Cross posted to the MRC's NewsBusters blog
Appearing as a guest on Tuesday's CNN Tonight, Fareed Zakaria ridiculously not only blamed President Donald Trump for the current fighting between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group, but he also blamed Israel for the Jewish state's lack of a peace agreement with Palestinian Arabs.
He even seemed to rationalize Hamas's rocket attacks on Israel, suggesting that the "frustrated" Palestinians "have to" fire rockets at Israel in order to "get some kind of attention" because Israel allegedly allows them "no political rights."
Host Don Lemon brought up the topic, asking Zakaria -- who hosts the foreign policy-based Fareed Zakaria GPS show on CNN -- for his reaction to the fighting between Israel and Gaza. After Lemon asked, "How did it escalate" so quickly, Zakaria quickly blamed Trump: "It's really simple. The Trump administration's foreign policy toward the Middle East was to sub-contract the entire region to two people -- MBS (Mohammed bin Salam), the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, and Bibi Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel."
After complaining about some of the military actions of Saudi Arabia, Zakaria also seemed to complain about Israel making peace with several Arab countries:
Bibi Netanyahu, meanwhile, was trying to do things that would make it as impossible for there ever to be a Palestinian state as he could do. So he makes peace with some moderate Gulf states with the help of the United States. And he had been essentially ruling out any possibility of any deal with the Palestinians. So, after a while, I think what happened is there was a certain amount of frustration that, you know, these events that get triggered by something or the other.
It was not noted that better relations with more of the Arab governments might result in them giving less support to Palestinian Arabs. With help from the Trump administration, late last year, four Arab countries -- the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco -- made agreements to recognize Israel, setting up the possibility that others might follow.
After suggesting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu only took military actions to aid in his own reelection, Zakaria put all the blame on Israel for the unending conflict with Palestinian Arabs:
Israel is the most powerful nation in the Middle East by far. It is essentially a regional superpower. So what the Palestinians have to, I mean, they're frustrated -- they're trying to get -- uh -- get some kind of attention. In my opinion, they often do self-defeating things. This kind of -- these kind of rocket attacks only move Israelis to the right. But, ultimately, this thing is only going to be solved if Israel decides that, as a matter of morality, it wants to give rights to Palestinians -- that it does not believe that it can be a Jewish democratic state and have these four million people living essentially in conditions where they have no political rights, and Israel, you know, has control over them.
No mention was made that Palestinian Arab leaders have repeatedly rejected two-state solution plans, unwilling to back down from demands that millions of Palestinian Arabs who are the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of the 1948 refugees should be allowed to move into Israel and become citizens.
And the more radical Hamas terrorist group has been even more open about wishing to take over all of Israel.
This fact-challenged episode of CNN Tonight was sponsored in part by Noom. Their contact information is linked.
Transcript follows:
CNN Tonight
May 11, 2021
11:25 p.m. Eastern
DON LEMON: I've been wanting to talk to you about this -- about what's happening with Israel and Gaza. I'm so glad that you're here to discuss. Rocket fire -- airstrikes -- death toll sure to rise. How did this escalate in just over -- just recent days?
FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST OF FAREED ZAKARIA GPS: It's really simple. The Trump administration's foreign policy toward the Middle East was to sub-contract the entire region to two people -- MBS (Mohammed bin Salam), the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, and Bibi Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel. And each one pursued his own very narrow interests to the max. So MBS goes and starts a war in Yemen, escalates that war, goes to Lebanon, tries to depose the, you know, arrests the prime minister there, blockades Qatar -- that goes disastrously.
Bibi Netanyahu, meanwhile, was trying to do things that would make it as impossible for there ever to be a Palestinian state as he could do. So he makes peace with some moderate Gulf states with the help of the United States. And he had been essentially ruling out any possibility of any deal with the Palestinians. So, after a while, I think what happened is there was a certain amount of frustration that, you know, these events that get triggered by something or the other. But the reality is that Israel had almost forgotten that they had this Palestinian problem on their hands, and it has now exploded.
LEMON: Let's talk more about Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. There have been -- let's see -- four elections in two years, and he repeatedly has been unable to form a government. What impact does that have on this crisis -- this crisis is going to have on the political situation there, I should say?
ZAKARIA: Well, a lot of people in Israel are pointing out it seems pretty suspicious or strange that this should happen right as it has happened now because it probably helps Bibi Netanyahu. It creates an atmosphere of crisis -- it creates an atmosphere where people tend to move to the right, right, I mean, if you're getting rockets hailed down upon you that are being shot by Hamas, you're going to get more security-conscious. And if all that happens, what it does for Benjamin Netanyahu is very personal. If he can stay in the prime minister's office, he does not have to face the corruption charges that threaten to put him into prison.
(...)
Israel is the most powerful nation in the Middle East by far. It is essentially a regional superpower. So what the Palestinians have to, I mean, they're frustrated -- they're trying to get -- uh -- get some kind of attention. In my opinion, they often do self-defeating things. This kind of -- these kind of rocket attacks only move Israelis to the right. But, ultimately, this thing is only going to be solved if Israel decides that, as a matter of morality, it wants to give rights to Palestinians -- that it does not believe that it can be a Jewish democratic state and have these four million people living essentially in conditions where they have no political rights, and Israel, you know, has control over them.