Who backs Beilin? (and the Geneva Initiative)

The Jerusalem Post ^ | 26 November 2003 | URI DAN

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Nov. 26, 2003
Who backs Beilin?
By URI DAN

Billionaire George Soros recently announced that he would spend money like water to prevent President George W. Bush's re-election. He explained that he opposes Bush's foreign policy, especially the war against Saddam Hussein.

This doesn't surprise me.

Soros has also long adopted a pro-Palestinian posture in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Unlike many Jewish millionaires, Soros hasn't learned the lessons of the Holocaust, despite being one of the few survivors of Hungarian Jewry.

Bush made a stand against extremist Muslim fanaticism which threatens the free world. Israel is fortunate that Bush created a common front against this fascist terror, together with Britain's Tony Blair, Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, and other leaders.

They realize that if this terror is not defeated in Afghanistan, Iraq, and any other place where it emerges, the world is liable to experience a tremendous economic recession.

There are other talented people whose pride goes to their heads. Daniel Barenboim, for example, an expatriate Israeli, is a gifted musician. But he imagines that his musical ability gives him the right to dictate Israel's foreign policy. At every opportunity he pushes the Palestinian cause and condemns Israel. Every time he visits Jerusalem he also tries to hold a concert in Ramallah, even though his music is drowned out by the explosions of suicide bombers.

For his part, Soros has a reputation as a financial wizard who has made hundreds of millions of dollars by his speculations in sterling. Unfortunately, his financial successes seem to have convinced him that he is also an expert in diplomacy, and this has led to his current crusade against Bush.

IT'S A mistake to ignore the influence of money on shaping public opinion. Furthermore, important media such as The New York Times regularly provide permanent platforms for defeatist views.

The same thing happened in the 1930s when Britain's Fleet Street supported Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policy and tried to silence Winston Churchill's warnings against the emerging Nazi threat.

To Soros's credit he has openly declared war against Bush, and his campaign contributions can be monitored according to US law. The important factor is that Bush's policy contains a truth which is stronger than Soros's money, and Bush's policy is supported by the majority of Americans who aren't ashamed to be called patriotic.

In Israel, even though Ariel Sharon was re-elected only 10 months ago, his political opponents are spending a fortune in their attempts to undermine his government. In contrast to Soros they are concealing the sources of funding of their subversive activities.

The Peres Peace Center has raised millions of dollars abroad with no real auditing for "projects for the Palestinians." The managers of the center, who receive generous salaries, engage in vicious propaganda against the government and travel abroad in order to sponsor concessions to the Palestinians. Ami Ayalon and Sari Nusseibeh also exploit Israeli democracy in order to oppose the government's policy. Despite being a former head of the GSS, Ayalon is strongly influenced by Nusseibeh, an extreme Palestinian nationalist.

Then there is the wretched Geneva Accord whose promotion has cost a fortune. Where is the money coming from?

The mailing costs alone of their ludicrous document of surrender to Palestinian terror is estimated at a million dollars. Yossi Beilin is reputed to have raised ten times as much, some of it from the Swiss government.

More has come from the European Union, which supports an Israeli surrender. Who knows where else Beilin's money is coming from?

Such questions are legitimate since the Oslo architect doesn't stop short of approaching any sources of funds.

Contrast Soros to Beilin. Even though Soros's ideas are politically outlandish, at least the billionaire is an honorable man. You know where his money is coming from. The same can't be said of Beilin.

The writer is the Mideast correspondent of The New York Post.

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Geneva Insanity funding ping

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It is a sad commentary that Jews seek European money to finance the destruction of Israel.

But the truth is these Jews don't care much about their identity as Jews. They seek to appease not the Arabs, but the Europeans. Their zeal to surrender Jerusalem is their way of saying "see, we are just like you. We don't care about our heritage". Of course, they will never be seen as "just like them" no matter what they do.