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John Hagee celebrates Glenn Beck’s ‘defense of the Jewish people’ the day after Fox News ends his show under charges of anti-Semitism

Fox News and Glenn Beck announced yesterday that Beck’s show is ending on the network. This comes after sustained campaigns from Jewish organizations, such as the Jewish Funds for Justice, to cancel Beck’s show for “conspiracy theories, which often involve personal attacks on Jews and on faiths that pursue social justice.”

Writing in the Washington Post, Dana Milbank takes it a step forward and accuses Beck of good ol’ fashioned anti-Semitism:

He spun a conspiracy theory in which the American left was in cahoots with an emerging caliphate in the Middle East. And, most ominously, he began to traffic regularly in anti-Semitic themes.

This vile turn for Beck reached its logical extreme two weeks ago, when he devoted his entire show to a conspiracy theory about various bankers, including the Rothschilds, to create the Federal Reserve. To make this case, Beck hosted the conspiracy theorist G. Edward Griffin, who has publicly argued that the anti-Semitic tract “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” “accurately describes much of what his happening in our world today.”

Griffin’s Web site dabbles in a variety of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, including his view that “present-day political Zionists are promoting the New World Order.”

With this in mind, I was somewhat amazed earlier today when I received an email from Christians United for Israel (CUFI) touting Beck as the keynote speaker for its upcoming conference in Washington, DC. The email begins (emphasis added):

As you well know, Glenn Beck is one of America’s most influential television and political personalities. And, in recent weeks, Glenn has emerged as a leading spokesman in defense of Israel and the Jewish people. No matter what your political leanings, there can be no denying the depth, sincerity and importance of Glenn’s stand for Israel.

Glenn Beck understands the importance of standing with Israel in these perilous times. Glenn is going to join us in DC. You need to join us too!

Huh, guess I know a lot of Jewish people who would disagree. CUFI is probably referring to Beck taking up the cause of the Fogel family, but its head Pastor John Hagee’s own anti-Semitism has been well known for a long time. Max Blumenthal has been covering the beat for years and you find everything you’d want to know about Hagee over on Blumenthal’s website (and you must watch this).

This all brings to mind a question that Ali Abunimah raised yesterday on twitter, “Is it not striking how so often the real anti-Semites like Beck are the most ardent supporters of Israel? How to explain this?”

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