I don't quite get the appeal of Glenn Beck… I guess he comes across as this folksy guy just trying to present the regular American's point of view.(*) But if that is the case, then he generally presents the views of someone who really doesn't understand the subjects he addresses. In fact in the case of the Middle East, he pretty much spreads falsehoods about what is actually occurring in the region.

This morning on CNN he came on to comment about the headlines of the day, and CNN co-anchor Kiran Chetry asked him about Barack Obama's visit to Israel.

CHETRY: Great. Thanks for being with us. So Barack Obama met with both sides. He met with the Palestinian leaders as well as the Israeli leaders when John McCain was in the region he only met with the Israeli leaders. Your thoughts.

BECK: My thoughts are, I don't think you are ever going to have peace in the Middle East until you wipe out radical Islam, until you get that under control. I think the Palestinians are the most used people I have ever encountered. The extremists are using the plight of the Palestinians to gain power. That's all they want. And I think if you sit down to the table and you meet with people who are involved with Hamas and everything else, I think it is a tragic, tragic mistake.

CHETRY: So you think that it was a bad move for him to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas?

BECK: I think it is - you know, if you want to sit down and you want to talk, you got to talk to all sides. If he's really on a fact- finding mission. But if you're sitting down and you're talking to people, as he has said that he wants to do, and try to bring everybody together, you cannot bring people together that have extremist ideology. You cannot ask people to get together. Is anybody going to ask us to get together with Hezbollah? That is the same thing that they're going to ask Israel to do. You do not get into bed with people that want to destroy you and run you into the sea.

Obama met with Palestinian(*)President Mahmoud Abbas, as well as Israeli leaders, during his visit. Obama did not meet with anyone from Hamas, and indeed, in a press conference later in the day he explained how talking with Hamas is problematic as they use(*)terrorist tactics and do not truly represent a nation-state. (*)Beck decided, however, it was bad for(*)Obama to meet with Abbas — but his rationale is that Obama should not sit down with people of an extremist ideology such as those in Hamas. Problem is that not only is Abbas not part of Hamas, but in fact the Palestinian Fatah Party and Hamas had what was basically a civil war that led to Hamas controlling the Gaza Strip and Fatah controlling the West Bank.(*) Abbas and Hamas are enemies.

If Abbas were such an extremist, then I doubt the Israeli government would be trying to support him as much as possible. In fact the relationship between Israeli Prime Minister and Abbas is rather good(*)as the Israelis view Abbas as a stabilizing force. Earlier this week Abbas was invited to Israeli President Shimon Peres' residence to discuss the peace process. Mahmoud and Olmert will be meeting in Jerusalem in early August. Yet somehow Beck thinks that if Obama meets with Abbas, he is talking to someone with an "extremist ideology."

Beck isn't interested in learning the facts, but rather in spreading the fear of "Islamic extremism" even when we are talking about leaders that are not extremist.(*) Beck wants to come across as offering a knowledgeable criticism of Obama, but in reality he is just presenting fear and showing off his ignorance. Beck seems to believe that if Barack Obama did it, then there must be a problem with it. If he actually knew the players in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict then he wouldn't be able to make the criticism that he made.(*) His ignorance keeps on going with the next question:

CHETRY: It is a difficult situation, as we know, because there are many - as he's going to be touring some of these areas in Ramallah who feel that it's the exact opposite situation that you know, Israel is continuing to build settlements when they said they wouldn't and so on and so forth.

BECK: I understand there are extremists. And you know what, I wouldn't sit down with the people who want to build settlements as well. There are extremists on both sides. You've got to go to the actual people. The Palestinians are in just such a horrible situation. The Palestinians are sitting here being run now by Hezbollah, which is actually Iran. This is a totally different situation, run by people who want to run Israel into the sea and kill all the Jews. When does that ever sound like a good idea to anybody to sit down and talk to people like that?

There is definitely a connection between Hezbollah and Iran, but(*)it is Lebanon that is partly run be Hezbollah, not the Palestinians, and not Abbas. Yet it is pretty obvious as the Chetry asks questions that Beck is completely unaware that all these groups are separate. He obviously thinks that all of the Palestinian territories are controlled by Hezbollah and Hamas, and anyone who is a Palestinian leader must be part of them.

So how does Beck get to have his own show, substitute for Larry King, and get his own segment on CNN's morning show? Obviously being knowledgeable is not a requirement. To Kiran Chetry's credit, she did know the difference between Abbas and Hezbollah:

BECK: Well, I think, you know, my fear is that peace at any cost is whether the United States and the rest of the world is headed. Peace at any cost. It is never, ever been a good idea. For us to say we want peace - again, the same thing could be said, would anyone say it was a good idea if we said, well, let's make peace with Osama Bin Laden. Let's make peace with Al Qaeda. They want to destroy us. You do not co-exist with people who want to destroy you. Let's be honest - Hezbollah is evil. Al Qaeda is evil. You don't negotiate with evil.

CHETRY: Right. You're bringing Hezbollah in this. Today though he did meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas -

BECK: I understand.

CHETRY: — who doesn't have that position.

BECK: I understand.

No Glenn, you obviously do not understand.




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