Glenn Beck Warmly Received During Visit to Israel

Former Fox News Talk Show Host Glenn Beck was warmly received by Israeli lawmakers during a visit to the Middle East nation.

Beck spoke Monday before a packed parliamentary committee of the Knesset, Israel's unicameral legislature, The Associated Press reported Monday.

Beck urged lawmakers to stop playing the game of mainstream media, and he called on members of parliament to speak the truth about Israel and its adversaries.

Beck's Israel visit occurs about a month before his scheduled pro-Israel rally in August in Jerusalem's Old City.

We invited Glenn Beck to our committee because he has done such a wonderful job of explaining the basic truth on his programs, said Danny Danon, the Knesset's deputy speaker, jta.org reported. Israel has always been and always will be the homeland of the Jewish People, and any attempts to delegitimize this right should not be accepted by fair and free people around the world.

A controversial conservative/libertarian talk show host, Beck rocketed to fame in 2009, in part due to the American public's bewilderment at the dizzying array of special facilities and interventions by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the U.S. Congress needed to both keep credit markets liquid and to provide fiscal stimulus to the U.S. economy during the financial crisis and subsequent recession -- the nation's worst since the Great Depression.

However, Beck's popularity waned in 2010 and 2011, and his Fox talk show's rating's declined, in part due to the fact at least some viewers appeared to grow skeptical of Beck's repeated, apocalyptic-esque predictions. Beck ended his Fox show last month and said he plans to launch a daily, two-hour show for paying subscribers on his Internet network.