Iran Admits: Regime Working With Soros Organization

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif says government working 'closely' with George Soros' Open Society Foundations

Gary Willig, Arutz Sheva

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif said Sunday that the Iranian government has worked closely with billionaire George Soros' Open Society Foundations (OSF) organization.

Zarif made the remarks in response to questions raised in the Iranian parliament. According to Zarif, the activity began before he entered his current position, and he boasted that he had succeeded in "keeping the activity organized."

OSF has funded a number of far-left organizations in Israel which seek to change the policy of Israel's government.

According to NGO Monitor, among the top beneficiaries of OSF funding is Human Rights Watch, which has been criticized for targeting, and falsely libeling, the state of Israel. Another is J Street, which describes itself as “pro-Israel” but has been termed anti-Israelby others for, among other things, welcoming proponents of a boycott on Israel at its national conference and honoring IDF soldiers who refused orders.

Another recipient of OSF funding is the Institute for Middle East Understanding, which, NGO-Monitor reports, is headed by staff who have accused Israel of war crimes and have termed Israel an “apartheid state.

The extreme-left Israeli group B’Tselem also receives OSF funds. B’Tselem is notorious for publishing one-sided reports, and for inflating Arab civilian casualty figures. For example, the group included hundreds of Hamas policemen in Gaza as “non-combatants,” and counted Sheikh Ahmed Yassin – then the leader of Hamas – as not a definite combatant.

B’Tselem has listed OSF as a source of support, but OSF has not listed B’Tselem as a recipient, indicating that the grant may have come through an overseas entity.

A leaked OSF document said that OSF’s strategy with respect to Israel is to "focus on raising the cost of the occupation and ending it on the one hand, and on human rights advocacy and protection on the other."

Hungary's President Re-elected, Beating Back Challenge by 'Soros Candidate'

By Ed Adamczyk 

Janos Ader, a member of the Fidesz party along with Prime Minister Viktor Orban, was re-elected this week. In his speech to parliament, he quoted a Hungarian poet, saying: "If we don't have a homeland, then we don't exist." File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

(UPI) -- Hungarian President Janos Ader was re-elected by parliament to a second, five-year term, defeating a challenger his party claimed was backed by George Soros.

In the balloting, 170 of 191 members of parliament voted in the two rounds of the election. The first round required a two-thirds majority.

Members of parliament voted in two rounds to re-elect Ader, a member of the Fidesz party, headed by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The ruling right-wing Fidesz-KDNP coalition delivered 131 votes for Ader in the first round of the election -- two short of the required supermajority -- with opposition parties combining for 39 votes for challenger Laszlo Majtenyi.

The second round required a simple majority, and Ader defeated Majtenyi by 131 to 39, with the DK opposition party abstaining.

Prior to the casting of ballots, both candidates gave a 15-minute speech to parliament. Majtenyi thanked those ministers who had supported him, and jokingly noted that he had not extended thanks to George Soros, the Hungarian-born billionaire who has financed left-wing and social justice movements around the world through his Open Society Foundations. He went on to say that "the state has succumbed to corruption" and must return to the rule of law.

Ader talked of the accomplishments of his first term, including the Serbian government accepting his apology for war crimes committed by Hungarian military personnel in WWII. He went on to detail his participation in the fight against climate change, and closed by quoting a Hungarian poet named Janos Arany: "If we don't have a homeland, then we don't exist. We won't have oxen or sheep, we won't have homes or land. We will not be ourselves, because a homeland is built from these things. Now the question is, do we want the homeland to live, or not?"