Pull back the curtain, and you'll invariably find that all roads lead to Soros.
We were told by the language police that any and all criticism of Democrat mega-donor George Soros, a Jewish-born Holocaust survivor and champion of left-wing causes, is inherently "anti-Semitic" and fuels the conspiratorial trope that Jews control society.
What is anti-Semitic, though: the 21st-century robber baron's so-called philanthropy is financing (to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars) anti-Israel activism aimed at delegitimizing the Jewish state—and with it, the expungement of its people.
Wednesday's storming of a congressional building situated on the U.S. Capitol complex, where a mob of allegedly violent Hamas sympathizers infiltrated the Cannon House Office Building rotunda, resulting in multiple arrests for assaulting police officers, was organized by two Soros-backed, nominally "Jewish" non-profits: the radical Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and far-left agitator IfNotNow.
Jewish Voice for Peace
Through Soros's philanthropic work, JVP was awarded several grants totaling $650,000 that bankrolled its "human rights" campaign and "social welfare activities" in the Middle East, according to a grant database maintained by the Soros-funded Open Society Foundations, the central hub of the financier's anti-capitalist, redistributionist network. The Soros-branded Open Society Policy Center Inc. — once the second-largest spender on federal lobbying after the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — donated $150,000 and $200,000 in 2021 and 2019, respectively, to the Jewish Voice for Peace Action Incorporated, JVP's tax-exempt 501(c)(3). And, in 2017, Soros's primary grant-giving vehicle, the Foundation to Promote Open Society, gifted JVP $300,000.
Jewish Voice for Peace grants | Source: Open Society Foundations website
As Spencer points out, like its Orwellian title, JVP does not act in good faith. The Jewish-in-name-only JVP is not Jewish, nor is it peace-seeking; JVP is as opportunistically "Jew-ish" as George Santos and as peaceful as the fiery Black Lives Matter protests.
"Deploying its 'Jewish' identity in attacking Israel is JVP's métier, one might say its purpose. The cutting edge of this work [...] is to deflect accusations of anti-Semitism..." Commentary contributor Joshua Muravchik explains in a deep-dive on JVP's duplicitous nature. "Were it not for the strategic advantage of speaking 'as Jews,' it is likely that some of the self-described 'progressive and leftist' activists who constitute JVP's membership would have little interest in belonging to a Jewish organization." Indeed, some JVP's members are not Jews. Rather, it's a collection of radical-left ideologues "who realize that their lineage affords special leverage in attacking Israel," Muravchik puts it. "Nowhere does JVP evince any genuine interest in Judaism or in the well-being of the Jewish people or any reverence for the accouterments of Jewish life — holidays, prayers, ceremonial garments, Hebrew words — that it appropriates as props or adornments in its impassioned campaign for Palestinian vanquishment of Israel."
On its old FAQ page, prior to revisions, JVP acknowledged, "No you don't" "have to be Jewish to join." Simply, JVP is "inspired by Jewish values and traditions."
"JVP misappropriates Jewish tradition by adapting Jewish rites and texts to fit its extreme political message," Honest Reporting illuminates. Still, self-identifying as the "Jewish wing" of the "Palestinian solidarity movement," JVP purports to represent "a mainstream" consortium of Jews, and so it seems to the untrained eye. However, JVP supports boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) to undermine Israel's legitimacy, explicitly desiring to drive "a wedge" within the American Jewish community to cause division, generate polarization, and weaken U.S. support — economic, military, and political — for Israel. JVP's executive director Rebecca Vilkomerson admitted to the tactic at a 2013 Stanford University forum: "So, I think that the more and more we can sort of put that wedge in, saying the Jewish community's not agreeing on these issues, the more we'll make progress."
Find out how the radical anti-Israel JVP uses its nominal identity as a Jewish org to promote the boycott of Israel, tacitly support Palestinian terrorism, and whitewash the antisemitism that exists among its political allies. 👇https://t.co/oB0cQacSga
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) October 23, 2023
The organization launched a "Return the Birthright" crusade to dissuade Jewish youth from participating in Birthright, which offers free first-time heritage trips for students of Jewish heritage around the world to trek to Israel. In March 2022, JVP railed against Israel's policies concerning refugees who sought refuge from Russia's war on Ukraine, claiming that "Israel is giving Jewish Ukrainians citizenship not out of kindness and generosity, but rather to cement a Jewish demographic majority in Palestine."
JVP's board has officially adopted the declaration: "We unequivocally oppose Zionism..." Well, what does it mean to oppose Zionism? It means opposition to Israel's existence, specifically its existence as a Jewish state a.k.a. Israel's abolition. Striking an Ibram X. Kendi-esque tone, JVP campus coordinator Ben Lorber equated "anti-Zionism" with "anti-racism, plain and simple. So if you don't support anti-Zionist causes[,] then you are enabling racism." JVP deputy director Cecile Surasky took it a step further in a 2015 blog post, arguing that "settler colonialism and white supremacy is [sic] the right, holistic frame with which to understand Israel" and that Israel's "mythical national narrative" makes "ethnic cleansing, even genocide...divinely justified."
JVP at-large posits that Zionism is fundamentally racist. In 2016, JVP convened a panel, entitled "The Toxic Stew: Zionism, Antisemitism, and White Supremacy." One of the speakers asserted that Zionism "means white supremacy." Another claimed there's a "real and conceptual connection between Zionism and American white supremacy and Jim Crow white supremacy."
Accordingly, JVP has established a Network Against Islamophobia (NAI) as a major project. NAI offers workshops and modules committed to "Challenging Islamophobia and Anti-Black Racism." JVP's project has commissioned the creation of merchandise, selling apparel like T-shirts, hoodies, onesies, aprons, boxers, baseball caps, tote bags, keychains, and dog jackets, which are emblazoned with bumper-sticker slogans, such as "Stop Profiling Muslims," "Standing with Muslims Against Islamophobia and Racism," "Free Palestine," and "Property of Allah," an eyebrow-raising sweatshirt decal for a group professing to be Jewish.Even the leftist Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has denounced JVP as a political actor "Increasing Anti-Israel Radicalism."
JVP's insistence that commentary critical of Israel cannot be anti-Semitic "gives cover to anti-Semites who couch their malice toward Jews as mere anti-Zionism," ADL assesses. When it comes to the scourge of Jewish hatred, JVP oft-spreads anti-Semitic canards. Last year, JVP featured on its Instagram account a political cartoon by Bahraini artist Sara Qaed that conjured "anti-Jewish blood libel of the Middle Ages." The crude illustration depicts Israel Defense Forces soldiers drinking blood to celebrate Israel's Independence Day, raising blood-filled glasses in a toast as the bodies of Palestinians are strewn across the blood-soaked ground. According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum encylopedia definition, the term "blood libel" refers to ritual-murder imagery falsely claiming that Jews used the blood of non-Jewish victims, usually Christian children, for ritualistic purposes. Nazis historically employed the anti-Semitic propaganda to demonize, dehumanize, and persecute Jews.
This cartoon posted by @jvplive is undeniably #antisemitic. Regardless of one’s views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, everyone should be appalled by this fictitious image, which appears to show Israeli soldiers drinking Palestinian blood. This is immensely dangerous. pic.twitter.com/InsIJEKace
— ADL (@ADL) June 1, 2022
JVP leadership has also publicly justified terrorism against Israelis. "The problem is that if you just stop the violence, you would not have justice," proclaimed JVP Board of Directors member Phyllis Bennis at a Students for Justice in Palestine event. After Hamas terrorists massacred more than 1,400 Israelis on Oct. 7, prominent JVP activist Ariel Koren expressed that Hamas's brutality was consistent with "Palestinians' right to resist." Koren had co-authored an op-ed for The Guardian, whereas the piece wasn't allowed to be published without the writers characterizing the Hamas attack as "brutal," a characterization Koren didn't agree with. "Western media is HYPERFIXATED on Hamas," Koren posted on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter.
At its 2017 national conference, JVP "honored" convicted Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist Rasmea Odeh, who was convicted for her involvement in a bombing of an Israeli supermarket that killed two Hebrew University students.
So much inspiration from Rasmea Odeh as we #HonorRasmea
— Jewish Voice for Peace (@jvplive) August 2, 2017
https://t.co/xA4oL0opAZ pic.twitter.com/yVhnhEo5B8
In a letter to the editor addresed to The Forward, which serves a Jewish American audience, Vilkomerson defended why JVP invited Odeh to speak at its bi-annual membership meeting. "We are proud to host Rasmea Odeh as one of many speakers from whom we can learn from about grassroots leadership in struggles for justice in these very difficult days," the JVP head penned.
Jewish Voice for Peace: We stand in solidarity with Rasmieh Yousef Odeh https://t.co/6wrSVgGkDY #InternationalWomensDay pic.twitter.com/4dzAVthz6g
— Jewish Voice for Peace (@jvplive) March 8, 2017
In a since-deleted 2020 tweet, JVP shamelessly celebrated the 33rd anniversary of the First Intifada, a violent Palestinian uprising against the Jewish state when hundreds of Israelis, mostly civilians, were murdered. JVP tweeted a poster that contained the chant "L'Chaim Intifada" at the bottom of the flyer, signaling "Long Live the Intifada," a call for Israel's destruction.
277 Israelis were murdered during the first intifada.
— Elder of Ziyon 🇮🇱 (@elderofziyon) December 9, 2020
Today, the repulsive "Jewish Voice for Peace" is celebrating every one of those deaths. pic.twitter.com/AbbmUIa6u3
During the Knife Intifada (2015 - 2016), which saw Israeli civilians, including many children, being stabbed in the streets on nearly a daily basis, JVP encouraged and lauded the "Palestinian popular resistance" led by assailants and murderers, hailing them on social media as "A new generation of Palestinians [...] marching on the footsteps of previous generations, rising up en masse..."
In 2019, JVP stood by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), a member of the derisively dubbed "Hamas Caucus" and "Jihad Squad," with the hashtag "#IStandWithIlhan" amid uproar over the congresswoman's 2012 tweet, in which Omar wrote: "Israel has hypnotized the world." Omar's antisemitic comment culminated in the passage of a U.S. House resolution condemning "religious hatred."
As @IlhanMN does, Jewish Voice for Peace supports freedom of speech and the constitutional right to boycott. JVP supports #BDS for freedom, justice and equality in Israel/Palestine. As the @ADL_National attacks @IlhanMN we lift her up in this new era. #IStandWithIlhan pic.twitter.com/cAvSwsFtVu
— Jewish Voice for Peace (@jvplive) November 15, 2018
For "a limited time only," new JVP members were given a free special-issue tote bag with Omar's face imprinted on it.
Also in 2019, JVP's political and advocacy arm Jewish Vote for Peace, hosted "Shabbat in the Park" with Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), whom the organization praised as a "hero for justice," after the lawmaker refused to travel to Israel, opting to grandstand instead of visiting her own elderly grandmother despite being granted permission by Jerusalem on humanitarian grounds. Tlaib was offered the exception as long as she would not promote boycotts against Israel during the PR stunt masked as a family trip.
We are so honored to support this hero for justice. @RashidaTlaib #DignityFromDetroitToPalestine
— Jewish Voice for Peace (@jvplive) August 16, 2019
@JvpAction pic.twitter.com/h1fnkz5Usj
Silencing me & treating me like a criminal is not what she wants for me. It would kill a piece of me. I have decided that visiting my grandmother under these oppressive conditions stands against everything I believe in--fighting against racism, oppression & injustice. https://t.co/z5t5j3qk4H
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) August 16, 2019
I approved her request as a gesture of goodwill on a humanitarian basis, but it was just a provocative request, aimed at bashing the State of Israel. Apparently her hate for Israel overcomes her love for her grandmother.@realDonaldTrump @RashidaTlaib
— אריה מכלוף דרעי (@ariyederi) August 16, 2019
Establishment media outlets like CNN have bought into the charade, mislabeling JVPers as "peace activists" who are rallying against violence being committed "in our name." In a video explainer on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Washington Post, citing JVP as its supposedly credible source, relied on an interview with JVP's political director Beth Miller to provide analysis and contextual perspective. Miller previously worked for Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCI-P), which has well-documented ties to the terrorist group PFLP and itself has been designated a "terror organization" by the Israeli Ministry of Defense, because it "constitutes an inseparable arm" of the PFLP and operates "on behalf of" the Popular Front.
IfNotNow
As for IfNotNow, Soros's grant-making Foundation to Promote Open Society handed $200,000 in 2019 and another $200,000 in 2021 to the 501(c)(3) IfNotNow Education Fund for growing membership, visibility, and impact around "general support" to end Israeli "occupation in the Middle East" (meaning the eradication of Israel), Open Society Foundations grant records show.
IfNotNow grants | Source: Open Society Foundations website
Similarly, IfNotNow claims to be an "American Jewish establishment," also co-opting Jewish rituals, but it's a fringe movement focused on antagonizing real Jewish organizations by staging sit-down demonstrations outside major U.S. Jewish institutions nationwide while, at the same time, it refuses to engage in dialogue with Jewish leaders to actually discuss the issues at hand.
Along with an ambivalent attitude toward the threat of terrorism targeting Israeli citizens, IfNotNow has a history of blurring the line between terrorist and civilian fatalities, plus providing a platform for terrorists and the terror-minded (via Honest Reporting):
In both 2014 and 2021, INN held public readings of the Kaddish mourner’s prayer for Israelis and Palestinians killed during Israeli counter-terror operations in Gaza. However, listed among the names of those whom they were mourning were members of the internationally recognized terror groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Similarly, in May 2019, INN responded to a tweet about five Palestinians killed during an Israeli operation to counter a rise in Gazan rocket attacks, saying that it was “heartbreaking.” Among those Palestinians listed in the tweet was Mohammad Nseir, a member of the small Islamist group Kataeb Humat al-Aqsa’s rocket-launching unit.
[...]
As part of its education initiative, INN released its “Liberation Syllabus,” providing a list of books from both Palestinian and Israeli writers for integration into Jewish education systems.
One of these recommended books was authored by Ghassan Kanafani, a spokesperson for the internationally recognized PFLP terror organization.
INN has also teamed up with American Muslims for Palestine, a Chicago-based organization that endorses anti-Israeli violence and terrorism as legitimate forms of “resistance.”
IfNotNow's Detroit chapter reportedly shared an event graphic containing an image of a paraglider, a reference to the armed Hamas terrorists using the aircraft to paraglide across the Gaza Strip border and mass murder hundreds of attendees at an Israeli music festival. Executed on the spot, droves of innocent victims were gunned down in fields, ditches, roads, and portable toilets attempting to flee the open-air Tribe of Nova rave near Gaza. 260 bodies were initially found on the site of the Oct. 7 massacre.
Back in 2019, IfNotNow was also a participant in the #StandwithIlhan efforts.
We thank Rep @Ilhan for her commitment to listening and learning from Jewish allies, and we are committed to doing the same. Together, we will continue to fight for basic freedom and dignity for all people at home and abroad. Shabbat Shalom! #standwithilhan pic.twitter.com/jYncWbCY99
— IfNotNow🔥 (@IfNotNowOrg) February 15, 2019
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