Israel is in a tough spot right now. With the death toll from Operation Protective Edge rising, international opinion of the Jewish state is at an all-time low and lots of celebrities–from Rihanna to Selena–have taken to social media to voice support for the Palestinian people. Well, as it turns out, Israel supporters also have a few loud-mouthed Jewish celebs in their corner.
Enter Joan Rivers. She’d been waiting her entire life for TMZ to ask her to weigh in on the conflict. What started with a colorful analogy between Hamas and New Jersey somehow spiraled into a Selena diss (“Let’s see if she can spell Palestinian!”).
Video courtesy of TMZ:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmkHGDq107c
Also to be filed under “EPIC [JEWISH CELEB] ISRAEL PALESTINE RANT,” is this clip of Howard Stern losing his mind when a caller dares to bring up the Israel-Gaza conflict. Stern (who, to his credit, did a rather brilliant interview with Mayim Bialik earlier this year) launched into a tirade about anti-Semitism and called Rihanna something not very polite.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDp_dz2bP78
Then, of course, there was Bill Maher’s rather awful tweet comparing Hamas and a crazy lady who wants to kill you–which somehow only succeeded in condoning violence towards women.
Maher’s two cents:
Dealing w/ Hamas is like dealing w/ a crazy woman who’s trying to kill u – u can only hold her wrists so long before you have to slap her
— Bill Maher (@billmaher) July 18, 2014
The questions remains whether these unhinged celebrity endorsements are in fact an asset or a liability for Israel’s public image. What do you think?
Want to keep up the latest news on Israel? Sign up for JTA’s newsletter here.
Like this post? Get the best of Kveller delivered straight to your inbox.
