Cable News Hosts Hit New Low with Attacks on Israel
Mehdi Hasan’s video “explaining” antisemitism on the Qatari-funded Al Jazeera network. Photo: Screenshot
Two MSNBC talking heads, Mehdi Hasan and Ali Velshi, seem to be competing against each other in a despicable contest to trash Israel.
Throwing loaded words like “apartheid” or “racist” to describe Israel, the two charlatans seem to have decided that the world’s most burning issue is the evil Zionist regime.
Unfortunately for them, their entire argument is flawed, contradictory, and biased.
In a monologue this past weekend, Hasan shamelessly laments the fact that one cannot criticize Israel as an “apartheid state” without being labeled an antisemite. He then tries to prove his point by quoting “racist” remarks made by Israeli ministers.
Many countries around the world include politicians who may be deemed unsavory & even racist. Sometimes they may even be part of a government.
But that doesn’t mean an entire state and its people are a reflection of a few politicians.
Who’s the real racist here @mehdirhasan? https://t.co/2Az5TeNeft
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) September 4, 2023
But there are several problems with this twisted line of argument.
Firstly, Hasan may have forgotten that in a democracy, the opinions of government ministers do not reflect upon an entire nation. His claim may actually reflect back upon himself as someone who makes baseless collective racist accusations against the Jewish state.
Secondly, Hasan is simply sawing off the branch he is sitting on. He shows that there is freedom of speech in Israel, as well as the freedom to criticize — even when it comes to ministers whose remarks are scrutinized daily by local media. Why? Because Israel is a democracy.
He finishes his rant by saying:
Our politicians, our elected members of Congress here in the US, are bent on convincing us that Israel isn’t guilty of apartheid or racism against the Palestinians. And anyone who says otherwise is being antisemitic. So a word of advice for them, the next time they want to take a vote on this issue, perhaps they should listen to Israel’s own ministers first.
So a word of advice to Hasan: The next time you feel like venting your poisonous resentment against the Jewish state, do your homework first.
Velshi: A Journalist-Turned-Activist
A monologue on the same weekend by MSNBC’s Ali Velshi descends into similar pitfalls, aiming to convince viewers that “the US should not reward Israel’s bad behavior” because the Jewish state is not a democracy but an “apartheid state.” (The full segment can be found in the Twitter/X thread later in this article.)
Yet Velshi justifies his claim by unintentionally describing Israel’s vibrant democracy:
The former so-called government of national unity had included political parties from the right and the left, and had the support of a tiny majority of Israeli Arabs in the Knesset. But it lost in the last elections. It wasn’t a big loss but in Israel’s incredibly fragmented political system, it was enough to replace the fragile coalition government with a far-right populist government, which now holds some of the country’s most influential positions.
He then goes on to criticize some statements made by Israeli government ministers, as if it reflects upon all Israelis.
But Velshi’s blunt “apartheid” allegation is where things get really dark, as shown in this thread:
.@velshi vilifies Israel as an “Apartheid state” where Palestinians cannot vote.
Yet, while going on an obsessive rant against the only democracy in the Middle East, he admits his own argument isn’t valid because the West Bank isn’t annexed to Israel. https://t.co/Sx8XjDMeED— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) September 4, 2023
Like Mehdi Hasan, Velshi concludes his diatribe with some arrogant activist advice. He tells the US president it would be wrong to meet Israel’s thrice-indicted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who tries to hang on to power and heads a country whose “bad behavior,” as the piece’s headline suggests, should not be rewarded.
It would be wiser on Velshi’s part to check his own bad behavior, because viewers might not reward it.
The post Cable News Hosts Hit New Low with Attacks on Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.