DANIEL-RYAN SPAULDING
Jon Stewart and the Terrible Secret
August 9, 2026

…I was welcome to come, but I could not take any photos or videos. I had a large platform, he explained, and some of the guests were not publicly out as Zionists. I asked whether it was simply a no-photos party. No. The rule was specifically for me. Somehow I was the dangerous one. Some of the guests were Israeli. Others were proudly Zionist in private, but terrified of being seen in one of my Instagram stories because it could affect their jobs, friendships or social lives. They were not prepared to confront the people who had made Zionism socially dangerous. It was easier to control the person who refused to hide it. That was when I began to understand: the terrible secret…I came to October 7 from a completely different world. I was a gay comedian working in culture, living between New York, Tel Aviv, Berlin and other European cities, surrounded by artists, performers, drag queens, bohemians, writers, actors, and left-wing gay men. READ MORE