Joan Rivers has little sympathy for civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip.
“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 said in a video recorded outside Los Angeles International Airport.
The TV personality and the daughter of Russian-Jewish immigrants lifted her hands to her cheeks in mock outrage when a TMZ reporter brought up that nearly 2,000 Palestinians have been killed since the Israel Defense Forces launched Operation Protective Edge a month ago.
“Oh my God! Tell that to the people in Hiroshima,” she said. “When you declare war, you declare war. They started it. We now don’t count who’s dead.”
After the reporter reiterated his point about the overwhelming number of civilian casualties in the conflict, Rivers countered that the Israeli military told them about impending attacks — and it’s their fault for not heeding the warnings.
“They were told to get out. They didn’t get out. You don’t get out, you are an idiot. At least the ones that were killed were the ones with very low IQs,” she said.
The video set off an Internet firestorm when it was posted to TMZ Thursday morning, prompting Rivers to release a “clarification” of her comments on her website later in the day.
Rivers said she is saddened and disappointed that her comments about civilian deaths were taken out of context.
“What I said and stand behind is, war is hell and unfortunately civilians are victims of political conflicts. We, The United States, certainly know this as 69 years later we still feel the guilt of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” she said.
She accused the media of narrowing in on only her most inflammatory comments, obscuring her overall sentiments.
“Along with every other sane person in this world,” she said. “I am praying for peace.”
NY daily News
Leave a Reply