.@AliVelshi of @MSNBC spouts lies and anti-Israel bias

On Saturday, Ali Velshi of MSNBC narrated a segment about the evils of annexation. He started off by describing Russia's annexation of Crimea, and then went on to the US annexation of Hawaii, Saddam Hussein's attempted annexation of Kuwait and Morocco's annexation of Western Sahara.

But according to Velshi, the worst case of occupation and annexation in the world is clearly Israel.

In a screed that shows how superficial the "experts" on MSNBC are, Velshi selectively recounts history, and when necessary, he makes it up.

Which brings us, arguably, to  the leading occupying force in  the world.  Israel.  The map of the Palestinian  Authority, sometimes described  as  Swiss cheese, has been  carved up by Israel over the  past century.  

Israel is the "leading occupying force in the world?" Turkey's occupation of northern Syria is much larger than the West Bank, and it also occupied Northern Cyprus. Crimea is much larger. Nagorno-Karabakh, Sofulu, Barxudarlı, Yukhari Askipara, and Karki, and Artsvashen are all occupied by Armenia none of which Velshihas probably ever heard of. 

Then he says Israel has been carving up Palestinian Authority land for a century? Given that the PA was created in the 1990s, that's a neat trick.

What Velshi is really saying is that the Jewish claim on the land is completely illegitimate and it is all Arab land. His interest in international law that he claims later in the segment dissipates when it comes to the San Remo Conference, the UN recognizing Israel or even the UN recommending partition. 

So objective!

The State of Israel has forced  the annexation of several Arab  territories.  Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in  the Six Day War in 1967.  It remains occupied by Israel  to this day.  Occupation is just a step  towards annexation.  

And how exactly did Jordan acquire this territory? 

Velshi makes it sound like Israel illegally stole land from Jordan, when the world never recognized Jordan's truly illegal annexation of the West Bank in 1949. Instead of this textbook case of annexation, he extends his definition of "annexation" to include "occupation," and he doesn't even undertand that:

Israel actually did annex two  thirds of the Golan from Syria during the Six Day War., passing a law extending Israeli  law, jurisdiction, and  administration to the area.  

Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981, not 1967. And Velshi implies that Israel's capture of the Golan was from an aggressive war on Israel's part, not Syrian aggression in 1967 and 1973. He fails to mention that capturing land in a defensive war was never considered illegal before Israel did it. He also doesn't mention that Syria liked to shoot at Israeli civilians from the high ground and this is unacceptable. 

None of that is relevant in his zeal to paint Israel as a unique thief of land.

Not to mention that Velshi is strikingly supportive of a regime that kills its own people. How do you think Assad would treat the "traitors" and "spies" that live in the Golan now if Israel would give it up as he demands?  Suddenly, human rights are not nearly as important as misapplying international law against the Jewish state. 

...Since 1967, Israel and the  Palestinians both assert rights  in the West Bank.  Leaving its status unresolved.  Israel claims historical and  religious rights to the West Bank, as the ancestral land of the Jewish people.  Hundreds of thousands of Jewish  settlers now live on illegally  occupied palestinian land in  the West Bank. 

See the sleight of hand here? At first (above), Israel occupied the land from Jordan. Then, both Israel and Palestinians claim rights to the land. Finally, Velshi declares it unambiguously Palestinian land - and also claims that the "occupation" is illegal, when occupation is emphatically not illegal under international law. 

Palestinian families are  constantly kicked out of their  homes to make room for more  Israeli settlements, often, under false pretenses  and legal justifications. 

This is a complete falsehood. No Israeli settlements are built on land where Palestinians have been "kicked out." (The only possible exception is Hebron, on properties that had been stolen from Jews in the 1920s and 1930s.)  The Palestinians whose homes are demolished either built them illegally or they are families of terrorists. Say what you want about the circumstances, but Israel's Supreme Court rules on each and every one of these cases, and it has never been credibly accused of operating under false pretenses or accepting invalid legal justifications.

This is not only a smear job. It is riddled with basic errors and inaccuracies - all in one direction.   

Which is par for the course for  MSNBC. 

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