Mesika offers Stakelbeck a drink
Mesika offers Stakelbeck a drinkMeir Birchiya, Samaria Regional Authority

Influential American media presenter Erick Stakelbeck toured Samaria this week as the guest of Samaria (Shomron) Regional Authority Head Gershon Mesika.

"Only by visiting on the ground does one see reality as it is," he said. "It is Israel's right to build in Samaria."

Stakelbeck, who is CBN's terrorism expert, also appears regularly on CNN, FOX News, and the BBC, as well as Alhurra.

The head of Samaria's Foreign Liaison Bureau, David Haivri, showed Stakelbeck around Samaria. They visited the Lipski plastic factory at Barkan, the Tura winery and Ariel University, among other places.

Mesika gave his guest a run-down of the area's history and explained that the people calling for a Palestinian state could wind up cutting Israel in half and driving 300,000 people out of their homes.

Stakelbeck visited Judea and Samaria last August, and returned to some of the same stations in the present visit – this time, with his own camera crews in tow.