Executive director of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation Youssef Munayyer said on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that the Republican Party supports Israel because its base is “xenophobic, nativist, and at many times racist.” (VIDEO: MSNBC Host Feels Sorry For Chris Kyle’s Killer: ‘His Life Is Ruined’)
GUEST HOST THOMAS ROBERTS: Speaker John Boehner saying he will be heading to Israel later this month. What is your take on the back and forth between the president and Democrats and Congressional Republicans vis-à-vis Israel, and ultimately the Israeli-Palestinian situation?
MUNAYYER: There’s clearly a partisan divide here and it’s much deeper than the people at the top of the U.S./Israel relationship. This is not just about Barack Obama and President [sic] Netanyahu, it’s about a direct clash between values that Americans hold dear and values that Benjamin Netanyahu represents.
What we have today at the base of the Democratic Party, are younger demographics and minority demographics, all of which turning away from the values that Israel is presenting to the world, which is this exclusivist, status quo, very conservative perspective on their situation and their worldview. This is something that jives very much with the narrative at the base of the Republican Party, which is very much xenophobic, nativist, and at many times racist.