More impressive than his speech to Knesset is the fact that Beck does tell the truth to the American people about the Israel situation. Too many on the conservative side of the aisle – Israel supporters! – will not label the conflict in pure moral terms. They grant legitimacy to President Obama’s attempts to leverage Israel into concessions, or to the mad musings of Thomas Friedman, who believes that a few bucks can buy off Palestinian radicals. They pretend that if the conditions are made just right, then peace will be achieved.
Beck, on the other hand, sees the conflict as it is, in its stark contrast between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. And he stands with the forces of light in that battle. “Where you go, I will go,” he told Knesset, quoting the Book of Ruth. “Where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people are my people. Your God is my God, and where you die I shall die.”
Israel has never had friends like Glenn Beck before the religious conservative movement in America. Jews are afraid to embrace Beck because he is so overtly religious, so utterly unafraid of mentioning God in public or with regard to Israel. That that is why Jews should embrace him. The Judeo-Christian notion of God is the unifying factor between America and Israel.
Beck sees the war, even though many Jews do not. Some Jews are too cosmopolitan for Beck – Jon Stewart, for example, doesn’t bear any great love for Israel, since that would presumably be “ethnocentric” and unprogressive. Some Jews are too parochial, like Eshman, thinking that Beck represents an old-school religion that will result in pogroms, or at the least, closed country clubs.
Those Jews are dead wrong. Beck is an ally, and a very real one. He represents millions of Americans who ally with Israel and the Jews. Jewish Americans ought to roll out the welcome mat to Beck. He’s certainly rolled out the red carpet for Israel.
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