CNN's John King began his Inside Politics program on Thursday by lamenting Israel's refusal to admit leftist Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar as "unprecedented" and contrary to democratic ideals.

After briefly going through why Tlaib and Omar were denied entry into Israel, including their history of unspecified "anti-Semitic sentiments" and "a planned visit by the congresswoman to the Al-Aqsa Mosque... that that also sits on the Temple Mount," King went to CNN correspondent Oren Liebermann in Jerusalem, who called the decision "unprecedented."

Lieberman said that Trump dictated to Prime Minister Netanyahu his preference that "you shouldn't allow these two in" and that it was also unprecedented for Israel to bar two sitting members of Congress from entering the country. After making a passing mention of Netanyahu accusing "them of trying to damage Israel in their trip. As an example said the listed destination of their journey was not Israel, it was Palestine," Liebermann theorized that this was a move by Netanyahu to fire up "his right-wing voter base as he has a tough re-election campaign" after making passing mention of the official reason.

Back in the studio, King declared that, "Yes, they have said quite controversial things. But this country gives billions of dollars in economic and military aid to Israel. It is supposed to be two democracies that are willing to air their differences and have their debates." King did not give context to those specific "things" which include everything from charges of dual loyalty, hypnotism, anti-Semitic ideas about Jewish money, and revisionist history about the Holocaust.

While, U.S. economic aid to Israel is well short of "billions of dollars," CNN focusing in on Trump's tweets misses the point. Liebermann's of Tlaib and Omar's itinerary mentioning "Palestine" as their destination is far more important than any presidential tweet and should have gotten more attention. The only people who think that Tel Aviv is part of "Palestine" are people who don't think Israel has a right to exist and the two congresswomen support a movement that has that as its goal. The Palestinian group hosting their tour has shown sympathies to terrorists.

The "unprecedented" nature of Trump's tweets is quite beside the point if for no other reason than because the Twitter-era of politics is relatively new. It is not uncommon for democracies to ban politicians as well, such as when the U.S. banned Knesset member Michael Ben Ari in a 2012 move that led to the Speaker of the Knesset protesting to the U.S. Ambassador. Narendra Modi was only allowed into the U.S. in 2014 when he became Prime Minister of India.

Israel was in a no-win situation. Either let Tlaib and Omar in so they propagandize and scheme against your country while they refuse to meet with any Israeli government or opposition leaders... or ban them where they will propagandize and scheme against your country anyway. In either case, the leftists count on having members of the American media, including but not limited to John King, say a ban raises questions on your commitment to democracy.

Here is a transcript for the August 15 show: