Glenn, Israel & the launch of GBTV

Glenn is back in the U.S. after another moving visit to Israel in preparation of the "Restoring Courage" event to be held in Jerusalem on August 24. Why is Israel at the forefront of Beck's post-Fox plans?

“[Christian Israel supporters] see tragedy coming down the pike unless we take a stand,” he told the Jerusalem Post. “Many of us were asleep for a long time. There are Americans who still say it will never happen, and everything will work out because we are America. But I know Americans outside of Washington who know that’s not necessarily true – not unless you change that behavior. We are waking up to what could be on the horizon: and what could be on the horizon is the vaporization of Israel and the end of the Western way of life as we know it."

How do we prevent such a tragedy?  Stand together, be righteous and decent and protect one another, Glenn says.

JPost also got the scoop on three unique events planned for "Restoring Courage":

One will be for American Christians and will be viewed in hundreds of churches in the US.  Beck said the event is intended to “get the Christian community in America to wake up and start standing up [for Israel].”

Another event will be more political, featuring Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman, Republican presidential candidates Rick Santorum and Herman Cain, and at least two other candidates whom Beck declined to reveal.

He said the event would be attended by more than 30 American national political figures, 70 international politicians and citizen delegations from 100 countries around the world, including Bahrain.

At Beck’s request, Americans will be getting together to watch the event, bringing Jews and Christians together.  More than 700 viewing parties have already been organized.

“If it’s just an event, we failed,” he said. “It’s a launch of a movement of decent, like-minded, freedom-loving peaceful people who know the answer won’t come from Washington or Copenhagen. It’s not going to come from our political leaders, but from the people. It’s a freedom movement, something the Tel Aviv hi-tech people and the most Orthodox in Jerusalem would understand and come together for.”

Just days after the "Restoring Courage" event in Israel, Beck will officially launch GBTV, a new online venture which will offer documentaries and original programming, including a two-hour daily show with Glenn.

Today, the LA Times' media critic speculates whether this post-Fox move will pay off:

Provided all goes well in Israel -- or at minimum, Beck emerges unscathed -- the next challenge will be putting the full-fledged GBTV on a paying basis.

There's no predicting how many former viewers will pay cash and show up in front of their computer screens for the Beck they used to get for free on TV.It's an interesting, multi-platform, multi-faceted experiment to see whether a TV phenomenon can cut the tether with a regular time slot on the tube and exist on its own in cyberspace.

Exciting stuff all around for Glenn & the crew -- stay tuned!