Chris Hayes stunning ‘Story of the Week’ featuring Sheldon Adelson

Here’s the link to the New Yorker article Chris is referring to:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/30/080630fa_fact_bruck

The story told in the New Yorker addressed DeLay’s Christian Zionism:

Weidner, in his deposition, described the relationship between DeLay—“a very religious guy”—and Adelson. “The link between Sheldon Adelson and right-wing religious Christians is the commonality of a strong Israel,” he said. “So it just happens to be Sheldon has taken Tom DeLay to Israel and he’s a friend.” DeLay told Adelson that he supported the resolution because of his concern about China’s record on human rights but added that he would be discussing the legislative agenda shortly. “Sheldon folds his cell phone up and says to the mayor of Beijing, ‘I’m going to do my best,’ ” Weidner said. “About three hours later DeLay calls and he tells Sheldon, ‘You’re in luck,’ ” he continued, “ ‘because we’ve got a military-spending bill. . . . We’re not going to be able to move the bill, so you tell your mayor that he can be assured that this bill will never see the light of day.’ So Sheldon goes and he goes to the mayor and he says, ‘The bill will never see the light of day, Mr. Mayor. Don’t worry about it.’ ” Weidner also instructed the Sands’s lobbyists in Washington, Patton Boggs, to suggest to the Chinese Embassy that Adelson and Las Vegas Sands were involved in the process that stalled the bill. (According to DeLay’s spokeswoman, DeLay does not recall the conversation and had no role in blocking the bill. Representative Lantos died last February.)

Too much has been made with the money it’s the Christian Zionism that’s the central point of influence. Watch how Adelson deep-sixed Condi Rice’s attempt to push forward the peace process:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was organizing a major conference in the United States, in an effort to re-start the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and her initiative had provoked consternation among many rightward-leaning American Jews and their Christian evangelical allies. Most had seen Bush as a reliable friend of Israel, and one who had not pressured Israel to pursue the peace process. Adelson, who is seventy-four, owns two of Las Vegas’s giant casino resorts, the Venetian and the Palazzo, and is the third-richest person in the United States, according to Forbes. He is fiercely opposed to a two-state solution; and he had contributed so generously to Bush’s reëlection campaign that he qualified as a Bush Pioneer. A short, rotund man, with sparse reddish hair and a pale countenance that colors when he is angered, Adelson protested to Bush that Rice was thinking of her legacy, not the President’s, and that she would ruin him if she continued to pursue this disastrous course. Then, as Adelson later told an acquaintance, Bush put one arm around his shoulder and another around that of his wife, Miriam, who was born in Israel, and said to her, “You tell your Prime Minister that I need to know what’s right for your people—because at the end of the day it’s going to be my policy, not Condi’s. But I can’t be more Catholic than the Pope.” (The White House denies this account.)

Now the anti-Iran angle where the Shah’s son is too much of a pacifist:

After Emerson’s presentation, Pooya Dayanim, a Jewish-Iranian democracy activist based in Los Angeles, chatted with Adelson. Recalling their conversation, Dayanim observed that Adelson was dismissive of Reza Pahlevi, the son of the former Shah, who had participated in the Prague conference, because, Adelson said, “he doesn’t want to attack Iran.” According to Dayanim, Adelson referred to another Iranian dissident at the conference, Amir Abbas Fakhravar, whom he said he would like to support, saying, “I like Fakhravar because he says that, if we attack, the Iranian people will be ecstatic.” Dayanim said that when he disputed that assumption Adelson responded, “I really don’t care what happens to Iran. I am for Israel.”

Too much is made on the “Jewish vote”. When Gingrich was talking to Florida Jews this week none brought up Israel. It’s the Christian Zionists who are obsessing on this. Unlike the Jews the Christians really believe the propaganda. Thus you get comments like Santorum’s that Palestinians on the West Bank are Israelis and Gingrich’s invented people! So you have a significant portion of the electorate who believe things that are simply not true. This in turn results in economic crashes, environmental devastation, and stupid wars.

I’ll close with a fundraising video for CUFI on campus. (Note at 38 seconds in is the infamous Emily Schrader of the crying Ron Paul video.) Last week they tried to push a student resolution at the University of Colorado which sought to veto Palestinian statehood and as part of the resolution itself have CUFI publicized the coup. Due to the diligent work of CU-Divest and Palestinian students on campus the resolution went down 35-1.

http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_19829943?IADID=Search-www.dailycamera.com-www.dailycamera.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ekVYTgsWbIs