1,000 at Bet El gala voice solidarity for all of Israel

More than 1,000 people trekked to the New York Marriott Marquis last week to support the 1,300 family strong Bel El community in the Judea and Samaria region of Israel.

Danny Danon, a member of the Israeli Knesset and the country’s deputy minister of defense, joined keynote speaker Lt. Col Ralph Peters in discussing the threats posed to Israel by Palestinian terrorist groups and the Iranian regime.

Danon voiced concern over Secretary of State John Kerry’s assertion that he will have successfully brought the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to a “conclusion” by sometime next year, and to the recent lifting of sanctions against Iran.

Peters spoke of Bet El not in terms of security or a “strategic high ground,” but rather the “moral high ground.” He characterized it and other Israeli settlements as outposts of “our civilization.”

Responding to the perception by members of the political left that Peters and those sharing his views are bigoted, he said, “I come before you as a person filled with prejudice! I am prejudiced in favor of civilization, I am prejudiced in favor of the rule of law, in favor of justice, in favor of the equitable treatment of women, in favor of science and progress and education, and therefore I am prejudiced in favor of Israel.”

While Peters referred to Israel’s enemies as “barbaric,” he asserted that his bias wasn’t directed towards Arabs as a race but to the culture of Arab states (and among Palestinians in particular) that glorifies mass murder and thwarts any prospects for political or economic progress, or peace between Israel and her neighbors.

One of the dinner’s associate chairpersons, Dr. Joseph Frager, described the annual Bet El gala as the “premiere event” for American supporters of the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria.

Information for this story was supplied by Daniel Perez for Bet El.