In an era of controversy and contention, at least we can always rely on the hosts at MSNBC for some levelheaded, dignified analysis of world events.

Now that I’ve gotten the obligatory sarcasm out of the way, let’s take a look at Chris Matthews’ red hot analysis of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from last night. During a discussion of the recent Middle East peace deal (the “Deal of the Century”), Matthews decided to go for a twofer and take a shot at both Bibi and Donald Trump. Offering virtually nothing by way of proof or examples, the liberal anchor declared that Trump loves to associate with “bad guys” like Putin, Erdogan and… Netanyahu. You really can’t make this stuff us. (Free Beacon)

MSNBC host Chris Matthews said Israel’s longtime prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was one of the world’s “bad guys,” lumping him in with brutal dictators such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s Recep Erdoğan.

Matthews observed during his Tuesday night show that President Donald Trump likes “bad guys” on the world stage more than world leaders Matthews views as good, such as French president Emanuel Macron.

“He does seem to be a guy who doesn’t like the good guys of the world, he seems to like the bad guys,” Matthews said. “He doesn’t like Macron, or Justin Trudeau, or the chancellor of Germany—they’re all to regular for him—he likes the bad guys, he wants to be one of them.”

Clearly, Matthews doesn’t get a thrill running up his leg when the conversation turns to either Trump or Bibi Netanyahu, but this seems a bit over the top even for him. I’ll give him credit for lumping Recep Tayyip Erdogan in with Putin and company because, at this point, he’s really no longer an ally of ours and is deep in the pockets of the Russians. But Netanyahu?

I’ll be the first to admit that Bibi Netanyahu plays hardball when he has to. That even applies to Israeli domestic politics because the Prime Minister has a lot of enemies right in his own country. But where he really derives his tough image from is his defense of Israeli citizens against the Palestinian terrorists who are constantly trying to murder them. I’m sure that puts Chris Matthews off his feed because he never seems to tire of moaning about the poor treatment the Palestinians receive at the hands of Israel’s soldiers. His concern over the safety of the citizens of Israel when rockets come blasting across their borders is more muted to say the least.

We probably shouldn’t have been too terribly surprised by this outburst, however. Matthews has had a burr under his saddle when it comes to Netanyahu for quite a while now. You may recall the way he freaked out last year when Bibi won his last election. And even then he managed to lump Donald Trump into his tirade, castigating him for being a partisan supporter of the Prime Minister and Israel when he’s “supposed to be a neutral moderator” in that conflict.

Oh, really? All presidents hope for peace in the Middle East, but let’s not lose sight of the fact that Israel is our staunch ally in that region, not the Palestinians.

In closing, it’s probably good to note just how out of step Matthews and the rest of the MSNBC panel are with the rest of the country. As the Free Beacon reminds us, Americans view Benjamin Netanyahu as the most admired foreign leader. We’ll leave their opinions of the most admired cable news host for another day.