In the intriguing, and at times ridiculous, world of politics, where the line between absurdity and reality often becomes blurry, we have the latest bout of idiocy coming from Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, president of George Soros’ Open Society Foundation. In an episode that sounds like it was scripted for a bad television comedy, Malloch-Brown suggested that Israel should resolve its war with Hamas by engaging in diplomatic relations with Hamas, the terrorist organization that gets its jollies by killing women, elders, and children.
The Open Society Foundation president made an appearance on BBC Newsnight on Tuesday to discuss the conflict in Gaza.
Malloch-Brown claimed that there were “several other ways” of neutralizing the Hamas terrorists “rather than just — you know — beating the last one to the ground.” He lectured Israel, advocating that the country instead take a carrots-and-sticks approach to dealing with the terrorists: “You’ve got to use both the tools of diplomacy and military action but not compromise on the basic point that Israel must be guaranteed its security.” He even had the audacity to lecture that the reason why Palestinian military leadership repeatedly returns after being “taken out of the region” was because of the “absence of a two-state solution.”
So, let’s take a look at this idea. Malloch-Brown wants Israel to sit down at a negotiating table with the leadership of an organization that murders Israeli civilians, and is even willing to kill Palestinian civilians living under its governance. Apparently, he thinks an organization that uses Gazan noncombatants as human shields for propaganda purposes can be reasonable enough to come to an understanding that would work for both parties.
Of course, there is also the matter of Hamas’ charter, which reads like a doomsday prophecy against Israel, vowing that “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it.” The charter also declares that Muslims must “raise the banner of Jihad in the face of the oppressors, so that they would rid the land and the people of their uncleanliness, vileness and evils.”
But even more enlightening is what the charter says about peaceful solutions:
[Peace] initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement… There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are but a waste of time, an exercise in futility.
Malloch-Brown appears to think it is possible to negotiate with an entity that publicly proclaims that it wants to wipe the other side off the face of the Earth. This is akin to rabbits sitting down with coyotes to explain why it should not become the predator’s dinner.
But what’s even more egregious about this display of naïve stupidity is that the Open Society Foundation has been funding the pro-Hamas and pro-Palestinian protests taking place all over America.
Far-left billionaire kingmaker George Soros has funneled more than $15 million since 2016 to groups behind this month’s pro-Palestine protests, where demonstrators openly cheered Hamas militants’ craven terrorist attacks on Israel.
A Post examination of Open Society Foundations records shows Soros’ grant-making network gave $13.7 million of the money through Tides Center, a deep-pocketed lefty advocacy group that sponsors several nonprofits who’ve justified Hamas’ bloody attacks while claiming Palestinians obsessed with the eradication of the Jewish state are the real victims.
Tides’ beneficiaries include Illinois-based Adalah Justice Project, which on the day of the Oct. 7 massacre posted a photo on Instagram of a bulldozer tearing part of Israel’s border fence down and a caption: “Israeli colonizers believed they could indefinitely trap two million people in an open-air prison… no cage goes unchallenged.”
Taking this into account, it is not surprising that the president of the organization would take a softer approach to Hamas while placing the onus on Israel to make peace. Unfortunately, there are plenty who might fall for this particular line of bovine excrement.
