On the August 15 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio program, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly attacked billionaire philanthropist George Soros for an op-ed Soros wrote, published that same day in The Wall Street Journal, on the “counterproductive and self-defeating policies” inspired by the “war on terror.” O'Reilly called Soros an “incredible imbecile, with all due respect,” and went on to clarify his attack, saying: “I didn't mean to call him a name, but I have to put some kind of descriptive adjective on his analysis.” After dismissing Soros's commentary as “gobbly-gook,” O'Reilly claimed that “Soros is a guy who doesn't understand evil, doesn't really even acknowledge it,” despite the fact that Soros is “a guy who fled the Holocaust.”

Soros is a Hungarian-born Jew who survived the Nazi occupation of Budapest.

From the August 15 broadcast of The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:

O'REILLY: OK, so that's my analysis. And, as always, I could be wrong. But I'm not. In The Wall Street Journal today, George Soros, the far-left money man behind a lot of media in this country, puts forth that we can't win the war on terror. George says, just can't do it. Quote, “The war on terror is a false metaphor that has led to counterproductive and self-defeating policies.” OK. “First, war by its very nature creates innocent victims. Second, terrorism is an abstraction and inhibits much needed negotiations with Iran and Syria, because they are states that support terrorists groups. Third, the war on terror emphasizes military action, while most territorial conflicts require political solutions.”

This isn't a territorial conflict, George, you incredible imbecile, with all due respect. It's not a territorial conflict. This is a religious, “kill the infidels” war. They don't wanna conquer Ohio. You know, I just, all right, Soros goes on. And I didn't mean to call him a name, but I have to put some kind of descriptive adjective on his analysis. “Fourth, the war on terror drives a wedge between us and them.” Yeah, I would say. “We are the innocent victims. They are the perpetrators. But we fail to notice that we also become perpetrators in the process.”

Yeah, OK. If you're gonna wage a war, you're gonna be perpetrators, because war is destruction. I mean. it's just like, oh. All right, as Soros sums up, “With American influence at a low ebb, the world is in danger of sliding into a vicious circle of escalating violence. We can only escape it if we Americans repudiate the war on terror as a false metaphor. If we persevere on the wrong course, the situation will continue to deteriorate.” All right, this is just gobbly-gook. Remember that? Your mother used to say “gobbly-gook”?

E.D. HILL (co-host): Um-hum, yeah.

O'REILLY: It's just gobbly-gook.

HILL: Was nonsensical.

O'REILLY: It doesn't have anything to do with people killing people. All right. It's not about territory. The Mideast conflict between Hezbollah, Hamas, and Israel, that has something to do with territory. But the war on terror that the United States is involved with has nothing to do with territory. All right? We don't need any territory in the Middle East. All we need there are nations that are not gonna try to kill us or choke us by blackmailing other nations to stop selling oil, which is exactly what Iran would do if it got nukes.

[...]

O'REILLY: Can you imagine if you had somebody killed on 9-11, and George Soros walked up to you and said, “You know, terrorism is an abstraction. It's a -- the war on terror is a false metaphor.” You'd -- wouldn't you punch him? I mean it isn't, it isn't an abstraction. It's real. People dying. People in terror, living in, in a fear of even saying anything. You know, these people are evil. But Soros is a guy who doesn't understand evil, doesn't really even acknowledge it. And here's a guy who fled the Holocaust, this Soros guy. You know, when he was a kid, was caught up in that.