The two largest donors to a new pro-Israel lobbying group, the Israeli-American Council, addressed its first national conference today. They called for Israel to pursue an implacable, hawkish, Islamophobic agenda against Iran and the Palestinians. Sheldon Adelson, who gave the IAC its single largest donation ($2.5-million), didn’t surprise anyone with his usual Palestine-denying rhetoric. Though it tended even more Kahanist than usual. Adelson rejected the notion that Israel must be a democracy:
“I don’t think the Bible says anything about democracy. I think God didn’t say anything about democracy,” Adelson said. “God talked about all the good things in life. He didn’t talk about Israel remaining as a democratic state, otherwise Israel isn’t going to be a democratic state — so what?”
Israel, a democracy? So what? That’s going to become a memorable phrase in the annals of the Israel war in the American Jewish community.
At another juncture, Adelson said:
“Israel can no longer live if you say we want to live as a democracy.”
If you’d asked me twenty years ago whether it’d be possible for a devout follower of Meir Kahane to be one of the richest men in the world and one of Israel’s strongest and richest advocates, I’d have thought you’d taken leave of your senses. Thinking back on what I knew or believed then, it would’ve made me beyond depressed to have known what was to come.
I have no doubt that had he lived, Meir Kahane would be Israeli prime minister and Sheldon Adelson would spend unlimited amounts of money to keep him there. Even more than he’s willing to spend on Bibi, which is considerable.
Haim Saban and his Zio-soul-sister (LA Times)
But major Aipac and Democrat donor, Haim Saban, also offered shocking, memorable copy. He told the audience that if Israel doesn’t like the Iran-western nuclear deal, it should “bomb the daylight out of the sons of bitches.” Saban ($400,000 to IAC in 2011) is one of Hillary Clinton’s largest donors. During her upcoming campaign, when you hear her rattle sabers on Iran or any other Israel-related subject, you’ll now know why.
Saban is also suspected by the FBI of being the Israeli Mossad asset with whom then Congresswoman Jane Harman negotiated a deal she hoped would bring her the chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee. Since Arnon Milchan has written a book reciting his considerable espionage exploits in the U.S. on behalf of the Mossad, it should come as no surprise that the Mossad would see Saban as a prime asset. It would also come as no surprise if Saban served Israeli intelligence as a loyal, even enthusiastic resource.
The IAC is a new wrinkle on the concept of an Israel Lobby startup. It focuses mainly on the 100,000-500,000 (depending on who’s counting) Israelis who make their home in the U.S. Adelson believes that since they’re Israelis and already imbued with ‘Zionist values,’ they’re even more valuable assets for Israel here than American Jews. They have the zeal, experience, and passion to convey Israel’s story to American policymakers that the rest of us Jews don’t have. To Adelson, they are the Zionist equivalent of the Christian soldiers of the old hymn (“Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war”).
IAC strives to present itself as a “non-partisan” organization. That’s as ridiculous as saying Adelson is non-partisan. Perhaps what they mean is that it is not partisan in terms of U.S. politics. That’s why it’s important to them they have both a Republican and Democrat fatcat donor. But the lead speakers at the event were Mitt Romney, Joe Lieberman, and Lindsay Graham. Not exactly “fair and balanced.” The prime target for the speakers was the current Democratic president. And as for Israel, this group is as partisan as they come. In fact, I firmly believe it should be forced to register as an agent of the Israeli government (as should Aipac).
Saban and Adelson, who own important media properties, goaded each other into further strategic purchases of newspapers like the New York Times in order to further their pro-Israel agenda:
“Why don’t you and I go after The New York Times?” Adelson joked with Saban, later explaining that the only way to do so is by offering “significantly more than it’s worth” and thus having shareholders sue the owners if they don’t accept the offer.
At one time, Saban considered a major investment in Al Jazeera which presumably would’ve toned down its reporting on the Israel-Palestine conflict. He also participated in the bidding for the Washington Post, which Jeff Bezos eventually won. He does own Univision. Adelson owns Yisrael HaYom and subsidizes it to the tune of $36-million per year. During his talk, Adelon admitted he doesn’t like journalism and believes what the rest of us call responsible journalism is “looking for the wrong, to tell the people what’s wrong in life.” He called this perspective “insane.”
I’ve been writing fairly apocalyptic posts about developments in Israel lately. About the self-destructive nature of the country’s leaders as they face what may become a new Intifada, but this one inside Israel. If we now add to this the insane bellicosity of billionaires like Adelson and Saban, we’re approaching a perfect storm. If Israel had no allies, no trade partners, no donors, it would be forced to trim its ideological sails. But donors like these encourage the baying of the Zionist hounds. They both “love the smell of napalm in the morning.” They both are going for the jugular. They both are implacable enemies of realism and pragmatism. Just the opposite of what Israel needs at this juncture. All I can say is that with friends like these Israel, in its current incarnation, will hasten its own demise.
I don’t know where you learned the words to “Onward Christian Soldiers,” Richard, but in every rendition I’ve ever heard and every version of the lyrics I find online,it’s “Onward Christian Soldiers, marching as to war” – sadly appropriate in this context.
@ Henry Norr: Absolutely right. Thanks for the correction. That’s what happens when you rely only on your memory and musical ear to remember lyrics like this.
Well will we finally be done then with that tiresome hasbarism about the “only democracy in the Middle East” and will the rhetoric start to match reality? Perhaps Y can answer that question.
Adelson sounds and looks like an ignoramus and it is quite possible that in his pro-Israel fervour he underestimates the strength of democracy as ideology though not practice in the US. This, and also his obvious predilection for the Republicans, should alienate those American Jews who have traditionally been voting for the other side and presumably still believe in democracy as a thing to be attained.
The picture though where his comrade in arms, Saban, appears to be so chummy with a soi-disant Democrat like Hillary Clinton gives me the creeps. Yet it might be a good thing if we have to endure her in the sense that Australia will finally start to rethink its strategic dependence on the US and its pro-Israel stance (this while having the biggest Moslem nation in the world on our doorstep). Clinton recently presumed to tick off Australia for forging closer ties with China, inter alia in the form of a free trade agreement. When Andrew Robb, Australia’s Minister for Trade and Investment, who has an eminently sour face, said with the sourest variety of that he could muster that Australia had to look out for Australian interests that was as music to my ears.
And, I presume, to the ears of that elder statesman, Malcolm Fraser, Australia’s erstwhile conservative Prime Minister, who recently warned in his book Dangerous Allies against Australia’s present strategic dependence on the US (and in retrospect deplored his own support for the US’s Vietnam policy saying that the US had either been derelict in properly informing its allies or deceitful),
Fraser is not impressed either with the role of the pro-Israel lobby in Australian politics. When he was confronted with the argument that the Greeks too have a lobby his retort was that the Greek lobby is looking after the interests of Australian Greeks not those of Greece. The contrast is obvious.
So that SOB Saban encourages the bombing of Iran in the bellicose language of those who only know war from the movies and the newsreels. What happened to that Bruce Riedel who warned some years ago most earnestly against that adventure, on behalf of the Saban Center one assumes?
Hillary Clinton, whose language against Iran has hardly been less bellicose than that of Saban, might, once in office, have to please her paymaster by encouraging the Israel right wing to “flee to the front” and attack. The world would look vastly different after that. .
[I will not publish anti-Semitic horse manure recycling stupid accusations about the Rothschilds, etc. Don’t try this again or you’ll be banned.]
With supporters like Adelson and Saban and leaders like Netanyahu, Israel needs no enemies.
I find that scriptures like John 8:44 are appropriate and since this one is a quote from the son of God it is authoritative.
Only the children of the Devil would want to bomb and kill innocent people and go to war based on lies and BS political agendas. Israel and its slave states have no credibility and have lost their moral compass. They must repent or burn.
@Steven: Tone it down. No hellfire & damnation here.
It is unavoidable. The situation is too far gone for anything less.
Seems that Israel is shouting, “Har Habayit Beyadeinut!” The Temple Mount is in Our Hands!