The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) 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. Why do they insist on imposing themselves on other powers and creating a tumor so there is always tension and conflict? Is it not true that European countries insist that they committed a Jewish genocide? They say that Hitler burned millions of Jews in furnaces … and exiled them …. Then because the Jews have been oppressed during the Second World War, therefore they [the Europeans] have to support the occupying regime of Quds [Jerusalem]. We do not accept this.” 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 (and a plurality of Israelis are former German nationals, plus lower castes consisting of Eastern Europeans, Russians, Sephardic Jews from the Mediterranean and at the bottom of the social pyramid, Falasha Africans) .… “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 another post, Reid wrote, “Is al-Qaida a Trumped up fantasy designed to perpetuate Bush’s corporate wars? Or is it a real threat to the security of the United States that the administration is simply incapable of containing (or worse, of inadvertently expanding…)?” (Justin Caruso, ‘“FANTASY” — JOY REID PROMOTED CONSPIRACY THEORIES THAT WOULD MAKE ALEX JONES BLUSH,’ Daily Caller, June 4, 2018). Also, in a March 22, 2016 blog post, Reid wrote, “I might have posted this before, but there’s an updated version of a documentary now called ‘Loose Change 9/11.’ The fundamental question is: do you believe the official story of 9/11? If you do, great. If you don’t, then everything that happened after that is called into serious question. Even if you’re agnostic, or you tend to believe that al-Qaida attacked the World Trade Center and Pentagon and that the government had no warning such a thing could happen, it’s worth taking a second look. Here’s the link” (Justin Caruso, ‘REPORT: MSNBC’S JOY REID USED HER BLOG TO PROMOTE INSANE 9/11 CONSPIRACY DOC,’ Daily Caller, May 30, 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’ –– or look the other way as they move in next door –– in order to see harm done to you … [terrorism is a symptom of a disease that is] 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. (In fact, the reverse is true –– Gorka has been a strong advocate for Israel and fighter against jihadist terrorism, while his father helped Jews during the period of fascist and Nazi dominance in his native Hungary and was in fact honored by the Budapest Jewish community after the war).

• 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. This astonishing statement was made by Reid despite the fact that the Israeli military is the most moral in the world, going to extraordinary lengths to protect Gazan lives –– phone and leaflet warnings of impending attacks, calls to evacuate specific areas of anticipated hostilities, calling off strikes when civilians suddenly emerge on the scene of an operation, and so on –– that go further than the efforts of any other army in the world, as leading Western military figures, like former US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey and former British commander in Afghanistan, Colonel Richard Kemp, have testified.

• In a November 28, 2005 blog post, Reid made the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory claim that the US was driven into the Iraq war to promote the interests of Israel and Iran, “Which country or countries had the strongest motivation to get Saddam out of power in Iraq? I’d say Iran, which is now reaping the benefits of the Iraqi Shia ascendance, dep, and Israel, which has long cherished the notion of getting rid of Saddam in order to further expand its leverage in the region, not to mention removing a known supporter and financier of Palestinian suicide bombers. Add to that the fact that many neocons really do believe that “the road to Mideast peace goes through Baghdad, not Jerusalem…. Removing one of the Palestinians’ most vocal and belligerent friends would have been in Israel’s strategic interest …. Could [then-President George W. Bush] also have sold out American interests to the Likud?” In an August 3, 2008 blog post, Reid promoted the conspiracy theory that the US deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein because it was coveting Iraq’s oil: “The bottom line: the Bush administration sought the invasion of Iraq from the time they stepped into office, and initially drafted a plan, in secret meetings with oil industry giants, and including ‘the late’ Ken Lay, which included staging a coup to replace the inconvenient dictator of Iraq with an oil industry favorite, and maintaining the nationalized Iraqi oil industry under the control of US and European firms.” She also suggested that Iraq war advocate Senator John McCain supported the war out of a desire to enrich himself (it has paid huge dividends for him”). (‘Joy Reid’s Blog Promoted Anti-Semitic Conspiracies, Vicious Personal Attacks,’ Daily Wire, June 1, 218),

• 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.