Jon Stewart Mocks Christians, Scientology

Jon Stewart hit out at Christians and poked fun at Scientology on Monday’s episode of The Daily Show.

While discussing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s post-war plan to demilitarize the Gaza Strip, the comedian came up with a few ideas of his own to create peace in the Middle East—with one suggestion involving God.

Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people. Israel subsequently fired airstrikes on Gaza. Supplies of supplies of food, medicine, energy and fuel to the area were cut, before Israel launched a ground offensive later that month.

As of February 27, nearly 30,000 people have been killed in Gaza, the Associated Press reports.

After criticizing the United Nations and Gaza’s neighbor’s Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Stewart said there is “another player” who could campaign for a ceasefire in Gaza—Christians.

Jokingly referring to Christians as a “small religious start-up out of Bethlehem,” Stewart cuts to a sermon by televangelist John Hagee.

“Jesus Christ is going to sweep over that battlefield and to annihilate that army of 200 million people,” Hagee declares in the footage. “The blood will flow to the bridle of a horse.”

Pretending to be stunned by Hagee’s words, Stewart asks “so that’s the plan for the Prince of Peace?”

“I am not an equestrian expert, but if the blood goes all the way to the bridle, that’s an enormous amount of blood, no?”

“Unless we’re talking about the mini horses,” the 61-year-old continued. “Because that’s still, it’s a lot of blood, but more manageable, and adorable.”

Stewart said that current proposals to end to the Israel-Hamas war are based around one group “going away,” and since that’s unlikely to happen, he shared some “solutions for peace” of his own.

The comedian jumped to a CBS news segment of Israeli and Palestinian teens at Seeds of Peace’s camp in Maine. The non-profit is dedicated to “transforming legacies of conflict into change,” with the kids playing tennis, canoeing and singing songs together in the brief video.

“Ok, that one hasn’t been scaled up yet,” Stewart joked. “And may take longer than we have.”

His second suggestion was to “just ask God,” before lamenting the deity’s “lack of communication” on the topic.

“It’s his house,” Stewart said. “He’s the one who started all this, just ask God. He can tell us who is right.”

“Is it the Jews? Is it the Muslims? Is it the Zoroastrians?” he continued. “If it’s the Scientologists, a lot of us are going to have egg on our faces.”

Newsweek has reached out to Jon Stewart, John Hagee and the Church of Scientology for comment via email.

Stewart returned to The Daily Show on February 12 following a nine-year hiatus.

The Emmy winner will be covering the run-up to the 2024 general election, and has so far taken aim at likely presidential nominees Donald Trump and Joe Biden, conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, and Trump’s niece and his vocal critic, psychologist Mary Trump—dividing viewers with his comments.