On Friday's All In show, MSNBC host Chris Hayes hinted that there was similar credibility between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blaming the terrorist group Hamas for the murders of three Jewish students a year ago, and Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat blaming the Israeli government for the recent murder of a Palestinian boy by Jewish extremists, even though Prime Minister Netanyahu forcefully condemned the attack.
After recounting the boy's death that occurred after his family's home in the West Bank was firebombed, Hayes showed a soundbite of Erekat indicting Israel:
CHRIS HAYES: And the chief Palestinian negotiator made clear that from their perspective, this terrorist act could not be separated from a government that essentially foments it.
SAEB EREKAT, CHIEF PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATOR: The brutal assassination that took place reflects the culture of hate and incitement that exists and nursed by the Israeli government. We hold the government of Israel fully responsible for this new crime of the occupation.
After bringing aboard Danny Gold of Vice News to talk about Jewish extremists within the settler movement and the phenomenon of price tag attacks, Hayes hinted at Israeli government culpability in settler violence that might be equally credible as blaming Hamas for inspiring Palestinian violence. Hayes:
In that case, Benjamin Netanyahu, as soon as the murder of the Yeshiva students happened, said I pin this on Hamas whether they did it operationally or not. This is their -- they created the conditions for this. You see now Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian negotiator, now essentially saying we put this on the government that is very connected to the settler movement. Talk about the connection between this government and the settler movement.
Hayes did not mention that Hamas ended up admitting that some of their members perpetrated the murders against the Yeshiva students.
Last November, after two Palestinian men used meat cleavers to murder several Israelis at a synagogue in Jerusalem, Hayes notably tried to undermine Prime Minister Netanyahu's contention that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas deserved blame for inciting the violence by citing word that Abbas had no operational involvement in ordering or assisting the attack. Hayes:
He (Netanyahu) also blamed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for inciting terror against Jews in Israel. That assertion was later contradicted by the head of Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency, who told a parliamentary committee today, quote, "Abbas is not interested in terror and is not inciting to terror. He's not even doing so behind closed doors."
But the MSNBC host did not mention that Abbas and other Palestinian Authority figures have a well-documented history of praising Palestinians who commit violence against Israelis, with the Palestinian Authority even using U.S. tax dollars to pay salaries to terrorists who have been imprisoned as a reward for their anti-Israel attacks.
On November 18, 2014, Raphael Ahren in a Times of Israel article recounted:
Earlier this month, Abbas called on Palestinians to prevent Jews from entering Jerusalem's Temple Mount "by any means possible." A few days later, he warned against extremist Jews "contaminating" the Temple Mount compound. He also praised Rabbi Yehudah Glick's attempted assassin as "a martyr defending the rights of our people and its holy places."
There can be no denying that these comments, plus those made by other senior officials in the PA and his Fatah movement, did their part to increase the tensions, inspiring many angry Palestinians to take out their frustration in violent ways.
A few weeks earlier, Abbas's Fatah party displayed a poster praising a Palestinian man who killed an Israeli baby and injured several others in a hit and run car attack.
A bit later in the November 18 show, NBC correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin suggested that "discrimination" against East Jerusalem Arabs was provoking such violence:
Listen, and Israeli human rights organizations -- not Palestinian ones, Israeli ones -- have a long list of documentation of the discrimination Palestinians face in East Jerusalem. Not only are they denied full citizenship rights, they're deprived of some of their basic fundamental rights. But, as you mentioned, there is no presence of Palestinian political parties or any representation. And that is why many say that when Israel takes some of these decisions, what we are seeing as a consequence are these individual lone wolf attacks that are very deadly and have tremendous amount of impact across the region.
Mohyeldin did not clarify for viewers that, after Israel liberated East Jerusalem from Jordanian control in 1967, the Israeli government made Arab residents eligible to apply for citizenship, but most choose not to do so because of social pressure not to accept Israeli rule.
Both shows also advanced the myth that new Israeli settlements are being constructed in the Palestinian territories, even though no new settlements have been constructed since 2004. The debates in recent years have been about construction within already existing settlements, although left-wing groups have had successes in duping the Western media into passing on misleading information about allegedly new settlements.
But, on Friday, Danny Gold claimed:
I mean, there are, you know, far right wing members of the government that are like that, you know, that are very strongly believe in the settler movement. And Netanyahu himself has, you know, given his blessing for more settlements, and they haven't removed the ones that are there. And there's a lot of complaints that they just don't do anything to curb additional settlements and violence perpetrated by settlers.
On the November 18 show, NBC's Mohyeldin simiilarly made it sound like new settlements were being built:
They're also disagreeing adamantly about the building of settlements. The U.S. though, has repeatedly said Israel's political decisions are raising tensions. They constantly, the U.S. has come out and said it is a major issue of concern for the U. S. government that Israel continues to build these settlements and that they do not help establish a Palestinian state or peace.
Below are complete transcripts of the relevant segments from MSNBC's All In with Chris Hayes from Friday, July 31, 2015, and from Tuesday, November 18, 2014, with critical portions in bold:
#From Tuesday, November 18, 2014:
CHRIS HAYES: Tensions in Jerusalem are extremely high tonight after a brutal attack on a synagogue left four rabbis, including three American citizens and an Israeli police officer, dead. Two Palestinian men armed with meat cleavers and a gun stormed an ultra-Orthodox compound in West Jerusalem during morning prayers today, killing the four rabbis and wounding several others. The police officer who was critically wounded while responding to the attack later succumbed to his injuries at the hospital. The attackers have been identified as two cousins from East Jerusalem. They were both shot dead on the scene by police. They're believed to have ties to the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist-Leninist guerilla group most famous for a series of plane hijackings in the 1970s.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed a harsh response to the attack, ordering the demolition of the two assailants' homes. He also blamed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for inciting terror against Jews in Israel. That assertion was later contradicted by the head of Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency, who told a parliamentary committee today, quote, "Abbas is not interested in terror and is not inciting to terror. He's not even doing so behind closed doors."
For his part, Abbas condemned today's attack, the first time he has done so directly amid the latest round of violence aimed at civilians in Israel.
Thousands of mourners attended funerals for the four rabbis who were all laid to rest in Jerusalem earlier today. Meanwhile, an estimated 300 right-wing activists staged a protest near an entrance of the city calling for revenge and chanting anti-Arab slogans. And clashes broke out in East Jerusalem and the West Bank between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli security forces. The attack today comes amid a deepening cycle of provocations, violence and reprisals in Jerusalem stemming in part from a long-standing dispute over the holy site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. The site's deep significance to both sides carries explosive potential. It was Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount in 2000 that set off the Second Intifada. And after today's bloody attack on a synagogue, fears of another even darker and more chaotic round of violence in the heart of Jerusalem are growing.
Joining me now, NBC News foreign correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin. Ayman, what do we know about the attack today?
AYMAN MOHYELDIN: Well, as you mentioned, we know that it was carried out by two Palestinian men, residents of East Jerusalem. It was carried out by at least from what we understand right now, without any specific organization behind it. even though they are affiliated with the PFLP, as you mentioned. It does not seem that the organization had given any specific order for this attack to be carried out.
But early in the hours of the morning, as all those rabbis and students were in worship and in prayer, they entered this facility and began attacking the individuals there. Police obviously ran to the scene and responded to that. And there was a shootout between the individuals, the two men and the police, leading to the injury and then ultimate death of that second police officer.HAYES: We have seen for those who follow the region closely -- as obviously you do and I do not as a first time reporter -- we've seen tensions in Jerusalem just get more and more fraught. There's been a series of violent attacks. There have been IDF shootings and in some cases killings in the West Bank and near Jerusalem of Palestinian protesters.
There was an assassination attempt on a right-wing rabbi who was calling for Jews to be able to access the Temple Mount, and the custody of that site has emerged as a kind of key incendiary in this entire debate.
MOHYELDIN: Here's one thing I can assure you, which is that nothing in the Middle East particularly in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict happens in a vacuum.
HAYES: Right.
MOHYELDIN: It does not happen randomly.
HAYES: Right.
MOHYELDIN: There is always a story behind the story. And in this case, it's no different. Over the past six, seven months, these tensions have been rising by a few different measures. The political decisions being taken by Israel to restrict access to this holy site for Muslims, the legislation introduced in the Israeli parliament that is trying to grant Jewish worshipers the right to enter the Noble Sanctuary in the Temple Mount. But at the same time, there have been these attacks by Palestinians against Israeli civilians in various parts of Jerusalem particularly-
HAYES: And they've had a kind of lone wolf quality to them. There was a car attack, just, this is not suicide bombings like we saw in the Second Intifada. They have a kind of different character in some ways similar to the very bloody attack we saw today.
MOHYELDIN: Right, and to understand why that's so important is because pretty much all political organizations, Palestinian political organizations in Jerusalem have been decimated, meaning most of the Palestinian individuals who live in East Jerusalem, although they may be affiliated with organizations, there really is no presence for Hamas, there's no presence for PFLP. Israel really controls East Jerusalem very tightly. These individuals are responding in a way that they see as a response to the provocations as they see it from the Israeli side.
HAYES: There have been when, back in October, when the Netanyahu government announced 2,500 new settlement developments in Jerusalem, that earned a stern rebuke from the U.S. State Department. Relationships between the U.S. and the Netanyahu government have been very bad and probably hit their lowest point over the last several weeks. Today, obviously, in the wake of this horrible attack, you saw solidarity from President Obama and John Kerry. What are we going to see happen next?
MOHYELDIN: Well, when it comes to violence and the killing of innocent Israelis, there's no doubt that the U.S. is always going to stand firmly with Israel. It has repeatedly said that Israel's security for it is a red line, is a priority. There's no doubt about that. The U.S. and Israel have disagreed over the past six months on a whole host of issues, They disagree about the Iran nuclear talks. They're also disagreeing adamantly about the building of settlements.
The U.S. though, has repeatedly said Israel's political decisions are raising tensions. They constantly, the U.S. has come out and said it is a major issue of concern for the U. S. government that Israel continues to build these settlements and that they do not help establish a Palestinian state or peace.
HAYES: This point you make is so key, I think, for people to understand. The West Bank is under putative control of the Palestinian Authority. East Jerusalem is under Israeli control. It is a kind of -- it's not a no man's land because it's under Israeli control. But there is no sort of constituent of Palestinian Authority in East Jerusalem.
MOHYELDIN: There is none. Yeah.
HAYES: And you don't have the kind of organization -- you have Hamas in Gaza obviously -- the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. That's part of why East Jerusalem is so volatile. It's so close to the holy sites. It doesn't have that kind of infrastructure underneath it (INAUDIBLE).
MOHYELDIN: Listen, and Israeli human rights organizations -- not Palestinian ones, Israeli ones -- have a long list of documentation of the discrimination Palestinians face in East Jerusalem.
HAYES: Right.
MOHYELDIN: Not only are they denied full citizenship rights, they're deprived of some of their basic fundamental rights. But, as you mentioned, there is no presence of Palestinian political parties or any representation. And that is why many say that when Israel takes some of these decisions, what we are seeing as a consequence are these individual lone wolf attacks that are very deadly and have tremendous amount of impact across the region.
HAYES: Ayman Mohyeldin, thank you.
#From Friday, July 31, 2015:
CHRIS HAYES: Outrage and widespread condemnation today in the wake of a gruesome attack in the West Bank by suspected Jewish terrorists. In the West Bank Palestinian town of Duma, attackers firebombed a home. Hebrew graffiti nearby, including the word "revenge" and the Star of David.
An 18-month-old boy Ali Saad Dawabsha, was burned and killed. Others in his family, including his mother and four-year-old brother, were also burned and critically injured. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the family in the hospital and had this to say:
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: We're shocked. We're outraged. We condemn this. There's zero tolerance for terrorism wherever it comes from, whatever side of the fence it comes from. We have to fight it and fight it together. I spoke to President Abu Mazen right before I entered the hospital and told him of this visit and of Israel's absolute commitment to fight this evil, to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
HAYES: The Palestinian president who Netanyahu referenced, Mahmoud Abbas, called the attack a war crime and is calling for an investigation by the International Criminal Court. And the chief Palestinian negotiator made clear that from their perspective, this terrorist act could not be separated from a government that essentially foments it.
SAEB EREKAT, CHIEF PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATOR: The brutal assassination that took place reflects the culture of hate and incitement that exists and nursed by the Israeli government. We hold the government of Israel fully responsible for this new crime of the occupation.
HAYES: Hundreds of mourners buried the 18-month-old boy today as protesters clashed with Israeli forces in Jerusalem, and Hamas called for a day of rage. Joining me now, Vice News correspondent Danny Gold, who did some amazing reporting from Gaza last year and from the settlements, which is why I wanted to have you on. This -- we don't know the perpetrators of this yet, but the IDF seems fairly clear that this was Jewish extremist settlers. You did an incredible bit of reporting about what's called price tag attacks that happen in the occupied West Bank where you have Palestinian villages which are adjacent to Israeli Jewish settlements. What are those? What are price tag attacks?
DANNY GOLD, VICE NEWS: Basically, they're the rationalization that these extremist settlers use for these acts of vandalism, terrorism as we've seen, and violence against Arabs. What they say is that that's the price for anyone who tries to stand in their way of, you know, occupying more land and of building a Jewish state where the West Bank now is.
HAYES: They say, I mean, you interviewed a woman who'd actually just returned from prison where she had gone to serve a sentence for an attack such as this where they will just target -- again, these are civilians, right -- and they will say we are explicitly randomly targeting you because you are in this land and we want to live in it. And the price you will pay for being here is we will vandalize you, we will attack you, we will maybe cut down your trees or we might firebomb your house.
GOLD: Mm-hmm. I mean, they claim it's revenge for Arab attacks on them. But, in reality, you know, they think they have a mandate from God to, you know, take over this land, own this land. And they're willing to do whatever it takes. You know, it's, these fringe elements, they are religious extremists. And they think that they, you know, everything that they're doing is okay. Even if it's random old woman, if it's children, it doesn't matter to them.
HAYES: Yeah, the woman that you spoke to, one of the things that was so sort of bracing about this was she was remarkably honest about her motives. I mean, she was like -- she was basically like it's zero sum. There's only so much land. We want it all. We will do what it takes to get it.
GOLD: No, I asked her, I specifically asked her. I mean, even if this violates human rights, and she was like the only human rights I believe in are the word of God. Those were her exact, you know, her exact rationalization for what she's done. She doesn't care about the law. She doesn't care about the laws of Israel. She doesn't care about the laws of the international community. All she cares about is the fact that this land has been given to her by God.
HAYES: And when she came back from jail, she was greeted essentially as a hero.
GOLD: Yeah.
HAYES: I mean, her community saw what she did as brave, as noble.
GOLD: She actually chose to go to jail. She was sentenced to community service. So you could see there was a lot of complaints that the Israeli government has not been prosecuting these cases hard enough. So she chose to go to jail. She refused community service because she believed in what she did so strongly. And when she came home among the radical settlement that she lives in, she was greeted as a hero, yeah.
HAYES: In fact, human rights organizations like B'Tselem and Palestinian organizations have lodged a complaint a ton that price attacks go on completely unpunished, that there's very little accountability, particularly things that aren't, that are vandalism or cutting down of trees. This is a consistent complaint from Israeli human rights groups.
GOLD: Mm-hmm. I mean, the murder is a rare thing. Usually, it is, you know, cutting down olive trees, vandalizing houses. There have been, I think, nine houses burned down in the last few years, but when those things are sort of given, when people are allowed to do those with impunity, or when they're not really prosecuted fully or not targeted, not arrested, it's going to escalate, of course.
HAYES: Yeah, and of course you were reporting in Gaza during the Gaza war last year. Was it last year or two years ago?
GOLD: Last year.
HAYES: Last year, that started, I mean, nothing ever starts in this conflict at one moment, but the sort of precipitating incident was the horrific murder of three Yeshiva student who were in the West Bank. There was a reprisal murder of a Palestinian boy who was burned alive in Jerusalem and a war between Israel and Hamas. In that case, Benjamin Netanyahu, as soon as the murder of the Yeshiva students happened, said I pin this on Hamas whether they did it operationally or not. This is their -- they created the conditions for this. You see now Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian negotiator, now essentially saying we put this on the government that is very connected to the settler movement. Talk about the connection between this government and the settler movement.
GOLD: I mean, there are, you know, far right wing members of the government that are like that, you know, that are very strongly believe in the settler movement. And Netanyahu himself has, you know, given his blessing for more settlements, and they haven't removed the ones that are there. And there's a lot of complaints that they just don't do anything to curb additional settlements and violence perpetrated by settlers.
HAYES: Having been there last summer, having seen what happened to Gaza, are you worried that we are headed on the path toward something else like that again?
GOLD: You know, I was actually in Gaza in January as well doing a story on the reconstruction, and everyone there and everyone in Israel believes that it's only, you know, a matter of time before it happens again. These sort of incidents have the tendency to sort of spiral out of control. You know, Hamas calls for a day of rage. The Israelis retaliate. Someone else retaliates against them. And it just builds and builds and builds. I think things were relatively speaking calm today. I do believe there was a young Palestinian that was killed by Israeli Defense Forces, maybe more than one, I'm not sure.
HAYES: I saw reports of a 17-year-old.
GOLD: Yeah, yeah, that's the one I was referring to. I don't know. I mean, you never know with what's happening there, how fast things could really get out of control.HAYES: We should also say that one of the great shames of the world right now is the state of Gaza, which is essentially was reduced to rubble and has remained rubble, and there's very little left to destroy there, as I'm sure you saw firsthand in January.
GOLD: Yeah. I mean, there's, life there right now is extremely desperate, especially with the closing of the tunnels to Egypt. There's just nothing really getting in, and, yeah, I don't think that place could handle another war.
HAYES: Desperation is not the recipe for sustainable peace. Danny Gold, thank you very much.
