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| Zionist Organization of America Director Morton Klein joined by Rep. Michelle Bachmann and honoree Glenn Beck |
Six Congressmen attended, including Rep. Michelle Bachmann, who called on President Barack Obama “to accelerate covert operations and cyber operations in Iran and order the CIA Director to take all means necessary to stop Iran from getting the bomb before it is too late,” said Bachmann, a member of the House Intelligence Committee.
“And the Pentagon should prepare a war plan immediately to tell us what to do to prevent Iran from gaining those nuclear weapons,” she continued.
In Prime Minister Netanyahu’s video message, he praised Z.O.A. Exec. Director Morton Klein for being a “passionate Zionist” and the ZOA for ”promoting the truth no matter what the consequences are."
Z.O.A. reception (Courtesy: Pamela Geller)
Netanyahu also lauded Beck, telling him, “You too have been fearless in defending Israel against the slanders that are hurled against [it]. You’ve done that with considerable personal cost, but you’ve never backed off, you’ve never flinched, you’ve never walked away. And I want to tell you how deeply we appreciate this stand of courage and integrity.”
Glenn Beck portrayed the challenges facing Israel and the Jewish people in apocalyptic terms -- as the ultimate showdown between good and evil. Beck was the only speaker at the dinner whose voice reached a pitch more feverish than Klein’s.(Full article from JTA)
Beck said he came to the ZOA as a brother. “It’s personal,” he said repeatedly.
And clearly he has not been chastened by the urgings of some Jewish groups to tread lightly with the Holocaust analogies. Again and again he invoked them, saying the world stood on a precipice like the one it faced in 1939 -- only this time it’s worse, as not only is the world ignoring rising evil, he said, it is actively helping it along.
A small group protested Israel's policies outside the Critics of Israel protested outside the banquet, countered by one, tenacious, pro-Israel demonstrator.
(Video of protest outside Z.O.A. event - courtesy Tmdrdd)
Pamela Geller described her own experience at the Z.O.A., along with a transcription of Rep. Michelle Bachmann's speech:
"The president is more concerned about Israel building homes on its own land than the threats that Israel and America face in the region.
“The president was right to promise to veto the Palestinians‘ bid for statehood in the UN Security Council. But in large part it is the president’s weakness in the Middle East that has emboldened the Palestinians to attempt to achieve statehood through the UN rather than at the legitimate negotiation table with Israel. Our policy has confused engagement with appeasement and has inspired Israel’s enemies.
“The Palestinians must recognize Israel’s right to exist and renounce violence against Israel in order to become a serious partner in peace with Israel.
“I stand with Israel. And aid to Israel now more than ever, is a necessity--they are our most trusted ally and the only real democracy in the Middle East. “While the president demands Israel give back land necessary to protect their existence, he has taken his eye off of the most serious threat to Middle East security, a nuclear Iran.
“Some 80 years ago the world saw evil rising. A mad man spoke, but the world did not listen and the world sank into an enormous conflict and millions of Jews lost their lives.
“Today a mad man again speaks and once again it seems as if the world isn’t really listening though Iran’s president has made his intentions for Israel clear. He intends to wipe Israel from the face of the earth once he obtains nuclear weapons, and he will seek to use them against the United States shortly after achieving his first goal.
“Consider the Iranian constitution which states that Iran’s Army and Revolutionary Guard ‘will be responsible...for fulfilling the ideological mission of jihad in God's way; that is, extending the sovereignty of God's law throughout the world.’ "
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