By Barry Rubin
[Name withheld] is one of the kindest and most generous people I’ve ever known. [Name withheld] is well-educated and is an open-minded liberal. [Name withheld] is not Jewish but is friendly to Israel. Yesterday there was a column in the Washington Post claiming–on ridiculously distorted arguments–that Glenn Beck is an antisemite. For two years I’ve been listening to Beck on television and radio as part of a research project on understanding the new conservative debate (with special reference to the Middle East and Israel) and explaining it to Israelis. I know, then, that while Glenn Beck sometimes makes silly mistakes on details he often has a better grasp of Middle East issues than the mainstream media. The charge against him is 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.
Indeed, Dana Milbank called Beck, “The leading purveyor of anti-Semitic memes in the mass media.” It would be interesting to consider who really deserves that title. I don’t have a candidate but I’d love to hear yours. Somehow I don’t think it would be Louis Farrakhan, Pat Buchanan, or Ron Paul since they aren’t that much in the mass media though they are certainly antisemites. Nor do I think it is someone who politically agrees with Beck on any issue whatsoever.
If we are talking in international terms, we might presume that it would be the leaders of Iran, Syria, Hamas, Hizbalah, and the Muslim Brotherhood, along with Saudi Arabia indirectly, with the Turkish government rising as a contender. The European champion? Perhaps the Guardian newspaper and the BBC?
Of course, there is no lack of antisemites today. But it is very hard to talk about the identity of the vast majority of them. Indeed, Yale University has just revamped its institute on antisemitism, apparently because it spent too much time talking about the overwhelming problem with antisemitism today–Islamic and especially Islamist antisemitism. In other words, the real antisemites are whitewashed, while those fighting antisemitism are called antisemites. The supporters of Israel are called enemies of Israel by those who themselves are generally enemies of Israel.
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. If you can listen to the second hour of his June 20, 2011, radio show he proves it with many clips of his past statements. I don’t care what you think of Beck or his positions on various issues. The truth is the truth.
Incidentally, if you want to see an example of “anti-Semitic memes in the mass media” take a look at this article by Milbank himself that oozes with hatred and contempt for Israel with an underlying foundation of antisemitic memes and the purest disgust. I think Beck could make a better case against Milbank regarding antisemitic themes and memes than vice-versa. (I’m not saying that Milbank, who is some vague and ignorant sense nominally Jewish, is an antisemite. He just sounds like one.)
Why am I telling you all of this? Because a wonderful, generous and open-hearted person [name withheld] told me that [name withheld] now knew that Glenn Beck was an antisemite. [Name withheld] has never watched his program or heard his radio show. The fact that it was in the Washington Post means to [name withheld] that it must be true.
It is one thing when the person involved is a spreader-of-falsehoods, an ideologue who has an agenda. But what about when it is a well-intentioned person who would be open to hearing the truth, who is proud of having a fairminded and accurate view of the world?
We should always remember that the mainstream media, no matter how absurd, false, and deliberately mendacious the material appearing in it, is still taken for granted as being accurate by roughly half of the American people, including a disproportionately high number of those who are members of the elite.
Reality doesn’t matter if one doesn’t experience it directly or have an alternative source of information. Reality is thus what one reads in the respected newspaper or network television station. The unspoken assumption is that nothing has changed in twenty or thirty years. The universities are still gardens of eden for free discussion; the mass media are all fair and balanced (except perhaps Fox which says that it’s fair and balanced).
The Palestinian Authority refuses to negotiate with Israel for 2.5 years? Well, if much of the mainstream media says that the lack of negotiations is Israel’s fault, millions will believe it. You can multiply that by scores of issues. Of course, there are some things, especially domestic issues (the state of the economy? health care?) that people experience directly enough to have their own independent opinion.
I have often spoken of the kind of phenomenon described in this story, in the willingness of a very decent and intelligent person to accept a totally slanderous falsehood in good faith. I shouldn’t have been surprised. But when one experiences this kind of thing it is so terribly sad and discouraging.
I happened to read an opinion piece by Eitan Haber in Yediot Achronot yesterday and I was informed that because the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is viscerally opposed to peace with the Palestinians and believes the lie that the American Congress supports his intransigence, that hundreds of thousands of Israelis cannot find work in either universities abroad or businesses in other countries.
That’s the gist of Haber’s rant, if only Netanyahu sincerely wanted peace with the Palestinians, there would be peace, and hundreds of thousands of Israelis could find a better future abroad, Israel’s international isolation would end, and mirabile dictu, all would be right in the world.
I can understand your frustration at a friend who is able to declare somone an anti Semite while he cannot even bother to listen to what the alleged anti Semite has to say.
But here we have a Left wing Israeli Jewish opinion maker, published in a major Israeli Hebrew daily, who seems to believe, against all evidence and reason, that only Israel is responsible for the breakdown in the peace process, and not even Israel, just that arrogant, hateful, warmongering, irrational, bete noir, Netanyahu.
In my book, Eitan Haber is far more anti Semitic than most prominent anti Semites and certainly far more dangerous to the Jewish People and Israel.
We all remember the case Karsenty versus Enderlin with the staged Al Dura palywood saga… Antisemites often attempt to hide under the mantle of antisionism !
But writing that Glen is an antisemite is a real nonsense. As far as I know, the only thing I could reproach him is when he said that Geert Wilders is some sort of fascist… Out of ignorance.
Milibank must be fired. This is appalling.
Do the editors of the WaPo live in a bubble where conservative talk show hosts have been declared enemies of mankind, against whom any charges may be lodged without evidence? Glenn Beck, anti-Semitic? If you only listen to Beck for an hour or two, you know that he is if anything philo-Semitic and staunchly pro-Israel.
In response to your first question . . . uh, yes. As the old cliche goes, is the Pope Catholic?
The WaPo owns The Root, a black cultural website edited by Henry (beer summit) Gates.
If the KKK had a “friendly” current affairs website, it would look like The Root.
Barry Rubin and Melanie Phillips, superheroes!
To tell the truth, there was a point I suspected Beck was an antisemite, and not because I read it in the MSM. I watch Beck daily for about 6 months, and I watched some of his earlier shows on his website, and there was a chapter or two that made me suspect him because nearly all the names he mentioned were Jewish. And with all due respect, while Sigmund Freud might have had a very pessimistic view of human nature, he wasn’t a part of a vast “progressive” conspiracy.
Being pro-Israel is not proof enough for me, but after watching many shows I saw Beck also mentions plenty of non-Jewish names, and he also invites to his show Jews who have a variety of opinions, and 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.
The thing is that Jews were accused of a conspiracy to rule the world. Beck has a conspiracy theory about socialists who clandestinely try to impose socialism and create a global government. Antisemites have seen and continue to see the latter as the former. Like they continued to see the Bolshevik revolution as a Jewish conspiracy to rule the world even after the Jews were purged. Of course, there are many Jewish socialists, but the point is that socialism is an ideology, and all socialists, of whatever background, want a socialistic world order. The antisemites, however, claim that socialism, as well as capitalism, were invented by Jews as means to achieve global Jewish rule. Antisemites typically see only Jews and mention only Jewish names. They see Trotsky, but not Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Che, Castro and Chavez. Or they try to prove Stalin had one Jewish ancestor, which to them makes him a Jew, and nevermind that it was Stalin who ordered the assassination of Trotsky and who purged the Jews. Don’t bother them with contradictions. If many Jews on the far left are the most outspoken anti-Israel ideologues, to the antisemites it still doesn’t refute their theory that the far leftist Jews collude with Israel to rule the world, even if those far leftist Jews support the PLO or even Hamas and Hizballah and would like to see Israel vanish. So in that show or two where Beck mentioned almost only Jewish names I did suspect him. But then, as I said, I saw he mentions also both many non-Jewish names and many Jews who are not on the far left, although for antisemites who happen to watch the show (they watch all kinds of shows) it won’t matter since they filter anything that doesn’t fit their antisemitic worldview.
And then there’s Soros who Beck called a “puppet master”, a term typical of antisemitic conspiracy theories. Beck doesn’t treat Soros as a Jewish leader or a typical Jew, but as the sick individual he is. He also said Soros is anti-Israel and spoke of his rather ambivalent experience during the years of the Nazi era, and his bizarre reflections on it (“It was the happiest year of my life”). Beck might not be an antisemite, but he gives material to the antisemites. Though I’d say Soros gives more material to the antisemites than Beck.
However, for the MSM to accuse the competition/opposition of antisemitism is too much of a cynical irony. The MSM is systematically filled with lies and distortions about Israel, and also about the level the “Zionists” control the US and Britian (the British Channel 4 claimed the Zionists control the Conservative party). Years ago I thought they are well-intentioned people who are misled, but now I know a lot of it is intentional.
You wrote: “I know, then, that while Glenn Beck sometimes makes silly mistakes on details he often has a better grasp of Middle East issues than the mainstream media.” I completely agree. And not just about the Middle East, but many other issues. The reason Beck makes some mistakes is that he’s making a Herculean effort to cover everything that isn’t covered in the MSM, and that’s too much for one show with limited resources. He’s doing the job that should have been done by hundreds of reporters. I came to the bold conclusion Glenn Beck is generally simply right, or on the right track. Certainly more so than what we get on CNN. And in an age of mediocrity he’s the most non-mediocre media personality I know. Of course, I’m aware of his image. I was aware of it before I started watching him. And of course, he is over emotional and very original. But the focus the left has on him and all the effort to slander and tarnish him (accusing him of antisemitism is part of it) and take him off the air just makes me more suspicious of the left than of Beck.
I agree. I’ve only recently begone watching Beck, and I find him unusual. He does make mistakes, but that is because he is teaching while he is learning, and hell, people make mistakes while they are learning things. But he always tells his audience to look into things for themselves, and he gives them the resources.
I read that Washington Post article, and I found it unbelievable that Dana could get away with such a slander. Even in these terrible days we’re living in, that piece was beyond the pale. Wish there was something that I could do…
The worst anti-Semites are Jewish anti-Semites; they come in all shapes, sizes, and guises.
You’ve got to look into the whole mormon cult for insight into Beck. Mormons practice what is called baptism of the dead. That means that anyone of the elders can call for the baptism of someone who wasn’t a mormon before the assvent of Jos. Smith, as well as those born after the advent of jos. Smith. Some of these are dead (baptised into the mormon cult who did not convert to the mormon cult) include Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. Also in 1961, some 300,000 jews who had previously been baptised by virtue of the baptism of the dead were un-baptised from the mormon cult. Stanley Ann Dunham was baptised posthumously after Barack 0bama got democrat party nomination.
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