The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart takes on Iran war drums

"The Daily Show's" Jon Stewart turned his comedic attention Tuesday to the not-so-funny subject increasingly preoccupying Washington: the looming possibility of an Israeli military confrontation with Iran. Stewart played peacemaker in the segment, urging the not-yet-warring parties to brush off some of the more heated threats coming from the respective capitals, which he attributed to the excesses of campaign season in Washington, Tehran and Tel Aviv.

"Netanyahu has clearly reserved Israel's right to kill this duck even before it flies south for the nuclear winter," Stewart said, referring to visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's characterization of the Iran nuclear program to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference Monday. (Netanyahu, mocking of anyone who doubts Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb, said if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, etc.). Iran has taken note of those threats, Stewart said, and issued its own fiery vows to use all means necessary to defend itself.

"My point is this," Stewart said in the segment. "Israel and Iran are taunting each other with overheated war rhetoric."

"America, can we get a responsible party to break up this school-yard fight before someone gets hurt?" Stewart asked, before moving to clips of GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich all issuing their own heated war threats on Iran.

"In a Gingrich administration, we would not keep talking while the Iranians keep building," Gingrich vows in the clip. "The red line is now."

"So in other words: simmer down—what?!" a startled Stewart said. "Oh, it's an election year, candidates are talking tough."

An increasingly worried Stewart says: "I am sure Iran knows not to take that seriously. They would know that, right? "

Watch the whole thing in the video above.

Stewart concludes the increasingly antic script by turning to God to ask him to intervene to prevent the United States from getting pulled into another war in the Middle East, before wondering if God is in election season, too.

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