With Glenn Beck in Caesarea

I was at Glenn Beck's first part event of his Restoring Courage campaign during his current visit here in Israel at Caesarea.

Fears of sneak proselyzting or missionary work were not only unfounded but dashed. I think the Christian speakers were more pro-Jewish than the Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, in a sense.

Even Haaretz was wowed:

Glenn Beck in Caesarea: Singing, praying, love for Israeland more than a few tears

[David] Barton brought historical gravitas to the words of the Bible; a moist-eyed [Michael] Evans recounted a traumatic childhood of anti-Semitic taunts from which he was saved by a vision of Christ; and Riskin spoke of Jewish appreciation for the support of the Christian pro-Israel community, and in particular that of Glenn Beck, who, according to Riskin, is a "deeply patriotic American, a true friend of Israel."

"We are not alone," Riskin said. "We are Jews and not Christians; you Christians, nevertheless, have the courage to love us in our otherness. We are profoundly grateful for your courage to love us and stand with us"

...Pastor John Hagee got a standing ovation the moment he strode onto the stage. The most vehement of the speakers, he drew an analogy with JFK and his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech, when he announced "Ani Yisraeli" (I am an Israeli ). He then coaxed the crowd into repeating his mantra: "I am an Israeli!" they chanted over and over.

And the evening closed with words of wisdom from the host: "We bring truth, we bring peace, we bring support, we bring comfort," Beck said of his reason for bringing his roadshow to Israel as he closed off the evening. "Let the Jewish people know, no matter what our governments may say, we are not our governments, we stand with you."

Jerusalem Post adds:

“I’ve spent the last few years trying to find solutions for what is happening in the world,” [Beck] said on the backdrop of the pillars of the grand stage. “While there may not be a political solution, the good news is the God of Abraham ain’t running for office,” he said to loud applause. “Be not afraid, know who he is, know his face, know that he is a God of covenants and miracles. We are leaving the age of man-made miracles of spacecraft, and we are entering the age of the miracles of God.”

...Beck addressed the sensitivity of the Christian Evangelist love to Israel and Jews, which many shy away from in suspicion. “There is a 2,000-year-old flinch of the Jewish people, when someone says I love you; I’d imagine the Jewish people at first would say thank you...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.”

One Jew not afraid of contemporary Christian love is Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Efrat’s chief rabbi, who is active in Jewish-Christian dialogue. “He is the reason I had hope, because he reached back and didn’t question, just heard love and that is good enough for him,” Beck said of Riskin, who was instrumental in making Beck believe he could pull off the event.

“For close to 2,000 years we were persecuted by the church, suffered wars at the hands of the church,” Riskin said. “Now, despite the fact we are different, Jews and not Christians, who respect Jesus as a Jewish teacher and not as god – you Christians have the courage to love us in our otherness. We are grateful to your courage to love us, stand by us, in the time of our grave need and danger, as rockets fall on southern towns.”

Pastor John Hagee, head of Christians United for Israel, equated today’s Israel to West Berlin of 1963 when JFK gave his “Ich bin ein berliner” speech...“Israel is today a tiny island, an outpost swimming in a sea of tyranny. I stand here with a strong message, at this difficult juncture in history – please know that what I say now is shared by multiple Christians – ani yisraeli – I am an Israeli,” Hagee said, the crowd chanting with him.

Beck also addressed the controversy over his visit here, which is being frowned upon by politicians from the Left.  "Somebody said we’re going to bring chaos, mayhem,” in the Wednesday rally, close to the Temple Mount, “and I thought- it’s the Middle East, how would you know?” “We don’t bring chaos and mayhem,” he said in a more serious tone. “No, we bring truth, we bring peace, we bring support, we bring comfort. Let our actions this week and from here out – let the Jewish people know, no matter what our governments say – we are not our governments, we stand with you.”

I would approximate that there were about 300 kippah-wearing Jews there or more. I was with Sondra Baras of CFOIC and her husband, Shosh Shiloh of Kedumim, David Bedin and his wife from Efrat, Stuart Palmer and his wife from Haifa's ICAN & CoHaV, David HaIvri and his wife of the Samaria Liason Office, Helen Frieedman of AFSI, Martin Sherman and many other including Zalmi from the UK and Toby Willig.

There was controversy when some Rabbis had demanded that residents from the yishuivim abstain from the event. One of the Rabbis who blessed the event, Aryeh A. Leifert, it seems, was Facebook threatened. Beck has had trouble from American Rabbis before.

But there was nothing to be uncomforatble about and afterwards, I made a point of walking around and asking.

This has the potential of marking the real beginning of the turnabout of Israel's political and diplomatic isolation on matters of morality in world affairs.


P.S.  Check Barry Rubin at PJM.

And Brian of London.

Oh, I disagree with this blogger.

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A pic of David Ha'Ivri, Zakmi Unsdorfer and me:

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