A prophet in Jerusalem: Will Glenn Beck restore his career in Israel?

The 2008 economic crisis elevated the status of the far-right broadcaster, who assailed the conduct of President Obama the Nazi. But when Beck started attacking the Jewish organizations in America, even his employers at Fox News got sick of him and took him off the air. This week he is holding a Christian-Messianic rally at Temple Mount. Its going to be colorful Yitzhak Ben Horin, Ynet, August 21 2011 [Hebrew original here] WASHINGTON -- Next Wednesday Glenn Beck is going to stand at the foot of Temple Mount posing like a modern prophet and try to breathe life into his bleeding career over Israels back. Beck, a 47-year-old Mormon, is the closest thing to a religious preacher who flourished in the American media for a limited time during the serious economic crisis. At the rally in Jerusalem under the heading of Restoring Courage, A Rally to Defend Israel, Beck will try to breathe life into his career after Fox News, which invented him, kicked him out. Becks background is not particularly encouraging. He grew up with divorced parents, his mother committed suicide while he was in high school and his step brother also committed suicide. As a teenager he looked for himself and sank into drugs and alcohol. He developed a radio career and received a negligible program on a CNN subsidiary in 2006, which paved his way to glory. Fox identified his demagogical potential The brilliant head of Fox network, Roger Ailes, identified Becks demagogical potential and pulled him out of oblivion at an amazing moment. In October 2008 he gave him an hour-long daily program in the middle of the great economic recession and on the eve of the electoral victory of the black Democratic candidate Barack Obama. Beck became an attraction for masses who had lost their livelihoods and homes and gave them answers to their painful questions. He presented them with a series of conservative values and compared the Obama administration to Hitlers Nazi regime and Lenins communism. According to Becks demagoguery, as he presented his world view to the American people, what America is going through is nothing less than a fascist, communist and Islamist conspiracy. He did not leave it at that but stood before a blackboard

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with crazy chalk sketches that illustrated to America the conspiracy being made against it. At its peak, Glenn Becks television show drew 2.2 million viewers at 5 p.m. and left the competing cable news networks, MSNBC and CNN, way behind at evening prime time. Keeper of American values It was an unprecedented success. Beck peaked exactly a year ago, on August 28, 2010, at a rally he called in Washington at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial. The date of the rally was no coincidence the anniversary of Martin Luther Kings I have a dream speech. 75,000 people turned out to support Beck, the keeper of American values. Even Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska and former vice presidential candidate, tried to hitch a ride on Becks success. Palin came to speak at the rally by the popular television broadcaster, who called on the masses at the rally to return to conservative American values and religion. But that was the beginning of Glenn Becks end at the Fox network. Jewish organizations and rabbis in the U.S. got sick of his daily use of Hitler and the holocaust and they started to complain to his bosses at Fox. Dana Milbank, a brilliant Jewish columnist at The Washington Post, wrote in his column that since Obama was sworn in Glenn Beck had used the words Nazis or Nazism 202 times in connection with Obama. He also noted that Beck mentioned Hitler 147 times, the word fascism 193 times and Nazi minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels 24 times. Glenn Becks daily pontifications were full of conspiracy theories about the radical left, socialism, Nazism and Islam. He incessantly attacked the mostly liberal Jewish organizations that help the needy, and said they reminded him of Obamas fascism-communism-socialism. He also claimed they were trying to turn America from a free country into a socialist country. From a goose laying golden eggs to a nuisance Beck was the goose who laid golden eggs, but he began to be a problem for Fox network when he started to confront Jewish leaders in the U.S. directly. Beck accused Simon Greer, head of Jewish Funds for Justice, that he had a Nazi world view. In response, Greer wrote an article for The Washington Post, in which he attacked Beck and called him a con man. Beck was quick to respond and said the Jewish tradition of helping others as described by Greer would lead America to Third Reich-style extermination camps. Page 2 of 3

Becks latest comment went too far for many people in the U.S. and led 400 rabbis to write a letter of complaint to Australian media magnate Rupert Murdoch, the owner of the Fox network. That is how even the right-wing heads of Fox reached the conclusion that Beck was hurting the networks reputation and took his program off the air, two and a half years after it first went on. Beck to the demonstrators in Israel: Go settle in Judea and Samaria In a vast country like the U.S., with more than 300 million people, even without Fox people like Beck have plenty of supporters. His radio program is listened to by eight million people, millions buy his books and in the last years he has become a multi-millionaire. In reference to the massacre in Norway, Beck said that the teenagers who were murdered were attending a political brainwashing camp and even called them Hitler Youth. He called the hundreds of thousands of Israelis demonstrating over the last weeks for a change of Israels priorities radical leftists and communists and suggested they leave their tents and go settle in Judea and Samaria. That is what things look like when Beck gets his information about Israel from Likud MK Danny Danon and his friends. Meanwhile, many U.S. Jews are revolted by Becks taking advantage of Israel. According to recent reports, Beck is going to bring with him to Jerusalem two past Hollywood stars: the American film industry may be full of Jews who love Israel, but not the Israel Beck is going to try to sell in his Israel appearances. Meanwhile, The Jewish Week reported today that the two ranking Jews in the U.S. Congress, Senator Joe Lieberman and Congressman Eric Cantor, announced they would not be attending Becks rally in Jerusalem on Wednesday. The newspaper reported from Washington that the two explained their decision not to participate by personal reasons. Eric Cantor, leader of the Republican majority in Congress, is in Israel right now, but is scheduled to leave on Wednesday, the day of Becks event. A spokesman for Senator Lieberman, who votes with the Democrats, said he was not going to attend the event because of a family commitment. Glenns gathering in Jerusalem may be good for Glenn Beck, but it will be very bad for Israels image among Americans (whose support for Israel crosses party lines) and especially bad for American Jews, who are rubbing their eyes in disbelief and not believing this is happening to them.

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