Sheldon Adelson
Mitchell Plitnick at Lobelog tells us what Gingrich backer Sheldon Adelson cares about: Israel. And notice the shocking degree to which Romney has absorbed the neoconservative Iraq war gang– 6 of his foreign policy 22 advisers from the intellectually-bankrupt Project for a New American Century. Couple excerpts:
Adelson is perhaps the most well-known heavy hitter among contributors largely motivated by their extreme hawkish stances on Israel. He has been honored by the far-right Zionist Organization of America (ZOA, a group so extreme even AIPAC tends to try to keep its distance from them), but he has also been a major funder of AIPAC, making sure he keeps his hand in mainstream US politics on this issue and enabling him to exert a strong push of those politics toward the right.
Adelson’s love of Gingrich is rooted in their mutual passion for crushing unions and privatizing Social Security, but it flowers in their mutual zeal for maintaining Israeli control of the West Bank and support for the farthest right wing of Israeli politics.
It is telling that Adelson is committing such extensive resources in a desperate attempt to hoist Gingrich above Republican front-runner, Mitt Romney, as Romney is very far from being a dove on Middle East matters.
Romney’s foreign policy team draws heavily from former Bush Administration figures, and six of the twenty-two were members of the neo-conservative Project for a New American Century (PNAC), a key group in pressing for war with Iraq and advocating granting a much freer hand to Israel in dealing with the Palestinians…
Adelson has cleverly used his vast resources to help push Israeli public opinion to the right and to influence US politics in the same direction.
Thanks to Jasmin Ramsey.
I have often wondered what role Miriam Ochshorn Adelson plays in Sheldon Adelson’s politics. According to the biographies, Gertrude Himmelfarb changed Irving Kristol’s politics, and Midge Decter that of Norman Podhoretz.
I have seen the Ochshorn name fairly frequently among early supporters of Jabotinsky.
PHIL- “Adelson has cleverly used his vast resources to help push Israeli public opinion to the right and to influence US politics in the same direction.”
As I continue to stress, American Zionist Jews have a considerable impact on Israel’s policies and actions. The relationship between the US empire, American Zionist Jews and Israel is complex, a sort of perverse triangle.