MSNBC's Anti-Israel Hasan Returns to Program

MSNBC anchor Mehdi Hasan is back on the air after his brief hiatus from the network and is continuing to speak out against Israel and in defense of the Palestinians, including in an interview Monday night with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

During the interview, Ocasio-Cortez accused her fellow Democrats of not being concerned about the plight of Palestinians in Gaza, accusing Israel as well as Hamas of committing war crimes, and slamming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's policies.

Hasan, in return, asked her "how much of the congressional indifference to Palestinian life in Gaza, the refusal in D.C. to acknowledge sometimes the humanity and innocence, not to mention the suffering of all ordinary Gazans. How much of that is driven by the fact that they're Arabs? Or they're Muslims? Or they don't look like us?"

Mediaite's Isaac Schorr writes in an opinion piece that anti-Israel comments are not out of the norm for Hasan.

"He has returned with his typically misleading rants — buoyed only by his British accent — in tow," Schorr said.

He pointed out that Hasan, who formerly worked for Al Jazeera, also Friday night made anti-Israel comments while slamming a comparison President Joe Biden made in his Oval Office address between Hamas and Russia.

"It's interesting that he decided to do a whole thing about Hamas and Russia, and linking them together," Hasan said on the network's show with Chris Hayes, while reacting to the speech. "It was slightly Axis of Evil-y, putting them together, cause they've really got very little in common just when you look at them … a lot in the rest of the world would say 'OK, if you're going to compare Ukraine and Israel, Biden and a lot of people in America may see Ukraine and Israel as the same. A lot of people around the world see Russia and Israel the same."

Hasan also insisted that "Israel is the occupier of the West Bank and Gaza," writes Schorr, noting that the anchor is "apparently unaware that Israel unilaterally pulled out of Gaza in 2005."

Hasan continued the argument on his program Sunday night, said Schorr.

"'Hostages and civilian casualties will be secondary to destroying Hamas,' Economy Minister Nir Barakat told ABC News. 'Even if it takes a year,'" said Hasan. "Hold on, saving the hostages is secondary to destroying Hamas? Shouldn't that be the main mission? There are still around 200 people being held by Hamas, according to the Israeli military, despite the freeing of two American hostages on Friday. And avoiding civilian casualties is also secondary to destroying Hamas?"

Schorr continued: "Hasan is also twisting the meaning of Barakat's pronouncement on civilian casualties in Gaza to the benefit of Hamas. Israel has been warning civilians to evacuate areas it intends to bomb and has issued an advisory asking civilians in the north to move south."

He also accused Hasan of being biased with his online reporting, including last Friday when he was "peddling a report from an NGO with terrorist ties purporting to prove that Israel was responsible" for an explosion at a hospital in the Gaza Strip.

Last Friday, Max Tani reported for Semafor that MSNBC has taken three Muslim broadcasters, Hasan, Ayman Mohyeldin, and Ali Velshi out of anchors' chairs after the Hamas attack on Israel because of the U.S. viewers' sympathy for Israeli terror victims.

Tani reported that MSNBC did not air a scheduled episode of Hasan's show Thursday night on the Peacock streaming platform. He further noted that a plan for Mohyeldin to fill in for Joy Reid's 7 p.m. show Thursday and Friday was reversed and that the network planned to have Alicia Menendez fill in for Velshi, who last Sunday interviewed a Palestinian Authority spokesman.

MSNBC, however, insisted that the three hosts were not benched and that they continued to appear on the network as reporters and analysts, with a source saying that in Hasan's case, his show on Peacock is taped but shelved Friday night in favor of keeping the news on the streaming service more up to date.