On February 9, MSNBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin addressed U.S. President Donald Trump’s remarks on relocating Palestinians as part of a plan to rebuild the Gaza Strip. What followed was a 13-minute demonstration of why both Mohyeldin and MSNBC should be the last sources anyone should turn to for incisive or even accurate analysis of Israel.
The tone was set not, however, by MSNBC but by a clip of CNN’s John King accusing Trump of seeking the “forcible resettlement” of Gazans and “ethnic cleansing,” despite both Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu making it clear that any such proposal would involve voluntary relocation. Even worse, King resorted to a despicable Holocaust analogy to drive home his nonsensical point.
And the prime minister of Israel — the state created because Jews were forcibly relocated, forcibly resettled and then killed in Europe by Hitler — sitting there smiling.”
Let’s be clear: Any comparison between Gaza and the Holocaust isn’t just disgraceful—it’s a gross distortion of history. Weaponizing the genocide of European Jews to attack Israel’s prime minister isn’t journalism; it’s manipulation.
One can only conclude that King was, according to the IHRA working definition of antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”
Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide
Mohyeldin attempted to prove that Israel has been committing ethnic cleansing or genocide. He claimed that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) had ruled that Israel was “plausibly committing a genocide.”
Wrong.
As the former president of the ICJ Joan Donoghue clarified, “The court decided that the Palestinians had a plausible right to be protected from genocide… It then looked at the facts but it did not decide that the claim of genocide was plausible.”
Mohyeldin then drew on the testimonies of NGOs that have accused Israel of genocide, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch whose reports have already met with severe criticism. Amnesty even attempted to redefine genocide to fit its predetermined conclusion that Israel was guilty of it.
Erasing Hamas to Prove Israel’s Intention to Kill and Expel Gazans
Having convinced himself that Israel is a genocidal state engaged in ethnic cleansing, Mohyeldin moved to the crux of his argument: that there is “proof” Israel’s actions have always been driven by the intent to kill and expel Palestinians. According to him, Israel has deliberately destroyed Gaza to make it unlivable—paving the way for the forced removal of its residents, all conveniently framed within Trump’s proposals for relocation and reconstruction.
All Trump did was basically acknowledge that this was the plan all along. He did it with an international fugitive wanted for war crimes smiling aside him, sitting right next to him and confirming it.”
To arrive at this fantastical conclusion, Mohyeldin was compelled to erase the central player in this war—the very group responsible for the conflict and the devastation that followed: Hamas.
In short, Hamas is not mentioned once in the entire 13-minute segment. In any discussion about Gaza, how is that even possible?
Mohyeldin closed with an appeal for the Trump plan to be stopped:
This cannot be allowed to continue any longer and it must be fought by every decent person who wants a just and lasting peace in the region.”
What exactly is Mohyeldin’s vision of a “just and lasting peace?” Because in the world he alone seems to inhabit, Hamas doesn’t exist, the October 7 massacre never happened, Israeli victims don’t matter, and Palestinians have no agency. Only Israel is to blame.
An Echo Chamber of a Guest Panel
By this point, if any viewers were expecting any serious discussion from the invited panelists, they would be sorely disappointed. True to form when it comes to Mohyeldin and MSNBC, audiences were instead subjected to a political and ideological echo chamber.
The guests included Democratic Party strategist Waleed Shahid—a former spokesperson for Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—and progressive activist and comedian Francesca Fiorentini, who previously hosted a show on AJ+, the digital arm of Al Jazeera.
But it was author Julissa Arce who provided the most bizarre commentary. Mohyeldin raised the subject of Netanyahu’s gift of a golden pager to Trump, calling it “one of the most disturbing parts” of the Israeli leader’s visit to the White House. Referring to the Israeli pager attack that caused so much damage to Hezbollah’s terror abilities, Mohyeldin presented the operation solely in terms of deaths and injuries to ordinary Lebanese civilians, including a focus on a nine-year-old girl who was not an intended target.
While Mohyeldin eventually acknowledged in passing that it was targeted at Hezbollah “fighters,” he then described the successful operation as “an act of “terrorism,” using the quote of a former CIA director to buttress his claim.
Julissa Arce picked up the baton, calling the golden pager gift a “trophy” before bizarrely suggesting it was indicative of the “dehumanization of Palestinians.” This odd segue from Lebanon to the Palestinians reveals much about Arce’s confused thinking.
It is absolutely despicable that this [golden pager gift] would be presented to the President of the United States and that he would take it as a trophy of what’s been happening, and the destruction that the United States has had a direct hand in unleashing on the Palestinian people.”
Newsflash: the pager operation took place in Lebanon aimed at Hezbollah, a terrorist organization that had been firing rockets at Israel, unprovoked, since the day after the Oct. 7 massacre. It was not aimed at the Palestinian people.
The discussion landed on Trump’s assertion that Gazans would willingly leave their homes, with Mohyeldin quickly claiming that Trump is wrong. His evidence? An Instagram video made by a 14-year-old Palestinian girl who asserts Palestinian rights to stay in Gaza.
According to Mohyeldin, if Trump were only seeing these kinds of videos on social media, he’d know that Palestinians do not want to leave Gaza. Perhaps kids posting social media videos aren’t necessarily representative of ordinary Gazans who aren’t spending their days on Instagram and TikTok?
Ultimately, the three panelists weren’t invited for a serious, thoughtful discussion—they were there to reinforce Mohyeldin’s predetermined views on Israel. It’s an easy ride for the MSNBC host, who is never challenged and never has to push back against the uniform, uncritical takes aired on his show.
But then, so much of Ayman Mohyeldin’s narrative isn’t shaped by facts or reality—it’s driven by emotion. His broadcasts repeatedly betray not journalistic rigor, but a deep-seated disdain for Israel.
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