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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow an American Billionaire Stands in the Way of Mideast Peace
How an American Billionaire Stands in the Way of Mideast PeaceSheldon Adelson is the Daddy Warbucks of Israel, and Benjamin Netanyahu is yet another of his beneficiaries.
By Bill Moyers, Michael Winship / Moyers and Company
Everything you need to know about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus address to Congress Tuesday was the presence in the visitors gallery of one man Sheldon Adelson.
The gambling tycoon is the Godfather of the Republican Right. The partys presidential hopefuls line up to kiss his assets, scraping and bowing for his blessing, which when granted is bestowed with his signed checks. Data from both the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics and the Center for Public Integrity show that in the 2012 election cycle, Adelson and his wife Miriam (whose purse achieved metaphoric glory Tuesday when it fell from the gallery and hit a Democratic congressman) contributed $150 million to the GOP and its friends, including $93 million to such plutocracy-friendly super PACs as Karl Roves American Crossroads, the Congressional Leadership Fund, the Republican Jewish Coalition Victory Fund, Winning Our Future (the pro-Newt Gingrich super PAC) and Restore Our Future (the pro-Mitt Romney super PAC).
Yet theres no knowing for sure about all of the dark money contributed by the Adelsons so called because it doesnt have to be reported. Like those high-rise, multi-million dollar apartments in New York City purchased by oligarchs whose identity is hidden within perfectly legal shell organizations, dark money lets our politicians conveniently erase fingerprints left by their ink-stained (from signing all those checks) billionaire benefactors.
But Sheldon Adelson was not only sitting in the House gallery on Tuesday because of the strings he pulls here in the United States. He is also the Daddy Warbucks of Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu is yet another of his beneficiaries not to mention an ideological soulmate. Although campaign finance reform laws are much more strict in Israel than here in the United States, Adelsons wealth has bought him what the historian and journalist Gershom Gorenberg calls uniquely pernicious influence.
Adelson owns the daily Israel Hayom, leading newspaper, as well as Makor Roshon, the daily newspaper of Israels Zionist religious right and NRG, a news website. ...
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http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/how-american-billionaire-stands-way-mideast-peace?akid=12863.1924881.l_rfMl&rd=1&src=newsletter1032908&t=17
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How an American Billionaire Stands in the Way of Mideast Peace (Original Post)
Panich52
Mar 2015
OP
Octafish
(55,745 posts)1. At least one Washington Post opinion writer agrees.
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)2. Well this Guy and Steve Wynn
are getting a major pay back here in Nevada for helping the TeaBillies take over of our State Legislature last year. How about 800 million in Business Taxes being repealed and new Taxes and Fees(tax)being shifted to the low wage and non existent middle class people.