Outspoken comic Joan Rivers said she prays that peace prevails in Gaza, but contests the Palestinians have actually exacerbated their civilian death toll by electing Hamas and refusing to leave their homes at the warning of Israeli forces.
Ms. Rivers, 81, the daughter of Russian-Jewish immigrants, was captured on video Wednesday at Los Angeles International Airport answering a photographer’s question about the conflict in the Gaza strip.
“[They] deserved it. When you declare war, you declare war,” Ms. Rivers said of the nearly 2,000 Palestinians who’ve died in Gaza during the last month of rocket fire between Hamas and Israel. “They started it. We now don’t count who’s dead. You’re dead. You deserve to be dead. You started it. You started it. Don’t you dare make me feel sad about that.”
She also spoke about the election of Hamas in Gaza.
“You can’t get rid of Hamas. You have to say you do not recognize them — they are terrorists,” she said. “They were re-elected by a lot of stupid people who don’t even own a pencil.”
She then added, after questioning from the photographer about the number of civilians in Gaza who’ve died in the clashes: “You were told to get out, you don’t get out, then you know you’re an idiot, and at least the ones that were killed were the ones with very low IQs.”
After the video quickly went viral, Ms. Rivers posted on her Facebook page that she is “saddened and disappointed” that her statement was “totally taken out of context,” but stood behind her views.
“What I said and stand behind is, war is hell and unfortunately civilians are victims of political conflicts,” she wrote.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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