Jon Stewart, on his February 5th episode of the Daily Show, doled out both criticism and support to the main-players of the P5+1 Iran nuclear negotiations. Stressing the importance of the agreement to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran, Stewart opened with a backhanded compliment to the president: “eliminating the threat of a nuclear Iran while bringing it into the community of nations would be an enormous achievement, just the sort of thing to retroactively justify a Nobel Peace Prize.”
Unfortunately, as Stewart remarks, hardliners in both countries have been taking active steps towards thwarting the deal. Specifically, Stewart mocks House Speaker Boehner’s controversial decision to invite the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to address Congress just weeks before Members of Congress promised to re-introduced legislation on Iran sanctions.
Stewart considered the invitation both petty and an act of meddling in an important and fragile international deal. As Center Board Chairman Lt. General Robert Gard said in a recent article, “It’s one thing to show disrespect for President Obama—that happens all the time—but it’s another thing to show disrespect for America. That just can’t be tolerated.” This political stunt is so extreme that even the notoriously right-wing news channel, Fox News, criticized the invitation calling it “wicked” and an “egregious snub of President Obama.”
A nuclear deal with Iran would work in the interests of the United States, making the world a safer place. Indeed, this seems to be just the sort of thing that the Nobel Peace Prize Committee had in mind when they awarded President Obama. Now, Obama has the opportunity to live up to the global communities’ expectations—if Congress can find the restraint necessary to allow diplomacy to produce a verifiable deal.
This isn’t the first time Jon Stewart has been featured on our blog. Click here to read Nukes of Hazard’s analysis of Stewart’s film on Iran “Rosewater”, and how the film supports the concepts behind diplomatic relations with Iran.
**Watch the segment here!
