From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, October 10, 2023
Late night TV’s Kimmel and Colbert talk of ‘horror,’ ‘nightmare’ in Israel
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
US late-night host Jimmy Kimmel showed his support for Israel the other night, discussing in his opening monologue the “horrific news over the weekend.”
“Our friends and allies in Israel, innocent civilians were killed and kidnapped by the terrorist organization Hamas. Israel is now at war. It’s a nightmarish situation,” said Kimmel.
He added that leaders from all around the world condemned the attack, along with millions of Americans, “including our super duper pro-Israel former president Donald Trump, who immediately found a way to make it about himself.”
Trump had written on X (formerly Twitter) that “the horrible attack on Israel much like the attack on Ukraine, would never have happened if I were president — zero chance!”
Kimmel also ridiculed Trump’s pronunciation of Hamas, showing a clip of the former president, who while campaigning in Cedar Rapids, and discussing the Hamas’s massacre of Israeli citizens, repeatedly pronounced the term like “hummus.”
On “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” Colbert referred to the more than 900 people killed, including US citizens.
“The Middle East is a complex region but the complexity of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is immaterial to the horror of this attack,” said Colbert. “It is heartbreaking to see violence escalate, and we hope and pray that someday peace is possible.”
“We didn’t even attempt to write jokes about this,” said Colbert. “The human mind simply refuses to do it.”
