Carter says:
Well, one of the the origins for it is the Palestinian problem and this aggravates people who are affiliated in any way with the Arab people who live in the West Bank and Gaza.
What they [that is, the Israelis] are doing now, what is being done to them [the Palestinian Arabs.]
Stewart responds, “Right.” And then Carter concludes this tangent: “I think that’s a part of it.”
The former president then moves on to a description of what he calls a “new evolutionary development in terrorism.” In this portion of the segment Carter discusses the movement of westerners to terrorist training camps in the Middle East, and then their return to their western countries.
Stewart then again exposes his gross naiveté. He says, “it seems like a very small amount of people can now do a tremendous amount of damage, but it’s hard to see them going any further.”
On what does Stewart base this conclusion that the appeal of the “extremists” is limited? The fact that the these people are, essentially, urging folks to join up with the advertising slogan: “we’re crazy, we’ll kill everybody.”
Maybe it’s sweet that Jon Stewart thinks that cannot be appealing. Sweet, perhaps, but dangerously naive.