← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Bardamu
Thread ID: 10993 | Posts: 8 | Started: 2003-11-08
2003-11-08 15:24 | User Profile
[I]Truth wants to be free.[/I]
Soros Says Jews And Israel Cause Anti-Semitism By Uriel Heilman Jewish Telegraphic Agency 11-8-3
NEW YORK (JTA) -- It's not often that George Soros, the billionaire financier and philanthropist, makes an appearance before a Jewish audience.
ItÃÂs even rarer for him to use such an occasion to talk about Israel, Jews and his own role in effecting political change.
So, when Soros stepped to the podium Wednesday to address those issues at a conference of the Jewish Funders Network, audience members were listening carefully.
Many were surprised by what they heard.
When asked about anti-Semitism in Europe, Soros, who is Jewish, said European anti-Semitism is the result of the policies of Israel and the United States.
"There is a resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe. The policies of the Bush administration and the Sharon administration contribute to that," Soros said. "It's not specifically anti-Semitism, but it does manifest itself in anti-Semitism as well. I'm critical of those policies."
"If we change that direction, then anti-Semitism also will diminish," he said. "I can't see how one could confront it directly."
That is a point made by IsraelÃÂs most vociferous critics, whom some Jewish activists charge with using anti-Zionism as a guise for anti-Semitism.
The billionaire financier said he, too, bears some responsibility for the new anti-Semitism, citing last month's speech by Malaysia's outgoing prime minister, Mahathir Mohammad, who said, "Jews rule the world by proxy."
"I'm also very concerned about my own role because the new anti-Semitism holds that the Jews rule the world," said Soros, whose projects and funding have influenced governments and promoted various political causes around the world.
"As an unintended consequence of my actions," he said, "I also contribute to that image."
After the conference, some Jewish leaders who heard about the speech reacted angrily to Soros' remarks.
"Let's understand things clearly: Anti-Semitism is not caused by Jews; it's caused by anti-Semites," said Elan Steinberg, senior advisor at the World Jewish Congress. "One can certainly be critical of Bush policy or Sharon policy, but any deviation from the understanding of the real cause of anti-Semitism is not merely a disservice, but a historic lie."
Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, called SorosÃÂ comments "absolutely obscene."
"He buys into the stereotype," Foxman said. "It's a simplistic, counterproductive, biased and bigoted perception of what's out there. It's blaming the victim for all of IsraelÃÂs and the Jewish people's ills."
Furthermore, Foxman said, "If he sees that his position of being who he is may contribute to the perception of anti-Semitism, whatÃÂs his solution to himself ó that he give up his money? That he close his mouth?"
Associates said Soros' appearance Wednesday was the first they could ever recall in which the billionaire, a Hungarian-born U.S. Jew who escaped the Holocaust by fleeing to London as a child, had spoken in front of a Jewish group or attended a Jewish function.
The one-day meeting on funding in Israel, which took place at the Harvard Club in New York, was limited mostly to representatives of Jewish philanthropic foundations.
After Soros' speech, Michael Steinhardt, the real-estate magnate and Jewish philanthropist who arranged for Soros to address the group, said in an interview that Soros' views do not reflect those of most Jewish millionaires or philanthropists.
He also pointed out that this was Soros' first speech to a Jewish audience.
Steinhardt approached the lectern and interrupted Soros immediately after his remarks on anti-Semitism.
"George Soros does not think Jews should be hated any more than they deserve to be," Steinhardt said by way of clarification, eliciting chuckles from the audience.
Steinhardt then gave the lectern back to Soros, who said he had something to add to his remarks on the issue of anti-Semitism. Soros then paused to ask if there were any journalists in the room.
When he learned that there were, Soros withheld further comment.
Mark Charendoff, president of the group that hosted the conference, said he was pleased overall with the Soros event.
"We found him to be enormously frank, candid and generous with his time," Charendoff said. "I would be delighted if Mr. Soros would bring his passion, his brilliance and his resources to a range of different causes that are important to the Jewish community."
Charendoff is not alone.
Regardless of what they think of his politics, most Jewish activists likely would welcome Soros' participation in the world of Jewish philanthropy.
Though he's ranked as the 28th richest person in the United States by Forbes magazine - with a fortune valued at $7 billion - Soros has given scant money to Jewish causes.
SorosÃÂ first known funding of a Jewish group came in 1997, when his Open Society InstituteÃÂs Emma Lazarus Fund gave $1.3 million to the Council of Jewish Federations, and when Soros gave another $1.3 million to the Jewish Fund for Justice, an anti-poverty group.
As much as Jews may not like what Soros has to say - at Wednesday's meeting, he called for 'regime change' in the United States and talked of funding projects in 'Palestine' - they are eager to get Soros involved in giving to Jewish causes.
"In many ways, this was an introduction for Soros," Charendoff said. "He remarked to me how impressed he was with the quality of the people he met. We can only hope that this was a beginning of an engagement with the Jewish funding world."
Soros said he has not given much to Jewish or Israel-related causes because Jews take care of their own, so that his financial clout is better directed elsewhere.
Steinhardt tried to correct him on that point, saying the field of Jewish giving is not as crowded as Soros thinks.
"Even if we were a crowded field," Steinhardt told Soros, "I'm sure we could make room for you."
During his speech, Soros announced that he would support the 'Geneva accord,' an unofficial Middle East peace plan proposed by two out-of-office politicians, IsraelÃÂs Yossi Beilin and Palestinian Yasser Abed Rabbo.
That plan envisions two states along pre-1967 borders and a shared Jerusalem, and is vague on the demand that Palestinian refugees from 1948 be allowed to return to Israel.
It was not clear whether SorosÃÂ support of the plan would involve funding. Beilin's office did not return a call seeking comment.
[url]http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=13428&intcategoryid=4[/url]
[url]http://www.rense.com[/url]
2003-11-09 05:10 | User Profile
Foxman is the obscenity. Soros (isn't this guy the funder of some population-control thing?) was, like a Jewish Ted Turner, just mouthing off the obvious.
2003-11-09 09:03 | User Profile
Though he's ranked as the 28th richest person in the United States by Forbes magazine - with a fortune valued at $7 billion - Soros has given scant money to Jewish causes.
I think one could argue that much of Soros' "philanthropy" is intended to promote jewish group interests as explained in MacDonald.
2003-11-09 13:09 | User Profile
[SIZE=4]EU-President apologises to World Jewry for poll-result[/SIZE]
[url]http://www.globalfire.tv/nj/03en/jews/israel_threat1.htm[/url]
Prodi seeks absolution from the Jewish-Anti-Defamation League and the World Jewish Congress. To mollify World-Jewry, the EU-President condemned Europe's citizens for uttering their true opinion upon request of the EU-commission. Prodi expects the Europeans to lie, if Israel, the fragrant little nation, would not be considered the most peace-loving nation on earth.
[img]http://www.globalfire.tv/nj/graphs/dolphinsub.jpg[/img]
[COLOR=DarkOliveGreen][I][SIZE=1]"Israel has modified U.S. Harpoon cruise missiles, which can be launched from submarines, to deliver nuclear warheads. ... More than 100 Harpoon missiles have been exported to Israel. ... Israel’s receipt of two Dolphin-class diesel submarines from Germany [as another gift] in 1999 and a third in 2000 was widely perceived at the time as a move to acquire sea-based launching options for nuclear weapons. Past news reports further identified the Harpoon missile, which the United States transferred to Israel several years ago, as the potential delivery vehicle." (1) "Countries bordering the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean learned last month (just after Israel bombed Syria for the first time in 30 years) that they will all be within range of the nuclear-tipped cruise missiles that Israel is currently fitting into its German-supplied Dolphin submarines." (2)
1- Arms Control Association - November 2003 2- The Jordan Times, Nov. 5, 2003 [/SIZE] [/I] [/COLOR] euobserver.com, 05.11.2003 - [url]http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/03/11/EuroPoll061103.html[/url]
Prodi reassures US Jewish leaders after poll The US Jewish Community is going to organise a seminar in Brussels following recent survey results which saw a majority of EU citizens name Israel as the biggest threat to world peace.
"Israel has modified U.S. Harpoon cruise missiles, which can be launched from submarines, to deliver nuclear warheads. ... More than 100 Harpoon missiles have been exported to Israel. ... Israel’s receipt of two Dolphin-class diesel submarines from Germany [as another gift] in 1999 and a third in 2000 was widely perceived at the time as a move to acquire sea-based launching options for nuclear weapons. Past news reports further identified the Harpoon missile, which the United States transferred to Israel several years ago, as the potential delivery vehicle." (1) "Countries bordering the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean learned last month (just after Israel bombed Syria for the first time in 30 years) that they will all be within range of the nuclear-tipped cruise missiles that Israel is currently fitting into its German-supplied Dolphin submarines." (2)
1- Arms Control Association - November 2003 2- The Jordan Times, Nov. 5, 2003
The results published on Monday, sparked outrage in Israeli government circles and sent the Commission, which organised the poll, into a diplomatic tailspin.
European Commission President Romano Prodi had a hastily arranged meeting with representatives from the Anti-Defamation League and the World Jewish Congress, during a visit to New York on Tuesday (4 November).
At the meeting both sides agreed that a seminar should be organised in Brussels in order to find out why European citizens (59% of the around 7,500 surveyed) put Israel ahead of countries such as Iran and North Korea.
A date for the seminar has still to be agreed but a Commission spokesperson said it could be before the end of the year.
Mr Prodi also did much to mollify the Jewish community by distancing himself and his institution from the results.
"I am very concerned by the survey’s findings: they reveal a prejudice that must be condemned without hesitation", he said in New York.
"In a Europe born out of horror for the war and the Holocaust there is no place for or tolerance of anti-Semitism". ...
A spokesman for the Commission denied that the poll had been political.
"It was a technical business", he said on Tuesday.
David Irving comments: YES, this appears to have been a case of democracy at its very worst: people being asked their private opinions, and despite all that the media can do, coming up with this truly appalling result.
The outcome is clearly way off the map. There must have been something wrong with the pollsters, or their pencils, or their pads, or their attitude that day.
Everybody knows that the fragrant little nation slandered in this poll is the most peace-loving on earth, and always has been, and that in consequence its people are the most widely loved -- nay, they are loved with a lasting and abiding sense of global affection, by everybody, wherever they may be -- whether beneath the tracks of a Caterpillar bulldozer, or crushed in the ruins of a home at Jenin, or stunned by the blast of a salvo of missiles fired into a main street in Gaza by an American-built Apache helicopter gunship, or intimated by a German-built tank. If anybody does not love these truly affection-inspiring people, then he is manifestly a sick man indeed, and Europe must conjure forth seminars, with educational kits and all the other paraphernalia of mind-bending and brainwashing with which the world has been familiar since the end of the Holocaust.
Just see how the President of Europe scuttles across the Atlantic, arms flailing wildly, to apologise for his people, and to seek absolution from the Anti Defamation League and the World Jewish Congress in New York!
HOW apt was the well-known verse of Christian Morgenstern, the German humorist: Und damit schloss er messerscharf | dass nicht sein kann was nicht sein darf. I translated that once, in my Milch biography as, And thus in his considered view | what did not suit could not be true. No doubt some "experts" would call this translation lying, wrong, manipulated, and even false: but I am beyond repair; my beliefs are cast in stone, and I prefer my ways to those of the likes of Mr Prodi.
Three cheers for democracy. I shall be a democrat henceforth ([url]www.fpp.co.uk/online[/url])
2003-11-10 03:07 | User Profile
Now this is funny! :holiday: :tank: :holiday:
2003-11-10 03:17 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Faust]Now this is funny! :holiday: :tank: :holiday:[/QUOTE]
[I]Everybody knows that the [B]fragrant little nation [/B] slandered in this poll is the most peace-loving on earth[/I]...
Yes it is.
Irving is one of my heroes.
2003-11-10 03:35 | User Profile
[QUOTE=jamestown], or intimated by a German-built tank. [/QUOTE] That should be "German-built submarine".
2003-11-11 02:30 | User Profile
[QUOTE]"We found him to be enormously frank, candid and generous with his time," Charendoff said. "I would be delighted if Mr. Soros would bring his passion, his brilliance and his resources to a range of different causes that are important to the Jewish community. [B]We can only hope that this was a beginning of an engagement with the Jewish funding world[/B]."
Soros said he has not given much to Jewish or Israel-related causes because Jews take care of their own, so that his financial clout is better directed elsewhere.
Steinhardt tried to correct him on that point, saying "Even if we were a crowded field, [I]I'm sure we could make room for you.[/I]" [/QUOTE]
Some things in this world are beyond parody. Like "the Jewish funding world" feigning deafness to get a crack at Soros' checkbook....or two vampire bats fighting to the death over a used tampon.