MSNBC personalities seem to think that protests can feature participants throwing bombs and rocks and still be "peaceful" at the same time. On Monday's Velshi and Ruhle show, MSNBC hosts Ali Velshi and Stephanie Ruhle opened their show with an update on the Palestinian riots on the border with Israel, noting that several acts of violence had been perpetrated.
But, just two minutes later, they took exception with White House advisor Jared Kushner complaining about protesters provoking violence as the MSNBC hosts seemed to think the riots had been "peaceful."
At about 11:02 a.m. Eastern, Ruhle read a breaking news brief on the number of Palestinian protesters killed and injured: "The Gaza health ministry tells NBC News that at least 43 Palestinians are now dead. More than 1,900 were injured today alone as protests along the border fence turned quite violent. The protests are part of the Great March of Return -- a protest idea that went viral online earlier this year, calling for Palestinians to peacefully march on the border..."
She then recalled some of the violent acts of "rioting" and seemed taken aback at how "outgunned" the Palestinians are compared to the Israeli military as she added: "The Israeli Defense Force accused protesters of rioting, throwing explosives, and sabotaging infrastructure. And information from the scene show how outgunned the protesters are, reportedly using burning kites, grenades and stones against drones, armored vehicles and snipers. Wow."
Although she did not elaborate on how kites were being used by Palestinian Arabs as weapons, CBS over the weekend highlighted that they kites were transporting firebombs into Israel to set wildfires and damage crops.
A couple of minutes later, after bringing aboard NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin, Velshi set up a clip of Kushner complaining about protesters "provoking violence." Ruhle then jumped in to ask: "Wasn't it a peaceful protest?"
Velshi added: "Well, this is the question, Ayman. The Israelis are painting this not as valid political protest but as provocation of violence."
Mohyeldin began his analysis:
Yeah, and again, if you speak to reporters on the ground and the sources that we've been speaking to, this began -- as Stephanie mentioned -- as a social media campaign, a hashtag for Palestinian refugees inside the Gaza Strip who wanted to return to their homes inside Israel, and started this several weeks ago saying they were going to demonstrate peacefully.
After recounting that correspondent Matt Bradley had found demonstrations that were "for the most part, peaceful protests" with women and children, he added: "Now, in this distinction, Israel does not recognize. They say everybody -- as we heard from the Israeli minister of defense -- everybody in Gaza is guilty of some sort, an accomplice and knowing partner of Hamas, which obviously Israel and the U.S. consider to be terrorist organizations."
Mohyeldin recalled that after "attempts to breach the border," there was what he called "disproportionate use of force" by the Israeli military. Ruhle then wanted to know if Kushner was being dishonest in accusing protesters of provoking violence as she responded: "Then is Jared Kushner being disingenuous in how he's characterizing it? I mean, for people who are watching this at home -- and that's who's watching it -- how Jared described it is not how you are."
Not mentioned was that Hamas has been trying to use protesters on the border as cover to infiltrate the Israeli border, including burning tires to use the smoke as cover.
