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Netanyahu’s new Foreign Ministry aide gets $226,000 from Sheldon Adelson shop in U.S.

on 26 Comments
Dore Gold

As you surely know, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has solidified the rightwing bent of his government by naming “his longtime confidant” Dore Gold to run the Foreign Ministry. Gold all but explicitly opposes the formation of a Palestinian state. Jodi Rudoren of the New York Times got an interview with Gold who told her, “We have to have defensible borders.” When I met Gold at the American Enterprise Institute many years ago, he and Richard Perle were also proselytizing against a Palestinian state with the same mantra: “defensible borders.”

At that time, Gold, the former Israeli ambassador to the U.N. who was born in Connecticut, got $96,000 a year from the American Enterprise Institute as a “scholar” in Jerusalem. That payment went on for at least five years.

Well now Gold is listed as president of the Center for Jewish Community Studies in Baltimore– an organization devoted to “Jewish peoplehood”– and in that capacity receives $227,000 in 2013, the latest figures available.

It sure sounds like a no-show job, for a good friend of Israel, and because he is this era’s equivalent of the silvertongued ambassador Abba Eban. Eban said “Auschwitz borders,” referring to the old green line; Gold says “defensible borders”.

Not surprisingly, the Center for Jewish Community Studies is supported by Sheldon Adelson, the supporter of Republican presidential candidates and friend of Netanyahu’s who wants to nuke Iran. Adelson gave this much to the Center:

$1 million in 2013
$1 million in 2012
$500k in 2011
$500k in 2010
$250k in 2009
So the same guy who is trying to buy the American presidential election is slipping money to Netanyahu’s close confidant, who is now his top aide in the Foreign Ministry. I don’t imagine it’s illegal, but it’s not good for democracy.

In Watergate they told us to follow the money, but journalists resist this lesson when it comes to the Israel lobby, though there’s obviously a lot of money sloshing around if you support Israel.

Anshel Pfeffer in Haaretz comments acidly on this “Jewish money” having corrupted the Jewish state in the Ehud Olmert case, the former Prime Minister who was sentenced to prison for corruption.

Some of Olmert’s fellow favored members of the club are Avigdor Lieberman, Ehud Barak and Arye Dery, who have all enjoyed the largess of money-men from Vienna to Vegas. And of course Olmert’s successor Benjamin Netanyahu has only streamlined this sordid relationship by accepting the patronage of Sheldon Adelson and his Bibi-supporting Israel Hayom freesheet. Jewish money corrupted the politics of the Jewish State decades ago, and it was a wonder that Olmert hadn’t been caught much earlier.

Yes, Pfeffer says this happens in all western democracies, and not just by Sheldon Adelson. But Jewish money is a theme for him; earlier this year he likened American Jewish billionaires Adelson and Haim Saban to the anti-Semitic caricatures of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. You’re allowed to talk about this kind of thing in Israel, not here.

Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is senior editor of Mondoweiss.net and founded the site in 2005-06.

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26 Responses

  1. just on May 26, 2015, 11:53 am

    Well done, Phil~

    “So the same guy who is trying to buy the American presidential election is slipping money to Netanyahu’s close confidant, who is now his top aide in the Foreign Ministry. I don’t imagine it’s illegal, but it’s not good for democracy.”

    There ain’t no such thing as “democracy”. Democracy is dead, and has been for a long time. The very idea of the US “spreading democracy” is ludicrous when the US sets a very bad example by spreading its support for dictators and regimes and wars that only enrich themselves and not the people. Who really benefits? Never the people! Who dies? The people die, including the volunteer military who are drugged by the notion of spreading democracy and a growing hatred of the others.

    Oxford can inform folks:

    “democracy
    [ diˈmäkrəsē ]
    NOUN
    noun: democracy
    a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives:
    “capitalism and democracy are ascendant in the third world”
    synonyms: representative government · elective government · More
    antonyms: dictatorship
    a state governed by a democracy:
    “a multiparty democracy”
    control of an organization or group by the majority of its members:
    “the intended extension of industrial democracy”
    the practice or principles of social equality:
    “demands for greater democracy”

  2. amigo on May 26, 2015, 12:34 pm

    OT, But makes good reading.

    ” Israelis are ready to follow Ireland’s lead and legalize gay marriage
    The recognition of LGBT rights is the political norm in 2015 Israel, and the public is largely ready to move forward on pro-LGBT legislation and equal rights for the community.” Haaretz.

    Given that here si no facility for Civil Marriage in Israel and Rabbis are hardly likely to marry same sex couples in Israel (Sans Frontiere) how can this happen.Makes a nice headline , I suppose.

    Too bad Israel does not follow some of Ireland,s other enlightening policies.

    http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.658083

    • bryan on May 26, 2015, 1:21 pm

      Is it not the case that Israel is the only state in the Western world that not only prevents same-sex marriage but also many forms of mixed heterosexual marriage (e.g. Atheist/Moslem, Jewish/Christian and born-out-of wedlock/born-within-wedlock? So much for a state that promised to “foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture…” Shame about those ancient “prophets” who seem to have vetoed Israel joining the 21st century.

      • Shingo on May 26, 2015, 6:30 pm

        I am sad to have to correct you, but Australia does not yet recognize same sex marriage, though same sex weddings are common.

        Hopefully that will change in the near future once our hypocritical and bigoted leaders can no longer face the embarrassment of bring the only state in the west who doesn’t.

      • amigo on May 26, 2015, 6:47 pm

        “Is it not the case that Israel is the only state in the Western world ” bryan.

        I am glad to say that Israel is not in the western world.They may like to think they are .

      • bryan on May 27, 2015, 3:10 am

        Amigo – there are numerous and varied definitions of the Western world, but under most of these Israel qualifies – e.g. (1) areas strongly influenced by Greco-Roman culture (see Shlomo Sand on the flowering of Judaism in the Mediterranean region during the Hellenistic period); (2) areas allied to American imperialism during the Cold War era, rather than aligned with the Soviets or unalligned with either bloc; (3) areas having reached a high level of economic development (Israel is a member of the OECD); (4) Wikipedia’s definition that “In the contemporary cultural meaning, the phrase “Western world” includes Europe, as well as many countries of European colonial origin with substantial European ancestral populations in the Americas, Asia and Oceania” (surely a perfect description of Israel and of Britain’s role in implanting Zionism in the Middle-East?)

        Israel may be geographically located within the Moslem Middle East, but in building its “villa in the jungle” it has shunned its natural environment, plays its football in UEFA and not in the Asian group, participates in the Eurovision Song Contest (since 1973), was the first non-European country to be associated to the European Union’s Framework Programme for Research and Technical Development, participates in the Galileo Project and CERN, is a major trading partner of the EU, and votes at the UN in concert with Canada, USA, Australia and Europe. What do you mean Israel is not part of the Western World – it’s “values” are inseparable from those of the USA (except on civil marriage and human rights)?

      • bryan on May 27, 2015, 4:28 am

        Shingo – thanks for correcting me; I was generalizing outrageously and as with many generalizations the exceptions prove the rule. There are still outposts of barbarism and backwardness within the Western world that are yet to catch up with the spirit of the times. I was indeed aware of this since my remark was prompted by reading reports that the result of the Irish referendum on same-sex marriage would put pressure on the religious ante-diluvians of Northern Ireland where a Unionist veto on updating legislation makes it the only state within Western Europe that has not yet approved same-sex marriage. Strange the similarities between the ethno-religious settler colonialist histories of Northern Ireland and Israel.

      • amigo on May 27, 2015, 1:24 pm

        bryan , I agree but sooner or later the western world will desert this so called western styled nation.That is historically what western nations have done .Israel is just of temporary use to the powers that be.Israel will be left to fend for itself in the eastern world.Shouldn,t be a problem if they finally figure how to get along with their neighbours .Too bad they didn,t do that from day one.

      • lysias on May 27, 2015, 1:44 pm

        Shouldn,t be a problem if they finally figure how to get along with their neighbours.

        The Crusader States never figured that out. Neither did the pieds noirs.

      • amigo on May 27, 2015, 3:27 pm

        “The Crusader States never figured that out. Neither did the pieds noirs.”Lysias

        Well lets hope they do not learn and end up back where they came from , just like the Pieds Noirs and the crusaders.

        Reverse aliyah sounds good to me.A complete reversal.The upside is many will no longer have citizenship and will have to go through the asylum process wherever they alight.The average time needed to gain asylum is 5 to 10 years and another 5 to gain citizenship , (at least in Ireland) so they will have lots of time on their hands to reflect on their actions.

    • Boo on May 27, 2015, 12:15 pm

      Well, if it comes true it’d have one additional benefit — namely, tying the Leviticus-lovin’ Christian Dominionists up in knots. How … how can God’s Chosen ignore His explicit decrees?! I can already visualize heads asploding from sea to shining sea.

  3. amigo on May 26, 2015, 1:02 pm

    Here we go with the “No Peace Partner ” mantra again.

    “Gilad Erdan, who was newly installed as public security minister, told Israel Radio on Tuesday that the government would be willing to make “territorial concessions” to the Palestinians “if a partner ever emerges.”

    “First, [Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas] needs to stop his unilateral actions in the international arena and return to the negotiating table,” said Erdan, who was referring to the Palestinian drive to gain recognition as an independent state in various world bodies like the United Nations and the International Criminal Court.” j post.

    Why would the Palestinians return to more fake peace talks with a government that is almost to a man / Woman opposed to a Palestinian State.And since when does Israel get to cede land that was stolen .

    http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Erdan-Israel-willing-to-cede-territory-if-Palestinian-peace-partner-emerges-404077

    • eljay on May 26, 2015, 1:11 pm

      “Gilad Erdan, who was newly installed as public security minister, told Israel Radio on Tuesday that the government would be willing to make “territorial concessions” to the Palestinians “if a partner ever emerges.”

      “A partner,” he hastened to add, “who doesn’t *ahem* mysteriously disappear, wind up in a permanent coma or die.”

      • amigo on May 26, 2015, 3:06 pm

        Nietanyahu to his new cabinet !!.

        Get me a partner that is good for another 500k Jews in Judea/Samaria.

        Then get rid of him.

    • a blah chick on May 26, 2015, 2:08 pm

      “First, [Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas] needs to stop his unilateral actions in the international arena and return to the negotiating table,”

      There is no point in “negotiating” with folks this delusional.

  4. a blah chick on May 26, 2015, 2:09 pm

    Gold, who keeps returning like a bad head cold, is firmly a part of what I call the Zionist Gravytrain. If you can get on board you are set for life. And no heavy lifting or thinking.

    • just on May 26, 2015, 5:21 pm

      +1, abc!

      Same goes for Congress, the media, the US UN reps, etc. They only have to drink from the tainted well of Ziocaine. “Set for life” while supporting a filthy Occupation and genocide. How do they sleep at night?

  5. ckg on May 26, 2015, 2:37 pm

    With the lawsuit against Adelson reaching U.S. shores, don’t expect Democrats to raise much of a stink. It’s not just that they have Haim Saban in their own camp, but one of the key figures in the Sands Macau corruption case is former DNC donor Ng Lap Seng, who ran a hotel in Macau, the Fortuna, that effectively operated as a brothel. Bill Clinton invited Ng to stay at the White House, and a quick google search will turn up a DNC fundraiser photo of Ng with both Bill and Hillary.

  6. Krauss on May 26, 2015, 2:49 pm

    Yes, Pfeffer says this happens in all western democracies, and not just by Sheldon Adelson.

    Ah, yes “it’s in all western democracies”. Not really. The U.S. is only the real standout here. It’s not like this in Europe, in Canada or in Australia nearly to the same extent as in Israel.

    Just like all those panicked opinion pieces from Zionists, trying to link the UK election to the Israeli one(like Rothkopf of the FP). Trying to drag down the west with Israel because they are surely seeing the obvious by now, and it doesn’t look so good if Israel is an anomaly in how bad it is. Some of it is comical, like trying to compare the civic and non-racial SNP of scotland to the outright racist appeals from Netanyahu.

    Anything to whitewash Israeli and Jewish apartheid.

  7. David Doppler on May 26, 2015, 3:35 pm

    Corruption “happens in all western democracies” should be:

    Corruption and incompetence by office-holders is anticipated by western democracies, so they constitutionally build in separation of powers, checks and balances, independent judiciaries, periodic elections, so that the state can slough off the bad actors periodically, and renew with fresh leaders and reforms.

    The “everybody’s corrupt” mantra is a signal of a corrupt person trying to avoid accountability.

  8. JWalters on May 26, 2015, 6:49 pm

    “In Watergate they told us to follow the money, but journalists resist this lesson when it comes to the Israel lobby, though there’s obviously a lot of money sloshing around if you support Israel.”

    Thank you for saying this. Clearly this is an area that calls out for journalistic digging. Yet all this money is also being used to rein in mainstream reporters, as Mondoweiss has documented (e.g. the New York Times).

    I wonder if Adelson was set up as a billionaire specifically to funnel large amounts of money into protecting criminals and their crimes? We know at least one Vegas casino was set up with a frontman owner to provide a lot of slosh money for gangsters. Casinos are ideal for this sort of thing. Scorses’s film “Casino” tells the true story very well. Perhaps there will be a future film “Adelson’s Billions”, based on some future intrepid reporting.

  9. David Doppler on May 26, 2015, 7:13 pm

    Who wouldn’t want to run against Sheldon Adelson?

    He’s at least as bad as the Koch Brothers, for any Democrat worthy of the name. He has so little support among the American Jewish community, except what he purchases, he’s just this side of Donald Sterling (LA Clippers former owner who got banned from the NBA for telling his girl friend not to go games with Blacks like Magic Johnson, so he wouldn’t have to hear about it from his racist Israeli friends) and can be usefully compared to him, conflated with him as the wrong billionaires to have on your side. Let Sheldon Adelson wrongfully accuse some bright, earnest Democratic politician of Anti-Semitism. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

    • MRW on May 27, 2015, 11:31 am

      I don’t have a link, David Doppler, it was something I read in passing and didn’t maintain a copy. There was apparently some issue with a talk or event being held at a synagogue in Vegas and the Rabbi stood up for something concerning it.

      Wait . . . I found a reference to it in The Forward (2012):

      The casino’s ballrooms [Adelson’s The Venetian] host local dinners for AIPAC, as well as federation fundraisers. The annual Israel Independence Day celebration draws thousands here every year. In 1999, Beth Sholom [oldest Vegas synagogue] canceled a dinner planned for here after the honoree, Mayor Oscar Goodman, refused to cross a picket line to attend. Beth Sholom’s Rabbi Goodman moved the event, sparking a legendary fight with Adelson that is still gossiped about today.

      Rabbi Felipe Goodman was quoted at the time, with ellipses in the halting quote to indicate the brutality of Adelson’s remarks, that no one had ever spoken to him like that, not ever, not in his entire life had another human being addressed him that way.

      I’ve heard Adelson’s daughter address people she doesn’t like ( I think she’s more rabidly pro-Israel than her father). If it is any indication of what her father will say to people–meaning, where she learned it–I can’t find the words to describe the depth of crassness, the complete lack of anything redeeming that you are left with, how a human being could even be constructed that way. Pam Geller at her worst sounds like Princess Diana compared to her.

  10. JLewisDickerson on May 26, 2015, 11:19 pm

    RE: “Yes, Pfeffer says this happens in all western democracies, and not just by Sheldon Adelson. But Jewish money is a theme for him; earlier this year he likened American Jewish billionaires Adelson and Haim Saban to the anti-Semitic caricatures of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. You’re allowed to talk about this kind of thing in Israel, not here.” ~ Weiss

    URI AVNERY (Who Will Save Israel?):

    . . . Netanyahu’s patron – some say owner – Sheldon Adelson, the would-be dictator[*] of the US Republican party, already publishes a give-away newspaper in Israel, which has only one sole aim: to support Netanyahu personally against all enemies, including his competitors in his own Likud party. The paper – “Israel Hayom” (Israel Today) – is already Israel’s widest-circulation newspaper, with the American casino king pouring into it untold millions. . .

    . . . Netanyahu has also retained the Foreign Ministry in his own hands. Many of its functions have been dispersed between six other ministries. The pretext is that Netanyahu is keeping the prestigious ministry open for Labor Party leader Yitzhak Herzog, who he is pretending to invite into the government. Herzog has already loudly refused. (I suppose that the real owner of the government, Sheldon Adelson, would not allow him in anyway.) . . .

    SOURCE – http://www.avnery-news.co.il/english/

    * P.S. Sheldon Adelson’s “despotic control” – http://mondoweiss.net/2015/04/shields-adelson-foreign#comment-763336

  11. piotr on May 27, 2015, 1:10 pm

    Wikipedia: Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

    President: Dore Gold

    Recent initiatives:

    International Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Anti-Semitism

    In May 2015 the center sponsored an event promoting an initiative to make anti-Semitism an international crime through a convention to be signed by participating states. No foreign diplomats attended the event. Of 160 representatives invited, not one chose to attend. The organizers seemed surprised. The Times of Israel reported: “So far, not a single state has indicated that it is considering signing the convention, including Israel.

    ========

    The Intitute is located in Jerusalem, but its spiritual home is firmly in Chełm (check Wise People of Chełm).

  12. piotr on May 27, 2015, 1:37 pm

    By the way, Mondoweiss was puzzled why Dore Gold was paid as a consultant by AEI, and that is indeed a puzzle. One of the chief roles of AEI is to support otherwise unemployable right wing folks and give them a label of an “expert” or some such, something that looks good in a business card. However, when Gold got the money he was a full-time President of Jerusalem Center of Public Affairs.

    Similarly puzzling is the fact that was is the President of Center for Jewish Community Studies in Baltimore in the same time.

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