ZOA to MSNBC: Fire Joy Reid for Anti-Semitic Comments & Conspiracy Theories

The Zionist Organization of America has called upon the TV broadcasting network MSNBC to fire Joy Reid, host of ‘MSNBC’s AM Joy’ program, for uttering outrageous anti-Semitic comments and for espousing bizarre conspiracy theories. The ZOA is appalled that someone espousing her views and making the comments she has made on air has a paid slot on a major TV network and calls upon MSNBC to fire her forthwith.

Joy Reid’s record includes the following:

• Writing a post in December 2005 on her now-defunct blog supporting a statement by the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, well known for his promotion of Holocaust denial and declarations about destroying the Jewish state of Israel, that Jews are wrongfully occupying Palestinian land. Reid approvingly quoted Ahmadinejad’s statement, “You believe the Jews were oppressed, why should the Palestinian Muslims have to pay the price? You oppressed them, so give a part of Europe to the Zionist regime so they can establish any government they want. We would support it. So, Germany and Austria, come and give one, two or any number of your provinces to the Zionist regime so they can create a country there... and the problem will be solved at its root...” Of this, Reid said, “I hate to admit that Mr. Ahmadinejad has a point, before accusing Israel of adhering to a rigid ethnic caste system and erroneously claiming that most Israeli citizens are descended from German nationals: It was the German government of the 1930s and the Vichy French who perpetrated and abetted the Holocaust... It does seem a tad cheeky of the British to have unilaterally awarded the victims land belonging to living Palestinians as restitution. After all, God is not a real estate broker. He can’t just give you land 1,000 years ago that you can come back and claim today.” (David Rosenberg, ‘MSNBC host: Ahmadinejad was right, Israel shouldn’t exist,’ Israel National News, June 3, 2018).

• In other posts, Reid endorsed conspiracy theories regarding the 2001 9/11 terror attacks, including a movie that suggested the attacks were in fact part of a conspiracy by the US government. (‘Joy Reid’s Blog Promoted Anti-Semitic Conspiracies, Vicious Personal Attacks,’ Daily Wire, June 1, 2018).

• In a blog post from July 21, 2006, Reid blamed Jews for Islamic terrorism and even appeared to justify terrorism against Israelis, saying, “The bottom line now is the same as it has always been: you cannot kill enough of your enemies to make the people of the Muslim world accept, respect, or permit themselves to be dominated by you. Eventually, the occupied will get even. Eventually, the people you consider terrorists will fight you hard enough, and long enough, that the people they say they are fighting for believe them, far more than they believe you. And then the people you’re bombing in the name of fighting terrorism, will hate you so much, they’ll take up arms with your ‘terrorists’ in order to see harm done to you... transmitted by colonialism, resource greed, racism, (and Zionism)... the Jewish jihadists quit the US to suit up in Tel Aviv...” (Ryan Saavedra, ‘“JEWISH JIHADISTS”: Joy Reid’s Blog Published Posts Blaming Jews For Terrorism,’ Daily Wire, June 5, 2018).

• In 2006, Reid penned an article in which she gave voice to the anti-Semitic canard calling American Jews who express support for Israel of “dual loyalties,” labeled them all “neoconservatives” (often used by anti-Semites as a code word for malign Jews) and calling them all “hard core American Likudniks,” as if there is something subversive about those American Jews who express support for the Likud party, one of the historically two main political parties in Israel. Reid wrote, “It’s just that there is a tremendous taboo in the United States about saying anything even remotely negative about Israel, or about implying ‘dual loyalty’ when it comes to a Jewish American. It simply isn’t done, because it would expose the speaker to charges of anti-Semitism (Pat Buchanan can tell you all about that, given his periodic criticism of the Israelis)” (David Rosenberg, ‘MSNBC host: Ahmadinejad was right, Israel shouldn’t exist,’ Israel National News, June 3, 2018).

• A recent tweet attacking the pro-Israel, anti-jihadist former Deputy Assistant to the President of the United States, Dr. Sebastian Gorka. Reid tweeted at the time of Gorka’s resignation last year from the White House that she “#Did NAZI that coming”—alluding to the falsehood spread about Gorka during his tenure in the White House that he was a fascist and son of a fascist.

• Deep hostility to Israel in its struggle against the Jew-killing terrorists of Hamas and other Palestinian Arab terrorist groups. Thus, Reid has called Israel’s efforts to stop Hamas’s rocket attacks from Gaza and the Palestinian Arab deaths resulting from Hamas embedding their terrorists and rocket launchers amid the Gaza population as amounting to a killing of a “population equivalent of 100 9/11’s,” while actually remaining silent on the rocket assaults Israel was working to stop and defend its population against.

• Complained about Senator Ted Cruz’s opposition to BDS, the anti-Semitic boycott of the Jewish State, whose goal, as its leaders state, is to destroy Israel (‘Joy Reid’s Blog Promoted Anti-Semitic Conspiracies, Vicious Personal Attacks,’ Daily Wire, June 1, 2018).

• Earlier this year, other controversial articles posted to Reid’s blog came to light, including one which photo-shopped Arizona Senator John McCain into an image of the 2007 Virginia Tech campus shooting. The post was titled “Bagdad John strikes again.” Reid first denied writing this, claiming her blog had been hacked, before subsequently admitting that she had indeed written the blog post containing these remarks (‘Joy Reid’s Blog Promoted Anti-Semitic Conspiracies, Vicious Personal Attacks,’ Daily Wire, June 1, 218).

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “It is truly remarkable and a sign of the sickness of our times that someone who espouses sinister anti-Semitic canards and gives voice to bizarre conspiracy theories hold a major broadcasting position on a TV network. More outrageous still is the fact that Joy Reid’s outrageous record, once discovered and publicized, has not led to her immediate firing, which the ZOA urges MSNBC to do without a moment’s delay.