Glenn Beck devoted about a half-hour of his radio show today to lambasting the skincare firm Nivea, which he asserted “has erased Israel” from a list of countries on its website. During his tirade, and despite suggestions from his cohosts that there may be more to the story, Beck suggested that the omission of Israel from the website was a sign of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel bias, tied together – as usual -- with progressives.

Beck opened his rant by claiming that Nivea “has erased Israel.” After producer Stu Burguiere noted that Nivea has a Facebook page for its Israeli customers – a suggestion that perhaps there was a more benign explanation for the omission – Beck still wanted to rant: “You don't just drop Israel. That is a country,” he said. He then wrapped this omission into the web of conspiracy theories he's been spinning for years:

I find it interesting. This is the new way of the world. This is what we spoke about, I believe, back in – well, January we were starting to talk about it clearly. I know we have talked about these times coming for at least seven years now, maybe longer than that, but in January we told you, and this is why -- it was around January that I started having the feelings that we needed to be over in Israel this summer. What is coming is the Durban III conference.

Beck went on to portray liberals as anti-Semites, claiming that “Anti-Semitism has been progressivized. What progressives do all the time -- they change the language. ... Anti-Semitism is now just anti-Israel.” After ranting about how Israel has a better record on human rights than other Middle Eastern countries, Beck finally wandered back to the subject at hand:

When a stupid skincare company that is as big as Nivea actually thinks that they can get away, actually thinks that it's a good idea to erase Israel and call it the Palestinian Territories on their website, the world has a problem. The world is going down the same path it did in the 1920s and 1930s. The world must recognize the truth. Now, maybe there's an innocent reason for Nivea doing this. I can't think of one.

That's right -- Beck has been in full tirade mode about Nivea without first obtaining an explanation from the company. Nevertheless, Beck asserted that “I'm sure that my wife, when I tell her about this, would think twice of purchasing another Nivea product,” adding that “I don't ever call for boycotts. You do what you think is right.”

In the next segment, after plugging a silver coin he's selling on his website to commemorate and raise funds for his Israel rally, Burguiere informed Beck that he had received a statement from Nivea, which was also published on Beck's website, The Blaze:

[T]he homepage contains an overview of all currently available local NIVEA websites. The Israeli website is currently being constructed and is therefore not yet listed.

Unfortunately the lack of a link to an Israeli website was misinterpreted by some users as a possible non-recognition of Israel as a country. Beiersdorf quickly clarified that this is not the case in an own post on its NIVEA-Facebook-site. Beiersdorf pointed to the fact that the list of links on the homepage does not represent a list of the countries NIVEA is present in, but solely presents the currently available local NIVEA websites.

Beiersdorf develops new country homepages on a regular basis, which number is growing from year to year. Next to Israel there are numerous other countries and regions which do not yet have own local websites, such as Indonesia, Singapore, Tunisia, Taiwan or Luxembourg. The construction of an internet site for Israel in Hebrew and English has already started and will be launched in the fourth quarter of 2011 the latest. In the meantime a temporary website will as planned be online soon, so that Israeli consumers can already get basic information about NIVEA.

As Burguiere read the Nivea statement, Beck snarked throughout, complaining again that the Palestinian Territories has its own website and baselessly asserting that Nivea thinks “the Palestinian Territories would be in Israel” and that Nivea is using “the 1939 borders.” Beck concluded: “Nivea, good luck on that. Good luck on that. Thank you for letting us know where you stand. God bless you on that. Good luck on your skincare thing. Adios, amigo. I'm just saying -- no, I'm saying this -- no, I'm saying this from the English territories, you know, of New York. The Dutch -- really, it's more the Dutch territories.”

Beck didn't mention Nivea for the remaining half-hour of his show, preferring instead to promote the new book by Beck staffer Brian Sack.

So, to sum up: Beck leaps to conclusions and falsely impugns a company as anti-Semitic, snarks his way through the company's explanation of why it isn't, sets himself up as an example by saying he won't buy the company's products, then tries to dismiss his smears not with an apology but by telling the company, “Good luck with that.” No wonder Beck is losing radio affiliates.