[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA
Alexander Soros is the son of billionaire George Soros - an enemy of Israel
from the get-go. Since this item will also reach the United States it would
not be PC for me to dwell on the significance that George Soros considered
it PC to say this in a 20 December 1998 broadcast of 60 Minutes:

KROFT: (Voiceover) To understand the complexities and contradictions in his
personality, you have to go back to the very beginning: to Budapest, where
George Soros was born 68 years ago to parents who were wealthy,
well-educated and Jewish.

When the Nazis occupied Budapest in 1944, George Soros' father was a
successful lawyer. He lived on an island in the Danube and liked to commute
to work in a rowboat. But knowing there were problems ahead for the Jews, he
decided to split his family up. He bought them forged papers and he bribed a
government official to take 14-year-old George Soros in and swear that he
was his Christian godson. But survival carried a heavy price tag. While
hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews were being shipped off to the death
camps, George Soros accompanied his phony godfather on his appointed rounds,
confiscating property from the Jews.

(Vintage footage of Jews walking in line; man dragging little boy in line)

KROFT: (Voiceover) These are pictures from 1944 of what happened to George
Soros' friends and neighbors.

(Vintage footage of women and men with bags over their shoulders walking;
crowd by a train)

KROFT: (Voiceover) You're a Hungarian Jew...

Mr. SOROS: (Voiceover) Mm-hmm.

KROFT: (Voiceover) ...who escaped the Holocaust...

(Vintage footage of women walking by train)

Mr. SOROS: (Voiceover) Mm-hmm.

(Vintage footage of people getting on train)

KROFT: (Voiceover) ... by -- by posing as a Christian.

Mr. SOROS: (Voiceover) Right.

(Vintage footage of women helping each other get on train; train door
closing with people in boxcar)

KROFT: (Voiceover) And you watched lots of people get shipped off to the
death camps.

Mr. SOROS: Right. I was 14 years old. And I would say that that's when my
character was made.

KROFT: In what way?

Mr. SOROS: That one should think ahead. One should understand and -- and
anticipate events and when -- when one is threatened. It was a tremendous
threat of evil. I mean, it was a -- a very personal experience of evil.

KROFT: My understanding is that you went out with this protector of yours
who swore that you were his adopted godson.

Mr. SOROS: Yes. Yes.

KROFT: Went out, in fact, and helped in the confiscation of property from
the Jews.

Mr. SOROS: Yes. That's right. Yes.

KROFT: I mean, that's -- that sounds like an experience that would send lots
of people to the psychiatric couch for many, many years. Was it difficult?

Mr. SOROS: Not -- not at all. Not at all. Maybe as a child you don't -- you
don't see the connection. But it was -- it created no -- no problem at all.

KROFT: No feeling of guilt?

Mr. SOROS: No.

KROFT: For example that, 'I'm Jewish and here I am, watching these people
go. I could just as easily be there. I should be there.' None of that?

Mr. SOROS: Well, of course I c -- I could be on the other side or I could be
the one from whom the thing is being taken away. But there was no sense that
I shouldn't be there, because that was -- well, actually, in a funny way,
it's just like in markets -- that if I weren't there -- of course, I wasn't
doing it, but somebody else would -- would -- would be taking it away
anyhow. And it was the -- whether I was there or not, I was only a
spectator, the property was being taken away. So the -- I had no role in
taking away that property. So I had no sense of guilt.
===================================
What American Jews Want
We care about much more than Israel. That’s why I’m launching a Jewish
Action PAC.
By ALEXANDER SOROS April 21, 2015
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/04/american-jews-arent-single-issue-voters-on-israel-117159.html


Considering all of the ink spilled parsing the politics of Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Congress and the media attention accorded
Sheldon Adelson for holding a personal primary for Republican presidential
hopefuls, the average American might think that American Jews are
single-issue voters whose only concern is the safety of Israel.

While Israel remains deeply important to many of us, the idea that Israel
and Israel alone is what drives Jewish voters—and Jewish political
dollars—is false. A 2012 Public Religion Research Institute survey asked
registered Jewish voters which issue was most important to their vote in the
upcoming Presidential election. Only 4 percent of them said it was Israel.
Instead, the majority answered that the most important issues for them were
issues of domestic concern — 51 percent said it was the economy, while
another 15 percent specifically said it was “the growing gap between the
rich and the poor.” The third-most important issue was health care, with 10
percent, adding up to a full 76 percent of the Jewish electorate driven by
this classic set of domestic issues.

And what’s clear in these and other major surveys is that on these domestic
issues, Jews are overwhelmingly progressive. In fact, Jews are one of the
most progressive demographic groups in America today.

We care about reducing economic inequality. In a series of surveys conducted
by the highly-regarded Pew Research Center between 2012 and 2013, 54 percent
of Jews support a larger, active government that provides more services
versus 38 percent who favor a smaller government and fewer services (these
percentages are reversed in the general population). We believe in full
equality for LGBT people, with 78 percent of us supporting marriage
equality, according to the same Pew Research surveys. And, having survived
persecution and bigotry throughout our history, we’re deeply concerned about
discrimination against other minority communities in the United States.
Surveys demonstrate that Jews are significantly more conscious of the
discrimination faced by Black people, Latinos, and Muslims in the U.S. than
the general population.

That’s why other politically active American Jews have joined me to launch
the Bend the Arc Jewish Action PAC, which will focus the passion and
political power of American Jews on supporting those progressive politicians
who truly speak to the core values of Jewish voters.

We’re not only progressive in our views. We’re also among the most
politically engaged groups in America. In our local communities, American
Jews are active, fighting for the issues we care about. Right now, we’re
joining with other religious groups to protest so-called “religious freedom”
laws in Indiana, Arkansas, Louisiana, and elsewhere that would allow
discrimination against LGBT people. We’re supporting efforts to empower home
health care workers to organize for better wages and working conditions. And
we’re rallying behind the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Last December, on the
first night of Chanukah, thousands of American Jews gathered across 15 U.S.
cities to protest police brutality against African Americans.

In Washington, we’re fighting for immigration reform, risking arrest
alongside our immigrant brothers and sisters, and standing up for a fair
budget that doesn’t balance our debt by laying an unsupportable burden on
the backs of America’s poor and underprivileged.

Yet, right now, the political elite thinks that so long as the issue of
Israel is addressed, they have our support. We need to change that. We need
to expand–greatly–what it takes to earn Jewish votes and Jewish political
dollars. Part of the reason this misperception exists is because even though
American Jews are incredibly active in progressive politics as individuals,
their voices are scattered across other organizations. At the same time,
most Jewish political organizations have become tightly focused on Israel
and Middle East policy, and their voices have skewed conservative, out of
step with the opinions of real Jewish voters. We’re launching Bend the Arc
Jewish Action PAC because we want to remind decision makers—and some of our
own leaders —that domestic issues are ultimately what decide our votes.

And we’re also launching this PAC because we know that we can’t win the
progressive battles American Jews are fighting across the country without
stalwart allies in Congress. This PAC will be a vehicle that concentrates
our community’s political and financial support and directs it to members of
Congress who share our values. These are fierce progressive champions like
Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, and Rep.
Xavier Becerra of California. We want to send a clear message to our elected
officials — if you want the support of Jewish voters, you need to stand up
for progressive ideals and policies at home; not pander to us by cynically
declaring your support for Israel.

Some might question why a progressive organization is launching a PAC at a
time when the influence of outside money in politics makes so many
progressives uncomfortable. This is a legitimate concern, but under the
current political system, we see no other option. To abandon this initiative
would mean surrendering the possibility of passing the Employment
Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) or blocking budget cuts that would hurt the
most vulnerable Americans. It would mean losing the opportunity to reform
policing in Black communities across the country. At this crucial moment in
a pre-election year, we believe we are undertaking the smartest and most
strategic option currently available to engage with our political system and
ensure that the Jewish community’s progressive values are represented in
Congress.

The model of the single-issue Jewish voter is a myth that should be retired.
Progressive Jews are ready to speak—and speak loudly—on the issues that
speak to our community the most and continue our commitment to keeping the
American Dream alive for everyone in this country.


Alexander Soros is Chair of the Board of Bend the Arc Jewish Action.