Sunday, November 14, 2010
[The following, by Daniel Greenfield, is crossposted from Sultan Knish.]
I spent yesterday evening in the company of a man whose grandfather spent much of the Holocaust dressed in a Nazi uniform. The difference between him and George Soros, is that he used that uniform as a disguise in order to find Jewish refugees and lead them to shelter. And that difference is a profound one. It is the difference between a perpetrator and a rescuer. Between a collaborator and a hero.
Soros did not wear a Nazi uniform, but he might as well have, because he aided in the persecution of the Jews of Europe, without compassion, without guilt and without regret. Various excuses have been made for his actions, and none of them hold the least bit of water.Yes Soros was only a teenager at the time. So was my father, who nevertheless escaped to join the partisans, rather than accompanying a Nazi officer in his search for Jewish property he could loot. He had no choice? He certainly had a choice. Even in the worst of times, people still can and do make moral choices. And the choice for everyone, for Jews, Germans, Ukrainians, Poles, Frenchmen and so on down the line-- was to collaborate with evil, or to do the right thing.
George Soros made the wrong choice then. As he has made the wrong choice over and over again. And he has never regretted any of them. And the one thing that clearly emerges from that, is that he has no understanding that evil is wrong. That participating in the persecution and murder of Jews is wrong. He didn't know it back then, while the Holocaust was going on. He doesn't know it today, when he helps set up and fund organizations like J Street, whose sole purpose is to help the Muslim terrorists who are murdering Jews today.
The liberal media which is busy defending Soros as a victim of the Holocaust and a survivor should find the bare decency to remain silent for once. To call Soros a Holocaust survivor is an obscenity. Soros was not victimized by the Holocaust. He was never targeted by it. He was on the other side of the line. The side that was pulling the trigger, running the gas chambers and sorting the gold teeth. Soros was not a victim, he was a perpetrator. Yes, he was only a teenager, but we do jail teenagers as accomplices to crimes much milder than that of collaborating in genocide.
Liberal using charges of Anti-Semitism to silence critics of Soros is one of the most profoundly cynical exercises imaginable, by people who routinely mock the idea that their bias again Israel is in any way motivated by Anti-Semitism. It is all the more cynical, because Soros has described himself as growing up in a "Jewish, Anti-Semitic home" and suggested that Jewish behavior causes Anti-Semitism. Defending criticism of a billionaire Anti-Semite as Anti-Semitism is thoroughly surreal. It's an inversion of the meaning of the word that punches a hole through reason and all the way over into the other side.
Soros has funded organizations that actively promoted Anti-Semitic smears against Jews. MoveOn's bulletins have linked to sites like CounterPunch, a site which actually published an article in defense of blood libels. One bulletin linked to pieces which accused Jews of dual loyalty, claimed that a small group of Jewish elites monopolize foreign policy and began with a "special feature" from former Klansman, Senator Byrd. All this is from an organization funded by George Soros. A man so reviled within the Jewish community that his funding for J Street had to be kept secret for fear of a backlash against the entire group.
The media's implication that criticism of Soros is an attack on Jews as a whole is mind-bogglingly false. When even an organization aimed at liberal Jews actually has to hide its Soros funding, it is safe to say that Herr Soros is not representative of the Jewish community. After a failed attempt to scam money out of a Jewish charity in his youth, Soros has avoided Jewish organizations and Jewish causes. J Street is one of those exceptions, only because it is an Anti-Jewish organizations masquerading as a Jewish organization.
Soros has said that he doesn't want to be part of any Jewish national existence, and that the solution to Anti-Semitism is for Jews to "give up on the tribalness". His narrative has always been to blame Anti-Semitism on Jews and on Israel. And frankly that is the essence of what Anti-Semitism is. Blame the victim. And there's every reason for Soros to do that because he helps the perpetrators. And that seems to have been a lifelong hobby with him.
Soros' father identified with Germans, more than with Jews. Like some of that type, he wanted to be more German, than the Germans. After Nazi Germany fell, George seemed to hold a special animus for the countries that had defeated the Third Reich. His political and economic primarily war targeted America, Europe and Russia. The countries and societies that had destroyed Hitler's dream of world conquest. Whether that is deliberate or not, is not a question I can answer. But if Soros had strongly resented the Allied forces that shut down National Socialism, then his likely course of behavior would be the same one that he has followed. To find weak spots in the system, exploit them to make money and then use that money to bring those societies and countries down.
Over the years Soros has made it very clear that he doesn't like Jews, and doesn't want to be associated with them. This wasn't an aberration that developed during the Holocaust, but runs in his family. His father changed his last name from Schwartz to Soros. His ex-wife has stated that Soros' mother disliked her, because she was "openly Jewish". In his biography, Soros agreed that his ex-wife's Jewishness was the problem. He even referred to his own mother as a "Jewish Anti-Semite". Indeed Soros' mother disliked Jews so much, she ended up converting.
George Soros has not converted, but he considers himself an atheist and like the rest of his family, is hostile to Jews. He has mentioned an "antipathy" to Jewish organizations, one which he dates back to his time delivering deportation orders to Jewish lawyers. At one point he describes his Jewishness as a "secret shame" that required psychoanalysis. While Soros has said that he has no guilt over his Nazi collaboration, he apparently did feel guilt for whatever Jewishness he still felt he had. That is not the attitude of a moral man, but of a man who enjoyed being a Nazi, but hated being Jewish. With that kind of attitude, it's no wonder that Soros acts the way he does.
But having excluded himself from the Jewish community and having waged war against the places and countries where Jews are secure-- having even funded Anti-Semitic organizations, he has absolutely no right to try and hide from criticism over his political activities by using his front groups to denounce critics as Anti-Semitic. Certainly not by claiming to be a Holocaust survivor, when he was actually a collaborator. His front groups have produced and circulated materials that accused American Jews of secret conspiracies, that certainly meet the same test that his front groups are now using to argue that Beck is engaging in Anti-Semitism.But Soros is never held to the standards of the people he wages war on. Soros destroys the savings of British pensioners, while using the money to fund left wing groups which claim to care about the plight of the poor. Now left wing groups which promote Anti-Semitism are accusing Soros critics of being Anti-Semitic. To them it's just a word. Another weapon they can use to promote their agenda. To us however it's not just a word. It's a reality. It's a reality that Jews have been living with for a very long time now.
For thousands of years, the Jewish people have survived persecution, outlived genocide, and every form of oppression under the sun. And during all that time, there have been Jewish survivors and heroes, and collaborators as well. The upcoming holiday of Chanukah is the story of Jews who refused to collaborate. On the other hand, the story of Soros is the story of those who brought pigs on altars. Who hated their Jewishness and eagerly sought to join with the oppressors. Soros is only one of that number. But it is not the collaborators or the traitors who continue on. They die and turn to dust. Their malice may be great and the harm they cause terrible, but like all mortals, they still perish and pass away. But the Nation of Israel, like the lights of the Menorah, go on.
This is just nonsense, and ugly nonsense. The notion that you condemn what a kid did when he was 13 or 14 in the middle of something like the Holocaust is absurd, even if other "teenagers" like the writers grandfather apparently made better and more noble choices.
I have no trouble judging Soros for what he funds and why he does it, and I think his rhetoric about Israel over the past 5-10 years is regrettable and enabling to some real haters out there. But this is ridiculous.
The issue (for me) is far less what he did then, and far more what he makes of it now, which is to show not one moment -- even if it's JUST for show -- of reflection or regret. It's a legitimate issue, and is revealing of what kind of guy Soros is, regardless of what Abe Foxman says.
The idea that "George Soros made the wrong choice then", as this post puts it, simply misses the point. He had no choice. Who is this writer to judge?
Beck's charge, repeated even by some Jewish bloggers, that the 13 and 14- year -old Soros participated in deporting Jews to concentration camps is without factual foundation. Soros, through no choice or fault of his own, but merely as a means of surviving, was forced to accompany a Hungarian collaborator who confiscated property from Jews. That is something much different than his being a mini-Eichmann. Beck and his supporters need to learn some history. The charge that he deported Jews is reckless -- journalistic malpractice of a high order.
The accusation that the family was evil because they were culturally more German than Jewish really sticks in my craw. Who is this writer to judge people based on their cultural affinities? That sort of slander of the innocent really is evil. Does he have any idea how many victims of the Nazis were culturally German? Does he even care?
Beck may or may not be anti-Semitic but his charges are. Beck's recklessness is like that of someone throwing knives into a crowded room. That he claims not to intend any harm is not a legitimate defense. He simply doesn't care enough to be accurate in his attacks or responsible for his actions.
Solomon:
I'm with you far more often than not I think, and I am no fan of Soros, and I take lots of shots on left-leaning blogs using my real name supporting Israel and the integrity of the Jewish People. But I'm sorry--this dog doesn't hunt, even if Soros' retrospective comments here and there about his experience during the war don't please you or me. There's plenty of other issues to focus on.
Bruce
Beck's charge, repeated even by some Jewish bloggers, that the 13 and 14- year -old Soros participated in deporting Jews to concentration camps is without factual foundation.
Pity some don't go and watch the videos of Soros saying exactly what was claimed, his famous interview with Kroft on 60 minutes, for one, or read the books that Soros had written.
Beck isn't making charges, he is just showing Soros in his own words.
Is it just too galling to accept that Soros is a bad boy or is it because Glenn Beck is persona non grata in certain circles?