Lipstadt on Musk revolt: Anti-Semites use Soros against Jews
Anti-Semites are using George Soros to promote hatred of Jews, US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Deborah Lipstadt said on Friday, weighing in on the uproar over Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s tweet about the other controversial billionaire.
“Regardless of how one feels about George Soros’ politics or policies,” Lipstadt tweeted, “it’s completely disingenuous to deny that many ad hominem attacks on him rely on classic anti-Semitic tropes and rhetoric. In times gone by, the anti-Semites invoked the Rothschild family to further their conspiracies about Jews. Today they use Soros to do it.”
Lipstadt’s remarks came after Israel sent mixed messages on the subject.
Musk tweeted about Soros last week, saying he reminds him of Magneto, the X-Men villain who, like Soros, survived the Holocaust.
Soros “wants to erode the very fabric of civilization,” Musk said. “Soros hates humanity.”
Musk’s tweet “reeked of anti-Semitism… [and] immediately brought a flood of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, the State Department said Tuesday.
“Unfortunately, Twitter is doing nothing to address this issue,” tweeted the State Department’s director of digital diplomacy, David Saranga.
Soros does not need Israel’s protection
In an unusual move, Secretary of State Eli Cohen dismissed his own department’s tweet when asked about it on Channel 14.
“There will be no more tweets like this,” he said. “Soros is not someone who needs the protection of the State of Israel.”
Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli tweeted that “the Israeli government and the vast majority of Israeli citizens see Elon Musk as an amazing entrepreneur and a role model.”
Criticism of Soros, which finances the most hostile organizations to the Jewish people and the State of Israel, is anything but anti-Semitism, rather the opposite,” Chikli wrote.
Soros’ Open Society Foundation donated to organizations that accuse Israel of human rights abuses and war crimes, such as Breaking the Silence and Adalah. In a 2016 leak of OSF emails, staff said they sought to weaken ties between Israel and the EU and cast doubt on Israeli democracy.
Anti-Defamation League chief Jonathan Greenblatt criticized Musk’s tweet, saying that “Soros is often held up by the far right, using anti-Semitic tropes, as the source of the world’s problems. Elon Musk, regardless of his intentions, feeding this segment – comparing him to a Jewish supervillain and claiming Soros ‘hates humanity’ – is not only troubling, it’s dangerous: it will embolden extremists who are already creating anti-Jewish conspiracies and have attempted to attack . Soros and Jewish communities as a result.”
Greenblatt later said in a television interview that he does not believe that Musk is an anti-Semite, but urged him to be more careful in his comments.
Musk responded on Twitter that he “will try to be more thoughtful in the future…
Anyway, my actual concern with Soros is that he has funded so many politicians [and district attorneys] which are soft even on violent crime, which has caused great damage to many cities [in my opinion]”, Musk explained.
Soros is one of the leading donors to the Democratic Party, often contributing to candidates on the party’s left flank. In recent years, he has focused on criminal justice reform, supporting progressive district attorneys who are more hesitant to prosecute criminals for certain crimes and seek to minimize prison sentences.
