Jon Stewart’s Plan for Peace in the Middle East

During an interview with Vali Nasr on Tuesday, “The Daily Show” host grew frustrated with the increasing violence in the Middle East and offered his own plan for peace in the region.  The two had been discussing the difficulty of diplomacy, as in the case with Iran’s nuclear program, when Stewart quipped, “You’re suggesting that the resolutions that we’ve passed are … ineffective?”  After Nasr, who wrote the book “The Shia Revival,” argued that the United States was necessarily entangled in Middle Eastern affairs, Stewart offered his own solution to the conflict.

Watch it:

Partial Transcript:

Stewart:

How much of this is a cynical ploy, uh, using the United States … Lord knows, there’s much the United States has maybe done incorrectly in that region.  Lord knows there’s much Israel has done incorrectly in that region.  But how much is hatred of Israel and the United States play into the hands of all those who would like to just continue to have power?

Nasr:

It always does.  It’s a way of rallying people, recruiting support, uh, becoming heroes and for Hezbollah and Iran, it’s definitely a way of diverting attention from Sunni/Shia violence that is coming out of Iraq.

Stewart:

So if we…Let’s say the United States decides, “we are going to bury our head in the sand,” ostrich-like.  Would everyone then leave us alone and begin to kill each other?