Glenn Beck, don't come back

The former anchorman's visit to Israel should have been named 'Restoring Courage in Beck.'

By NACHMAN SHAI
Glenn Beck Jerusalem 311 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Glenn Beck Jerusalem 311
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
THROUGHOUT ITS HISTORY, JERUSALEM HAS BORNE witness to many momentous events: The rise and fall of empires, the most sacred episodes of Judaism, Islam and Christianity, the conflicts of our modern era. These days the Holy City plays host to something entirely different: the phenomenon of Glenn Beck.
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Beck, a stranger to this land, with obviously little knowledge of the Holocaust, should be very careful in using the memory of our tragedy, so frequently, disrespectfully and irresponsibly in his petty internal politics.
But he is not careful at all. From his own private radio station in New York’s Radio City Music Hall, Beck pontificates about whatever he pleases, however he pleases. In reaction to the massacre this summer in Norway, Beck had this to say: “There was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like, you know, the Hitler youth. I mean, who does a camp for kids that’s all about politics? Disturbing.” In response to those who demanded that he stop using these racist analogies, he suggested that they were leading us to a “society of gas chambers.”
The Middle East of today is nothing short of being complex, multifaceted and nuanced.
To justly analyze the various intricacies of the region, one must be able to look through the Middle East kaleidoscope and acknowledge the full range of colors represented. While the Glenn Becks of the world may represent a small part of this spectrum, there is very little their black and white perspective that contributes aside from pushing us and our neighbors closer to the fringes. Given our country’s daily struggles, an Israeli cannot forget that Jews are always under attack, but this constant and real reminder shouldn’t be used for promoting Beck’s agenda across the Atlantic.
It is true that today, in Israel’s fight against global delegitimization, we need a wide array of friends and allies. Through the good work of North American Jewish and Israel-oriented organizations, the pro-Israel community is able to extend its influence well beyond our own faith. With US Jewry’s help, we have been able to cultivate a broad base of support for our Jewish state centered on joint values, strategic partnerships and common goals.
This is one of the foundation stones upon which the State of Israel is built. In our search for friends, however, we must be careful to always remember what we set out to accomplish in the first place: peace with our neighbors and security for our people.
This forces us to ask: Can Glenn Beck bring us closer to these goals? In most interviews and comments on the subject, Beck states that he supports peace for Israel, and then in the same breath he criticizes our Arab neighbors and makes inflammatory remarks about the White House. While Israel may not always agree with the actions and words of the Palestinians and the president of the US, negotiations and eventually peace and security will require us to work to overcome our differences. We cannot pursue peace for our peoples if we believe “Israel is being set up,” as Beck has claimed on his program. Recent events are a painful reminder that Jews were and still are under attack. While Israel mourns its dead, we need a voice of hope and encouragement, not doomsday and Armageddon.
Most recently, after Beck labeled the current tent protesters as “communists,” he suggested that the whole situation could be solved by building in the West Bank. Israel needs to take a “big tent” approach to Zionism, but if we try to bring everyone into the tent, we run the risks both of pushing some groups out and losing sight of our original objectives.
Beck, who unabashedly represents the farthest reaches of America’s neo-conservative movement, had the gall to call his visit to Jerusalem a “global event, like none other in history.”
For a city that has experienced more than most, I tend to disagree.
This region desperately needs peace and security for all, not mega-rallies. I invite Beck to invest all his efforts towards this end, instead of using us in a vain attempt to bolster his waning legitimacy in his own country.

Dr. Nachman Shai is a Member of Knesset from Kadima, the main opposition party.