Cross posted to the MRC's NewsBusters blog
On Saturday morning, as MSNBC's Ali Velshi devoted his eponymous show to covering the terrorist attack by Hamas that had already killed hundreds of Israeli civilians, the liberal weekend host joined one of his anti-Israel guests in trying to see moral equivalency in a terrorist attack versus legitimate defensive actions by the Israeli military.
Velshi fretted over why the deaths of Palestinians in the past year have received no "traction" from the media, and his guest, Palestinian activist Diana Buttu, not only blamed Israeli "occupation" for 56 years, but also the "Nakba" that occurred 75 years ago. ("Nakba" is the Arab word for "catastrophe" used by anti-Israel activists to refer to Israel's founding in 1948 and expulsion of some Palestinian Arabs.)
After Axios's Barak Ravid concluded his commentary by invoking the 9/11 attacks and seemingly hinted that Israel would take Hamas out of power like the U.S. did the Taliban, Velshi fretted over the "scary thought" of what might be to come, and then went to his next guest, Buttu. In her opening comments, she was quick to blame Israel:
...but I don't think that we should underestimate the desire of people to actually free (sic) and the fate that Palestinians have been going through this for 56 years. So the fact of we -- the fact that just this year alone we've seen 255 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces -- that 47 of them were children. While many of us were surprised, we actually shouldn't be surprised by what's happening now. This is the natural consequence, unfortunately, of 56 years of military occupation and the denial of freedom.
Velshi accepted the premise of his anti-Israel guest and fretted over President Joe Biden being so one-sided in supporting Israel:
Why, Diana, though, does that not play as clearly as this does? So here you have a world and western leaders and the White House and the President who have all said this is a terrorist act that must be condemned because there were over 2,000 rockets that were fired, and, as you heard Barak (Ravid) just talk about their hostages being taken in southern Israel, but over the last year, 200 Palestinians have died -- some of them with the supervision of the Israeli Defense Forces on the ground. That got no traction from anybody, and it's not getting traction today. In other words, the idea here is that the Palestinians are exclusively the bad guys here and "there's no justification for this." President Biden said that very clearly -- "There's no justification for this" -- and anybody who decides they want to help the Palestinians today, watch out.
Buttu responded:
Well, this is exactly the problem, Ali, is that everybody has turned a blind eye to what's happened to Palestinians for the past 56 years -- actually, it's 75 years when you look at the Nakba and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, and the problem is, is that it's the slow death by a thousand cuts that becomes ignored by the international community by the western media that isn't ignored by Palestinians. And when something like this happens, all eyes then turn to Israel. But they should be asking themselves: What is that that we should have been covering for the past 56 years?
After complaining about violence by Israelis, she added: "Occupation is violent, and unless we cover that violence as it should be covered and understand the occupation to be violent, then we won't be able to understand what's happening today."
After Buttu wondered if Israel would "learn a lesson," and end its "occupation," Velshi took a swipe at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: "But you are a realist, Diana, for as long as I've known you. You can't possibly think that that's the outcome, right? Especially with Benjamin Netanyahu. He is going to use this as his justification to be the person he's been for a long time."
Picking up the cue from the MSNBC host, Buttu expanded:
Yes, absolutely. And that's also part of the problem, is that we have to see beyond the party politics of Netanyahu and the party politics of this extreme right-wing government and see where it is that we want this future to look like. Does the future look like as though it is today? Or do --don't these leaders actually want to see something that is better? I can tell you, given that we've lived under occupation for 56 years, it's clear to me that there is nobody in Israel who wants to end this military occupation. They're perfectly happy with it as it stands today. But today I think they're going to start re-questioning and rethinking whether this is actually sustainable for the long term.
As is typical of MSNBC's discussions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it was not mentioned that the Israeli military withdrew from the West Bank in the 1990s but had to return after Palestinian terrorists used it to attack Israel in 2000 -- or that, after Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Hamas took control of it by force from the more moderate Arab leadership, leading to Israel, the U.S., and even neighboring Egypt to blockade the terrorist-run territory.
This anti-Israel commentary on MSNBC was sponsored in part by 4Imprint. Their contact information is linked.
Transcript follows:
MSNBC's Velshi
October 7, 2023
11:42 p.m. Eastern
BARAK RAVID, AXIOS: And I think if we want to try and understand where this thing is going, we should also go back to 9/11. I think the results will be practically very similar in where Israel will take this thing going forward.
ALI VELSHI: Well, that's a -- that's a -- that's a scary thought, but I appreciate your analysis on this. Barak Ravid joining us this morning. I want to go now to Diana Buttu, a political analyst and a former legal advisor to Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Liberation Organization who always gives us the point. Whenever we talk about this region, Diana, the history always informs what is happening right now. I assume you didn't expect this, this morning?
DIANA BUTTU, FORMER LEGAL ADVISOR FOR PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD ABBAS: No, I don't think anybody expected it, but I don't think that we should underestimate the desire of people to actually free (sic) and the fate that Palestinians have been going through this for 56 years. So the fact of we -- the fact that just this year alone we've seen 255 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces -- that 47 of them were children. While many of us were surprised, we actually shouldn't be surprised by what's happening now. This is the natural consequence, unfortunately, of 56 years of military occupation and the denial of freedom.
VELSHI: Why, Diana, though, does that not play as clearly as this does? So here you have a world and western leaders and the White House and the President who have all said this is a terrorist act that must be condemned because there were over 2,000 rockets that were fired, and, as you heard Barak (Ravid) just talk about their hostages being taken in southern Israel, but over the last year, 200 Palestinians have died -- some of them with the supervision of the Israeli Defense Forces on the ground. That got no traction from anybody, and it's not getting traction today. In other words, the idea here is that the Palestinians are exclusively the bad guys here and "there's no justification for this." President Biden said that very clearly -- "There's no justification for this" -- and anybody who decides they want to help the Palestinians today, watch out.
BUTTU: Well, this is exactly the problem, Ali, is that everybody has turned a blind eye to what's happened to Palestinians for the past 56 years -- actually, it's 75 years when you look at the Nakba and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, and the problem is, is that it's the slow death by a thousand cuts that becomes ignored by the international community by the western media that isn't ignored by Palestinians. And when something like this happens, all eyes then turn to Israel. But they should be asking themselves: What is that that we should have been covering for the past 56 years? And I can tell you, just this year alone, when it comes to everything from the attacks by the settlers, just yesterday, the Israelis set a Palestinian village aflame. We've seen, as I said, 255 people killed just this year alone -- 47 children -- attacks on the Al Aqsa mosque -- the people going into the Al Aqsa mosque -- same with the Ibrahimi mosque. This is a day by day by day action on the part of Israel. Occupation is violent, and unless we cover that violence as it should be covered and understand the occupation to be violent, then we won't be able to understand what's happening today.
(...)
At this point, we know that Israel is holding on to hundreds of Palestinian bodies. These are people who were killed, and Israel refuses to allow them to be buried. We know what they're holding on to hundreds of Palestinians in prison, and suspect that we're going to start seeing demands for prisoner exchanges and so on and so forth. But the bigger issue is: Is Israel going to learn the lesson from this as it did in 1973? And is it, instead of continuing this occupation going to finally end it? That's the real test that is going to be facing the international community. Instead of just condemning, they should start looking for solutions, and instead they've just given Israel a green light.
VELSHI: But you are a realist, Diana, for as long as I've known you. You can't possibly think that that's the outcome, right? Especially with Benjamin Netanyahu. He is going to use this as his justification to be the person he's been for a long time.
BUTTU: Yes, absolutely. And that's also part of the problem, is that we have to see beyond the party politics of Netanyahu and the party politics of this extreme right-wing government and see where it is that we want this future to look like. Does the future look like as though it is today? Or do --don't these leaders actually want to see something that is better? I can tell you, given that we've lived under occupation for 56 years, it's clear to me that there is nobody in Israel who wants to end this military occupation. They're perfectly happy with it as it stands today. But today I think they're going to start re-questioning and rethinking whether this is actually sustainable for the long term.