George Soros says Jews and Israel cause anti-Semitism

[DuctapeFatwa]

It’s not often that George Soros, the billionaire financier and philanthropist, makes an appearance before a Jewish audience. 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.”.

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.”

Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, called Soros’ comments “absolutely obscene.”

http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=13428&intcategoryid=4

headline shortened from

In rare Jewish appearance, George Soros
says Jews and Israel cause anti-Semitism

[Darranar]

1. He's right and he's wrong...

the policies of the Bush* Administration and Sharon provide an excuse for anti-semites to demonize Jews, and a means to get more recruits. But it is not in itself a source for that anti-semitism.

[bluesoul]

2. George Soros

is an "anti-semite". I mean he must be if he says something like this ;-)

[ForestsBeatBushes]

3. George Soros

is a self-hating Jew.

He is akin to what some people call an "Uncle Tom" which in reality equates to a self-hating African-American.

This is called internalizing the views of the majority and it sadly occurs within every minority group.

[Darranar]

5. That's not true at all...

why do you come to that conclusion?

[ForestsBeatBushes]

7. Have you ever heard the phrase "blame the victim"?

It's as true with those who do it from without as it for those who feel it from within.

[Darranar]

8. No he isn't...

he's giving rational reasons 9in his opinion) for anti-semitism in Europe. He's not blaming it on anyone.

[The Magistrate]

9. Mr. Soros, Sir

Is a most impressive fellow. His vocation of curency trading requires a shrewd and dispassionate political judgement for success; accordingly, his comments on mass-mind phenomena are worth paying attention to, whether one agrees with them or not.

[ForestsBeatBushes]

10. I agree, Sir.

However, his accomplishments and comments do not negate how pressured he must have been to make it in a WASP world. It is very much easier to identify with the aggressor and be heard than to have to become entangled in defending one's Jewishness before one will be taken seriously. I know that for a fact and I venture to presume other members of minority groups do as well. Ah, yes, the success of Clarence Thomas, for example...

[The Magistrate]

12. That Strikes Me Has Vanishingly Un-likely, Sir

Money in the quantity this gentleman possesses it makes an excellent insulator: if he wishes to see WASPs crawl or sit up and beg, it can be arranged nightly. He came up hard, as the song says, and such background conveys a great inner strength.

[sushi]

34. I agree with you again

:) :-)

[sushi]

33. I agree with you

:-)

[ThorsteinVeblen]

19. Israel is not a "vicitm"

[Classical_Liberal]

31. Rather it was a misleading headline

designed to make Soros look that way. I believe that the occpation is fueling antisemitism. It didn't cause it, but it sure as shit ain't helping matters.

[rini]

4. There are self-haters

in every ethnic group. Why does this make you smile?

BTW, can you send me some recipes for Serbian cuisine. I collect recipes.

[DuctapeFatwa]

14. Yep. It is ignorance that causes anti-anybodyism

I noticed this piece because I thought it related to a rant I had a couple of weeks ago about how if the only Israelis and even American Jews that are ever shown on US media are utter wackos.

And the corporations that rule the world, http://www.theyrule.net/

don't exactly go out of their way to point out that yeah, there are some Jews in the boardroom, but there are some Methodists and agnostics and Catholics in there too, and what binds them together is neither religion nor ethnicity, but plain old non-sectarian greed.

How convenient to just have people who don't know any better blame the Jews for the greed, and then call anyone who is against the greed, or any of its manifestations, anti-Jewish.

[rini]

24. sit down and take a couple of aspirin, I agree with most of your post

noticed this piece because I thought it related to a rant I had a couple of weeks ago about how if the only Israelis and even American Jews that are ever shown on US media are utter wackos.

All minorities are very stupodly stereotyped on TV. Because i'm Jewish I tend to pay more attention to mine but just llok at it sometimes, makes me want to puke.

And the corporations that rule the world, http://www.theyrule.net/

don't exactly go out of their way to point out that yeah, there are some Jews in the boardroom, but there are some Methodists and agnostics and Catholics in there too, and what binds them together is neither religion nor ethnicity, but plain old non-sectarian greed.

But the Jews, the occassional black, and rare Hispanic and extremely rare American Indian, don't get invited to social events that have no political or monetary reason. In that way, outsiders looking in regardless of money.

How convenient to just have people who don't know any better blame the Jews for the greed, and then call anyone who is against the greed, or any of its manifestations, anti-Jewish.

[bemildred]

6. He doesn't look like he hates himself.

In fact he seems to take pretty good care of himself.
And he certainly seems to have plenty of self-esteem when
it comes to speaking up in public. He's gone after the
drug war for instance.

[ForestsBeatBushes]

11. I agree, sir.

However, looks are deceiving.

Once one has been accepted by the majority group, one can simply go on 'as if' one were a part of it and do quite a lot. However, there is always that one bit of your core identity which remains denied and therefore leaves a hole in your soul, your heart, your nature...whatever you believe to be your deepest self.

[bluesoul]

13. Self hating Jew?

Oh my. Even here one hears it...:shrug:

[ForestsBeatBushes]

15. How does that relate to #11 to which your message

is linked as a reply?

[ex_jew]

16. Heard a good comeback to the "self-hating Jew" thing -

Lenni Brenner (prominent student of the collaboration between Zionists and Nazis in the 30's) tells people who accuse him of this that they should ask all his ex-girlfriends. They'll tell you - Lenni only loves himself ! I thought this was pretty good.

[ForestsBeatBushes]

17. Source on Zionist-Nazi collaboration, please

[bemildred]

22. Such material is not at all hard to find.

Of course it is most popular with anti-zionists of
various stripes, so take it for what it is worth.

google "zionist nazi" and you should get plenty.

There does seem to be some historical basis, but I have
made no attempt to evaluate it as it seems like a form
of mental masturbation to me. Whether of not some zionist
fellows back in the thirties made such a stupid error matters
very little now.

[The Magistrate]

28. Indeed, Mr. Mildred

The thing is monumentally irrelevant. It had no influence whatever on the course of events. It is, on occasion, brought up by those committed to the most scurrilous forms of propaganda, in the hope of creating an emotional association among persons already prone to hatred, and ignorant of the context, or both.

[DuctapeFatwa]

29. It;s no different from the dollahos US installs in the Middle East

No group, religious, ethnic or otherwise has an exclusive patent on scumbaghood, and no group is without its share.

[The Magistrate]

32. There Is This Difference At least, Sir

Those purchased despots propped up by the United States in the Arab world and elsewhere do have some real influence on events on a grand scale. "Zionist collaboration with Nazis" is, on the other hand, a mere footnote. There are three elements to it.

One is the form in which, in the early stages of the Hitler regime, Jews were allowed to take some portion of their wealth with them out of the Reich. This involved a complicated scheme by which it had to be transformed into export of German goods.

Second was the practice of a standard flattery of a despot, in hopes of easing the suffering of a people, also occuring early in the Hitler regime. It might have gotten a few people out; it had no effect otherwise.

Third was the attempt of a splinter faction among the Revisionists to gain assistance from the Reich against England, through attempted contacts with Nazi officials in Vichy Syria. Not only did it come to nothing, it took place at a time when the Yushiv was in eager alliance with England in war planning, production, and recruitment of soldiers.

Two other elements can hardly be honestly called collaboration. One is the attempt by some individuals, in the dire straits of the murder campaign, to prolong their own lives at the expense of others, by informing or other forms of cooperation. It is easy to condemn, certainly, but it is hard for any to answer in advance for what they might do themselves in the face of death. Second is the several instances of negotiation, late in the war, for ransom of various Jewish populations in Eastern Europe. That can hardly be condemned on any score, though there were certainly some instances where it was poorly done.

[DuctapeFatwa]

37. and none of that is any different from when any other group does it

and none of it is any different from what the Hashemites and Mubaraks and ilk do, just that it's more acceptable to call them out on it :)

[The Magistrate]

39. The Question, Sir

Is of scale, not of kind.

Mubarak, for instance, brings great benefit to the U.S. government, and gains great benefit himself by his real collaboration.

It is no trifle, but a thing of genuine historic signigance.

[Darranar]

40. What great benefit does Mubarak bring to the US government?

Aside from abusing anti-Iraq war protesters, I mean.

[The Magistrate]

42. Mr. Mubarak, Sir

Holds Egypt securely in the U.S. orbit, albeit for pay. Egypt is the man-power reservoir of the Arab world, and in the long run, that is more important a power consideration than any mineral resource.

[Darranar]

44. Thank you...

That does make sense.

[DuctapeFatwa]

53. Of course the way he does that is by preventing any democracy

from accidentally springing up in Egypt, using methods that are well-known, and being a living example of what is wrong with US policy in the Middle East.

The army is has been about two sheep's tails away from revolting for years, even before the current Intifada and subsequent Crusade, neither of which have made either the US nor any of its bitches more loved in the region.

[Darranar]

54. Of course...

this is a US ally, after all, and not a European one.

[The Magistrate]

57. Or From Springing Up Purposefully, Mr. Fatwa

We must be fair, after all: he is a little more than a safety inspector....

[bemildred]

35. That is true, but it is not the issue I had in mind.

The zionist-Nazi collaboration stuff is used to imply
that zionists == Nazis, a manifest fallacy. Whatever faults
the zionists have, they do not rise to the standard set by
the Nazis. As the Magistrate has pointed out in his sig,
it is important to call things by their right names, and that
is a standard that, once accepted, must be applied dispassionately.

[DuctapeFatwa]

38. well yes, that would be like saying that the princes are the Arabians

Or that the Hashemites are the people who live in Jordan.

And in that sense it is no different from the "Jews rule the world thing" that people use to distract and deflect criticism of greed, which as was pointed out in another thread, is remarkably non-sectarian and ecumenical :)

[bemildred]

41. You are generalizing a good deal from my point.

But certainly, greed is a much more useful discriminator than
these other things.

[DuctapeFatwa]

55. What I mean is, there are bad people in every nation, every group

There are unscrupulous, greedy people who would sell their mama for a dollar from Lichtenstein to Lagos, sadly, they do seem to end up with a disturbing frequency in positions of leadership, but that doesn't mean that the people of those places are greedy and unscrupulous, usually they are just naive and/or uninformed, the US itself is a case in point :)

[bemildred]

59. Agreed.

And that is actually a much more useful trait to be aware
of than the ethnic pigeonhole they are assigned to, but apparently
one cannot get the emotional rewards from that point of view that
are available by focusing on enthnic differences. Racial issues
in this country are an excellent example of that, as Mr. Dean has
recently pointed out by mentioning that both poor whites and
poor blacks get screwed raw while distracted by their so called
racial differences.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bemildred]

20. So, underneath it all, you think he is deeply flawed?

[ThorsteinVeblen]

18. Anti-Semitism is irrational

and has no basis in fact whatsoever. It is the illogical, emotional and violent demonization of a people.

There is no excuse for it.

[bluesoul]

23. As is

anti-Arabism, anti-Islamism, anti-Palestinianism..both way

[foo_bar]

56. I/P stands for India/Pakistan, right?

I can see why the genocide and ethnic cleansing in Kashmir warrant 10x as many threads as the combined discussion of all other modern conflicts. I know it's a drop in the bucket compared to the Iraqi war, but people just have stronger opinions where India is concerned. It has nothing to do with the actual volume of injustice, India simply represents a billion people and thus warrant much greater scrutiny than their counterparts in America or China or wherever. I'm not anti-Hindu, I just don't believe in sacred cows.

[foo_bar]

25. all the news that fits in print

"The policies of the Bush administration and the Sharon administration contribute to that,” Soros said.

George Soros says right-wing administrations contribute to anti-Semitism.
Nah, too bland.

George Soros says right-wing administrations *cause* anti-Semitism.
Same thing, right? Business is business.

George Soros says *Jews* cause anti-Semitism.
Get Abe Foxman on the phone!

[bemildred]

26. Heh.

:thumbsup:

[Classical_Liberal]

30. exactly.

Having said that, what in the hell is going on with Soros's offices in Russia?

http://news.google.com/news?q=Soros+Mikhail+Khodorkovsky&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&sa=N&tab=wn

[bemildred]

36. An interesting question.

My impression at present it that he has the misfortune to
be a friend of Mr. Khordovsky and hence suspicious to Mr.
Putin, and also somewhat in Mr. Putin's way politically,
and Mr. Putin seems to have business to transact and is not
in a mood for interference. I doubt Mr. Soros is in any
danger, but I don't expect he will make any headway with Mr.
Putin either. If you come with anything better I would be
most interested.

[legin]

27. legin is a 'self-hating' legin

legin read a philosophy book once and got the idea that it was 'philosophically cool' to deny the existence of 'general concepts' i.e. there are only individual examples of roundish thingies, the general concept of a circle does not exist.

Thus legin denies catagorically that he is a british, white, male, agnostic who lives in South London and further feels that these idiotic general concepts were invented by some bastard who wanted legin to do things that legin usually didn't particularily want to do, i.e. the 'british' general concept could have in other times involved legin being given a gun and packed off anywhere in the world to shoot at people.

The 'self-hating' name is usually a concept thrown around by facist bastards at people who believe in personel automony and thus fail to act in a way that the facist bastards feel that they ought to. legin probably could be a recipient of the term were it not for the unfortunate fact that the term doesn't exist either.

Thus the original heading of the post is wrong the only thing that can really be safely said is that "legin is a legin".

[Fight_n_back]

43. The women who get

raped are asking for it.

Blacks deserved to be lynched because they refused to use white drinking fountains.

It is okay to hate Arabs because 21 of them hijakced planes and flew them into buildings so they must all want to do that.

If women want to get equal pay then they should stop whining and start having their own generations long legacy of a boy's club.

The fact that someone who claims to be a progressive would post something that seeks to explain bigotry would be surprising if I hadn't been on DU for two years.

[Classical_Liberal]

45. I don't consider the criticism of Sharon antisemitism

and I don't consider Sharon a victim of it. I also think that Israelis are guilty of the same rationalizations when it comes to Palestinians. What is the wall?

[Fight_n_back]

46. What are you talking about?

Do you think that hatred of a group is caused by the group or not?

I believe the hatred eminated form the hater not the hated but then I am a liberal.

I wish you guys would learn to listen

[bluesoul]

47. We wish

you would listen as well, instead of blindly accusing anyone not in line with Sharon...

[Fight_n_back]

48. Please show me

where I have EVER agreed with Shaorn on anything. Go ahead, I challenge to find anything I have ever posted that even HINTS at agreeing with Sharon on any of his policies, foreign or domestic.

The very least you can do is let Jews decide what offends them, since you don't want us to defend ourselves.

[bluesoul]

49. I were an

Arab/Palestinian I would be offended on numerous occasions considering some of the things said here. And no one is saying you shouldn't defend yourself. I just don't consider occupation, illegal settlements, making life miserable for an entire nation (civilians!) as self-defense, that's all.

I don't believe in collective punishment and I don't think a single civilians deserves to die because of the actions of someone else (terrorist). Now if that's so hard to understand, then I really don't know what else I could say to you...

[Fight_n_back]

50. Nowhwere in that post

do you show a link backing up your slander of me. Show me where I agreed with Sharon. I'll make it easier on you, show me where I criticize anyone for disagreeing with Sharon.

I'll take your answer off the air.

[bluesoul]

51. You obviously didn't understand me

I said that many people that disagree with Sharon and Israel's policy are automatically accused "anti-semitism", where you found me accusing you directly, is beyond me. Quite a few others have shown great "understanding" for Sharon and his policy over here, and to be fair this wasn't directed at you personally..

The YOU was ment those for the "pro-Israel" crowd. Hope I cleared this up...

[GabysPoppy]

52. Another member of the "Pro-Israel" team checking in

Please show me where I have sided or praised Mr. Sharon.

You make a definitive charge clouded in generalization with no basis of fact.

[The Magistrate]

58. Indeed, Mr. Soul

Mr. Yang has been around this place much longer than me, and in my whole time here, he has never spoken a word in defense of Sharon or Likud.

My own impression of your use of "you" above was that you had intended direct address to Mr. Yang. Thank you for the clarafication, Sir.

[Classical_Liberal]

60. Ok then the wall is hate.

.