MSNBC host Ayman Mohyeldin, a man who smeared American Sniper Chris Kyle as a “racist” murderer, turned over his show on Tuesday to anti-Semitic hate and anti-U.S. bile with a guest who trashed the two countries as responsible for “war crimes” and “genocide,” respectively.
This resulted in ZERO pushback from Mohyeldin, but given his history, that’s not surprising. Mohammed El-Kurd, a writer for the liberal Nation whose Twitter page described him “from occupied Jerusalem,” offered his hateful take on the pitched battle on the Gaza Strip. At one point, he essentially stated Israel doesn’t have a right to exist: “But it doesn't take much, looking at the history of this country and seeing how this country came about, it came about by stealing people's homes and lands and destroying people's villages.”
Response from Mohyeldin? Nothing. He just moved on to mildly noting: “The spokesperson for the State Department is saying today that you have a right to safety and security while Israel has a right to self-defense. What do you say to U.S. officials and the international community?”
This prompted a switch from disgusting attacks on Israel to sliming the “genocide” of the U.S. as worse than Hamas. Here is El-Kurd again:
The United States has waged more wars than there are Hamas members. I don't wait for the United States to tell me what constitutes as self-defense and what not constitutes as self-defense. That is not where my moral compass stems from. I don't think the United States is in position, given all the genocides and wars it's partaken to say who has a right to self defense.
Again, no objection from Mohyeldin. But in the very next segment, he talked to former Israeli Ambassador to Britain Mark Regev. The contrast was stark. Regev called out the biased interrupting:
REGEV: The person who you had on before was… basically said Israel had no right to exist, he said my country was built on stealing other people's land.
(....)
REGEV: The guy speaking before me, you didn't interrupt once. And you're not letting me finish a sentence, sir. I don't want to complain, but please.
Mohyeldin spewed this bitter attack: "What do you say to the international community who does not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over East Jerusalem and says what you’re doing to families like Mohammed El-Kurd and others is possibly a war crime?
In 2015, Mohyeldin went on Morning Joe and trashed the late war hero Chris Kyle: “Some of what people have described as his racist tendencies towards Iraqis and Muslims when he was going on some of these, you know, killing sprees in Iraq on assignment." He never apologized to Kyle's family.
The vile anti-Jewish, anti-U.S. bigotry on MSNBC was sponsored by Verizon and Liberty Mutual. Click “expand” to read more.
A transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more.
Ayman Mohyeldin Reports
05/11/2021
3:05 PM ET
AYMAN MOHYELDIN: Joining us now from Sheik Jarrah is a man who was forcefully evicted from half of his home in east Jerusalem by Israeli settlers. Mohammed, it’s great to see you again. We spoke earlier not to long ago about the situation you and your family and others have been facing. Walk us through the situation, what it has been like for you and your family for the last few days in this latest escalation that we've seen play out.
MOHAMMED EL-KURD: Thank you so much, Ayman, for having me. It’s great to be back. Before I begin I want to offer my condolences to the people, innocent people who were killed by Israeli war planes in the Gaza Strip. Similarly, here we have been dealing with a wave of state-sanctioned violence. Sheik Jarrah , in the past few weeks it has been a scene of terror here. Every single night we're met with tear gas, military horses, stun grenades, rubber coated bullets. The Israeli occupation forces are not stingy in the force they use against unarmed civilians and brute forces they use against women and children. Today, just today somebody got wounded in the eye. Over the past week our neighbor got his house illegally invaded into and his leg broken by the Israeli occupation forces.
Our other neighbors had their house illegally broken into, their gate broken off. And then had their yards intentionally destroyed. And then their speaker stolen. The level of violence that we're seeing is incredibly absurd and it's fascist. I have been trying to shower for the past three days and I still cannot get the skunk water off of my clothes, off my skin, the chemically manipulated skunk water, just for standing in front of our houses and saying no to state-sanctioned ethnic cleansing.
MOHYELDIN: The Israeli government, as you’ve probably seen, has called this a private land dispute. I want you to tell us and our viewers what this is for you and your family and other Palestinians experiencing this and to those who say this is working its way through the legal process and Israeli courts, what would you say to them?
EL-KURD: I'll say to them what the United Nations, what over 190 human rights organizations, international and regional, have said: This is a war crime. This is ethnic cleansing. You know, they can do all their propaganda and say that this is a private land dispute. But it doesn't take much, looking at the history of this country and seeing how this country came about, it came about by stealing people's homes and lands and destroying people's villages. Today, the difference we have is that they no longer use their artillery to steal our homes, except when they do come and steal their homes. Now they use a supremacist, colonial judicial system that colludes with these organizations that are registered in the United States to take over our homes. Just because it's legalized doesn't mean it's moral or correct, not mean it’s historically just. What's happening to us is ethnic cleansing.
MOHYELDIN: I want to give you a chance, I'm not sure if you've heard the U.S. State Department, they would not explicitly say whether Palestinians have a right to self-defense when they were asked about that at yesterday's briefing. What do you make of how the U.S. and the international community has responded to what is happening to your family? They are saying, the spokesperson for the State Department is saying today that you have a right to safety and security while Israel has a right to self-defense. What do you say to U.S. officials and the international community?
EL-KURD: The United States has waged more wars than there are Hamas members. I don't wait for the United States to tell me what constitutes as self-defense and what not constitutes as self-defense. That is not where my moral compass stems from. I don't think the United States is in position, given all the genocides and wars it's partaken to say who has a right to self defense. What I know is that a military occupation we are living in is excruciatingly violent, a siege we are living under is excruciatingly violent. The aggressor, the occupier, started it all. That's fundamentally what started the so-called conflict.
MOHYELDIN: All right. Mohammed El-Kurd in Sheik Jarrah in East Jerusalem. Thank you.
(....)
AMBASSADOR MARK REGEVE (Former Israeli Ambassador to the United Kingdom): The person who you had on before was speaking for himself and his organization. He basically said Israel had no right to exist, he said my country was built on stealing other people's land.
(....)
REGEVE: The guy speaking before me, you didn't interrupt once. And you're not letting me finish a sentence, sir. I don't want to complain, but please.
