Glenn Beck Preaching to the Choir in Israel

Popular and controversial American TV commentator Glenn Beck arrived in Israel. Speaking at a meeting of the Knesset Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee Beck Said: "We have created a system of politicians who are afraid to tell the truth. Instead they're telling people what they think they want to hear," said Beck, recalling that he mistakenly viewed Israel as a hostile, war-torn nation before actually visiting himself.

When asked why he retired his show on Fox News Beck said "I was tired of preaching to the choir".

Beck touches on an important issue. He complains that the only people who tune in to his show, are people who already agree with his opinion, people who subscribe to the gospel he preaches.

Becks gospel like any other is a narrative, a story. People are storytellers and the stories are the way our mind views history and justice. It serves as a framework for our human experience and the foundation of our moral, social and national values. Although truth may be predominantly the premise of the stories we choose to tell ourselves it is seldom an entire and all-encompassing truth.

However flawed our perception of the world may be, we are inclined to strengthen our conviction with the embrace of like-minded individuals and communities. We find people who agree with us, at least to some extent, and surround ourselves with their soothing voices of solidarity, adding our own to the mix to the constant sound of their applause.

It is in this spirit that chairman MK Danny Danon (Likud) invited Glenn Beck to share his support of Israel with the Knesset committee and the reason he was so lavishly praised by its members. "It isn't a coincidence that you're a religious person [and support Israel]," said Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely. "This conflict isn't territorial. If it was, it would have been solved a long ago".
Hotovely continued: "This is a religious battle led by Islam. We can't ignore this basic truth. It's important that we stand behind a historical truth: We're not just here because of Zionism, but because of the Bible."

As an Israeli, I believe in this truth, in our right to be here, in our just cause, in the danger of fundamental Islam and yet it does not suffice me to hear this truth alone. If its truth we are after it cannot be partial it must be inclusive, it must include the Palestinian story, the Muslim story, the Christian story, the Jewish story. It is not history and fact that lend importance to these stories but rather the abundance of people that believe in them and live their lives by them.

On August 24 Beck will host a "Restoring Courage" rally in Jerusalem. He said thousands are expected to attend, including 70 prominent world politicians and four US presidential candidates. Beck said he hopes the event will help Israelis see that they are not alone, even if the mainstream media tries to make it out as though they are.

Glenn Beck is right about mainstream media covering only the stories in line with their school of thought. But the reason Glenn Beck is still preaching to the choir is that he acts in precisely the same bias.

What is needed in order to achieve true change is not more preaching but rather more listening. Not bigger mega-phones and rallies but rather bigger and more sensitive ears and hearts. if we seek a truth that is more inclusive we can find a narrative that leads to peace, a story with a happy ending.

Roman Pipedream: Letting Ideas Flow

This weekend we joined one of the tour groups on a day tour to the Alona reserve near Zichron Yaakov in Israel. It is the site of 2000 year old Roman ruins, the remains of an aqueduct system that brought water to enable the expansion in the port city Ceaseria.

At a certain point the water was transferred in underground passageways. The Romans dug piers, and connected them with caves. They calculated the angle carefully and the water ran down hill.

This is a fun little trail. We walked through cool underground caves, water up to our waist and everybody marveled at the ingenuity of Roman engineers.  After all it was a time when people believed in pagan gods and prayed to idol statues, and there in the midst of all this, mathematicians and engineers were constructing complex structures and putting the laws of physics to use for mankind.

Being students of history, we have to remind ourselves constantly that ancient people were not dumber, or primitive necessarily. In almost every possible sense, Ancient Romans, Cananites, Israelites, Babylonians and Egyptian were like us. The brain had not significantly evolved over 3 millenniums.  However, the norms, concepts, beliefs and way of life predominant in the time of the ancients were completely different in comparison with that of modern western societies. Most of the ancients, like most of us were unable to transcend their time, their world.

Looking at the current events throughout the world and specifically in Israel, We always try to keep this in mind. Israel is a micro-cosmos of a world debate about ideas on religion, society, human rights, culture and nationality. It is the kind of debate we encourage in our Educational tour.

In order to have a civilized fruitful debate it is important to remember that different societies have taken different paths and over generations had nurtured different ideas and that those ideas have become the reality for them. Yes our society is no different, and we also find it hard to transcend our "facts of life".

If we avoid labeling societies as primitive or people as evil, we can have a true exchange of ideas, a true debate and perhaps we could nurture a more collective inclusive culture. If we are not afraid to let ideas flow between us  we may be able to connect the peelers of our society like the arches of the aqueduct.  Then we may find that other people aren't all that different from us.

Economic Peace: A Tale of Two Cities

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way."

-A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

Yes, sometimes we look from those summits in Washington to the conflict in Israel and our eyes darken and it feels like the worst of times, like we are all going to hell, Arabs, Jews and all the rest. However there are places where we feel it is the best of times, an epoch of belief with  everything before us.  One such place is Rawabi.



Rawabi 3D illustration



Rawabi is a new city to be constructed by Palestinians for Palestinians outside of Ramallah. The new venture is one of hope, forward looking sentiments of a bright tomorrow. Colorful  3D animations already display the bustling city streets, green parks and historic view while the founders promise high education, ample business and employment opportunities. A pink vision for the future Palestine.



What do the Israeli's say about all this?  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he supports Rawabi's construction. Going back to 2008 Netanyahu said "We must weave an economic peace alongside a political process, that means that we have to strengthen the moderate parts of the Palestinian economy by encouraging rapid growth in those area, growth that gives a stake for peace for the ordinary Palestinians."



Not very far away are our headquarters in a city named Modiin. Modiin had quite similar beginnings. It is a modern planned city with the highest environmental standards of urban planning and a design for future growth. The city rose from nothing in 1993 and today is home to approximately 80,000 people.



Modiin, Israel



As Jerusalem became more orthodox and hard-lined many of its Jewish moderate communities moved to Modiin. And I wonder whether Rawabi would be an escape for the moderate Palestinian, an oasis of economic peace in the midst of political turmoil.





Moderation is profoundly simpler when the fundamental elements of life such as education, employment and community are provided for. Luckily moderate people have a tendency to build and innovate. So in Israel and in Palestine moderate people will continue to build cities where they can nurture their peaceful way of life and where they will feel at home.   

Rare People in the White House

"Statesmanship is knowing how to combine vision and reality,” said Netanyahu before heading to the summit in Washington to promote the vision of peace in the Middle East. Reality caught up with him on the plane.

Rare People in the White House

The murders in Hebron showed how delicate the situation is. Hamas took credit for the attack and settlers immediately responded by reinitiating their building projects in the West Bank.

In the Middle East there is no shortage of vision. Some have a vision of a future where Israel is replaced with a Palestinian state. Some envision a bigger Israel, which spans from the Jordan River all the way across to the Mediterranean. Some envision a two state solution and peace.

There is also a large dose of reality in the Middle East. Demographics, geographics, politics, cultural gaps, historical injustice, armed factions, settlements, terrorist attacks, an endless list of words and connotations that make up a complex reality.

What we are lacking in the Middle East are people who combine the two, people who envision a better world. People, whose vision is realistic, people who envision a way and not just an end. This combination is rare here. These people are rare.

We hope that at least two of these people are meeting today in Washington.