Misplaced Tsorres Over Soros?

See Times of Israel by clicking caption

On social media "as-a-Jew" Israel-bashers and other politically "progressive" usual suspects are heartily recommending an op-ed in the New York Times by Mairav Zonszein that's full of apologetics for George Soros.

"Israel's War against George Soros," it's called, and it begins:

 "As a Holocaust survivor, a successful financier who embraces free market capitalism and a philanthropist who champions liberal democracy, George Soros should be a darling of the Israeli establishment."

And continues:

"For years Mr. Soros largely avoided Israel-related philanthropy, but he became involved in 2008 when he contributed to J Street, a moderate pro-Israel, pro-peace lobbying group based in Washington, after it was founded. Through his Open Society Foundations, Mr. Soros also contributes to the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem and the anti-occupation group Breaking the Silence, which have been subjected to a growing delegitimization campaign by the Israeli government.

But Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, raised the stakes in this feud last week when his foreign ministry issued a statement that, in effect, backed a Hungarian government propaganda effort against Mr. Soros and joined its denunciation of him....."

But as another writer reminds us:

".... George Soros is also a “progressive” (although it wasn’t so progressive to rip off all those British working people), and viciously anti-Zionist. He donates very large sums to left-wing organizations all over the world, including many that advocate BDS against Israel. Soros and groups connected to him have given millions to J Street, the phony “pro-Israel” lobbying group in the US.

Indeed, the Soros contribution to anti-Israel incitement is probably exceeded only by what comes from European governments, Saudi Arabia and Iran..."

In essence Mairav Zonszein, who's a contributor to +972 Magazine, surely tends to underline the validity of Evelyn Gordon's recent article in Commentary magazine entitled "The Left’s Inversion of Anti-Semitism".

Evelyn Gordon concedes that

"Some attacks on Soros are anti-Semitic, like when someone at an anti-refugee rally in Poland in 2015 set fire to an effigy of an Orthodox Jew which he said represented Soros. That’s classic anti-Semitism; it implies both that the real problem is Soros’s Jewishness rather than anything he did, and that all Jews are responsible for Soros’s actions."

 And there's certainly cause for concern (see the Times of Israel here)

Yet, Evelyn Gordon goes on to observe:

'The Hungarian campaign, however, targets Soros not for his Jewishness, which it never even mentions, but for his actions: specifically, the fact that he is one of the main financial backers of pro-immigration organizations in Hungary. . . . Yet both Jews and non-Jews have risen up to declare such criticism “anti-Semitic” solely because he happens to be Jewish. . . .

Now contrast this with, say, what happened at last month’s “Chicago Dyke March,” when three people carrying rainbow flags with Stars of David on them were kicked out of the march because the flag was “pro-Israel,” and therefore unacceptable at a progressive demonstration. The Star of David is the most recognizable Jewish symbol in existence; . . . that’s precisely why Israel put it on its national flag. That’s also why the so-called “Jewish pride” flag has a Star of David on its rainbow background—not to represent Israel, but to represent the marchers’ Judaism. . . .

In other words, these marchers were expelled solely for carrying an obviously Jewish symbol at a progressive event. This is classic anti-Semitism: Jews are welcome only if they divest themselves of anything that could identify them as Jews. Yet in the progressive world, such anti-Semitism is deemed perfectly acceptable so long as you claim, as the march organizers did, that the victims were expelled for being “Zionists.”. . .

[Thus, for] the progressive left . . . targeting people for being Jewish is no longer anti-Semitic, but targeting people for being progressive activists is. . . . [I]nstead of being a shield to protect Jews, charges of anti-Semitism have become a shield to protect leftists. And thereby the left has completed the process of redefining anti-Semitism to its own benefit, to the detriment of the Jews.'

See also Breitbart here

Bibi and his wife arrive in Hungary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kwpj7EN2qg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68wlG604ShY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veTAzwKzyPU

In the third of these videos Bibi speaks from about 1:26. 

J Street – The Masquerade Laid Bare

It’s been reported that plans are afoot to set up a British organisation comparable to J Street, involving such leftwing Jews as Guardian journalist Jonathan Freedland (and presumably, though this is just speculation, with assistance from the New Israel Fund). I look on such a development with a jaundiced gaze; there are enough Israel-demonising groups in Britain today without adding to their number with a (yet another leftist) Jewish communal initiative. J Street’s plausible dishonesty has duped many well-meaning people into assuming that it has Israel’s welfare uppermost in its heart, and can achieve that aim more readily than AIPAC.

It’s hard to dispute Alan Dershowitz’s contention, made last March during its conference in Washington when he buttonholed one of its officials giving a press interview, that J Street has sown discord within the American Jewish community; it is a divisive force and damaging to Israel. "I reject J Street because it spends more time criticizing Israel than supporting it," Dershowitz declared. "They shouldn't call themselves pro-Israel.” He added that although he too opposes settlements, he makes “the 80 percent case for Israel”. The fact that J Street invited former U.S. Secretary of State Zbigniew Brzezinski – no great fan of Israel – to its March conference was an indication, he maintained, that J Street is “not pro-Israel". J Street has supported the odious slur on Israel that comprises the Goldstone Report, which prompted Colette Avital MK to quit as J Street’s conduit in Israel.

The revelation this week that – despite the earlier denials of J Street’s director Jeremy Ben-Ami (who now admits to making “misleading” statements), the far-left billionaire George Soros is one of J Street’s major donors (the other being mysterious Hong Kong-based “Consolacion Esdicul”) has really damaged J Street’s credibility. Soros has boasted that he is not a professing Jew; he has given to Arab groups but never to Israel; and he has advocated a Palestinian Authority ruled jointly by Fatah and Hamas. A Republican legislator from Virginia, Eric Cantor, is quoted as saying that J Street’s financial sources prove that the organisation is “not reflecting the mainstream position of the pro-Israel community in America” and that it does not “benefit the U.S.-Israel relationship”.

Hear, hear! Although J Street is unlikely to be reduced to rubble through these revelations, it is likely to become a no-go zone for all but the stalwarts who already tread its path.

Nobody has blogged about this grubby state of affairs surrounding J Street's funding more trenchantly than Isi Leibler, who in an absolute corker of a piece entitled “J-Street Unmasked” says, inter alia:

‘Soros and J-Street make a perfect match. Soros has proudly proclaimed "I am not a Zionist, nor am I a practising Jew." He believes that Israel is largely responsible for anti-Semitism.... Only last month ago, he contributed a record $100 million towards Human Rights Watch, the purportedly human rights watchdog, which no longer bothers to disguise its blatant bias and hostility towards Israel.

For its part, J-Street condemned Israel for its Gaza offensive against Hamas, describing it as "a disproportionate response." It refused to identify "who was right and who was wrong" proclaiming that "we recognize that neither Israelis nor Palestinians have a monopoly of right and wrong." It not only refused to condemn the Goldstone Report, but facilitated meetings between members of Congress and Judge Goldstone. It even resurrected the anti-Semitic charge of dual loyalties, warning Jews that by "one sided support of Israel," they "risked alienating the American public and would be condemned for displaying greater loyalties towards Israel than the US." It repeatedly slandered AIPAC depicting it as an extremist right-wing body ignoring the fact that it had backed the policies of all Israeli governments, including dovish administrations preceding Netanyahu.

To top it off, J-Street was also exposed for having received donations and support from Arab and pro-Arab individuals and organizations.The donors include Genevieve Lynch a former participant of the US Iranian National Council who also serves on the J-Street finance committee; Judith Barnett a former registered agent for Saudi Arabia who also serves on the J-Street Advisory Council; and Nancy Dutton a former attorney for the Saudi Arabian embassy who donates to J-Street's political action committee which finances anti-Israeli congressional candidates.’

Read all of Leibler’s marvellous exposé here: http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=2450