Soros and Israel
Musk has been falsely accused of antisemitism because of his criticism and mockery of George Soros. …
Soros is Jewish by heritage. Musk is not. But their religious backgrounds should play no role in evaluating the charges and counter-charges. The facts and history of both men should be evaluated. …
No single person has done more to damage Israel’s standing in the world, and especially among so-called progressives, than George Soros. Without his support, the two major organizations that have done the most to shift the left-wing paradigm against Israel, would not have the pernicious influence they currently possess.
Human Rights Watch was founded by publisher and human rights advocate Robert Bernstein. For years it critiqued the denial of human rights by all countries based on two criteria: the seriousness of the human rights violations in any particular nation; and the inability of the citizens of that nation to protest and remedy such violations. Then a Soros-funded radical anti-Israel zealot named Kenneth Roth took over the organization and turned it into an organization that specialized in demonizing Israel without regard to the previously outlined criteria. The Israel bashing became so one-sided and extreme that Bernstein wrote:
“As the founder of Human Rights Watch, its active chairman for 20 years and now founding chairman emeritus, I must do something that I never anticipated: I must publicly join the group’s critics. Human Rights Watch had as its original mission to pry open closed societies, advocate basic freedoms and support dissenters. But recently it has been issuing reports on the Israeli-Arab conflict that are helping those who wish to turn Israel into a pariah state.”
Soros gave the organization a hundred million dollars as well.
The other organization is J Street; Dershowitz also describes Soros’ contribution there.
The idea that any criticism of Soros is anti-Semitic is absurd – but useful to the left – and it’s an old topic that I discussed at some length in a two-parter back in 2018. Part I is here and Part II is here.
I wrote in Part I:
Remember when every type of criticism of Obama was called racist? Of course it wasn’t actually racist if you were criticizing his behavior. You were criticizing the man and the president, Barack Obama, not his race.
Same with Soros and being a Jew. With Soros there’s also the fact that, that although he was born a Jew by the Nazis’ definition — in other words, he was born in Hungary to parents of Jewish ancestry — he was never given any instruction in Judaism and his parents had actually repudiated Judaism. They weren’t just non-practicing Jews (although they were indeed that), they were actually anti-Jewish, according to Soros himself, who said that he “grew up in a Jewish, anti-Semitic home,” and called his parents “uncomfortable with their religious roots.”
So Soros’ heritage could more properly be called anti-Semitism. It is absolutely possible for people of Jewish heritage to be anti-Jewish. In fact, given the prevalence and longevity of anti-Semitism, being of Jewish origin and yet trying to give out the message “I’m not one of those Jews, and I’ll prove it by hating them and working against them” is actually not all that unusual.
However, Soros was not a Nazi collaborator, although that’s a favorite accusation against him on the right (see this post of mine on that).
I’m very much in agreement with Dershowitz on Soros.
NOTE: In addition, in 2022 I wrote this post entitled, “It occurs to me that Elon Musk is somewhat the anti-Soros.” This was prior to any dust-up between them.
Maybe not in fact but in spirit Soros collaborated with Nazis. He is a blight on the world and his sons are no better.
neo, AesopFan:
Thanks for highlighting the Soros connection.
I remember Human Rights Watch as a decently decent enterprise. I’m glad to know I wasn’t entirely fooled.
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Financier George Soros of the Open Society Foundations announced in 2010 his intention to grant US$100 million to HRW over ten years to help it expand its efforts internationally: “to be more effective”, he said, “I think the organization has to be seen as more international, less an American organization.” …
The donation, the largest in HRW’s history, increased its operating staff of 300 by 120 people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Watch
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Gosh. I wonder what sort of people were hired with Soros’ $100 mil?
huxley, it’s been very sad to see previously creditable organizations go over to the dark side.
Dershowitz should now “do” Soros’s role in support of the Democratic Party’s war of destruction against the USA….
(Let’s see now… How many pathological DAs have benefited from this creep’s largesse? And how many times has his avid young heir been invited to the “Biden” White House?…)
File under: Soros TNG
BTW, Musk is already an American hero. Or SHOULD BE. That so many already-compromised Left-wing orgs have their knives out for him is disgusting…(but then what else is knew?)
Ken Roth was also recently given a plum position at Harvard’s Kennedy School. The dean of the school briefly showed some spine and withdrew the offer, but then backed down and reinstated it after some blowback.
Someone mentioned something about the Democratic Party’s war on America???
“Jan. 6 Committee Tapes Have Disappeared, Says House Republican”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/jan-6-committee-tapes-have-disappeared-says-house-republican
BUT GEORGE SANTOS!!!!
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Correction: “knew” in my previous post should be “new”….
Any doubts about the inclination of some Jews to actively collaborate with their mortal enemies can be erased by the simple expedient of researching “Judenrat” and the activities of “Group 13” in Warsaw during WW II. Of course, in this respect, Jews are no different than other groups, and perhaps even less so. There are always traitors who willingly offer aid and assistance to their enemies and there always will be. See, e.g., “Joseph Robinette Biden.”
@Steve
Agreed with rhe point on Group 13. The Judenrats depended and differed widely, since a lot of them were imposed involuntarily and people were forced to show up or get shot. There were a few ultra collaborators among them such as Chaim Rumkowski, the King of ?ód? and “both a Fascist and a Communist” as well as a pedophile, but he was rare even among his milieu. Many other Judenrat members may not have been entirely innocent but were certainly much less vile or willing collaborators and tried to alleviate the atrocities as much as they could.
As for Soros, as I have told Neo myself I do regard him as a Nazi collaborator, albeit a minor one (in both senses of the word since he was a minor) who as far as we know did odd jobs at the behest of his actual collaborationist foster father. Soros’s species of collaboration would probably not be prosecutable and would be a footnote not worthy of much remark were it not for what he did later.
}}} NOTE: In addition, in 2022 I wrote this post entitled, “It occurs to me that Elon Musk is somewhat the anti-Soros.” This was prior to any dust-up between them.
TBH, the only truly damnable thing you can say about Musk is that he’s not Batman.
😀
}}} huxley, it’s been very sad to see previously creditable organizations go over to the dark side.
Happens all the time with the PostModern Left, if you’re paying attention.
}}} Democratic Party’s war of destruction against the USA….
Did you hear the latest one?
Apparently, they’re attempting to just “give” all of the State of FL’s dem primary delegates to Biden, by effectively vacating the FL primary.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/30/florida-democrats-dean-phillips-election-00129403
They are all an insult to Pond Scum.
I cut him some slack during his teen years in the szalasi regime, he aided anti soviet operations in 70s and 80s (one might say well so did ubl) but his schemes since have noxious
Mind you, given what they did to Bernie in 2016, effectively stealing his won delegates and giving them to Hillary, and the results of the succeeding court battle. I don’t think there is a chance in hell of it being blocked.
DNC argues in court: We don’t owe anyone a fair primary process
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/dnc-argues-in-court-we-dont-owe-anyone-a-fair-primary-process
The gist:
In this case, DNC lawyers argue that they don’t owe anyone a fair process, and that the rules in their charter are basically not binding in court. In fact, if they wanted, DNC attorney Bruce Spiva argued, they could choose their nominee in a smoke-filled back room and it still wouldn’t be legally actionable.
The court had no choice but to agree, honestly.
Yes, The “Democratic Party” — who had to steal the 2020 election *§* to protect democracy — actually argued IN COURT that they had no obligation to pay any attention to democratic processes.
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*§* The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election
https://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-election-campaign/
Favreau certainly tony stark on musk as well as hughes,
Commisar sanders has his imput
Bernie is a usurping parasite. He is pointedly NOT a member of the donkey party and tries to hijack them because his own “party” is practically a non-entity. Typical commie. He gets exactly what he deserves.
Well half of the dems are dsa so how geniune is the rest of the party
https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=DCEKGGH1ezGAqjZH&t=1346&v=yQrLL3EK7Ww&feature=youtu.be
I’m rather new to the blog, but I don’t consider Soros Jewish.
So, opening a can of worms, “Who is a Jew?
My definition of a Jew is someone who adheres to Judaism, whether born into a Jewish family, or a proselyte.
It appears that the Law of Return essentially includes as a Jew anyone with close enough Jewish heritage.
Which reminds me of my best friend’s HS teacher who said, “If you have a Jewish mother, you’re a Jew.” He went on to say, “This worked to the Jews’ advantage when non-Jewish invaders raped Jewish women. The heathen were simply making more Jews.”
What should I make of that??? That given enough time and conquerors, everyone ends up Jewish? 😉
Bill K:
Depends on the rate of assimilation, which is high.
One of the complications in attempting to answer your question is that being a Jew means several different things in terms of Jewish identity. It is a religion, in the usual sense, and welcomes converts although it does not seek them. Converts can be of any race or ethnicity. But it is also a people. As such, it is an ethnic group with certain characteristics.
My best friend (college buddy & after) didn’t know that his mother was Jewish but she left an abusive husband and after divorce, never said a word about her ethnicity to her new husband, my best friend’s dad. All his life, he was raised in secular household. They loosely followed Christian holidays and no Jewish practices. After his dad died, his mother lived on, but when she was on her deathbed, she told her son that she was a Jew.
What about my best friend? Is he a Jew? He found out about it when he was in his 40s.
Human Rights Watch has a number of regional subsidiaries. The Western Hemispheric branch, Americas Watch, was after about 1980 run by Aryeh Neier, contributor to The Nation and inveterate press agent for the Sandinistas. It’s been a rotten organization for a long time. Pretty much all the ‘human rights’ organizations are fraudulent.
“What about my best friend? Is he a Jew? He found out about it when he was in his 40s.”
According to Jewish law he is.
With respect to what happened to Human Rights Watch, Andrew Lobaczewski long ago wrote in “Political Ponerology: The Science of Evil, Psychopathy, and the Origins of Totalitarianism” how evil can infect and take over respectable organizations:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09VZBYS34/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_title_o01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Differing from most political analyses which consider ideologies to be based on rational foundations, he focuses on the role of psychological disorders in extremist political movements.
When observing the current fervor, I can only make sense of it by considering these psychological factors.
There are more than a few interesting stories, including the saga of this Hungarian fellow, who was an avowed and active anti-Semite (AAA?)…until he discovered that he was, in fact, Jewish…which ultimately brought about a change of heart (to say the least)…aaand so we present another “CHANGER”…(or should that be “RETURNER”?)….
“A whole new Jew: The antisemite who turned out to be one of the Jews he despised;
“Csanád Szegedi was a far-right politician, who trivialized the Holocaust and blamed Jews for the wrongs of the world – before finding out that he was one himself.”—
https://www.jpost.com/Jerusalem-Report/A-whole-new-Jew-478706
“Csanád Szegedi”—
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Csan%C3%A1d_Szegedi
Key blurb:
“…Prior to the revelations of Szegedi’s Jewish ancestry, Szegedi was notorious for his antisemitism….”
Heh, da follies of yout’…
(Barry’s link): Some people are skeptical of the sincerity of Szegedi’s conversion. The guy got an adult circumcision, I’d say that’s pretty committed.
Johann Amadeus Metesky, thanks! It kind of blew his mind, mine too!
As far as HRW, Conquest’s second law applies.
“Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left wing.”
Bill K:
He is an ethnic half-Jew but would also be considered a Jew by Jewish law and would have the right of return to Israel.
He would not be a religious Jew unless he chose to practice Judaism. Also, if he chose to practice Judaism as a religion, he would not need to go through a conversion process.
He also could do some genealogical research and discover more about what his mother meant when she said she was Jewish.
I have heard similar stories from people of Spanish or Hispanic background whose hidden Jewish identity goes back to the Inquisition.
As far as HRW, Conquest’s second law applies.
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Neier was appointed to run Americas Watch six years after HRW was founded. See Morton Kondracke’s article ripping up Neier, published in The New Republic ca. 1987. It was always a scuzzy outfit.
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Note also William Rusher’s period critiques of Amnesty International. Unlike HRW, Amnesty had a large mass of volunteers and a lot of prestige. Rusher’s argument was that its apex and center, Amnesty was willing to hire frank Communists for its research staff and was engaged in subtle exercises in salesmanship wherein phenomena of very different scale (e.g. the Soviet Union v. Guatemala) were treated as equivalent. Amnesty’s descent into sheer grossness over 30-odd years would not have surprised Rusher.
He would not be a religious Jew unless he chose to practice Judaism. Also, if he chose to practice Judaism as a religion, he would not need to go through a conversion process.
He did become a practicing, observant Jew. I heard him speak in New York some years ago. I always wonder whether someone who made such an extreme change will revert, but as far as I know his change has stuck.
Neo, to put a point on it, my second best friend, whose last name is Herzog, did genealogical research and found out that many generations ago (I forget what he told me, whether 6 or 7 – 1600s) also had a Jewish father, and so he was left wondering if he also was a Jew.
I figured that was too far back to count. But what do I know? Again, nothing but the ethnic surprise in his family.
And another fun story – when I went through ‘rush week’ at the U of Illinois in my HS senior year, the Greek system sent me a catalog of all the fraternities. 56 at the time, as well as 23 sororities. (With more Greeks than Dormies, if you weren’t Greek, you were somewhat considered a loser.)
At any rate, I picked 12 fraternities to rush, and that weekend of visitation, I found out that 6 of the 12 I picked were Jewish fraternities! I had picked them based on what I considered indicated they were serious studiers and not partiers.
One of them I really liked, but upon finding out they were all Jews, I told them that I was not. “That’s OK, you can still join us”, they told me. I was sorely tempted. Makes one wonder if assimilation works the other way…
@ Mike K > “Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left wing.”
The explicitly right-wing ones just take a little longer to change.
George Soros is as Jewish as a pulled pork sandwich. I believe he is an existential threat to Israel and as such I would not cry if the Mossad treated him as such.
Dad’s family was Orthodox, mom’s was Reform. Lot’s of old fashioned snobbishness from mom’s side.
Now it’s blossomed into full bore bigotry from Reform.
That surprises me, Cappy. I would have thought the snobbishness went the other way.
In light of Gaza, what does Reform have to be bigoted about? Peace with Palestinians works out so well?