outset, elements and entities linked to the Zionist regime [Israel] exploited this suspicious explosion, pushing the investigation down a false and misleading path, among whose consequences was to disrupt the long‑standing relations between the people of Iran and Argentina,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.
“Clear, undeniable evidence now shows the Zionist regime and its affiliates exerting influence on the Argentine judiciary to frame Iranian nationals,” the statement continued.
In April, lead prosecutor Sebastián Basso — who took over the case after the 2015 murder of his predecessor, Alberto Nisman — requested that federal Judge Daniel Rafecas issue national and international arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his alleged involvement in the attack.
Since 2006, Argentine authorities have sought the arrest of eight Iranians — including former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died in 2017 — yet more than three decades after the deadly bombing, all suspects remain still at large.
In a post on X, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, released a statement commemorating the 31st anniversary of the bombing.
“It was a brutal attack on Argentina, its democracy, and its rule of law,” the group said. “At DAIA, we continue to demand truth and justice — because impunity is painful, and memory is a commitment to both the present and the future.”
31 años del atentado a la AMIA – DAIA. 31 años sin justicia.
El 18 de julio de 1994, un atentado terrorista dejó 85 personas muertas y más de 300 heridas. Fue un ataque brutal contra la Argentina, su democracia y su Estado de derecho.
Desde la DAIA, seguimos exigiendo verdad y… pic.twitter.com/kV2ReGNTIk
— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) July 18, 2025
Despite Argentina’s longstanding belief that Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah terrorist group carried out the devastating attack at Iran’s request, the 1994 bombing has never been claimed or officially solved.
Meanwhile, Tehran has consistently denied any involvement and refused to arrest or extradite any suspects.
To this day, the decades-long investigation into the terrorist attack has been plagued by allegations of witness tampering, evidence manipulation, cover-ups, and annulled trials.
In 2006, former prosecutor Nisman formally charged Iran for orchestrating the attack and Hezbollah for carrying it out.
Nine years later, he accused former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner — currently under house arrest on corruption charges — of attempting to cover up the crime and block efforts to extradite the suspects behind the AMIA atrocity in return for Iranian oil.
Nisman was killed later that year, and to this day, both his case and murder remain unresolved and under ongoing investigation.
The alleged cover-up was reportedly formalized through the memorandum of understanding signed in 2013 between Kirchner’s government and Iranian authorities, with the stated goal of cooperating to investigate the AMIA bombing.
The post Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns
Murad Adailah, the head of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, attends an interview with Reuters in Amman, Jordan, Sept. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jehad Shelbak
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the Arab world’s oldest and most influential Islamist movements, has been implicated in a wide-ranging network of illegal financial activities in Jordan and abroad, according to a new investigative report.
Investigations conducted by Jordanian authorities — along with evidence gathered from seized materials — revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood raised tens of millions of Jordanian dinars through various illegal activities, the Jordan news agency (Petra) reported this week.
With operations intensifying over the past eight years, the report showed that the group’s complex financial network was funded through various sources, including illegal donations, profits from investments in Jordan and abroad, and monthly fees paid by members inside and outside the country.
The report also indicated that the Muslim Brotherhood has taken advantage of the war in Gaza to raise donations illegally.
Out of all donations meant for Gaza, the group provided no information on where the funds came from, how much was collected, or how they were distributed, and failed to work with any international or relief organizations to manage the transfers properly.
Rather, the investigations revealed that the Islamist network used illicit financial mechanisms to transfer funds abroad.
According to Jordanian authorities, the group gathered more than JD 30 million (around $42 million) over recent years.
With funds transferred to several Arab, regional, and foreign countries, part of the money was allegedly used to finance domestic political campaigns in 2024, as well as illegal activities and cells.
In April, Jordan outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s most vocal opposition group, and confiscated its assets after members of the Islamist movement were found to be linked to a sabotage plot.
The movement’s political arm in Jordan, the Islamic Action Front, became the largest political grouping in parliament after elections last September, although most seats are still held by supporters of the government.
Opponents of the group, which is banned in most Arab countries, label it a terrorist organization. However, the movement claims it renounced violence decades ago and now promotes its Islamist agenda through peaceful means.
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