In U.S., war of words over Gaza

As war rages between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and President-elect Barack Obama counts down the days until he has to deal directly with the conflict as the leader of the free world, a war to control the message is raging at home. And it's unusually fierce.

This week, some jarring events made headlines and illustrated the nature of that war:

-- Hugely popular comedian Jon Stewart, who is Jewish - birth name, Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz - was lauded by the Muslim Public Affairs Council this week for a scathing "Daily Show" segment entitled, "Israel Invades Gaza ... Missile Tov!"

The Comedy Central host, noting that rockets lobbed from Hamas into Israel are not new, posed the question, "Why does Israel feel that they have to react so strongly right now?"

Answer: the Obama inauguration. "I get it. ... Israel gets their bombing in before the Jan. 20 'hope and change' deadline ... it's like a civilian carnage Toyota-thon!" he said to roars of approval from his audience.

READ MORE: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/10/MNGU156LEQ.DTL&type=politics