Adam Horowitz reports:
From JTA's report on Jewish givers to Clinton Foundation: (full list here).
Haim Saban, an AIPAC activist and the founder of the Saban Center
for Middle East Policy [of the Brookings Institution], donated $5 million to $10 million to the former
president's nonprofit organization, which raises money to fight poverty
and HIV/AIDS. The foundation also provided the funds to build Clinton's
library in Little Rock, Ark.
On guidestar.org, I looked up some of Saban's other big grantees:
2007 Saban Family Foundation
Friends of the Israel Defense Forces – $1.218 million (plus $8.5 million more approved to give in the future)
2007 Saban Charitable Support Fund c/o Jewish Charitable Support Fund
AIPAC $420,000
Friends of Israel Defense Forces $500,000
In all fairness, Saban's biggest beneficiaries in 2007 were several medical charities and
hospitals. But it is interesting that
the IDF donations were almost as significant as his signature Brookings
donation (at least in 2007) which was $1.292 million (plus another $2
million approved). Too bad he's more associated with Brookings than
with the IDF— more than $10 million pledged. At least that way his bias would be more clear to American readers.
Also, the Clinton donor list raises the question – is there anyone Clinton won't take money from?
Weiss comments: This is fascinating. Walt and Mearsheimer pointed out the transformation of the Brookings from a place that had pushed for a Palestinian state under good William B. Quandt in the 1970s to a Zionist sock led by Saban and the irrepressible Martin Indyk. "Saban Center publications never question U.S. support for Israel and rarely, if ever, offer significant criticism of key Israeli policies. Moreover, individuals who stray from the Center's line do not remain for long…" And of course the Saban Center has provided a home to the leading tambourine-man of the Iraq war among liberals, Kenneth Pollack.
But I don't think anyone has picked up this devastating fact, published now on this website, by Horowitz. Today the world amazes me.
