Joan Rivers left no ambiguity about where she stands on the Israel-Hamas conflict, giving an impassioned defense of Israel and excoriating the BBC and CNN for their news coverage.
“Let me just tell you, if New Jersey were firing rockets into New York, we would wipe them out,” Rivers told TMZ Thursday. “[If] we heard they were digging tunnels from New Jersey to New York, we would get rid of Jersey, so I don’t want to hear anymore, ‘Oh, we’ll do a partial truce,’ and Palestinians, you cannot throw rockets and expect people not to defend themselves.”
Asked about the civilian casualties in Gaza, Rivers shot back: “Then don’t put your goddamn things in private homes! I’m sorry, don’t you dare put weapons stashes in private homes and then we say ‘get out,’ of course we’re gonna do it!”
When the interviewer asked where the civilians should go, Rivers was similarly blunt.
“I don’t care, they started it!” she said. “You’re all insane, they started it! What are you all saying? They started it. The Israelis did not throw their — for months, this has been going on. What are you supposed to do?”
She continued, “How do I know? Because I’ve been over there, that’s how I know. And I wish the world would know. And BBC should be ashamed of themselves and CNN should be ashamed of themselves, and everybody stop it already!”
Rivers was also asked to weigh in on celebrities who have tweeted their support for the Palestinians, including Dwight Howard, Rihanna and Selena Gomez.
“Selena Gomez, oh yeah, that college grad,” Rivers said sarcastically. She added, “Let’s see if she can spell Palestinian.”
