Glenn Beck warns against ‘vaporization of Israel’

GIL HOFFMAN AND MICHAEL FREUND
07/15/2011

In interview with 'Post' former-Fox News broadcaster promises Jerusalem mega-event in August will be bipartisan, not an anti-Obama rally.

The “vaporization of Israel” and the end of the Western way of life as we know it could be on the horizon, American broadcaster Glenn Beck warned in an interview with The Jerusalem Post in the capital’s David Citadel Hotel on Wednesday.

Beck came to Israel to prepare for “Restoring Courage,” his Jerusalem mega-event set for late next month. He also addressed the Knesset’s Diaspora Affairs Committee, toured Gush Etzion and Sderot, and met with hi-tech entrepreneurs and Vice Premier Moshe Ya’alon. “[Christian Israel supporters] see tragedy coming down the pike unless we take a stand,” Beck said. “Many of us were asleep for a long time. There are Americans who still say it will never happen, and everything will work out because we are America. But I know Americans outside of Washington who know that’s not necessarily true – not unless you change that behavior. We are waking up to what could be on the horizon: and what could be on the horizon is the vaporization of Israel and the end of the Western way of life as we know it,” he continued.

Beck said the way to prevent such a tragedy was to stand together, be righteous and decent and protect one another. To that end, he is organizing three separate events in Jerusalem under the Restoring Courage banner.

One will be for American- Christians and will be viewed in hundreds of churches in the US.

Beck said the event is intended to “get the Christian community in America to wake up and start standing up [for Israel].”

Another event will be more political, featuring Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman, Republican presidential candidates Rick Santorum and Herman Cain, and at least two other candidates whom Beck declined to reveal.

He said the event would be attended by more than 30 American national political figures, 70 international politicians and citizen delegations from 100 countries around the world, including Bahrain.

At Beck’s request, Americans will be getting together to watch the event, bringing Jews and Christians together.

More than 700 viewing parties have already been organized.

“If it’s just an event, we failed,” he said. “It’s a launch of a movement of decent, like-minded, freedom-loving peaceful people who know the answer won’t come from Washington or Copenhagen. It’s not going to come from our political leaders, but from the people. It’s a freedom movement, something the Tel Aviv hi-tech people and the most Orthodox in Jerusalem would understand and come together for.”

Beck vowed that the event would be bipartisan and would not develop into a rally against US president Barack Obama. Even though he is one of Obama’s fiercest critics, Beck makes a point of not criticizing the American administration when he’s abroad.

“Now that we’re a global community, this answer doesn’t seem to make sense because a lot of people here in Israel watch my program, but I don’t talk about the policies of my country outside my country,” he said.

“If you want to know my opinion of the policies of the president, you can go to YouTube and see what I said in New York, and will continue to say in New York. There won’t be politics in this event. There will be values, virtues and principles.”

The world leader whom will more likely be a central focus of speeches at the event will be Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Much like Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Beck does not shy away from using Holocaust terminology when warning about Iran’s nuclearization.

Beck, who visited Auschwitz on his way to Israel for a documentary on Righteous Gentiles, says the world must learn from history.

“I was on the radio four years ago saying we’re passing all the exits,” he said.

“Soon it’s a cliff. You’ve got to turn the car around. Someone needs to find a solution. Come what may, will we be brave enough? I told Netanyahu when Bush was president, the Americans won’t do it. No one else is going to do it. Those [Iranian] people will build trains again [for the Jews]. [Ahmadinejad] said the Jews will burn in the fires of the Islamic fury. I think that’s pretty clear.”