Appearing on CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper on Tuesday afternoon, chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his Likud Party and “right-wing” allies for having “a sort-of racist policy towards” Arabs that has been “very scary for them” as the world awaited results from the national elections in Israel.

Host Jake Tapper brought Amanpour into the discussion by mentioning a YouTube video released by Netanyahu’s party on Tuesday morning telling supporters to head to the polls after accusations that Arabs were being transported to the polls by, in the words of Tapper, “left-leaning organizations.”

Tapper pointed out that some “people in the Israeli media” were critical of Netanyahu “for what they describe as a racist appeal, but it looks as though this appeal, whether or not one likes it, might have helped galvanize his base to get to the polls.”

Amanpour added that it was not just the media, but “Arab-Israeli parliamentarians” she spoke with that lamented Netanyahu’s “scare-mongering” for stifling their attempt to “work unprecedentally in the system for our rights and for, you know, Jewish rights.”

Continuing to build that victim narrative, Amanpour defended Arabs and declined to refute their straw-man argument about Netanyahu:

We are citizens of this country. Let’s not forget, it’s not like a bunch of Arabs from neighboring next door are being bused in to the elections. Israeli Arabs, citizens of the country, 1.7 million of them, as this parliamentarian told me, have been incredibly motivated in this election and they want to get out and try to better their lives, but they’re very conscious, as one of them – as this one told me, that they feel that the Likud Party and the right wing do have a sort-of racist policy towards them and it's very scary for them.

While Amanpour was mounting a full defense of Arab-Israelis, she failed to cite the fact that the Arab parties that combined to form a joint list for the election include members who have some radical and arguably anti-Semitic policies themselves.

The remainder of the segment revolved around Amanpour running point for Netanyahu’s main rival, Isaac Herzog, for focusing not on foreign policy or the negotiations taking place in Switzerland over Iran’s nuclear program but the economy and blasting Netanyahu for refusing to move the needle on peace talks with the Palestinians to create a two-state solution.

(h/t: John Nolte)

The relevant portions of the transcript from CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper on March 17 are transcribed below.