[BuzzFeed] The Unbelievable Story Of The Plot Against George Soros

[Costa]

Link to the Article

Starting in 2008, Birnbaum and Finkelstein worked in secret to get Orbán elected. Their victory in Hungary — away from the intense political scrutiny of Western Europe — showed that constructing an external enemy could bring electoral success in the modern era. It allowed Hungary to give birth to "Trump before Trump," as Steve Bannon said.

Birnbaum and Finkelstein's work has provided a new model for attack politics in this era of global division. They designed a master plan for exploiting these divisions that has worked in many different countries and contexts, and helped create a Jewish enemy that the far right has exploited to devastating effect. In 2016, when Trump ran his final TV ad ahead of the election, it came as no surprise that Soros was featured as a member of "global special interests" who don't have "your good in mind."

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It was back then that Finkelstein started developing a political method that now reads like a how-to guide for modern right-wing populism. Finkelstein's premise was simple: Every election is decided before it even begins. Most people know who they will vote for, what they support, and what they oppose. It's very difficult to convince them otherwise, Finkelstein believed. It's a lot easier to demoralize people than to motivate them. And the best way to win is to demoralize your opponent's supporters. That's what Trump did to great effect against Hillary Clinton, and what he meant when, after the election, he thanked black Americans for not voting.

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The assassination of the Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, on Nov. 4, 1995, was a turning point for the country — and for Finkelstein and Birnbaum.
When elections for his successor were hastily arranged, a newcomer threw his hat into the ring. Benjamin Netanyahu, a right-wing former corporate consultant, was given no chance. He was running against Shimon Peres, a legendary figure, a Social Democrat from the founding generation of Israel who wanted to continue Rabin's peace process, which most people hoped would succeed.

Israelis initially sneered at Netanyahu's ambitions, and polls put him 20% behind. But seemingly out of nowhere, Netanyahu's Likud party started carpeting the country with sinister ads. "Peres will divide Jerusalem" went the slogan, even though Peres had no such intention. Similar attacks targeting Peres appeared on TV, on the radio, and in the press.
In the final TV debate, Peres stepped into the trap laid by Finkelstein. The first thing he did was to try to clarify that he had no desire to divide Jerusalem — the exact topic Finkelstein wanted him to raise. Netanyahu owned the debate.

On Election Day, the race between Peres and Netanyahu looked too close to call. Around 10 p.m. the TV stations reported a very close win for Peres, based on early projections. According to a biography of Netanyahu, he grabbed the phone and called "Arthur" — his secret campaign manager. Finkelstein was in New York, but answered immediately, and told Netanyahu he shouldn't be worried. "I always win the close ones."

When the final count came in, Netanyahu was the new prime minister: 50.49% to 49.51%.

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Against this backdrop, Finkelstein had an epiphany. What if the veil of the conspiracy were to be lifted and a shadowy figure appear, controlling everything? The puppet master. Someone who not only controlled the "big capital" but embodied it. A real person. A Hungarian. Strange, yet familiar.

That person was Soros, Finkelstein told Birnbaum.

Birnbaum was mesmerized: Soros was the perfect enemy.

At the beginning, it almost didn't make sense. Why campaign against a nonpolitician? Although he was born in Hungary, Soros hadn't lived there in years. He was an old man, known all over the country as a patron of civil society. He had supported the opposition against the Communists before the fall of the Iron Curtain, and financed school meals for kids afterward. In Budapest, he had built one of the best universities in Eastern Europe.

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This article just makes me so mad... Another projection of the right can be directly attributed to George Birnbaum and Arthur Finkelstein. I believe it is thanks to them that the current wave of fascism is hitting the globe as hard as it is. How they had a hand in bringing antisemitism back into the mainstream when they're Jewish just has me wondering why. It feels defeating not knowing what can be done to combat it; which is exactly what they sought out to do :/

Anyway, BuzzFeed somehow continues to bring in these deep dives. Thought it was too incredible to not share and I didn't see anyone else post it.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

Link to the Article









This article just makes me so mad... Another projection of the right can be directly attributed to George Birnbaum and Arthur Finkelstein. I believe it is thanks to them that the current wave of fascism is hitting the globe as hard as it is. How they had a hand in bringing antisemitism back into the mainstream when they're Jewish just has me wondering why. It feels defeating not knowing what can be done to combat it; which is exactly what they sought out to do :/

Anyway, BuzzFeed somehow continues to bring in these deep dives. Thought it was too incredible to not share and I didn't see anyone else post it.

Click to shrink...

Two things:

There have been ALOT of sell-outs amongst Jews lately. I dont know if they think they're safe from it if its power is at their beck and call or its a schism that goes thru many lines enough to cripple multiple societies (both alt-right and muslim societies have this in them for example) but there are many examples. Bibi's son is an example, as is Michael Cohen's dad getting him to drop the sometimes-jewish anti-semites he worked for as fixer and bagman (Donny, KUSHNER, MOGILEVICH, etc) and Sheryl Sandberg over at Facebook hiring shady PR firm Definers to do this same thing.

Secondly, Finkelstein was old school dirty tricks in bed with people like Stone, Manafort, and Atwater doing dark business and steadily turning campaign strategy into a 365/24/7 war of manipulation and endless strategems. Birnbaum has rubbed shoulders with them as well.

In the final TV debate, Peres stepped into the trap laid by Finkelstein. The first thing he did was to try to clarify that he had no desire to divide Jerusalem — the exact topic Finkelstein wanted him to raise. Netanyahu owned the debate.

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Im glad I fought console warriors and other video game battlelines over the years, as knowing of this "control the message" strategy is the first step towards breaking the spell of this psychological stunt over others. "Point out the game, don't play it" in other words.

 

[Roy]

Holy shit. I don't know what to say. People won't wake up. A few months ago France began legislatures against fake news but hardly anybody paid attention, even here. To me, that may be our only hope to prevent a world built on lies and disinformation.

 

[lunarworks]

Holy shit. I don't know what to say. People won't wake up. A few months ago France began legislatures against fake news but hardly anybody paid attention, even here. To me, that may be our only hope to prevent a world built on lies and disinformation.

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When a government tries to shut down conspiracy theories that makes the theorists believe it even more.

 

[Roy]

When a government tries to shut down conspiracy theories that makes the theorists believe it even more.

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Did you quote the wrong person? I never said anything about conspiracy theories.

 

[Johnny Blaze]

Two things:

There have been ALOT of sell-outs amongst Jews lately. I dont know if they think they're safe from it if its power is at their beck and call or its a schism that goes thru many lines enough to cripple multiple societies (both alt-right and muslim societies have this in them for example) but there are many examples. Bibi's son is an example, as is Michael Cohen's dad getting him to drop the sometimes-jewish anti-semites he worked for as fixer and bagman (Donny, KUSHNER, MOGILEVICH, etc) and Sheryl Sandberg over at Facebook hiring shady PR firm Definers to do this same thing.

Secondly, Finkelstein was old school dirty tricks in bed with people like Stone, Manafort, and Atwater doing dark business and steadily turning campaign strategy into a 365/24/7 war of manipulation and endless strategems. Birnbaum has rubbed shoulders with them as well.



Im glad I fought console warriors and other video game battlelines over the years, as knowing of this "control the message" strategy is the first step towards breaking the spell of this psychological stunt over others. "Point out the game, don't play it" in other words.

Click to shrink...

"Fuck you got mine" knows no race, border, gender...it brings together all the shitty people from all ethnicities.

 

[lunarworks]

Did you quote the wrong person? I never said anything about conspiracy theories.

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The fake news that spreads, like (((SOROS))), is frequently conspiracy-level stuff.

 

[Deleted member 8860]

This article just makes me so mad... Another projection of the right can be directly attributed to George Birnbaum and Arthur Finkelstein. I believe it is thanks to them that the current wave of fascism is hitting the globe as hard as it is. How they had a hand in bringing antisemitism back into the mainstream when they're Jewish just has me wondering why. It feels defeating not knowing what can be done to combat it; which is exactly what they sought out to do :/

Click to shrink...

I'm shocked -- shocked! -- that Netanyahu's campaign manager would stoop to using anti-Semitic attacks against progressives.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

"Fuck you got mine" knows no race, border, gender...it brings together all the shitty people from all ethnicities.

Click to shrink...

I think it's a little different than that. That's some of a group sticking with the party over parts of a platform that one likes and ignoring the rest even though it hurts a ton of their fellows. This is several very powerful and/or rich jewish people being VERY aware of what it actually is as they're the ones restarting and nurturing it. I'm guessing they know they can make money and/or spin away from their illegalities, they can control it and be safe from the obvious wildfire it would spread...

 

[Stinkles]

Hillary was also our Soros. The same deliberate effort. The same organizerd funding. The same type of planning.The same evolution and snowball effect. It started before she was a politician and really before anyone was really worried about her becoming a politician. Might have gotten some boost from insurance or health industry lobbyists in 1992 when it became apparent as first lady she was going to take on healthcare as a subject. That would scare them because it would feel like "saving orphans" in the context of firts lady causes and give her a moral high ground they couldn't directly assail. She was a sticky target because of her husand, her own charisma and latent mysoginy. The campaign around Hillary was very similar - the fundemental difference being that she wasn't merely a private citizen and without the (((implication))). THe kickoff for the cmapign though, was the stupid fucking cookie contest "scandal" that started when she had the fucking audacity to point out that she herself was an accomplished lawyer and being a pretend Family Circle wife wasn't in the cards for her. Her comment wasn't a big deal, but her enemies made it one. That's the seed moment.

For Soros, a private citizen who has done almost nothing but good with his money, a coordinated false smear campaign of this scale should have consequences, but it doesn't. They may not even have broken any serious laws. The hurdles to successfully holding feet to the fire for libel and slander have been raised to the point where if you're going after a public figure, you can call them "shit-fuck-Hitler" and accuse them of being a child cannibal, as long as you qualify your attacks with "some people say" and the people mentioned in this story for starting the Soros boogeyman, won't even be inconvenienced by the story's publication. They'll laugh about it at their Cigar club. Even though they've risked his life as well as his reputation. On purpose. Knowingly via total falsehoods.

The disturbing element at the root of this story at least as it relates to Israel, is Israelis with multiple vested but disparate interests assembled around keeping the country in a permanent state of siege. At the most venal and pathetic level is a soulless politician like Netenyahu, who just sees it primarily as a way to maintain power and in his case, the graft associated with it. Bibi isn't himself necessarily a zionist. A nationalist for sure. And a right wing opportunist. And Israeli nationalism is wrapped up in a religious identity too, in a way that's not (quite) possible in the US at the scale needed for a Bibi to emerge here.

But he treats occupation and settlements the same way US senators and their funding sponsors see abortion and homsexuality. They don't actually care about abortion. They have gay friends at the same percentage as everyone else. They GET abortions. They PAY for abortions. They just need it as a permanent wedge issue. Certainly that means they have to get in bed with true believers like Pence and the Evangelicals, but the people paying to keep it alive as an issue are also encouraging those voters to care about it in the first place. Making it the key tenet of evangelicalism - above and beyond evangelizing. And they cooperate with pastors from megachurches and rapture cultists and look at the shitshow you end up with - Donald Trump as a moral leader of Christ's life and teachings - a completely indewfensible position that defies credulity.

Israel has a similar left/right/centrist divide as much of the world. The problem for the right though, with the occupation and settlements is that there's a signficiant "danger" a peace process will happen. With no "enemy" Bibi's gross amalgam of disparate base elements will move to another party or lose outright. A stable, peaceful, secular israel is a danger to the coalition they've built and of course to its military industrial complex (and growing parts of its burgeoning tech and scientific industries). So the trick is to prevent peace and continue the settlements to appease the zionists and ultra orthodox lunatics, but straddle the balance between that and chaos.

Liberal and secular jews have a quieter voice than their numbers suggest for similar reasons to the US - first off it's harder to present yourself or your coalition as a "full" citizen of a Jewish state if the reality of your situation is 99% just cultural and geographical (the way most people really live here in the US and in Israel and all over the world). It's ludicrous, but we see it in the US too - dumb little nuggets of cultural shit like pretending you arrived at Plymouth Rock, and Freedom Fries and kneeling for the national anthem. It's a big No True Scotsman fallacy that plays out all over the country every day and is floated by a media desperate to appear patriotic and balanced.

So they've built a right wing coalition of greedy individuals, pragmatic business, crazy apocalyptics and hyper nationalist zionists - and wortk constantly to create a safer buffer for themselevs from international sanction, by continuing to foment middle eastern dissent and the near constant threat of war with Iran specifically, but neighbors generally, which even allies them in weird ways with Sunni muslim nations whose imams are simultaneously calling for the complete destruction of their state.

There's no easy historical hindsight that is a golden path to peace and prosperity and friendly neeighbors, but the right wing, Likud, the ultra orthodox, the settlements and the bizarre help or paralysis they've secured forom the US right and left wing means it's the worst case scenario without all out war or the destruction of either Israel or the Palestinians. Bibi needs Israel to be in the most stable worst case scenario poissible, for as long as possible. He has no long term vision for the country and he's deliberately spent his life preventing one from happening.

And US coverage of Israeli politics would have you think that it was 100% right wing country that is in a constant state of war with its own citizens and that those citizens are desirous of a completely religious Jewish state with an apartheid for arabs to live there in ways that are convenient fort Israelis. And that couldn't be further from the truth. The balance of information seems to benefit the right wing by keeping tension high, rather than presenting them as moral.

Creamy Optimistic Outlook:

The whole shitshow sucks but it's especially sad because a stable, peaceful and productive Israel is a fantastic model of how oil-rich Middle Eastern countries could rationally evolve their own economies and societies and geopolitics beyond the bread and circuses and war that falling oil prices may put a disastrous end to. The nature of middle eastern oil is such that in a future of energy efficiency, they could be leagues ahead in plastics and other non-CO2 generating fossil-"fuel" chemistry and industry, cleaner and cheaper than say fracking or other destructive extraction - and a warming climate means that if you're going to make big holes in the ground anyway, then low population mountains and deserts aren't the worst place to do it if it can be done cleanly. And their energy needs can also be accomodated by a climate that's otherwise bad for economies.

It's frustrating. But as simplistic and reductive as my whole rant is, the fact is that industry, extremism and greedy little men continue to prevent progress. And they coordinate with each other to fuck over everyone else to keep their scams, schemes and myths afloat. And they can do it by creating boogeymen from whole cloth, and never have to prove these monsters actually exist.

 

[Kernel]

This article had me shaking in anger. You see this same shit strategy everywhere now.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

Bumping this yet again as Bibi fights off an indictment before a crucial election.

Hillary was also our Soros. The same deliberate effort. The same organizerd funding. The same type of planning.The same evolution and snowball effect. It started before she was a politician and really before anyone was really worried about her becoming a politician. Might have gotten some boost from insurance or health industry lobbyists in 1992 when it became apparent as first lady she was going to take on healthcare as a subject. That would scare them because it would feel like "saving orphans" in the context of firts lady causes and give her a moral high ground they couldn't directly assail. She was a sticky target because of her husand, her own charisma and latent mysoginy. The campaign around Hillary was very similar - the fundemental difference being that she wasn't merely a private citizen and without the (((implication))). THe kickoff for the cmapign though, was the stupid fucking cookie contest "scandal" that started when she had the fucking audacity to point out that she herself was an accomplished lawyer and being a pretend Family Circle wife wasn't in the cards for her. Her comment wasn't a big deal, but her enemies made it one. That's the seed moment.

For Soros, a private citizen who has done almost nothing but good with his money, a coordinated false smear campaign of this scale should have consequences, but it doesn't. They may not even have broken any serious laws. The hurdles to successfully holding feet to the fire for libel and slander have been raised to the point where if you're going after a public figure, you can call them "shit-fuck-Hitler" and accuse them of being a child cannibal, as long as you qualify your attacks with "some people say" and the people mentioned in this story for starting the Soros boogeyman, won't even be inconvenienced by the story's publication. They'll laugh about it at their Cigar club. Even though they've risked his life as well as his reputation. On purpose. Knowingly via total falsehoods.

The disturbing element at the root of this story at least as it relates to Israel, is Israelis with multiple vested but disparate interests assembled around keeping the country in a permanent state of siege. At the most venal and pathetic level is a soulless politician like Netenyahu, who just sees it primarily as a way to maintain power and in his case, the graft associated with it. Bibi isn't himself necessarily a zionist. A nationalist for sure. And a right wing opportunist. And Israeli nationalism is wrapped up in a religious identity too, in a way that's not (quite) possible in the US at the scale needed for a Bibi to emerge here.

But he treats occupation and settlements the same way US senators and their funding sponsors see abortion and homsexuality. They don't actually care about abortion. They have gay friends at the same percentage as everyone else. They GET abortions. They PAY for abortions. They just need it as a permanent wedge issue. Certainly that means they have to get in bed with true believers like Pence and the Evangelicals, but the people paying to keep it alive as an issue are also encouraging those voters to care about it in the first place. Making it the key tenet of evangelicalism - above and beyond evangelizing. And they cooperate with pastors from megachurches and rapture cultists and look at the shitshow you end up with - Donald Trump as a moral leader of Christ's life and teachings - a completely indewfensible position that defies credulity.

Israel has a similar left/right/centrist divide as much of the world. The problem for the right though, with the occupation and settlements is that there's a signficiant "danger" a peace process will happen. With no "enemy" Bibi's gross amalgam of disparate base elements will move to another party or lose outright. A stable, peaceful, secular israel is a danger to the coalition they've built and of course to its military industrial complex (and growing parts of its burgeoning tech and scientific industries). So the trick is to prevent peace and continue the settlements to appease the zionists and ultra orthodox lunatics, but straddle the balance between that and chaos.

Liberal and secular jews have a quieter voice than their numbers suggest for similar reasons to the US - first off it's harder to present yourself or your coalition as a "full" citizen of a Jewish state if the reality of your situation is 99% just cultural and geographical (the way most people really live here in the US and in Israel and all over the world). It's ludicrous, but we see it in the US too - dumb little nuggets of cultural shit like pretending you arrived at Plymouth Rock, and Freedom Fries and kneeling for the national anthem. It's a big No True Scotsman fallacy that plays out all over the country every day and is floated by a media desperate to appear patriotic and balanced.

So they've built a right wing coalition of greedy individuals, pragmatic business, crazy apocalyptics and hyper nationalist zionists - and wortk constantly to create a safer buffer for themselevs from international sanction, by continuing to foment middle eastern dissent and the near constant threat of war with Iran specifically, but neighbors generally, which even allies them in weird ways with Sunni muslim nations whose imams are simultaneously calling for the complete destruction of their state.

There's no easy historical hindsight that is a golden path to peace and prosperity and friendly neeighbors, but the right wing, Likud, the ultra orthodox, the settlements and the bizarre help or paralysis they've secured forom the US right and left wing means it's the worst case scenario without all out war or the destruction of either Israel or the Palestinians. Bibi needs Israel to be in the most stable worst case scenario poissible, for as long as possible. He has no long term vision for the country and he's deliberately spent his life preventing one from happening.

And US coverage of Israeli politics would have you think that it was 100% right wing country that is in a constant state of war with its own citizens and that those citizens are desirous of a completely religious Jewish state with an apartheid for arabs to live there in ways that are convenient fort Israelis. And that couldn't be further from the truth. The balance of information seems to benefit the right wing by keeping tension high, rather than presenting them as moral.

Creamy Optimistic Outlook:

The whole shitshow sucks but it's especially sad because a stable, peaceful and productive Israel is a fantastic model of how oil-rich Middle Eastern countries could rationally evolve their own economies and societies and geopolitics beyond the bread and circuses and war that falling oil prices may put a disastrous end to. The nature of middle eastern oil is such that in a future of energy efficiency, they could be leagues ahead in plastics and other non-CO2 generating fossil-"fuel" chemistry and industry, cleaner and cheaper than say fracking or other destructive extraction - and a warming climate means that if you're going to make big holes in the ground anyway, then low population mountains and deserts aren't the worst place to do it if it can be done cleanly. And their energy needs can also be accomodated by a climate that's otherwise bad for economies.

It's frustrating. But as simplistic and reductive as my whole rant is, the fact is that industry, extremism and greedy little men continue to prevent progress. And they coordinate with each other to fuck over everyone else to keep their scams, schemes and myths afloat. And they can do it by creating boogeymen from whole cloth, and never have to prove these monsters actually exist.

Click to shrink...

Amen.

 

[dabig2]

Bumping this because AIPAC fuckery is out and about.

Also, just an aside, but I kinda wish this thread title had the more provocative sub-line instead: How two Jewish American political consultants helped create the world's largest anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.

 

[Neece]

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