Glenn Beck: The controversial Fighter against Hatred towards Jews and Israel

Glenn Beck is a controversial person when it comes to Israel and Judaism. If you only listen to Beck for an hour or two, you are sure that he is philo-Semitic and staunchly pro-Israel. He has said that "there is no one more pro-Israel or more pro-Jew than I am."

But he has angered Jewish groups by what they claim is his use of Nazi language and imagery, his attacks on Holocaust survivor George Soros, and his comparison of Reform Rabbis to radical Muslims. Commentators have triggered a debate over whether he is a true friend of Israel or just a fanatic who is in essence anti-Semitic.

Dana Milbank, a Jewish columnist for the Washington Post authored the book “Tears of a Clown: Glenn Beck and the Tea Bagging of America,” which alleges that Beck’s theories are rooted in “conspiratorial anti-Semitism.”

Beyond Beck’s statements, some Jews are uneasy with his close association with Christian Zionists; American-based evangelicals who tend to be on the opposite end of the political spectrum from American Jews and whom some Jews suspect have ulterior motives for befriending them.

Some evangelicals believe events in Israel are crucial to ushering in Jesus’ second coming, while other Jews say evangelical Christians want to convert them. But, Christian Zionist leaders say Christian support for Israel is based in a Biblical connection to Jews and Israel, not in messianic thinking or a desire to convert.

Beck himself made clear that he is not a missionary with his words at Caeserea in Israel on August 21, 2011. “There’s an important distinction of saying I love Israel, I defend Israel, and not separating that from the Jewish people.” “Make sure to say not that we only love Israel, but we love the Jewish people as they are.”

The counter-argument that his supporters give to these criticisms of Beck is that he is attacked by those cosmopolitan Jews who are uncomfortable with the idea of a Jewish State believing that defending Israel would presumably be “ethnocentric” and unprogressive. Other Jews are so parochial that they see Beck representing an old-school religion that will result in pogroms, or at the least, closed country clubs. And those who attack him depend on others not checking the facts that they purport relate to the anti-Semitism of Glenn Beck.

His defenders point to the big money that supports groups and individuals that attack him. Glenn Beck they say is a friend of Israel and the Jewish people and anyone arguing otherwise is either lying or ignorant. They call Beck an ally, and a very real one who represents millions of Americans that support Israel and the Jews. They feel that Jewish Americans ought to roll out the welcome mat to Beck.

Beck certainly rolled out the red carpet for Israel. If you take the overall picture in terms of support for Israel, you really have someone who cares about supporting the state of Israel and supporting the message of the connection of Jews to the land.

David Brog, CUFI’s Jewish director, wrote in support of Beck on the website the Daily Caller that the attackers ignore Beck’s efforts to shine a light on Israel’s delegitimization, which Brog characterized as the new anti-Semitism.

“Beck has not only recognized the threat of this new anti-Semitism, but he’s become a leading opponent of it,” Brog said. “How often do [other] cable news shows devote entire episodes to such ratings busters as reviewing the history of anti-Semitism — with a special focus on Christian anti-Semitism — or interviewing Holocaust survivors?”

Who is Glenn Beck?

Glenn Edward Lee Beck is an American conservative radio host, blogger, author, entrepreneur, political commentator, and former television host. He hosts the Glenn Beck Program, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks. Beck has authored six New York Times-bestselling books and is the founder and CEO of Mercury Radio Arts, a multimedia production company through which he produces content for radio, television, publishing, the stage, and the Internet.

He formerly hosted the Glenn Beck television program, which ran from January 2006 to October 2008 on HLN and from January 2009 on the Fox News Channel. It was announced on April 6, 2011 that Beck would "transition off of his daily program" on Fox News and Beck's last daily show on the network was June 30, 2011.

Beck was raised as a Roman Catholic and attended Immaculate Conception Catholic School in Mount Vernon. Glenn and his older sister then moved with their mother to Sumner, Washington, attending a Jesuit school in Puyallup. He joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) in October 1999. Beck has been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Beck's supporters praise him as a constitutional stalwart defending their traditional American values, while his critics contend he promotes conspiracy theories and employs incendiary rhetoric in order to obtain higher ratings. Beck headlined his "Restoring Courage" events in Jerusalem, Israel, in August 2011 in a campaign Beck said was designed to encourage people worldwide "to stand with the Jewish people".

In 2009, the Glenn Beck show was one of the highest rated news commentary programs on cable TV. For a Barbara Walters ABC special, Beck was selected as one of America’s "Top 10 Most Fascinating People" of 2009. In 2010, Beck was selected for the Times top 100 most influential people under the "Leaders" category.

During his 2010 keynote speech to Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Beck wrote the word "progressivism" on a chalkboard and declared "This is the disease in America," adding "progressivism is the cancer in America and it is eating our Constitution!"

Beck has said that such progressivism infects both main political parties and threatens to "destroy America as it was originally conceived.” In Beck’s book Common Sense, he argues that "progressivism has less to do with the parties and more to do with individuals who seek to redefine, reshape, and rebuild America into a country where individual liberties and personal property mean nothing if they conflict with the plans and goals of the State."

A collection of progressives, whom Beck has referred to as "Crime Inc.", comprise what Beck contends is a clandestine conspiracy to take over and transform America. These individuals include: Cass Sunstein, Van Jones, Andy Stern, John Podesta, Wade Rathke, Joel Rogers and Francis Fox Piven. Other figures tied to Beck's "Crime Inc." accusation include Al Gore, Franklin Raines, Maurice Strong, George Soros, John Holdren and President Barack Obama.

The Words of Glenn Beck on Jews and Israel

Glenn Beck spoke at three events during the year 2011 where he gave his views on Jews and Israel. His words are clearly pro-Jewish and pro-Israel.

1. Excerpts from speech at Christians United for Israel – July 19, 2011

Glenn Beck gave the keynote address at the “Night to Honor Israel” gala banquet at Christians United for Israel (CUFI) sixth annual convocation in Washington, D.C. He received rousing ovations and thunderous applause.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach described his feelings about the event: “The Christians United for Israel dinner in Washington, DC was an experience I won't quickly forget. Until you sit in a room with five thousand Christian lovers of Israel and absorb their enthusiasm for the Jewish state and the Jewish people you would be hard pressed to think it possible. But there I was, surrounded by Christians from all over the nation waving Israeli and American flags, pledging eternal love and support to the most vilified country on earth.”

Glenn Beck, the keynote speaker, is a Mormon even though the vast majority of participants were evangelical Christians who are often suspicious of Mormonism. I sat there thinking, if only the Jewish community could offer such unequivocal support for Israel....

Mr. Beck opened his speech by announcing his donation of $10,000 to the CUFI’s “On Campus” student organization that battles anti-Israel propaganda on hundreds of college and university campuses across America.

Referencing his emotional trip to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, “Fourteen days ago, I spent two days in Auschwitz. It profoundly changed me as a human being. Until you stand in the gas chambers, you don’t have any real idea of what this is about.”

On that note of emotional connection, Glenn Beck began his conversation. “We all know that it makes sense that we are all alike – by virtue of our humanity – our rights coupled with our responsibility. Jews and Gentiles have a basic right to live…to create something of value.”

He continued. “As I continued to walk towards Birkenau, my fear began to grow – a fear that should have been eradicated with the Nazi defeat, but still grew….fear caused by my understanding that the world is turning a blind eye to the same kind of evil.”

Beck asked “how do we protect one another?…The Jewish people, for thirteen centuries, were run out of their homeland. Then came the Crusades… The Jewish people need to know that Christians know their history, have seen it, understood it and are appalled by it.”

Acknowledging that the Jewish people have rightfully learned not to trust anyone and recognize that “no one can protect your rights better than you,” he asked that all remember that “there is an enormous amount of room as long as you want to be part of the family of mankind.”

Questioning the vocabulary of world politics, he asked why Israel, historically the land of the Jews – is called “occupier?” With a bit of humor, Beck added “Only two countries are having this problem… the great Satan and the little Satan.” Turning more serious, he said “the good people of the world must remember there is a difference between good and evil, and we must choose.”

As Israel goes, so goes the western way of life.” Turning scriptural he mused “the one God of Abraham knows that we will be judged as people and as nations on how we treat Israel….Christians must stand together because we, as people, must remember the promise: we will never forget!.. not only if we will stand, but also why we will stand: and that is because of love for our fellow man and that we have learned the lessons of four thousand years. We must love one another, and see Israelis as us.”

He reminded his audience that for two millennia, the Jewish people were not accorded human rights in the countries in which they resided. Until the modern state of Israel was established in 1948, he said, the Jews “have had no home base” and added that “this is why the nation of Israel is vital.”

Recalling the painful history of the Jewish nation, he intoned, “They [Jews] have been smeared. They have been maligned. But to our shame as human beings most of all, they have been forgotten in times of need.” Speaking directly to the Jewish people he said, “No one can protect your rights better than you. To rely on others is to ensure economic slavery at best, and death camps at worst.”

"It's not only the support we offer Israel," said Beck, "that matters. The reason for doing so is also important. We can't do this because we think it will bring final salvation or for any other reason. Rather, it's about love. Why did Ruth declare to Naomi, "Where you go I'll go. You're G-d is my G-d. Where you die I'll die, and there I'll be buried. Because she loved her. This has to be about love." [His words directly addressed the discomfort some Jews feel with Christian support for Israel as being based on end-of-days prophecy and a necessary precursor for the return of Christ.]

Beck closed his speech by warning the enemies of Israel and the Jewish people that times have changed and the Jews would not be alone in any confrontation. Standing up for Israel “may be the cause of our lifetime. “Each of us will be judged as a people and a nation by how we treat Israel.”

“If a despised regime has the right to kill Jews and frighten those who stand with them, I declare, count me a Jew and come for me first! When we all stand together, when we all raise our hands, we change the world. They cannot kill all of us. Let us declare: I am a Jew.”

The audience came to its feet and as the room erupted with applause. Beck continued “Our Jewish friends must all know that those who wish them harm must be warmed. This still is America. We are not the Christians of the Crusades; we are the Christians United for Israel! We mutually.

2. Excerpts from Restoring Courage Rally in Jerusalem –August 24, 2011

Glenn Beck spoke to a crowd of 1,700 (as well as 3,000 watching at a viewing station nearby) at the Davidson Center in Jerusalem and gave the keynote speech closing out his Restoring Courage Rally. Beck said his Jerusalem rally was meant to show global solidarity with Israel at a time when the nation is facing growing international criticism and threats. Full text of speech.

Today, I ask you turn your eyes to Israel and restore courage.

I have been asked: What can you teach Israel about Courage? My answer is simple. Nothing.

Then they ask: Why are you coming to Israel? Because, I say: In Israel, you see courage.

In Israel, there is more courage in one square mile than in all of Europe. In Israel, there is more courage in one soldier than in the combined and cold hearts of every bureaucrat at the United Nations. In Israel, you can find people who will stand against incredible odds… against the entire tide of global opinion, for what is right and good and true. Israel is not a perfect country. No country is perfect. But it tries… and it is courageous.

You don’t have to be a prophet to know that things are not going well in the world. The threats are mounting. Darkness is falling.

Far too many politicians are willing to look away. The shape shifters are at work. They have turned day into night, good into evil. They have changed the very meaning of words.

In New York, the so-called leaders of the world talk about abuses of human rights. But what they will do is abuse the very meaning of the phrase “human rights.”

“Human rights,” they say. But who will they focus on? Libya? Syria? North Korea? No.

They will condemn Israel. Tiny Israel. Democratic Israel. Free Israel. Israel, which values life above all other things.

Israel, as usual, is the exception.

The world is adrift. The world is confused.

The diplomats are afraid, and so they submit. They surrender to falsehood. The truth matters not. To the keepers of conventional wisdom, a sacrifice of the truth is a small price to pay. What difference does it make if we beat up on little Israel? These are the actions of the fearful and cowards.

But I stand here to tell you this: Fear is the pathway to surrender. And to overcome fear we must have courage.

This is hard to do. Especially here. Especially now.

The plotters plot. The schemers scheme. And it is easy to tremble with doubt.

Even Israelis – the most courageous people on earth – doubt themselves. “Did we do something to deserve this? Perhaps if we just do something else, it will all go away!”

My Israeli friends, I have a message: You must not lose hope. You must not lose confidence. You must have courage.

And you must draw courage from the knowledge that you were led to this land by God. And in the affairs of mankind, God is not a stranger to the children of Abraham.

He promised that Israel would rise again. For two thousand years the Jewish people held on to this promise. We have seen the promise fulfilled.

Israel, we have witnessed the dawn of your redemption.

We live in an age of manmade, technological miracles. But these are the days of divine miracles.

Not by the hand of any man, whether his name is Balfour or Truman, does Israel exist. Israel is here because the God of Abraham keeps His covenants.

The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is not neutral in the affairs of mankind. God is not indifferent to Israel. He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant he made with your forefathers.

And so I say that if the world decides it must know who will stand with Israel, who will stand with the Jewish people, so they know exactly who to condemn, who to target, let them know this.

Condemn me. Target me. I will stand with Israel. I will stand with the Jewish people. And if they want to round us up again, I will proudly raise my hand and say “Take me first.”

Evil is counting on us to do nothing. Evil is counting on us to be afraid. But evil has misjudged us.

Evil has misjudged us as it has misjudged the Jewish people. The last line of a Jewish prayer is…

Adonai li, v’lo ira

God is with me, I fear not.

In every generation, they rise up to kill Jews. And in every generation, the answer is the same.

LO IRA. I fear not.

I will wait for someone else to rise no more. This time, we are the ones who say – LO IRA.

Others will say, “come with us, over the horizon.” But that horizon is a cliff. And when you don’t go along, you will stand out. You will be mocked and in some cases your life may be in danger.

So you must remember to say: LO IRA. I fear not.

No one wants to be on the point, the person that sticks out. My first death threat came in 2002 after my first visit to Israel and my declaration of support of the Jewish people and state. My latest death threat was today.

And so I say: LO IRA. I fear not.

Many of us may fall along the way. Some will have their reputation destroyed or business or career ended and others still may pay the ultimate price.

But let us link arms and make the journey together and if one shall fall, let 10 join our ranks.

You were not born so someone else could rule over you. God did not create you, endow you with rights so you could remain silent while injustice and evil grow. You have a purpose and it is rooted in love, compassion and responsibility.

There are many reasons to hear my words, leave here and do nothing. We all have been trained to believe that we are not strong enough, smart enough or powerful enough.

Abraham was old, Moses was slow of speech, Ruth was a widow, David was a little boy, Joseph was in prison, and Lazarus was dead. What is your excuse?

You were born for a time such as this. Begin by declaring that this is why you were placed on this earth. It doesn’t matter how you’ve spent your years on this planet. What matters is what you do now from here.

I cannot promise you safety, prosperity or comfort.

But I can promise you this. One day, your children and grandchildren will ask you: “What did you do when the world was on the edge again? What did you say when the West, Israel and the Jews were blamed again?”

You will look them in the eye and say: I had courage. And on the 24th of Av, I committed to stand with courage… to walk… to march… arm in arm… behind God’s pillar of fire.

Adonai li v’Lo Ira.

God is with me, I fear not.

3. Excerpts from Speech at Zionist Organization of America - November 20, 2011

At the Zionist Organization of America’s 114th Justice Louis D. Brandeis Award Dinner at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan, Glenn Beck received the ZOA’s Defender of Israel Award. The euphoria surrounding Beck’s appearance stood out as Glenn Beck was swarmed like a rock star by over 800 ardent supporters of Israel.

In his introductory remarks Mr. Adelson described Mr. Beck as a “very special man. We knew he was a giant even before we met him. I’d never known a Christian Zionist like Glenn Beck. He tells the truth about the Arab war against Israel.” Adelson, added there is “no greater supporter of Israel in the media today” than Beck.

Mr. Beck declared that he has placed his “chips on the table” by saying, “I wear it as a badge of pride to be a Zionist. The Jewish people and the land of Israel has a right to exist and I am not ashamed to speak the truth.”

Warning of ominous times ahead, he said, “The world is on the eve of profound and dramatic change and we have an 18-month window to change the world.”

Referencing a panoply of issues such as the danger of George Soros funded organizations, the incessant animus towards Israel emanating from the Obama administration and the prevalent denial of the Holocaust, Mr. Beck issued a clarion call for unity amongst Christians, Jews, and all good people by saying, “We must lock arms and stand as sentinels for if we fail to do so things could get worse.

I come to you as a brother and not as a Christian. The world does not hate you, but the enemies of G-d hate you. You, the Jewish people never gave up on G-d. You have been loyal and you never embraced the G-d of the stranger and for that Israel has been promised by G-d to the Jews.”

In a voice reverberating with palpable emotion and zeal, Mr. Beck ruefully observed that “what is happening in the world is grotesque.” “When Ahmadinejad of Iran says the Jews will burn in the fiery hell of Islam, he means it. We must say ‘Never Again’ and we must mean it. Words are meaningless. It is a time for action and only through the mighty Hand of the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will we be saved.”

The Accusations versus the Facts

There have been a number of accusations made against Glenn Beck to prove his basically anti-Semitic nature. Below these accusations are shown and then an examination of the facts is undertaken in order to judge the extent to which Glenn Beck is a true fighter against hatred.

Accusation 1: Glenn Beck is the leading purveyor of anti-Semitic memes in the mass media.

Dana Milbank in his opinion piece in The Washington Post on June 17, 2011 called Beck, “The leading purveyor of anti-Semitic memes in the mass media.”

Fact

In a forceful reaction to the accusation, Barry Rubin an expert on terrorism and professor at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya, Israel, called the charge against Beck not only profoundly false but based on such a distortion of everything he has said and done for many years that one can only assume that the Washington Post author was consciously lying.

Rubin continued to say that the truth is the exact opposite of what Milbank wrote. Beck is the leading purveyor of pro-Israel and antagonism toward anti-Semitic memes in the mass media. In other words, the real anti-Semites are whitewashed, while those fighting anti-Semitism are called anti-Semites. The supporters of Israel are called enemies of Israel by those who themselves are generally enemies of Israel.

Accusation 2: Beck uses anti-Semitic “dog whistling.”

Jeffrey Goldberg, staff writer for the Atlantic, wrote that Beck had identified nine men as responsible for the "era of the big lie." He spoke of them as propagandists who saw themselves as an "intelligent minority" manipulating the masses. Of the nine men Beck attacked, eight were Jews. Goldberg sees this as a classic case of anti-Semitic dog-whistling, which uses coded language that appears to mean one thing to the general population but has a different or more specific meaning for a targeted subgroup

The eight Jews are Sigmund Freud; Edward Bernays, the founder of public relations, and a nephew of Freud's; Soros, of course; Cass Sunstein, now of the White House; the former labor leader Andy Stern; Walter Lippman; Frances Fox Piven, who Beck believes is "sowing the seeds" of revolution; and Edward Rendell.

Goldberg asks if Beck knew that these people were Jewish (It is not widely-known that Rendell is Jewish, I think)? But concludes that Beck is a smart person, and has researchers at hand with access to Wikipedia. Further, most of these people on Beck's "big lie" list are already the targets of straightforward attacks in the dark, anti-Semitic corners of the Web, so an extended Google search, in some cases, would show that much of the opposition to some of these people is motivated by anti-Semitism.

Nevertheless, Goldberg concedes that Beck had not crossed a certain line, by identifying his targets openly as Jewish.

Facts

Beck also mentions plenty of non-Jewish names, and he also invites to his show Jews who have a variety of opinions. What's more he takes a lot of his materials about the “progressive conspiracy” from DiscoverTheNetworks.org, a project of David Horowitz (who is Jewish), a radical leftist turned conservative.

Beck's "Crime Inc." contains quite a few non-Jews including Van Jones, John Podesta, Al Gore, Franklin Raines, John Holdren, and President Barack Obama. Yes, there are many Jews who have stand out with liberal/progressive ideas, but Beck does not identify them as Jews but rather as cosmopolitans who have rejected their ethnicity in an effort to create one world.

Beck also excludes Jews from of his descriptions of the early Progressive conspiracy. During the October 15, 2010, edition of his Fox News show Beck claimed that "most everybody in the early progressive movement, their father or somebody involved, was a preacher. And they hated it." Guest David Barton then said, "The ACLU was headed by a preacher in the progressive movement; Americans for Democratic Action, headed by a preacher in the progressive movement…."

Accusation 3: Beck compared Reform Judaism to radical Islam

In February, ADL national director Abraham Foxman condemned as "highly offensive and outrageous" a radio broadcast in which Beck compared Reform Judaism to "radicalized Islam," characterizing Reform rabbis as "generally political in nature" rather than religious. Foxman said. "Glenn Beck's comparison of Reform Judaism to radical Islam demonstrates his bigoted ignorance."

Foxman added that “Glenn Beck has no right to discount the faith of any people, and he should think twice before commenting on something he doesn’t know much about. He owes the Reform movement an apology.” In addition, Rabbi David Saperstein, the head of the Reform movement’s Washington office, the Religious Action Center, said the comments were “distasteful and offensive.”

Facts

The comparison between Reform Rabbis and radical Islam was made by Beck.

“There are the Orthodox rabbis and there are the Reform rabbis,” Beck said. “Reformed [sic] rabbis are generally political in nature. It’s almost like radicalized Islam in a way where it is just — radicalized Islam is less about religion than it is about politics.”

In a brief aside, Beck said that he wasn’t saying Reform Judaism and radical Islam were the same. He went on to note that for Orthodox rabbis faith is primary, before reiterating that Reform rabbis place politics before religion.

Beck went on to explain how this inappropriate comparison came about.

I think it was on Tuesday that I was making a point about political activists, and I started to talk about the difference in Rabbis. Somebody has called me ignorant for what I, what I said on Tuesday, and I think that's a pretty good description of my, what I said.

I made one of the worst analogies of all time, and I knew it when I said it, and I just kept going … here I am talking about Judaism, and I start comparing Islamic extremism, and it was just, it was, it was a nightmare.

Beck apologized for using a “horrible analogy.”

Accusation 4: Beck makes use of completely unacceptable Nazi imagery.

On July 25, 2011, Beck on his syndicated radio show described the July 22, 2011 massacre in Norway of dozens of teenagers at a Labor Party summer camp: “There was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like, you know, the Hitler youth,” he said. “I mean, who does a camp for kids that’s all about politics? Disturbing.”

Opponents of Beck criticized him for comparing the victims of the Oslo massacre - who might have been the victims of the worst shooting in Norwegian history - to young followers of Adolf Hitler. Sixty-eight people, mostly in their teens and 20s, were killed in the shooting spree on Norway's Utoya Island, which was hosting a summer camp connected with the Labor Party's youth wing.

CNN reported that the island, which is about 20 miles away from Oslo and can only be reached by boat, has been hosting the Labor Party's youth conferences for decades and also serves as a family camping destination. There's nothing that's particularly sinister about the place. Young Norwegians go there to learn about democracy and to discuss politics, not to be prepared for military service under a fascist leader like the Hitler Youth were.

"Just when we think Glenn Beck can get no more offensive, he ups the ante," said National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) President David Harris in a Tuesday statement. "It is simply horrendous that Beck would compare the young victims of this tragic crime in Norway to the 'Hitler Youth.' It is repugnant to invoke the Holocaust like this when discussing a Labor Party summer camp for teens -- to say nothing of a camp that was attacked in this calamitous way."

Facts

There is no question that Beck’s used words that were both out of place and insensitive.

But it should be clear that he did not say what many of the critics claimed that he said in making a comparison between the Norwegian youth and the Nazis. His reference was to the nature of the summer camp. He is so immersed in his fight against progressivism that he neglected the personal tragedy of the youngsters and their families but instead apparently expressed his surprise that there were still political party camps in Norway for indoctrinating youth into a political ideology.

Beck’s made a statement about his words: “Saturday I was following the news of the shooting in Norway and the explosion in Norway, which happened what on Friday,” Beck recalled. “When we heard the explosion everybody was willing to say, it’s Muslim extremists, it’s Muslim extremists. I don’t think we made a comment on it because we didn’t know other than a bombing had happened, and as the thing started to unfold and there was a shooting a political camp, which sounds a little like the Hitler Youth or you know whatever. Who does a camp for kids that’s all about politics? Disturbing. But, anyway, so there’s this political camp and so crazy man goes and starts shooting kids.”

Accusation 5: Beck hosted a guest on his show who describes as “accurate” the anti-Semitic tract “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post on April 6, 2011 wrote that Beck hosted G. Edward Griffin who had described as “accurate” the anti-Semitic forgery “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” He did this to make the case that various bankers, including the Rothschilds, created the Federal Reserve. Griffin’s Web site dabbles in a variety of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, including his view that “present-day political Zionists are promoting the New World Order."

Facts

Milbank found one guest of the thousands of guests that Beck has had on the air over the years, G. Edward Griffin, who might have once made an anti-Semitic comment. Even more importantly, Griffin’s position vis-à-vis the Protocols is exactly the opposite of what Milbank asserts. It turns out that Griffith argues quite passionately that the Protocols are a forgery and a tool of anti-Semites.

After demonstrating that the Protocols are a forgery, Griffin stressed that most of those involved in the actual conspiracy at issue are not Jews. He pleads with his fellow conspiracy theorists not to run down the blind alley of anti-Semitism but to stay focused on those actually wielding power. Any fair reading of this article makes it clear that we're dealing with a conspiracy theorist but not an anti-Semite.

Lisa Goldstein writes that nowhere in Griffin’s book did he ever accuse the Jews as a people of being the source of the evil he writes about (i.e. the Federal Reserve). He simply could not write his story without mentioning the names of those involved, many of whom just happened to be prominent Jews. It is only when Jews as a group are blamed that one is anti-Semitic. Mr. Milbank, I defy you to honestly point to anything in Mr. Griffin’s book that does that.

So, Mr. Milbank, continued Lisa Goldstein, I can only make two logical assumptions, both of which render you a dishonest writer: 1) you read Mr. Griffin’s post and chose to lie about it anyway or 2) you didn’t source your information and reported it anyway. Shame, shame because most people will not do the fact-checking I did and will take your words at face value.

Accusation 6: Beck claimed George Soros collaborated with the Nazis

In an open letter dated January 27, 2011 to Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox Network, and published in the Wall Street Journal and the Forward, hundreds of rabbis requested that Glenn Beck be sanctioned for "monstrous" and "beyond repugnant" use of "anti-Semitic imagery" in going after Holocaust survivor George Soros. "It is not appropriate to accuse a 14-year-old Jew hiding with a Christian family in Nazi-occupied Hungary of sending his people to death camps."

Abe Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, described Beck's attack on George Soros as "not only offensive, but horrific, over-the-top, and out-of-line."

To hold a young boy responsible for what was going on around him during the Holocaust as part of a larger effort to denigrate the man is repugnant.

Facts

On his program which was broadcast on Nov. 9, 2010, Beck described an 12/20/98

interview on 60 Minutes with Steve Kroft when Soros was asked if he felt guilty about confiscating property from Jews as a teenager. He responded, “No.”

Beck told a radio audience that Soros "used to go around with this anti-Semite and deliver papers to the Jews and confiscate their property and then ship them off. And George Soros was part of it. He would help confiscate the stuff. It was frightening. Here's a Jewish boy helping send the Jews to the death camps."

Who is George Soros?

George Soros is a business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He was born in Hungary in 1930 as George Schwartz. His parents were both Jews, but nonobservant (she eventually converted to Catholicism).

The family posed as Christians during the war and separated to hide from the Germans. They changed their name from Schwartz (considered too Jewish-sounding) to Soros (more reflective of the family’s Hungarian roots and because his father liked the palindrome).

George Soros, chairman of Soros Fund Management, is known for his support of progressive-liberal causes and is a prominent international supporter of democratic ideals and causes for more than 30 years. His philanthropic organization, the Open Society Foundations, supports democracy and human rights in over 70 countries

The George Soros fortune is based on his administration of the Quantum Fund. The fund, which is registered in the Netherlands Antilles, turned an original investment of six million dollars in 1969 into an estimated $27.9 billion in assets by 2011.

In 1992, Soros's Quantum Fund became famous for "breaking" the Bank of England, forcing it to devalue the pound. Soros had bet his entire fund in a short sale on the ultimately fulfilled prediction that the British currency would drop in value, a coup that netted him a profit of $1 billion. In 1997, Soros was blamed for forcing sharp devaluations in Southeast Asian currencies.

In July, 2011, the Quantum Fund announced they would be ending the fund, and will be returning all outside money by the end of 2011. The fund will now exclusively manage Soros' family money.

Did Soros collaborate with the Nazis?

No, he did not collaborate with the Nazis. However, he speaks of a rather ambivalent experience during the years of the Nazi era, and his bizarre reflections on it. Soros has repeatedly called 1944 “the best year of his life.”

He was asked about his war years in 1998 during a 60 Minutes interview.

KROFT: For example that, 'I'm Jewish and here I am, watching these people go. I could just as easily be there. I should be there.' None of that?

Mr. SOROS: I was only a spectator, the property was being taken away. So the - I had no role in taking away that property. So I had no sense of guilt.

The transcript from the interview can be found here.

On April 15, 1993, Soros appeared on WNET-TV and declared, "When the Germans came in," his father explained to him that, "This is a lawless occupation. The normal rules don't apply. You have to forget how you behave in a normal society. This is an abnormal situation. And he [Soros's father] arranged for all of us to have false papers, everybody had a different arrangement. I was adopted by an official of the ministry of agriculture, whose job was to take over Jewish properties, so I actually went with him and we took possession of these large estates. That was my identity. So it's a strange, very strange life. I was 14 at the time."

In point of fact, Soros's adopted "godfather" served under Nazi Waffen SS Gen. Kurt Becher, who ran what was euphemistically called the Economic Department of the SS Command, which oversaw the extermination of 500,000 Hungarian Jews. In his famous book Perfidy, an indictment of the Jews who colluded with the Nazis in order to survive, Ben Hecht described Becher's Economic Department, in more graphic terms than did Soros. The Department was in charge of looting the properties of Hungarian Jews, in "removing the gold fillings from the millions of teeth of the dead Jews; in cutting off the hair of millions of Jewesses before killing them, and shipping bales of hair to Germany's mattress factories; in converting the fat of dead Jews into bath soap, and in figuring out effective methods of torture to induce the Jews awaiting death to reveal where they had hidden their last possessions."

In an article in the Wall Street Journal, Joshua Muravchik notes that, “70% of Mr. Soros’s fellow Jews in Hungary, nearly a half-million human beings, were annihilated in that year. They were dying and disappearing all around him, and their numbers no doubt included many whom he knew personally. Yet he gives no sign that this put any damper on his elation, either at the time or indeed in retrospect.”

A psychiatrist might diagnose someone who went through such an experience, yet felt no remorse, no guilt, and actually boasted that it shaped his strategies as a ruthless, and very successful speculator, as a sociopath.

Clearly, Soros has a problem with his Jewish background. “My mother was quite anti-Semitic, and ashamed of being Jewish. Given the culture in which one lived, being Jewish was a clear-cut stigma, disadvantage, and a handicap - and, therefore, there was always the desire to transcend it, to escape it.”

“So the assimilationist Jews of Hungary had a deep sense of inferiority and it took me a long time to work through that,” he said, adding, however, that he succeeded in doing so many years ago… “I am escaping the particular. I think I am doing exactly that by espousing this universal concept”-of open society. “In other words, I don’t think that you can ever overcome anti-Semitism if you behave as a tribe… the only way you can overcome it is if you give up the tribalness.”

As described by Martin Peretz, editor-in-chief of The New Republic, "George Soros is ostentatiously indifferent to his own Jewishness. He is not a believer. He has no Jewish communal ties. He certainly isn't a Zionist. He told Connie Bruck in The New Yorker — testily, she recounted — that 'I don't deny the Jews their right to a national existence — but I don't want to be part of it.'"

I had left Hungary behind and my Jewishness did not express itself in a sense of tribal loyalty that would have led me to support Israel,”

Dennis Prager describes George Soros as an example of an individual born Jewish who has become a radical world citizen who is alienated from America and from his Jewish origins, and damages both. The term "non-Jewish Jew" is generally attributed to the Jewish historian Isaac Deutscher, who wrote an essay by that name in 1954. The term describes the individual who, though born a Jew (Judaism consists of a national/peoplehood identity, not only a religious one), identifies solely as a citizen of the world and not as a Jew, either nationally or religiously.

Jews with no religious or national identity do not like Jews who have those identities, and Americans who have likewise become world citizens do not much care for Americans who wave the American flag. The absence of any national or religious identity can lead to nihilism. The radical non-Jewish Jew loves humanity, but hurts real humans, especially his own.

It should also be mentioned that the letter from the Rabbis against Beck was organized by the “Jewish Funds for Justice” which is a liberal organization that has ties to George Soros. They spent $100,000 in the Wall Street Journal. Specifically, Jewish Funds for Justice received money from the Open Society Institute of Soros for a project called the Funders Collaborative for Youth Organizing. The sum of $200,000 to engage youth in civic participation work was given for 2 years starting in 2010. Soros may have also made a more personal donation.

Accusation 6: Beck called Soros a “puppet master,” a term typical of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

Beck devoted a huge amount of airtime to a multiple-show attack on George Soros for his funding of a number of the progressive organizations that Beck tells his viewers are out to destroy America. He accused left-wing financier and Jewish Holocaust survivor George Soros as "the puppet master."

Journalist Michelle Goldberg called the Soros attacks “a new low on American television” and spelled out the way Beck’s anti-Soros conspiracy theory was just an updated version of standard malevolent-Jews-secretly-control-the-world anti-Semitism.

Beck’s description of Soros fits the ideology of anti-Semitism and its story about the world. It’s a story about almost occult Jewish power, about cabals that manipulate world events for their own gain. In classic anti-Semitic narratives, Jews control both the elites and the masses. Their goal is to undermine society so that they can take over. They constitute a power above and beyond ordinary government authority.

Facts

Beck included George Soros in a collection of progressives, whom Beck referred to as "Crime Inc.," comprising what Beck contends is a clandestine conspiracy to take over and transform America. In a number of programs, Beck referred to the danger of George Soros funded organizations.

On the September 15, 2010 edition of Glenn Beck, Beck displayed a large chess board, which he claimed would illustrate "how far the establishment will go to protect the power that they have built up." Beck assigned various figures roles based on the pieces of the chess game. Beck said, "Now, who are the king and queen and the advisers and the knights, the protection of the castle?" Grabbing the king piece, Beck continued, "Well, if I may -- I think you've got Soros." Beck later said that Barack and Michelle Obama were "pawns."

But his most dramatic presentation about Soros began on November 9, 2010 in a three-hour special edition of his Fox News show. Glenn claimed to have pulled back the structure progressives have worked decades to put in place. Beneath every layer, he found one common thread: George Soros. Glenn presented an in-depth look at the Puppet Master, billionaire financier George Soros, one of the most powerful forces in the Progressive Movement.

The Beck claim that Soros is a “Progressive Puppet Master” is based on information about The Open Society Institute. The personal contributions of Soros and those from family are less open for investigation.

Soros started The Open Society Institute (OSI) in 1993, and renamed in 2011 to Open Society Foundations. The mandate of OSI as a private operating and grant making foundation is to shape public policy to promote democratic governance, human rights, and economic, legal, and social reform. The Soros Foundations network has nodes in more than 60 countries, including the United States.

Between 1979 and 2011, Soros gave away over $8 billion to “support human rights, freedom of expression, and access to public health and education in 70 countries,” with up to $425 million donated annually. During the 2003–2004 election cycle, Soros donated $23,581,000 to 527 groups dedicated to defeating President Bush.

Soros' role has been described as crucial in the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe. From 1979, as an advocate of 'open societies', Soros financially supported dissidents including Poland's Solidarity movement, Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia and Andrei Sakharov in the Soviet Union. His funding of pro-democratic programs in Georgia was considered by Russian and Western observers to be crucial to the success of the Rose Revolution. He has also been active in the Ukraine, in the so-called “Orange Revolution” of 2004, in Yugoslovia in 2000, and in Belarus. Some Soros-backed pro-democracy initiatives have been banned in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

Richard Poe writes, “Through his global web of Open Society Institutes and Open Society Foundations, Soros has spent 25 years recruiting, training, indoctrinating and installing a network of loyal operatives in 50 countries, placing them in positions of influence and power in media, government, finance and academia.”

One of the organizations supported by Soros at about $1 million annually is the Center for American Progress. The Center website states that the organization is "dedicated to improving the lives of Americans through progressive ideas and action."

The group was largely set up to prevent Bush from gaining re-election in 2004. Soros told the Washington Post: “I have made rejection of the Bush doctrine the central project of my life… America, under Bush, is a danger to the world. And I’m willing to put my money where my mouth is.”

In 2006, CAP launched a network of liberal religious leaders called Faith in Public Life to “fuel this burgeoning faith movement with cutting edge strategies and capacity-building resources.” CAP’s campus Progress, with a staff of 15 and a large network of student advisers, offers money and guidance to help college activists launch initiatives and newspapers

CAP has a congressional outreach staff and aides dedicated to booking its experts on talk shows. It has a studio that offers daily taped segments and talking points for radio hosts, and it broadcasts liberal radio host Ed Schultz‘s show when he’s in town. .

Another Soros supported organization is the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy. This has been described as a left-wing legal activist group working to change America’s laws and approaches towards law enforcement. One of its areas of focus is constitutional interpretation and change.

Soros funded organizations are quite often not visible in the media when they finance political activities. As an example of this, 2006's vast immigration rallies across the USA were described by the media as a spontaneous uprising of 2 million angry Mexican-flag waving illegal immigrants demanding U.S. citizenship in Los Angeles, egged on only by a local Spanish-language radio announcer?

What looked like a wildfire grassroots movement was in many ways a manipulation from Open Society Institute’s glassy Manhattan offices. The public had no way of knowing until the release of OSI's 2006 annual report that the movement was supported through its $17 million Justice Fund. The fund lists 19 projects in 2006. One was vaguely described as involvement in the immigration rallies. Another project funded illegal immigrant activist groups for subsequent court cases.

Another Soros-Funded activity provided a course for journalists that downplays 'Jihad.' The Poynter News University launched the free course ''Covering Islam in America'' to guide the media on their coverage of Muslim communities. Besides learning basic facts about Muslims and their history, the course adds ways to put ''jihad'' into perspective, attack conservatives, and provide a list of liberal groups that can be contacted for expert advice and quotes.

Richard Poe claims Soros has a five-point strategy for regime-change. The steps are: 1) infiltrates countries with his operatives, under the cover of humanitarian aid; 2) takes control of the air waves by creating “independent media” under his own control; 3) destabilizes the targeted country with financial manipulations and political agitation, 4) waits for an election, then disrupts it with charges of voter fraud, then; 5) takes the streets with armies of activist youth whom Soros has recruited, trained and funded, all demanding that the incumbent step down. The formula often works. In theory, it is supposed to produce a “bloodless” coup, in which few people are killed or harmed. Things went tragically wrong in Kenya, however.

When it comes to Israel, Soros apparently has a strategy to change policy toward and within Israel primarily through the efforts of two organizations.

The first organization is J Street which was founded in 2008 as a counter to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). It claimed that AIPAC was too identified with the establishment in Israel and what was needed was an alternative liberal advocacy group that would support a new direction for American policy in the Middle East – diplomatic solutions over military ones," "multilateral over unilateral approaches to conflict resolution," and "dialogue over confrontation" with wider international support.

J Strret has a political action committee that provides political and financial support to candidates for federal office who believe in a new direction in American policy that will advance U.S. interests in the Middle East and promote real peace and security for Israel and the region. "Maybe, if this collective Jewish presence" -- that is, the Jewish State in the Middle East -- "can only survive by the sword, then Israel really ain't a good idea:" So said Daniel Levy, one of J Street's founders.

Several US Jewish leaders have expressed reservations about J Street's position on Israel, and some have publicly disassociated themselves from the organization. Lenny Ben-David, former director of the Israeli branch of AIPAC - American Israeli Policy Action Committee (the largest pro-Israel lobby in the U.S.) - said J Street hides "its real anti-Israel face behind a 'pro-Israel' mask."

Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren took to task J Street when it made an e-mail- attack on Rep. Gary Ackerman. “They claim they’re pro-Israel,” he said, providing a less than ringing endorsement of the George Soros-funded organization. “They are calling for Israel to be condemned in the Security Council for the settlements and they are condemning some of our best friends on the Hill. So they can call themselves what they like.”

An effort was made to hide Soros’s involvement with J Street. Jeremy Ben-Ami, founder and executive director initially said Mr. Soros did not help launch J Street or provide its initial funding. But confidential IRS documents obtained by The Washington Times in 2010 showed that George Soros had been a donor to J Street from 2008. The approximately $750,000 from Soros and his family, together with donations from a unknown Hong Kong-based businesswoman Ms. Consolacion Esdicul, amounted to about 15% of J Street's funding since establishment.

Ben-Ami admitted that the Soros family did indeed contribute an average of $250,000 per year over the three years (2008-2010) and their support amounted to just over 7 percent of the total funds raised by the J Street family of organizations, Soros did in fact start providing support in the fall of 2008, six months after the launch.

Soros actively supports another organization, the New Israel Fund (NIF), which acts to influence events in Israel. Its.Mission statement states that it works to strengthen Israel's democracy and to promote freedom, justice and equality for all Israel's citizens. Since its founding in 1979, NIF has granted more than $200 million to more than 800 organizations in Israel.” This includes $40 million from the Ford Foundation for “peace and social justice” programs. In 2008, NIF distributed over $20 million to over 300 NGOs in Israel. Approximately 20% goes to NGOs that engage in political activities related to the Arab-Israeli conflict, including some that reject the legitimacy of Israel as Jewish democratic state, and are active in boycott and similar campaigns.

The NIF solicits contributions in the United States by presenting itself as a pro-Israel liberal group promoting social justice in Israel, including: assisting the poor, helping the handicapped, promoting equality for Arabs, and other good causes.

Dr. Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor and professor of Political Studies at Bar Ilan University, however, has documented the activities of the New Israel Fund (NIF) and concluded that the aspect of Soros’ ‘chequebook advocacy’ which makes him most ill-tempered is the support for organizations which aim to eliminate the Jewish nature of Israel and undermine the elected government of a democratic nation by means of delegitimisation.

An example of NIF activities was described by “Shlomit,” a social change activist who works for an NGO providing services in the Israeli-Arab sector. She attended a leadership training seminar in June 2010 run by Shatil (an NIF program), and sponsored by the Ford Israel Fund (a partnership between NIF and Ford Foundation). The Shatil project describes itself as providing Israeli NGOs with “consulting, training, coalition-building assistance and other services.”

Shlomit was told that the contents of this program were about personal leadership and that the politics would be left outside the scope. The 20 Palestinian and Jewish human rights activist participants were all from NIF-funded organizations. But the tone of the sessions was directed at negating the State of Israel's existence. The other participants believed that the State of Israel was born out of sin, apologized for its existence and loathed Israel and its symbols. These people are fighting for one nationality alone – Palestinian.

In addition to NIF, Soros’ ‘Open Society Institute’ also funds a whole host of operations in Israel such as Adalah, Peace Now, Breaking the Silence, Gisha and Yesh Din. Adalah works towards a one-state ‘solution’ in which the Jewish nature of Israel would be replaced by a “democratic, bilingual and multicultural” framework.

Conclusion

We began this article with the question of whether or not Glenn Beck is a true fighter against hatred? The evidence shows that he is authentic. His words, actions, and money has gone into the fight against hatred toward Jews and Israel. His words are indeed stimulating.

The accusations against him are found to be either false or were words that he misused and then apologized. His case against Soros is well founded: Soros has used his large fortune in an attempt to change the world.