Stewart didn't defend Chapelle, Stewart opposed censorship and penalties with one reason being Stewart being called antisemitic for criticizing how Israel treats Palestinians. Note this is from 2022 and I'm pretty sure Stewart still thinks Israel's actions are terrible.
During his appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on Tuesday, Stewart pushed back on the belief that Chappelle “normalized antisemitism” with his 15-minute commentary that involved Kanye West’s and Kyrie Irving’s recent scandals. “I don’t know if you’ve been on comment sections on most news articles, but it’s pretty fucking normal. As you know, it’s incredibly normal,” Stewart began. “But the one thing I will say is, I don’t believe that censorship and penalties are the way to end antisemitism or to not gain understanding. I don’t believe in that, and I think it’s the wrong way for us to approach it.”
Stewart, who was present at the Los Angeles comedy event where Chappelle was attacked onstage after his set in May, agreed with the comic that “it shouldn’t be this hard to talk about things,” adding, “I’m called antisemitic because I’m against Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. I’m called other things from other people based on other opinions that I have…Whether it be comedy or discussion or anything else, if we don’t have the wherewithal to meet each other with what’s reality, then how do we move forward?… If we all just shut it down, then we retreat to our little corners of misinformation and it metastasizes. And the whole point of all this is to not let it metastasize and to get it out in the air and talk about it.”