MSNBC host Ronan Farrow flipped on a dime from covering the “agony in Gaza” to the “lighter note” of Israeli-Palestinian “hookups” — even managing to provide a platform for a one-sided denunciation of Israeli “racism” in the process.
The host of “Ronan Farrow Daily” had just finished describing the bombing of a Gaza hospital and a woman found after days in the rubble.
“We just learned this morning that the woman you saw has just died,” he intoned somberly. “Gaza officials say 35 were killed today in Gaza, while Israeli officials say 70 new rockets were lobbed into Israel.”
“On a lighter note though,” he said, as smoldering rubble remained on-screen, “there is one new way that Palestinians and Israelis are coming to the table, speaking a universal language.”
“No, not diplomacy,” he said saucily. “It is hooking up!”
He explained how a group of young Americans in the West Bank are — for whatever reason — tracking communications between Israelis and Palestinians on popular dating apps Tinder and Grindr.
“The results ranged from accusations of terrorism to something a little more relatable,” Farrow noted, showcasing one exchange where an Israel asks a female Palestinian user for “more pic.”
“You look at the responses, there is absolutely the horrifying reminders of racism and of entrenched enmities,” Farrow asked The New Inquiry editor Ayesha Siddiqi. “But there also, Ayesha, a lot of evidence of just the relatability, even across checkpoints, even across the wall. Do you think that a generation steeped in this kind of casual communication maybe offers some hope for more moderate leadership eventually.”
“Honestly I don’t,” Siddiqi replied, arching an impressive eyebrow. In her eyes, the exchanges reveal “the deep-rooted racism against Palestinians” and how Western media is using the story to “sentimentalize the divide.”
“I think in America especially, this conflict is viewed in terms of this intractable, constant hate from both sides,” she explained, adding that it “showcases the same racism that’s been the logic of occupation and the current ongoing assault.”
Both Farrow and Foreign Policy editor Elias Groll let her obvious dismissal of Palestinian racism and hatred slide — with Groll even seeming to agree that the violence and hate is stemming entirely from Israeli sources.
Of course, if there was any evidence of racism against Jews and Israelis and unhinged Palestinian loathing and hostility, The Daily Caller is sure Farrow would have brought it up.