Soros Says Israel is "Main Stumbling Block" to U.S. Support of Egyptian Democracy!

In an opinion column published February 3, in the Washington Post, entitled "Why Obama has to get Egypt Right," financier George Soros wrote, "President Obama personally and the United States as a country have much to gain by moving out in front and siding with the public demand for dignity and democracy."

Fair enough. I concur that the United States should do its utmost to help foster a peaceful, stable transition toward a democracy in Egypt. But then, incredibly, Soros adds:

"The main stumbling block is Israel. In reality, Israel has as much to gain from the spread of democracy in the Middle East as the United States has. But Israel is unlikely to recognize its own best interests because the change is too sudden and carries too many risks. And some U.S. supporters of Israel are more rigid and ideological than Israelis themselves. Fortunately, Obama is not beholden to the religious right, which has carried on a veritable vendetta against him. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is no longer monolithic or the sole representative of the Jewish community. The main danger is that the Obama administration will not adjust its policies quickly enough to the suddenly changed reality."

(Emphasis added.)

You say what? Soros is dredging up the old bromide that Israel and its American supporters control U.S. foreign policy, to the detriment of American interests.

I await the outcry and condemnation of Soros' column from any of the 400 some rabbis who demanded that Fox News discipline Glenn Beck for his remarks about Soros. Those rabbis ignored the fact, indeed were probably completely unaware, that during the very week that Glenn Beck made the remarks about Soros that they condemned as anti-Semitic, he featured Rabbi Daniel Lapin as his guest for an entire show. Some anti-Semite. Of course many of those 400 rabbis probably consider Rabbi Lapin unJewish on account of his outspoken political conservatism.

Fortunately, we don't have to wait for a response from the rabbis who signed the anti-Beck petition to Fox. In this week's Jewish Journal, columnist David Suissa castigates Soros for his op-ed, and points out that Israel is the beacon and model in the Middle East for Arab nations wanting more democracy, not the stumbling block.

Why does David Suissa see so clearly that it is the words of George Soros, not Glenn Beck, that should be viewed as a legitimate affront by American Jews? Well, it may just be a coincidence that David Suissa is a traditionally observant religious Jew, Orthodox, if you will, unlike, I would wager, nearly all of the signers of the anti-Glenn Beck petition. But I don't think so. The true religion of too many American rabbis is liberalism, not Judaism, and that is why Glenn Beck so offends them.