A CNN HOST WHO LOVES ISRAEL

A CNN Host Who Loves Israel - Gary Rosenblatt
Pro-Israel critics of the media, and particularly of CNN, should check out "The Glenn Beck Program" sometime to give their high blood pressure a respite. The baby-faced former Top 40 radio disc jockey says that if America doesn't support and protect Israel, "we will lose our only strategic ally in the Mideast and we will lose our souls." "Prior to 9/11 my view of the Mideast was basically, 'will this fighting never stop, and just solve it yourselves'," he explained during a recent interview. The World Trade Center tragedy forced him to think about why "so much hatred was generated toward the U.S., and I started to do my homework." He concluded that Israel is "our only real hope for sanity" in the Mideast, and "my gut tells me that Israel is one of the world's great hopes."

Beck visited Israel several years ago and was at a bomb shelter where gas masks and injection kits were being distributed in case of attack. He said that when he noticed that the signs were in Hebrew, English and Arabic, he wondered why, if Israelis really hated the Arabs, they would "hand out medicine to save Arab lives." "That experience really opened my eyes and showed me that Israel is the closest to America" in shared values, he said.

Beck thinks the media spin on the Mideast situation is "horribly out of whack" and biased against Israel. The only solution, which he says applies to the U.S. as well as Israel, is to "to do the right thing, be good and just continue to beat your head against the wall until the truth prevails." (New York Jewish Week)