There is a beautiful editorial in the New York Times today called, “What Sheldon Adelson Wants.” It is beautiful because this has been a crushing political issue for our country since 2000 at the very least, when Adelson, one of the richest men in the world, set out to scuttle the Camp David “peace process” and pack the next administration with neoconservatives, and achieved both ends; and for years our journalists have avoided the question, but now they’re not avoiding it. The Times says Adelson’s Israel agenda is “wildly at odds with” the country’s needs. Bravo:
No American is dedicating as much of his money to defeat President Obama as Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate who also happens to have made more money in the last three years than any other American. He is the perfect illustration of the squalid state of political money, spending sums greater than any political donation in history to advance his personal, ideological and financial agenda, which is wildly at odds with the nation’s needs….
[What does he want?] The first answer is clearly his disgust for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, supported by President Obama and most Israelis. He considers a Palestinian state “a steppingstone for the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people,” and has called the Palestinian prime minister a terrorist. He is even further to the right than the main pro-Israeli lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which he broke with in 2007 when it supported economic aid to the Palestinians.
Mr. Romney is only slightly better, saying the Israelis want a two-state solution but the Palestinians do not, accusing them of wanting to eliminate Israel. The eight-figure checks are not paying for a more enlightened answer.
Writes a wise friend:
I think this editorial in today’s NYT about Sheldon Adelson is powerful evidence of the extent to which the discourse on Israel is changing. The fact that they say he is having a major influence on the campaign — probably more than any other individual — and that his main concern is Israel is quite amazing. And, they are also subtly making the point: it’s really all about money.
I don’t know whether my mind is playing tricks on me or what, but I am struck these days by how out of touch with reality Israel’s staunchest defenders seem to be and how rational-legal its critics appear. I read stuff by Foxman and Dershowitz and I just shake my head. They seem delusional. And contrast Robert Wright with Jeffrey Goldberg. One operates in our world; the other outside it. And it is not because I agree with Wright and disagree with Goldberg on most issues; no, Goldberg is operating in another universe. I can’t help but think lots of people understand this, as reflected in the transformation of Sullivan’s and Wright’s thinking over time.
So, three cheers for the Times. The newspaper also speaks of Adelson’s financial interests in a Republican regime but emphasizes his Israel agenda. I don’t find the financial interest significant because a, this guy is going to make money regardless, and b, he is a dual loyalty case who says he regrets wearing an American uniform and wants his son to be an Israeli sniper. I.e., he’s a zealot. And now the Times is opening the door on his motivation.
yes such a shift is welcome. and perhaps in the USA the principal axis of this shift is within Jewish opinion – nonzionist Jews (which in normal circumstances would be a majority) have been placed under enormous pressure to conform to the extremist pro-Israel agenda, and therefore to at least passively support the hijack of US politics and media to this end.
anyone who studies markets knows there can be no certainties about the future of complex systems (including human society). and the extremist agenda, quite apart from its inherent spiritual ugliness, could quite easily backfire/unwind. wise to consider realistically what are the possibilities from here on in.
The editorial is great, but it’s easy to forget that the NYT was forced into taking the right and moral position by unsung patriotic Americans, many of whom are/were Jewish, who kept questioning the militarism of the lobby. Walt/Mearsheimer deserve a recognition, but Beinart and Finkelstein, even if both of them for tactical reasons distanced themselves from both of those, still did great good by both of their books. Finkelstein even got praise for his arguments in the Economist(but they whiffed at ‘his vitriolic character assassinations’.
There are many non-Jews too, who fought for this. When major media like NYT does these editorials, it’s because of the pressure in the background. Mainstream journalists like Wright and Sullivan did both take the leap before many others though, since Finkelstein has been on the outside for a long time.
Regardless of who gets credit or who does not, the lesson here is to keep it up, not to relax. That editorial is a huge victory, but at the end of the day, it’s just one in a sea of hasbara. Remember it was only a few days ago after that disgusting blame-the-victim IDF puff piece in the New Yorker.
We are still massively down by all accounts. But we’re getting there. Slowly.
Any change in the right direction is surely welcome. Why Americans are not outraged about adelson and the koch brothers is just beyond any logical mind. It is clear these so-called “US citizens” see the zionist entity as their true country and want the US to fight more wars for the zionist entity, like Iran next. adelson, koch, dershowitz, and their ilk should be tried for treason as they stepped beyond the bounds of democracy by actively supporting a foreign entity against the interest of the US.
yes, Ramzi, the list is very very long of israel’s Fifth Columnists here in the US – busloads of them should be going off to prison for their crimes against America on behalf of israel … many in our intelligence community know the breadth and depth of the crimes and the names of all the players but they cannot act, yet
Regarding the Koch brothers: I haven’t noticed that they are involved in Jewish or Israeli politics or affairs. Are they? If so, they have been quiet about it.
Do ethnic or religious politics matter to them at all?
While on the surface they do not seem to, their involvement is certainly indirect but clearly visible through the causes, organizations, activities they support. Virtually all those they support are zionists, neocons, fundamentalist christians, likudniks, etc.
A good jewish friend told me once: “what matters is getting to your result, not that people know it was you who made it happen; work mysteriously!”. koch brothers may be smarter than adelson, doing all of their pro-zionist support behind the scenes so americans do not revolt against them and impact their financial/commercial empire whereas adelson’s money comes primarily from macau so he doesn’t give a damn about what americans think of him.
Ramzi, I don’t think you can make a credible case that the Koch brothers are motivated by ethnicity or blood in general and certainly not working for Zionism in particular.
They’re old school WASPs who have a chemical empire which they want to grow and that requires doing some pretty insensitive things.
They care only about money and want to destroy government and unions. They are in this sense classic kleptocrats, but they don’t support ethnic causes nor do they support going to war. You gotta give that to them, at least.
(But that isn’t much of a consolation).
Is there any concrete evidence at all that the Koch brothers are involved with Judaism, Jewish politics or Israeli politics? Just curious.
The Koch Brothers are Republican corporatists who support the Republican machine by obvert and covert means. Part of that support involves mobilizing the Christian Zionist base to vote for Republican candidates. Republicans in power are better for their business interests.
good questions, seanmcbride; keep asking.
when I listen to call-in /news programs, I very rarely hear mention of Saban or Adelson, but frequently hear complaints about the Koch brothers & Soros. I suspect the Limbaugh/Hannity crowd attacks Koch bros regularly, and talk-show callers provide an echo chamber for the MSM media attacks on Koches. Which further leads me to suspect the Koch brothers are not Israel-firsters.
PS. speaking of journalists & talk shows: gotta give credit to Steve Scully at C Span. My impression is CAMERA’s heavy monitoring of C Span has a chilling effect. The other day, Scully got around that. He played a clip of John McCain reinforcing the notion that Adelson was a Macau- firster: McCain said ‘Adelson makes his money in Macau; I guess foreign money is coming into the US presidential election. . .”
But McCain made no mention of Israel or the fact that Adelson does what he does for the sake of Israel.
Our man Scully then read snips from the NYT article, focusing on those issues that most concern Adelson: ensuring that Israel does not enter into an agreement with Palestinians.
“Why Americans are not outraged about adelson and the koch brothers is just beyond any logical mind”….Ramzi
Because they don’t know.
In April we went to the beach for a couple of weeks. I didn’t take a computer, only watched the news on TV and maybe read one or two newspapers.
Try that experiment and you will be reminded why so many Americans know nothing.
And today there are millions upon millions of Americans out there working two jobs, working more hours, or both adults in the household working, juggling children…….if and when they have some free hours they pick some escape from their everyday reality or some entertainment or hobby and you can’t really blame them for that.
“if americans knew”..as they say…it would be a different story.
It’s the media…they keep the public mushroomed.
and Adelson is mafia – and he gets away with it because he’s so rich
link to reuters.com
another on Adleson
link to richardsilverstein.com
Obviously there are dangers, but Adelson could play out very well.
Israel could be firmly identified with Sheldon Adelson and a failed attempt to buy the Presidency.
good point … negative-association – it is the Republican Party’s stock-in-trade
“Israel could be firmly identified with Sheldon Adelson “
John McCain/ GOP are two steps ahead of you.
McCain & other functionaries are publicly criticizing Sheldon Adelson, giver of great gifts to Gingrich, who makes his money from gambling casinos in Macau.
That means, says McCain, eyebrows raised to the heavens, that foreign money is funding the election for US president!!
link to politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com
the word Israel does not cross McCain’s lips, nor does it appear in any of the numerous articles about McCain’s charge.
Who are the equivalents of Sheldon Adelson and Haim Saban in American politics (and a few dozen other of their billionaire cohorts) for the Britain, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Austria, Poland, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Russia, Iran, Japan and China lobbies? Are there any?
Isn’t there something exceptionally conspicuous and peculiar about the role of pro-Israel billionaires in American life? How is it possible not to notice and discuss this issue? They are purchasing the services of our leading politicians in plain sight.
“They are purchasing the services of our leading politicians in plain sight.”
Where’s Grover Cleveland when you need him?
“Isn’t there something exceptionally conspicuous and peculiar about the role of pro-Israel billionaires in American life?…Sean
Yea, there is. But they seem to want to be conspicuous or attract attention.
Usually someone putting large sums of money into politics or trying to buy policy or politicians tries to keep it quiet, not be identified or have it become public knowledge because it could cause them all kinds of troubles…inspire a investigation into them or their business or money source by their candidates opponents and so forth….
I don’t see any exact individual equivalents currently.
An excellent article concerning the Israel Lobby in Britain and the opacity of donations to the political parties -
link to opendemocracy.net
Back in 2008, The New Yorker ran a long and unflattering portrait of Adelson, written by journalist Connie Bruck, which discussed Adelson’s political clout in Israel. Bruck says that Adelson supports Netanyahu instead of Ehud Olmert because, according to Adelson, “Olmert doesn’t want to attack Iran”. So Adelson is trying to start a war on Iran.
Adelson is so right-wing that he support the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) instead of AIPAC. Thank God, his candidates usually lose. Newt Gingrich is the most recent.
One of the irritating things about Adelson is that he’s just a sort of Jewish Andrew Carnegie.
Greedy little type who wades in and starts grabbing with both hands. Wakes up with an ungodly haul and starts considering how he can buy merit.
Well, Andrew Carnegie, not having any particular identity beyond being a Scots immigrant, just settled for universities and public libraries. I don’t know if it bought him passage through the pearly gates, but it was harmless enough.
Sheldon Adelson, being Jewish (and having an Israeli trophy wife to guide him) decides the thing to do is back Israel — in the worst sense possible.
It’s just so trivial. Someone stretch a point, tell him he’s a good man, and that he can keep his money. Or even use it to build libraries.
RE: “[What does he want?] The first answer is clearly his [Adelson's] disgust for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict… He [Adelson] considers a Palestinian state ‘a steppingstone for the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people’…” ~ NYT editorial
MY COMMENT: Adelson has the mentality of the most extreme Israeli settlers in the West Bank – oops, I mean “Judea and Samaria”.
SEE: “Inside A Foundation For Defense Of Democracies Sponsored Junket To Israel”, By John Walbridge, lobelog.com, 6/11/12
ENTIRE ARTICLE – link to lobelog.com
P.S. ALSO SEE: “Thinktank [Foundation for Defense of Democracies] that promoted war w/ Iraq (& now Iran) was funded by Steinhardt, Saban, Bronfman, Feith and Marcus (of Home Depot)” – link to mondoweiss.net
Adelson makes his money off of gambling / casino interests. has his ownership in actual casinos been published; it should be available.
If so, such would be a good topic for BDS.
the problem is, Saban & Adelson are richer than the government. They would and could tie up in lawsuits someone attempting a BDS action.
When Saban sold his cartoon business for a previously unheard of large amount of $, and processed the transaction through off shore accounts, a Senate committee called him in for testimony, but there was, nor would there ever be a prosecution of someone as rich as Saban. What prosecutor would want to risk his career/life on being rope a doped by the legion of lawyers Saban could summon?
Philip Giraldi, Terrorizing Through Lawfare
I disagree. BDS has nothing to do w/ prosecution. a BDS attack on Adelson would be as simple as boycotting his assets — casinos and related gambling, prostitution, etc. also, in a like manner continue supporting such a BDS by the sunshine of exposing Adelson’s statements to interested groups, sort of like what is now happening w/ Catapillar.
No progressive compulsive gambler should go to Adelson’s casinos. I wonder how much it can dent his revenue.
piotr, of course there are precious few ‘progressive compulsive gambler(s)’. On the other hand, there are conventions that regularly occur at such resorts.
I agree with Phil that it’s “a beautiful editorial,” but I read it somewhat differently than he did. The emphasis is not so much on “Israel, first, last, and always,” although Adelson’s support for an extremist policy toward the Palestinians is certainly mentioned.
The main points of the article for me were:
a) The fact that wealthy people have by virtue of their campaign contributions the ability to sway elections enormously out of proportion to their numbers (which seriously undermines the democratic process), and
b) rich people can shelter their wealth and allow the rest of us to pay higher taxes for necessary government services.
Actually, I think the main point of the editorial was (b) and only implicitly (a). The fact that Adelson’s position on Israel was mentioned in the NYT no less and singled out for criticism is huge-totally agree with Phil on this. The willingness of the Times to call out the rich generally on their tax avoidance is very courageous in my view. Some of the previous comments focus principally on Adelson and a few others. My take is that this editorial’s scope [see (a) and (b) above] goes far beyond criticism of a few very wealthy individuals and represents a general critique of the role of money in American politics and foreign policy (at least toward Israel). It will be very interesting to see reader comments to this editorial. My $.02 worth…
The Time editorial says:
“[Adelson] is even further to the right than the main pro-Israeli lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which he broke with in 2007 when it supported economic aid to the Palestinians.”
The central problem with the editorial IMO is that it doesn’t call out AIPAC and similar groups for having bought and paid for US middle eastern policy. However, it definitely skirts the issue…
Let me add in conclusion that I think Adelson has made the rational choice for folks in his position. If the Democrats win the election, chances are he and his buddies are going to lose a great deal of money to future taxes. Therefore, with the election a toss-up at this point even without his millions, why not support the Republican candidate heavily? Seems like a pretty sound risk-reward strategy on his part. What we should start talking more about is how come it’s possible for the rich to massively avoid taxation and why we don’t have meaningful campaign financing reform!
And now admit that Adelson is outside of the mainstream. Most American Jews and most Israelis favor a two-state solution. So should you.
hops, what difference does it make is he’s outside the mainstream if he’s got billions?
“Most American Jew” count for diddlysqaut. it’s the money honey.
That is BS, hophmi. The Palestine papers demonstated conclusively that Israel killed the 2ss.
link to mondoweiss.net
Bibi provided the coup de grace. Israeli Jews never vote for peace
They want the status quo with sugar on top. Because only that can bring Moshiach back.
Hophmi,
Would you not then agree that AIPAC is “outside of the mainstream?”