“CBS Mornings” anchor Tony Dokoupil grilled creator and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates over whether or not he believed Israel had “a right to exist” in a tense interview on Monday.
Coates appeared on the present to preview his new ebook, “The Message,” which is a set of latest essays by the best-selling creator about his travels to totally different elements of the world.
“In the book’s longest section, Coates travels to Palestine, where he sees with devastating clarity how easily we are misled by nationalist narratives, and the tragedy that lies in the clash between the stories we tell and the reality of life on the ground,” the ebook abstract says.
Dokoupil confronted Coates on this part of the ebook, telling him bluntly that it learn like one thing you’d discover in “the backpack of an extremist.”
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Creator and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates was grilled about his views on Israel’s proper to exist by CBS anchor Tony Dokoupil, in a Monday interview. (CBS Information/Screenshot)
“I have to say, when I read the book, I imagine if I took your name out of it, took away the awards, the acclaim, took the cover off the book, publishing house goes away, the content of that section would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist,” Dokoupil stated.
“So then I found myself wondering, why does Ta’Nehisi Coates, who I’ve known for a long time, read his work for a long time, very talented, smart guy, leave out so much? Why leave out that Israel is surrounded by countries that want to eliminate it? Why leave out that Israel deals with terror groups that want to eliminate it? Why not detail anything of the first and the second Intifada, the café bombings, the bus bombings, the little kids blown to bits. Is it because you just don’t believe that Israel in any condition has a right to exist?” the CBS anchor continued.
Coates defended the ebook, saying he sought to present a voice to the Palestinian individuals, whose views he argued have been underrepresented within the American media.
“I would say the perspective that you just outlined, there is no shortage of that perspective in American media,” Coates replied.
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Ta-Nehisi Coates on CBS Mornings defends his new ebook, “The Message.” (CBS Information/Screenshot)
“I have asked repeatedly in my interviews whether there is a single network, mainstream organization, in America with a Palestinian-American bureau chief or correspondent who actually has a voice to articulate that part the world. I’ve been a reporter for 20 years. The reporters are those who believe more sympathetically about Israel and its right to exist don’t have a problem getting their voice out. But what I saw in Palestine, what I saw on the West Bank, what I saw in Haifa in Israel, what I saw in the South Hebron Hills, those were the stories I have not heard. Those were the stories that I was most occupied with,” he continued.
Coates additionally stated the 260-page ebook was not meant to be a “treatise on the entirety of the conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis.”
Dokoupil continued to press the far-left creator, claiming his ebook would depart readers questioning why Israel even existed.
“But if you were to read this book you would be left wondering why does any of Israel exist? What a horrific place committing horrific acts on a daily basis. So I think the question is central and key: If Israel has a right to exist. And if your answer is no, then I guess the question becomes why do the Palestinians have a right to exist? Why do 20 different Muslim countries have a right to exist?” Dokoupil requested.
Coates rejected the query, saying that nations are established by power, not rights, and that Israel already exists.
Dokoupil stated the creator’s ebook “delegitimizes” Israel’s basis and “seems like an effort to topple the whole building of it.”
“What is it that so particularly offends you about the existence of a Jewish state, that is a Jewish safe place, and not any of the other states out there?” he requested Coates.
1000’s of individuals arrived on the Western Wall Plaza within the Outdated Metropolis of Jerusalem on the eve of the brand new Jewish month of Shevat to a mass prayer for the peace of the State of Israel, for the peace of the safety forces and for the discharge of the hostages held by Hamas within the Gaza Strip. Jerusalem, Jan 10, 2024. (Yoav Dudkevitch/TPS)
“There’s nothing that offends me about a Jewish state,” Coates retorted. “I am offended by the idea of states built on ethnocracy, no matter where they are.”
“Muslim included?” Dokoupil requested.
“I would not want a state where any group of people laid down their citizenship rights based on ethnicity,” Coates stated. He defined how he personally witnessed the “two-tier system” in Israel, the place Palestinians had much less freedom and entry to assets in “occupied territories” than Israelis.
“I’m working with the person that is guiding me, a Palestinian whose father, whose grandfather and grandmother was born in this town. And I have more freedom to walk than he does. He can’t ride on certain roads. He can’t get water in the same way that Israeli citizens who live less than a mile away from him can,” Coates stated.
The 2 continued to spar as Dokoupil urged Coates had portrayed a one-sided view of the battle.
“But why is that?” the anchor pressed. “Why is there no agency in this book for the Palestinians? They exist in your narrative merely as victims of the Israelis, as though they were not offered peace at any juncture, as though they don’t have a stake in this —” he requested.
Coates appealed to his personal ancestry and America’s historical past with racism to defend his specific viewpoint on the battle in Gaza.
“I have a very, very, very moral compass about this. Again, perhaps it’s because of my ancestry. Either apartheid is right or it’s wrong. It’s really, really simple. Either what I saw was right or it’s wrong,” he defined.
“I am against a state that discriminates against people on the basis of ethnicity. I’m against that. There is nothing the Palestinians could do that would make that okay for me. My book is not based on the hyper-morality of the Palestinian people,” he went on to say.
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Coates’ new ebook was launched on Tuesday, the identical day that Iran launched dozens of missiles in opposition to Israel.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps stated its newest barrage of missiles is in retaliation for the killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, Lebanon, in an Israeli airstrike late final week and the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, in response to Fox Information Chief Overseas Correspondent Trey Yingst.
Israel Protection Forces (IDF) warned residents to shelter in place and observe directions from the Dwelling Entrance Command because the Jewish State’s Iron Dome anti-missile protection system works to intercept incoming rockets.
Fox Information’ Stephen Sorace and Liz Friden contributed to this text.
