Today was the day of Glenn Beck's 'Restoring Courage' event in Jerusalem and from all accounts, it was a uniquely moving occasion, ending in a rally on the southern side of the Old City.There were about 1000 people in attendance, mostly Americans who’d come to Jerusalem at Beck’s urging but also a number of Israelis, including a fair proportion of Orthodox Jews.
The audience also included a number of listening parties worldwide, including China and South America.
A great many people demonize Glenn Beck, and just by coincidence, a lot of them are the same people who demonize and denigrate Israel....and America. Funny how that works, isn't it?
It's no small coincidence either that a number of them are Left wing, secular Jews.Along with people like Pastor John Hagee and Sarah Palin, Beck has been vilified as an anti-Semite by many in this crowd, something that would be almost incomprehensible if I didn't have an innate understanding of the breed.
At times like this I remind myself that the Torah teaches us that a large number of Jews refused to leave Egypt and walk with Moses into freedom, rejecting their own divine redemption.
As for me..well, I know who may friends are, who my allies are. I'll stand with the Becks, Palins and Hagees of this world.We may have a few philosophical differences, but they're minor compared to what we share in common.
Beck's full remarks are here, and I recommend you read them in full, but here are a few highlights:
Today, the world needs courage more than ever.
We need it because whether you live here in Jerusalem, or in London, or in Athens, or in Washington, D.C., you know – we all know — the world is changing, the world is burning, and whatever we have known… whatever we’ve thought would never change… whatever we’ve grown to think is solid and strong and durable … is under siege.
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. {...}
When the Fogel family was killed in their sleep the world barely took note. The grand councils of earth condemn Israel. Across the border, Syria slaughters its own citizens. The grand councils are silent. It’s no wonder children light their streets on fire.
These international councils, these panels of so-called diplomats, condemn Israel not because they believe Israel needs to be corrected. They do so because it is convenient.
Everyone does it. In some countries, it’s a crime not to.
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.{...}
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 man-made, 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.{...}
For the first half of my life I did very little. I was the stereotypical American that believed two oceans would forever shelter me.
As a radio and TV commentator, my job was little more than pointing out the problems. And I did. I saw what I thought were obvious things, and I made obvious observations.
I saw the interviews of Osama bin Laden, and so in 1999, I said he will attack New York again. He did.
I saw the unreal expectations of ordinary Americans in 2006, and so I said – there will be a crash in the housing market. It can’t keep going up. And it crashed.
I saw the global financial markets ready to seize up in 2007… I saw the coming unrest and riots in Europe in 2008.
It didn’t take a prophet to see these things – all you had to do was recognize that evil exists and evil was going unopposed.
And so this year, when I saw Tunisia’s and Egypt’s rulers crack and fall and the world called it the Arab Spring, I said: Where could this be going? And behind these revolutions was a familiar force, a force that will place those nations under a new pharaoh. And that force, I said, would come up to the borders of Israel. And so it has.{...}
Everything we know about human rights and civilization came from this place. Whether you live by 613 commandments or 10 or just one golden rule, they all came from here. This throne of the Lord.
When the world turns its back on Israel and the Jewish people, the world turns its back on the source of all human rights. Without the Jewish people, humanity would not know that every individual life has dignity, that every life is sacred, that God names every star and knows every soul. That was God’s message to Abraham and Moses. It is the message of the Jewish people to the world, and by their very existence they teach it to us.
Today I propose a new path. I propose a path led by you – the individual, linked in arms with other individuals. A path where governments and so-called human rights organizations get out of the way and people come together to solve our problems. As God intended. {...}
You see evil rear its head in our time. You see the signs again. The swastikas are on display in the street marches. This week they’re holding up signs in Cairo that say: We’re building the gas chambers. They dress their children in suicide belts. They are given the choice, and they choose death.
Let us have the courage to choose life. No more incitement. No more threats. No more terror. No more talk of genocide. No more hate. No fear. No more lies.
We can read their signs, listen to their speeches. So we know that they say what they mean and mean what they say.
Well: So do we.
And I know we will be victorious. Because while their conviction is rooted in hate, our conviction is rooted in love. And love always wins.
When Naomi and her daughters in law lost their husbands, Naomi knew that their future would be far brighter if they went back to their families, to start over. But her daughter in law Ruth would have none of it. She said,
“Entreat me not to leave thee,
or to return from following after thee:
for whither thou goest, I will go;
and where thou lodgest, I will lodge:
thy people shall be my people,
and thy God my God:
Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried.”
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.
Those two lines have been uttered for centuries. Through crusades. Through progroms. Through the gas chambers. At the hands of butchers.
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. {...}
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.
