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Covering Adelson, Matthews leaves out the ‘Obama Oy Vey’ factor

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Last Monday, Sheldon Adelson said that Newt Gingrich, whom he had supported with $10 million-plus in the Republican presidential primary, is “at the end of his line.”

Adelson spoke at the Tribefest of the Jewish Federations of North America. The Jewish Journal broke the story on Thursday. Israel is the most important issue to Adelson. In that video he says he’s “pro-choice,” and you can see that he is wearing a button that says “Obama Oy Vey.” “All the terrorists are Islamists,” he says in that video. 

Chris Matthews aired a portion of the video Thursday night and chatted about it. He repeatedly referred to Adelson’s casino interests. He made a joke about China and Macao. He said nothing about Israel or the tribefest or Obama Oy Vey. Check out the transcript here.

You can be sure that Israel is at the heart of Adelson’s negotiations with the Romney campaign. The Center for Public Integrity reports on a dinner at Adelson’s house on March 22 that brought together several huge Jewish supporters of Israel in the Romney camp, Coleman, Sembler, Berman, and Fox:

The big-name attendees at Adelson’s dinner included Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, who now chairs a super PAC and a nonprofit group raising millions of dollars to help House Republican candidates. Coleman also serves on the board of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

Also in attendance were Florida real estate magnate Mel Sembler, St. Louis investor Sam Fox and Washington lobbyist Wayne Berman. The three men are Republican Jewish Coalition board members; each has raised large amounts for Romney.

Obviously this story is about Jewish support for Israel and also Jewish identity. The Israel lobby is a huge factor in our politics. Matthews won’t touch it. (Why the silence? Well here’s one possible reason. Matthews’s network is run by David Cohen. Cohen is the former Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.)

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13 Responses

  1. notatall
    notatall
    April 1, 2012, 1:20 pm

    Didn’t it come out during the fuss over Penn’s BDS Conference that Cohen is on Penn’s Board, or am I thinking of someone else?

    • Krauss
      Krauss
      April 2, 2012, 2:17 am

      No, you’re right, he’s as Establishment as they come.
      He even made sure to team up with the UPenn dean, Amy Gutman, right before the BDS confernce and condemned it.

      My sense from the whole affair was that Gutman is a professional and stayed that way for most of the time but apparently Cohen became irate the closer the conference came and made sure to drag Gutman along him to publish the rant that he had written up, just a day before the conference was to start. It was an astounding political interference and a show of deep unprofessionalism.

      But Cohen has connections to the donor networks that Gutman needs and these days deans are more fundraisers than intellectual leaders so I guess she had no choice when the donor base roared. Sort of the same situation in Congress and for politicians like Obama who needs that $$$ for re-election.

      Personally, I don’t care what positions he holds in his heart. He has every right to express them. But when he lobbies the Dean of the school to take a political stance like that, then it crosses the line. Then it becomes political pressure from a guy who is not supposed to get involved on campus politics and it was intended as attempt to chill freedom of speech. It was clearly intended to draw a political line on behalf of Israel alone, and that has nothing to do with a university in America. But Cohen’s a devoted guy and if he has to breach professional ethics for his no.1 Issue(like Adelson) then he has shown himself willing to do that. And remember that he’s VP of Comcast, the owners of MSNBC and other TV stations.

      And notice that he fundraised millions for Obama too – at his personal home. So of course Matthews is avoiding the topic. He operates within the Establishment. He gets the money but not the freedom. In the end, which is better? Which do you prefer?

  2. notatall
    notatall
    April 1, 2012, 1:46 pm

    What does it say about American politics that a maggot like Adelson may get to determine whether the U.S. goes to war with Iran?

    It came out during the fuss over the BDS Conference at Penn that Cohen is Chairman of Penn’s Board of Trustees.

  3. dbroncos
    dbroncos
    April 1, 2012, 1:56 pm

    I’m sure Matthews knows the places where not to tread, places that’ll send shock waves through his dog collar, coutesy of his boss, David Cohen. Here is Cohen with his thoughts on the 2nd Intifata, published 10 April 2002, in the Philadelphia Weekly:

    “I personally believe that the tactic Israel is using now is an appropriate response to an absolutely intolerable position being taken by militant factions of the Palestinian movement. And if the leader of that movement–a person who insists internationally on being recognized as the leader–does not condemn on a consistent basis the killing of innocent civilians then the criticism of “the price paid by the Palestinians” needs to visited on that leader and not on the state of Israel. …
    Jews and Arabs–non-Palestinian Arabs, law-abiding Arabs–all are at risk as a result of a new kind of war being waged against the state of Israel. It’s not a war with tanks rolling across the Sinai or artillery shelling from the Golan Heights.
    The new kind of war that’s being waged on the state of Israel is being run by a band of terrorists who have no regard for human life, no regard for the sovereignty of the state of Israel.
    One of the problems created by the latest dimension of terrorism is that even when you are in a hotel at which there are four soldiers at every entrance–a situation we wouldn’t tolerate in the U.S.–you still have a person who is willing to be a suicide bomber, who doesn’t care about getting out alive. That person can walk right in the doors of that hotel, right through the lobby with Israeli soldiers and walk into a crowded ballroom and detonate a bomb.
    Israel didn’t start this. And if there was a simple answer to this question, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

    The article features what some of Philly’s prominent Jew’s thought about the raging Intifata. Telling commentary and somewhat encouraging because, 10 years later, i think some of the assumptions we here in their comments are on much shakier ground these days.
    Read more: http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/cover-story/the_big_schism-38348629.html?page=3&comments=1&showAll=#ixzz1qoOsPxO1

  4. DICKERSON3870
    DICKERSON3870
    April 1, 2012, 3:49 pm

    RE: “‘All the terrorists are Islamists,’ he [Adelson] says in that
    video.” ~ Weiss

    FROM WIKIPEDIA:

    [excerpts] Alex Odeh (April 4, 1944 – October 11, 1985) was an Arab-American anti-discrimination activist who was killed in a bombing as he opened the door of his office at 1905 East 17th Street, Santa Ana, California. Odeh was west-coast regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC).
    Born into a Palestinian Christian family in Jifna, the West Bank, Odeh immigrated to the US in 1972.[1] He was a lecturer and poet who recently had published a volume of his poetry, Whispers in Exile.[2]…
    …Irv Rubin, who had become chairman of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) the same year, immediately made several public statements in reaction to the incident. “I have no tears for Mr. Odeh,” Rubin said. “He got exactly what he deserved.”[7] …
    …Four weeks after Odeh’s death, FBI spokesperson Lane Bonner stated the FBI attributed the bombing and two others to the JDL…
    …Immediately after the 1985 assassination the FBI identified three suspects, all of them believed to be affiliated with the JDL, who fled to Israel. In 1987 it was revealed that Israel was hindering the FBI investigation. Floyd Clarke, then assistant director of the FBI, claimed in an internal memo that key suspects had fled to Israel and were living in the West Bank town of Kiryat Arba…
    …In 2007, the FBI revealed they had received information from a deceased informant, believed to be former Jewish Defense League member Earl Krugel who had been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for 2001 plots to bomb a Southern California mosque and office of an Arab American congressman. It is believed that Irv Rubin, who died in prison while awaiting trial on the same charges, revealed to Krugel the names of those responsible for Odeh’s death and Krugel shared those with the FBI before he, too, died in prison. The bombers are believed to be Manning and two individuals now living in Israel.[14]…

    SOURCE – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Odeh

  5. DICKERSON3870
    DICKERSON3870
    April 1, 2012, 4:07 pm

    RE: “‘All the terrorists are Islamists,’ he [Adelson] says in that
    video.” ~ Weiss

    FROM WIKIPEDIA [King David Hotel bombing]: 

    (excerpts) The King David Hotel bombing was an attack carried out by the militant right-wing Zionist underground organization Irgun on the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on 22 July 1946.[1][2] 91 people of various nationalities were killed and 46 were injured.[3]. . .

    SOURCE – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_David_Hotel_bombing

    ALSO FROM WIKIPEDIA [Folke Bernadotte]:

    Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg (in Swedish: Greve af Wisborg; 2 January 1895 – 17 September 1948) was a Swedish diplomat and nobleman noted for his negotiation of the release of about 31,000 prisoners from German concentration camps during World War II, including 450 Danish Jews from Theresienstadt released on 14 April 1945.[1][2][3] In 1945, he received a German surrender offer from Heinrich Himmler, though the offer was ultimately rejected.
    After the war, Bernadotte was unanimously chosen to be the United Nations Security Council mediator in the Arab-Israeli conflict of 1947-1948. He was assassinated in Jerusalem in 1948 by themilitant Zionist group Lehi while pursuing his official duties. The Lehi was led at the time by Yitzhak Shamir, who was later to become Prime Minister of Israel. . .

    SOURCE –  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folke_Bernadotte

    AND FROM WIKIPEDIA [Deir Yassin massacre]:

    (excerpt) The Deir Yassin massacre took place on April 9, 1948, when around 120 fighters from the Irgun Zevai Leumi and Lohamei Herut Israel Zionist paramilitary groups attacked Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, a Palestinian-Arab village of roughly 600 people.[1] The assault occurred as Jewish militia sought to relieve the blockade of Jerusalem during the civil war that preceded the end of British rule in Palestine.[2]
    Around 107 villagers were killed during and after the battle for the village, including women and children—some were shot, while others died when hand grenades were thrown into their homes.[3] Several villagers were taken prisoner and may have been killed after being paraded through the streets of West Jerusalem, though accounts vary.[4] Four of the attackers died, with around 35 injured.[5] The killings were condemned by the leadership of the Haganah—the Jewish community’s main paramilitary force—and by the area’s two chief rabbis. The Jewish Agency for Israel sent Jordan’s King Abdullah a letter of apology, which he rebuffed.[2]. . .

    SOURCE – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deir_Yassin_massacre

    AGAIN, FROM WIKIPEDIA [Lavon Affair]:

    (excerpt) The Lavon Affair refers to a failed Israeli covert operation, code named Operation Susannah, conducted in Egypt in the Summer of 1954. As part of the false flag operation,[1] a group of Egyptian Jews were recruited by Israeli military intelligence for plans to plant bombs inside Egyptian, American and British-owned targets. The attacks were to be blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood, Egyptian Communists, “unspecified malcontents” or “local nationalists” with the aim of creating a climate of sufficient violence and instability to induce the British government to retain its occupying troops in Egypt’s Suez Canal zone.[2] The operation caused no casualties, except for those members of the cell who committed suicide after being captured. . .

    SOURCE – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavon_Affair

    • dahoit
      dahoit
      April 3, 2012, 11:05 am

      C’mon,your using terms that are crafted and perpetuated by our masters.I guarantee the rest of the world are more in terror of US,Israel,GB and France than we are actually threatened by alleged terrorists,even if the media masters of America have its panties in a wad about it.
      And when Adelson mentions his country,boy does the bile rise in the throat. Does he mean the nations military that he wished to serve in,as opposed to ours which he had to?
      A monumental comedy routine,but the laughs,other than at their sheer chutzpah,are few and far between.
      And the fat boy goes to Israel and genuflects.Jeez.Is he as wide as he is tall?

  6. Thomson Rutherford
    Thomson Rutherford
    April 1, 2012, 9:08 pm

    Phil writes: Obviously this story is about Jewish support for Israel and also Jewish identity. The Israel lobby is a huge factor in our politics. Matthews won’t touch it. Why the silence? … (my emphasis, here and below)

    News flash! Our mainstream media are dominated by Jewish interests. My favorite example of this is the New York Times (together with its global edition, the International Herald Tribune), our leading ‘liberal’ Zionist newspaper and booster of ‘Jewish identity’.

    Take the coverage of Passover and Easter in today’s Sunday edition. There have been several feature stories in the Times recently about Passover and its Seder. On the op-ed page of today’s website we find an article entitled “Why a Haggadah?” by Jonathon Foer. It begins:

    I SPENT much of the last several years working on a new Haggadah — the guidebook for the prayers, rituals and songs of the Seder — and am often asked why I would want to take time away from my own writing to invest myself in such a project.

    All my life, my parents have hosted the Seder on the first night of Passover. As our family expanded, and as our definition of family expanded, we moved the ritual dinner from our dining room to our more spacious, mildewed basement. One table became many table-like surfaces pushed awkwardly together. I always knew Passover was approaching when my father would ask me to take the net off the ping-pong table. All were covered in once matching, stained tablecloths.

    At each setting was a Haggadah that my parents had assembled by photocopying favorite passages from other Haggadot ….

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/opinion/sunday/why-a-haggadah.html?ref=global

    It’s a lovely description of a cozy family gathering on a beloved Jewish holiday.

    Till today, there have been no such feature stories in the Times about Easter celebrations. But one article did appear in today’s Times Sunday magazine – a story of an entirely different character. It is entitled “Easter among Strangers,” by a young author named Hanna Pylvainen, and it is a story of total alienation from Easter, family, and childhood faith. Here are excerpts:

    Upon leaving the Finnish fundamentalist faith of my youth, I made my parents a promise that I would still attend church on Christmas and Easter. It was my fifth such Easter, but I was still anxious, aware that everyone would be looking to see what unbelieving had done to me. I removed my nail polish and earrings, arriving late to avoid conversation, only to discover that the church was full — there was not even space by the bad kids in the back. I was forced instead to parade to the front, feeling underdressed and like the prodigal child, and take a seat next to my little cousins.

    It was early in the sermon, and already I was not listening when I felt a presence behind me. I turned to see a large black man, wearing jeans and a black T-shirt …. In the 18 years I attended the church, I never saw a black man; the church was white by heritage and white by location — it was west of Detroit — though they sponsored missions in Togo and Ecuador. The only mention of black people was as outsiders, men who were said to have tempted church girls into faithlessness — into teenage pregnancies and dancing at strip clubs.

    I hurried to make room, hoisting my toddler niece onto my lap, wanting to communicate to the man that despite the predominance of blonds around us, his race was not an issue –– and then it occurred to me that he would think I was one of them. … And then I realized that the entire church most likely thought I had invited him to Easter, that this was my boyfriend, and I was in a kind of torment, wanting to communicate to those around me that I had not invited this man — that I was not that kind of unbeliever — while communicating to him that I was no longer a part of this stringent faith.

    An hour later, after the closing hymn, I turned to him and wished him a happy Easter, and he returned the formality, and then I said that I was sorry he had got stuck sitting next to the black sheep of the family.

    “Are you the black sheep, then?” he asked.

    I told him I left the church a number of years ago.

    When he made no reply, I asked him where he was from, how he found the church.

    Of all the pasts I imagined for him during the sermon, I had not imagined this: he had been coming to the church for two months. Everyone was welcoming, he said. He liked the sermons; he liked the singing.

    My prejudices overwhelmed me. My cheeks and ears flushed. I made my excuses and ended the conversation, only to spot my cousin’s husband inviting him to Easter dinner.

    In my cousin’s colonial, I watched him sip coffee with my aunt, who wore a pastel dress and matching hat. When we went outside to hide Easter eggs, he tagged along and hid them in places no one else could reach. He teased me; perhaps, flirted with me. …

    After dessert was eaten and hymns were sung, I rose to say goodbye. I shook everyone’s hand and awkwardly, as always, they did not say “God’s peace” to me. He took my hand and shook it. He asked me if he would see me again at church. I said probably not. He said that he was sorry to hear that.

    And he told me –– as no one at church had ever told me –– that I was welcome anytime. He did not let go of my hand.

    “Thank you,” I said, meaning it, feeling as I left, driving alone to my apartment, the radio silent, the heat on, that it was Sunday, that it must be Easter.

    The contrast between the two stories, one of Passover and one of Easter, could not be more stark. Passover is presented in the favorable glow of loving family and enduring faith; Easter in a harsh light of alienation from faith, family, and community. The young writer, Ms. Pylvainen, must have known that the Times would be receptive to her dismal story at Easter time.

    For these are not isolated examples of the disparate ways that the Times every year treats Passover and Easter, Hanukkah and Christmas. They are typical of a pattern: Jewish holidays and holy days good, Christian holy days bad.

    Why does it matter? For a start, the NYT still has pretensions of being the national ‘newspaper of record’. Instead, in focusing so heavily on Jewish interests, it has gained the reputation of being the Jewish newspaper of record. Clearly, the Times considers one of its key missions to be pumping up ‘Jewish identity’. And another, related key mission is to serve as the principal organ of ‘liberal’ Zionism, acting in what it sees as the true interests of the Israeli and Jewish nations.

    So I would pose again Plato’s question, slightly modified: Is the New York Times good for us?

    • piotr
      piotr
      April 2, 2012, 3:53 am

      I actually liked the Easter story much better. One story is on tradition for that sake of tradition. Why are we reclining — ah, who cares. I really connect to the second story more.

      • Thomson Rutherford
        Thomson Rutherford
        April 2, 2012, 6:49 pm

        Piotr, I ‘liked’ the second story better, too. But that wasn’t my point, which lay in the Time’s representation of the relative social values of Passover and Easter observances. This invidious contrast – along with the preponderance of column-inches devoted to the Jewish observances – is no accident; it happens in the NYT every year during December and April ‘religious’ holiday periods. I was expressing, among other things, my annoyance because I consider this an aspect of an agenda that I find disturbing in what purports to be our national ‘newspaper of record’.

  7. Thomson Rutherford
    Thomson Rutherford
    April 1, 2012, 10:28 pm

    This is a test to see if I am still able to comment here. Mysterious failures have occurred.

  8. Justice Please
    Justice Please
    April 2, 2012, 5:11 pm

    Why doesn’t Matthews quit at Comcast, if Cohen holds him back? Is he more interested in a paycheck than in the truth?

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