WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Zionist Organization of America will honor Glenn Beck as a "defender of Israel."
Beck on Sunday will receive the Dr. Miriam & Sheldon Adelson Defender of Israel Award, presented by Adelson, the casino magnate who is a major backer of the ZOA and other pro-Israel and conservative causes.
Beck, a talk show provocateur, has immersed himself in right-wing pro-Israel politics over the last year, headlining Christians United for Israel’s annual Washington summit and convening a rally in Jerusalem.
He also has stirred controversy by intimating, absent evidence, that liberal financier and Holocaust survivor George Soros collaborated with Nazis; likening Reform rabbis to Islamist extremists; and likening a range of political opponents to Nazis, fascists and communists. Beck later apologized for the Reform rabbis comparison.
Also to be honored at the dinner is Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), the chairwoman of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.
