MSNBC suffered a meltdown for the ages on Wednesday afternoon following President Trump’s speech recognizing of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, unleashing guest after guest condemning the “delusional” and “Orwellian” speech that will cause people to die now that America’s credibility has been “shot.”
For the duration of the 1:00 p.m. Eastern hour following the President’s remarks, MSNBC Live host Craig Melvin brought on nine guests to comment on the speech and not a single one expressed support for it. In fact, some were rather enraged at the decision to recognize what’s already a reality with the Israeli government being housed in Jerusalem.
Former Palestinian official Khlaed Elgindy kicked things off, trashing the announcement as possessing an “Orwellian disconnect between what he was saying and the actual political and practical practicalities on the ground.”
He added that the President “couched the statement as a step toward peace, which is quite contrary to the international consensus” and proved how “this administration really appears to be in sort of a bubble when it comes to this issue.” Translation? They’re too pro-Israel.
MSNBC contributor Steve Clemons was up next, bemoaning the “enormous change” that could be symbolized by “Donald Trump essentially smiling at both parties but he stuck a knife in the back of the two-state process.” He also offered comments from liberal Israeli politician Tzipi Livni:
I spoke to Tzipi Livni former foreign minister of Israel — a former Likud Party member who’s still in the Knesset in Israel just a week ago and she fears that these kind of steps, not having anticipated this particular step, but the various directions in both U.S.-Israel relations and what's happening in Israel, if we didn't get to a credible two-state solution, that Israel would not be able to maintain its democratic character, that we would see elements of apartheid develop, that we would see an illiberal democratic state with Arab — I won't call them citizens but with Arabs and Palestinians living in the country under occupation forever[.]
Former Kerry official Joel Rubin was arguably the worst due to his smugness and disdain. He decried Trump’s thought-process as “delusional and this is a significant move for American national security” in that it’ll “reflect very badly on our ability to advance many American security interests in the region.”
Later in the hour, Rubin sounded even more despondent, arguing that “American credibility is shot and in diplomacy, credibility relies on your word and our word is, at this moment, not to be trusted from a peace process perspective, certainly.”
“I mean, the Middle East is a tinderbox and Jerusalem is the match. Jerusalem speaks to the heart of the Jewish people, of the Muslim people, of the Arab world, the Christian world. It has time and again throughout history, throughout millennia, been the source of major friction. Nothing should be done unilaterally that upsets this. It should be done in a cohesive, unified way,” he added.
An anti-Israel gabfest wouldn’t be complete without comment from foreign correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin, who went on a rant about Israeli claims to east Jerusalem being against the (borderline anti-Semitic) United Nations:
Well, the counterargument to that is the way Israel acquired control of east Jerusalem and those who follow history, those who follow international law, those who pay tribute to the legal order of the International Legal Order of the United Nations Security Council and what have you will tell you the annexation of east Jerusalem, the unification of it, the way that Israel went about to depopulate certain parts of east Jerusalem, move settlements into east Jerusalem, all of that was considered illegal under international law. So, what Israel has been doing to the city of Jerusalem for decades is a violation of multiple standing U.N. Security Council resolutions, it has been condemned.
Fellow foreign correspondent Richard Engel upped the ante on this MSNBC meltdown, declaring that “I think a lot of countries are going to look at this and say the President took a dangerous foreign policy decision that has real world consequences, could — can cost lives for domestic reasons.”
Former Clinton administration Ambassador to Morocco Marc Ginsberg was also concerned about violence, citing Mohyeldin’s reports that “Palestinians have been calling for starting this Friday prayer day, days of rage” that, two years ago, led to “average citizens in Jerusalem...being stabbed by Palestinians.”
“This was — this decision was made to appease his supporters and his donors like Sheldon Adelson and provide political cover for the Vice President with his evangelical supporters,” Ginsberg added.
NBC News correspondent Ron Allen was also over in the Middle East (as were Engel and Mohyeldin), touting how he’s heard “a lot” about “apartheid” being carried out against the Palestinians by Israelis.
Allen explained that “apartheid...is something that you haven't heard here very much but that gives you a sense of how people feel things are so — so crystallized, so — so set in stone and aren't able to move forward and on this side, people feel like this is the way it should be.”
