But it was for me. I’m close to the halfway point with my novel, and put about another 2000 words on it this weekend. You know, if it’s a choice between the blog and my novel, the blog is always going to lose.
I’m on target to be finished by the end of May, so we’ll see what happens this summer.
Well, that’s that for the AP. The fact that Iran’s Supreme Leader called Israel “a cancerous tumor” that “needs to be removed” is now buried on the second page of the story that warns the rest of the world that helping Israel will result in Iran attacking them. Yes, that’s now the angle–Iran will attack America if Israel attacks Iran. The fact that the leader of a terror-supporting nation that has already murdered thousands of Americans and others throughout the world calls for the destruction of Israel in the plainest terms ever? Not important.
Here is the full quote:
“The Zionist regime is really the cancerous tumor of this region and it needs to be removed and will be removed,” Khamenei said to a cheering crowd.
Here’s the AP quote from the story yesterday:
“The Zionist regime is a true cancer tumor on this region that should be cut off,” the supreme leader said. “And it definitely will be cut off.”
And here’s the quote in the final AP update of the story:
Khamenei called Israel a “cancerous tumor that should be cut and will be cut” — a remark he has made previously.
This is what they always do: Minimize the threat to Israel and bury the information far down in the latest updates. They can argue that they’re simply putting the more newsworthy parts first, updating the story to bring more information, but the fact that Khameini threatens any nation that helps Israel cannot be put into context without first including the threats Iran makes against Israel. This is the angle and lead they’re going with now:
Iran’s supreme leader has pledged to aid any nation or group that challenges Israel and said any military strikes over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program would damage U.S. interests in the Middle East “10 times over.”
The quote about destroying Israel comes 17 paragraphs in, after detailing how Khameini is threatening the U.S., how Israel may strike Iran, and how Iran has already struck at Israel via its proxies in Lebanon and Gaza.
If Israel does strike Iran–and I hope to God it doesn’t come to that–count on the media to downplay the existential threats Iran has made repeatedly over the last few years.
Israel’s annual Herzliya conference, which draws leaders from around the world to discuss the region’s security issues, is always a cause for the news media to get a case of the vapors. Its major topic this year, of course, is Iran. Israelis intelligence chief said that Iran has enough material for four nuclear bombs. And that Israel has other problems:
Kochavi said that Israel was currently threatened by 200,000 rockets and missiles in the hands of Israel’s enemies. The missiles, he said, currently covered the entire State of Israel and were growing in their ranges and the size of their warheads.
Ehud Barak says that Iran is nearing the point where their underground bunkers will be too heavily fortified to be bombed. Moshe Ya’alon said that the missile base that exploded in Iran last year was building ICBMs capable of reaching the U.S. And now Leon Panetta says that there is a “strong likelihood” that Israel will attack this spring.
Iran has responded by threatening to destroy Israel, using the same language of the Nazis:
The supreme leader of Iran issued a blunt warning Friday that war would be detrimental to the United States — and that Iran is ready to help anyone who confronts “cancerous” Israel.
[…]”Well, these kinds of threats are detrimental to the U.S.,” he said. “The war itself will be 10 times as detrimental to the U.S.”
He said Iran will support any nation or group that fights against Israel.
“The Zionist regime is really the cancerous tumor of this region and it needs to be removed and will be removed,” Khamenei said to a cheering crowd.
The AP chose not to write a headline including the threats to remove the “cancerous tumor.” Instead, the focus was on Iran openly declaring to harm any nation that helps Israel–a declaration that is not really new.
Khamenei: Iran will back ‘any nations, any groups’ fighting Israel
Iran will help any nation or group that confronts the “cancer” Israel, the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Friday.
The London Telegraph got it right:
Iran: We will help ‘cut out the cancer of Israel’
Iran will help anyone willing to “cut out the cancer” of Israel, its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said today.
The Telegraph is using the AP story. They rewrote it to emphasize the points the AP thought were worth burying. Remember that next time some AP editor puts in the weasel words that Hamas “denies” getting support from Iran, or some idiot pundit tries to ell you that Hamas is not working under Iranian orders.
And now that we’ve gotten the war of the words out of the way, here’s Barry Rubin on why neither Israel nor the U.S. are going to bomb Iran.
If Israel attacks Iran now, does that mean Iran would never get nuclear weapons? No, it would merely postpone that outcome for at most a year or two more than it would take otherwise. And then it would ensure an all-out, endless bloody war thereafter.
If Israel attacks Iranian nuclear installations, would that ensure future peace between the two countries? Would it make it less likely that the Tehran regime uses such weapons to strike at Israel in the future? No. On the contrary, it would have the exact opposite effect. Again, it would ensure direct warfare between the two countries and make Iran’s use of nuclear weapons against Israel 100 percent probable.
I’ll put my faith in Barry Rubin. He’s one of the best Israel analysts on the planet.
Twenty-five years ago today, I opened my BBS to the public. It had one telephone line, so when one person was on it, everyone else got a busy signal. It was 2400 baud. Woo! So fast! I think I used to get about 30 hits a day, and I knew nearly everyone who called, especially after we started having our BBS get-togethers every month or so. The site was all message threads, with various topics, ranging from politics to storyboards (I cannot tell you how much fun it was to write Cap’n Claws, the pirate who had an adamantium hook and hated the French) and beyond. I stayed online with Through the Looking Glass for seven years, then went into the GEnie network and other online services until blogging came to my attention in 2000. And of course, in the spring of 2001, I started Yourish.com.
Twenty-five years online. (Twenty-six, when you count in the year I spent BBSing myself before I started the BBS.) I believe that’s longer than the millennials have been alive.
Wow, the media keep piling on Sheldon Adelson. Let’s remember his big crime is donating millions of dollars to Newt Gingrich’s campaign. And as we all know, there’s nothing the media like to do more than profile people who use their money to influence politics. For instance, there’s this headline yesterday on CBS News.
The big GOP prize: Shelly Adelson’s war chest
It’s a reprint from The New Republic. The message spreads.
Then there’s this, in the WaPo:
Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson’s family is bankrolling Gingrich super PAC
No! Not his family, too. Really? Because that’s so unheard of from Obama donors. Oh. Wait.
So why do they keep pounding Adelson?
Because it’s working.
Adelson tried to bring to Nevada Republicans’ attention the fact that Saturday caucuses, by their nature, exclude religious Jews from participating. It was interpreted as trying to mess with the caucuses. End result:
Sands Corp. Chairman Sheldon Adelson distanced himself Monday from a Clark County Republican decision to hold a special presidential caucus after sundown Saturday for observant Jews, saying through a spokesman he and his wife “had no involvement” in the arrangement.
The statement seemed designed to counter concerns by several presidential campaigns that the GOP was giving special consideration to Adelson, who backs presidential candidate Newt Gingrich. Adelson and his wife, Miriam, have donated $10 million to a pro-Gingrich Political Action Committee.
They’re forcing him to back off from supporting the candidate of his choice because they’ve made him the story.
The casino magnate also has become concerned that he is overshadowing Mr. Gingrich’s campaign, according to people close to Mr. Adelson.
“He [Mr. Adelson] realizes that when you make a contribution it does become an issue and he wants the focus to remain on Newt,” said Andy Abboud, vice president of government relations at Las Vegas Sands Corp., an Adelson company. The two men will maintain a distance in Nevada this week, he said, but their paths might cross at some point. Mr. Gingrich is staying at Mr. Adelson’s Venetian casino, said Dan Burdish, who is working for Mr. Gingrich in Nevada.
(Okay, come on, let’s not pretend their paths aren’t going to cross. Really?) But still, the fact that the media have forced Adelson to back off of Newt is pretty pathetic. They did no such thing when Haim Saban was telling Harry Reid what to do.
“Let me give you an example of this access, and why it’s completely O.K.,” Saban responded. “I hosted the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, in my home. I was informed that he refused to sign a letter to Obama, which was signed by most of the senators, supporting Israel, before the speech in Cairo. . . . I got the message on Saturday and he was at my house on Sunday. I asked him, ‘Why didn’t you sign?’
“So he said, ‘Because I don’t sign other people’s initiatives,’ as the leader, as head of the Democratic Party.
“I said, ‘So send a letter of your own.’ ” And, Saban added, smiling, and with hesitation, as though he did not like to boast, “He did.”
And he bragged about it. Do you remember that New Yorker profile? Yeah, me neither. It’s from May, 2010. But although Saban’s views on Israel are pretty close to Adelson’s, we don’t hear about his “Israel-firster” attitude–because he donates to Democrats.
Double standards? But of course. That’s the way the left works. And the “objective” media.
This is probably one of the most condescending opinion pieces I’ve ever read in my life. It starts out bashing the Forward’s current Jewish Bogeyman of the Month, Sheldon Adelson:
Jewish conservatives continue to spend significant amounts of effort and money to swing American and Israeli politics to the far right. Most visible is gambling billionaire Sheldon Adelson, whose funding of Israeli media affected the 2009 Israeli election and who is now spending a fortune to equate American “support for Israel” with support for Israel’s far-right wing.
Similarly, William Kristol’s “Emergency Committee for Israel” plays on Jewish fears to garner Republican votes. And Eric Cantor, House minority whip, is one of the most vocal proponents of Tea Party ideology — the same social Darwinism dressed up as American populism that brought us the 2008 financial crisis.
Note that he starts with a false charge, that Adelson is trying to equate American support for Israel with supporting only the Israeli far right. Now that Jay Michaelson has set the false tone, he then goes on to say that those progressive Jews who are saying that conservative Jews are not following “Jewish values” are wrong. Conservatives can be Jewish, too. I know, I know, you’re shocked. And as a Jewish centrist who has shocked her very liberal Jewish friends by voting for George W. Bush and John McCain, it’s nice to know that I’m just as Jewish as the Obama Fan Club in every synagogue. Why, just look at this philosopher’s reasoning process as to what progressives think of people like me:
The second response has been to argue that Jewish conservatives just don’t get it. They’re misreading Jewish history and tradition. They’re traumatized, bigoted or confused. Whatever the reason, it may be that Jewish conservatives are just plain wrong in their interpretation of Jewish tradition.
Relatively few progressives come out and say this directly, because to do so violates a cardinal progressive principle, that of pluralism and toleration. (Of course, conservatives don’t hesitate to make these claims, painting critics of Israel as self-hating Jews, or social progressives as rebels against the Torah.) So, some make a softer claim: that conservatives get it, but get the wrong it. Yes, there are reactionary elements within Judaism, but these are just barnacles stuck onto the side of the Jewish ship. Yes, the Cantors and Kristols of the world can find some nasty Jewish traditions to draw from, but they miss the real point, which is Judaism’s progressive social agenda, or love of peace, or whatever.
Shorter Michaelson: Oh, conservatives. You are so mean. But we, the Noble Progressives, rise above the meanness and give you our kindness, our tolerance, and our condescension.
Except, of course, they don’t. Note the way he started the article. “Some” Jews think this. “Some” Jews think that. He goes on to bash Jews who don’t think like him, and then he brings in the big gun for his backup: Michael Lerner. Yeah, now that’s an authority that all of Judaism considers to be a top Talmudic scholar able to make decisions about who is a Jew. And finally after being informed a dozen times that conservative Jews are wrong, wrong, wrong, we are told this:
I have my approach to Jewish values that allows me to say that Eric Cantor, Sheldon Adelson and William Kristol are wrong — pluralism is not the same as relativism, after all — but what I won’t say is that they are somehow un-Jewish.
Here’s the thing about this expert on Who’s A Jew: He’s a Buddhist.
I think I’ll stop here. ‘Nuff said.
So the liberal Jewish press is harping on Sheldon Adelson because he has the nerve to want to spend his money on electing the candidate he likes the best. Gee, how un-American of him (*cough* *cough* Oprah) (*cough* *cough* Haim Saban). It’s almost like nobody else ever contributes any large sums of money to American politicans (*cough* *cough* Jon Corzine bundling $500,000 for Obama).
So, is Adelson’s money buying Newt’s support of Israel?
Not hardly. One of my readers did a little research and sent me a few helpful links. (Thanks!)
Look at this article from 1998 in the San Francisco Jewish Weekly, titled Resignation of Newt Gingrich means Israel is losing a friend. For those of you readers who can’t do difficult math, that article was written more than 13 years ago, which means Sheldon Adelson’s money played no part in Newt’s opinion on Israel. So far, the best the Forward can come up with is Adelson’s money contributed to Gingrich’s group in 2006. Whoops. That’s eight whole years after we read this:
A Jewish Democratic politico said of Gingrich’s pro-Israel credentials, “I don’t think Newt is acting. I’d like to say he’s full of it, but he isn’t. Yes, he was trying to out right-wing the right-wing Jews, but he’s a true believer. Livingston may say what AIPAC wants to hear, but it’s not in his kishkes. He’s not a true believer.”
Really? A Democrat called Gingrich a right-wing Israel supporter in 1998?
But wait. There’s more! In 1998, Gingrich also called Jerusalem “the united and eternal capital of Israel”
Oh, pshaw. There must be some way Adelson’s money influenced Gingrich’s opinion. Maybe he’s so rich, he has a secret time machine and he went back in time to convince Newt to support Israel?
Or maybe Newt’s been a supporter of Israel for decades. (Also, Newt is pretty damned close to getting the Yourish.com cherished Master of Juvenile Scorn™ designation.)
Speaker Newt Gingrich said today that the White House was trying to blackmail Israel by pushing it toward the negotiating table, but President Clinton said he was only trying to bring about fruitful talks on Mideast peace.
”It’s become the Clinton Administration and Arafat against Israel,” Mr. Gingrich said at a news conference. ”The Clinton Administration says: ‘Happy birthday. Let us blackmail you on behalf of Arafat.’ ”
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
The Forward itself discussed Gingrich’s ties to Israel in the 1990s (buried, of course, in page two of an article using the Gloom-and-Doom Machine profiling his ties to Adelson). On the first page, they date the Adelson-Gingrich relationship back to 2007. This, kiddies, is how you get away with saying that your article is objective because it mentioned the recent and more distant relationships. It is also what is known as “slanting.” But the most important takeaway here is just what I wrote the other day: The only reason the liberal media is jumping all over the Gingrich-Adelson relationship is because Adelson is a Jew who is supporting a conservative Republican, rather than the liberal media-slash-Jewish establishment’s approved causes–which would be liberal Democrats.
Haim Saban influencing Bill Clinton? Not a problem. Sheldon Adelson is contributing to Newt Gingrich’s campaign? OMG, he’s a conservative, somebody stop him!1!!
Your objective media, exposed.
An open letter to Richard Schiff:
Don’t ever speak in a faux British accent again.
Really.
Boy, did you suck in this week’s episode of Once Upon A Time.
That is all.
(P.S.: Stick to cranky characters like Toby in the West Wing, and please make sure to speak in your natural accent.)
The AP never misses an opportunity to bash Benjamin Netanyahu. This time, they use my personal winner of Most Annoying Israeli Spam to Meryl Award, Moshe Feiglin, as the bogeyman who is even more extreme than Bibi. Here’s the lead:
A hard-line Jewish settler who wants to pay Palestinians to leave the West Bank and Gaza is running against Israel’s prime minister in Tuesday’s ruling party primary election.
Moshe Feiglin has little chance of defeating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but he could deliver an embarrassing blow to the country’s leader in his fourth try for leadership of the Likud, none of which have had a realistic shot at success.
Experts say Feiglin could get a third of the vote in the closed party primary, reflecting the view of hard-liners that Netanyahu, despite his uncompromising worldview, is not hawkish enough.
Got it? This guy hasn’t got a snowball’s chance in hell of winning, but note the slam at Netanyahu bolded above.
Now look what else the AP says about him.
Israeli nationalists believe the West Bank must remain under Israeli control for religious and security reasons. Though Netanyahu backed that view for years, his movement has edged toward compromise in recent years, and Netanyahu himself has accepted the concept of creating a Palestinian state.
Really? So, you mean–Netanyahu has compromised on his former views? In the exact opposite of what you report two whole paragraphs ago?
They say that analysts are “divided” over how Feiglin’s challenge will affect Netanyahu’s actions. That’s because they interviewed two “analysts” and one said it would have no effect, and the other said it would.
And there you have it, folks. Another day in Scary Israel-Land reporting in the AP, and still not a single word about Palestinian TV praising the murders of the Fogel family (including a three-month old infant) as “heroes.”
The Forward takes the biggest anti-Semitic trope–that Jews have too much influence over American politics and are loyal to Israel over America–and publishes a piece that gives the David Dukes, Pat Buchanans, and John Mearsheimers of the world even more grist for their mill of lies.
What Sheldon’s Money Buys
Adelson Millions Ensure Gingrich Steers to Far Right on Israel
This is what Ha’aretz chose to use as the headline for the Forward jump:
Just how far can Adelson influence Gingrich’s campaign?
And yet, there have not been any such articles about how much influence someone like George Soros (funder of super-liberal attack dog Media Matters, among others) has on the Democrats. In fact, I’m betting you don’t even know who Haim Saban is. That’s because he is a Democrat, and a contributor to Democratic causes. Sheldon Adelson makes the cardinal sin of contributing to Republicans., sorry, Rethuglicans. George Soros, who has committed Lord knows how many millions to Democratic and progressive causes, hates Israel, but there are no hard-hitting exposes of how much power liberal Jews like him over the American political process.
The New Yorker wrote a 12-page profile of Haim Saban, the entertainment billionaire who contributes millions to Democratic causes and apparently has President Clinton in his pocket. The article pretty much leads with his influence over the Clintons, and talks about how he wants to protect Israel by strengthening U.S.-Israel ties. But the tone of the article is quite different, and the gist of the article never made its way into the wire services. I don’t recall seeing any scary warnings about how Haim Saban influenced the Clintons and was one of the major figures behind Hillary Clinton’s run for the presidency.
The contrast is stark. This story is told fondly:
“Haim said, ‘Let me make a phone call—maybe I can get something done here,’ ” Chernin told me. “He was extremely helpful in getting Clinton to help. Clinton called the President of Brazil.” Matt Krane recalled how Saban described to him what had happened: “Saban had called the Fox Family attorney in Brazil and asked, ‘How long will it take?’ It was months. He said he asked the lawyer, ‘Who is your finance minister?’ The attorney understood, and he said, ‘There is no political pull available in this process.’ Saban called Bill Clinton and asked, ‘Can you help me?’ ” Soon afterward, the approval came through.
What a great guy! He used his influence with the former president (this was in 2001) close a deal that enabled him to walk away with $1.5 billion. (He paid no taxes on that–then. The IRS is after the firm he used to avoid paying those taxes and was in the process of collecting back taxes from him.)
As Krane began to explore the tax-shelter world, he learned that major accounting and investment-banking firms—including K.P.M.G., Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, and many others—were involved in creating tax-shelter products. He selected one that was developed by the Quellos Group, a financial boutique based in Seattle; he integrated this shelter with a tax plan of his own, and, with the combination, made it possible for Saban to pay no taxes on his $1.5-billion gain.
And while the profile mentions Saban’s strong Zionism, it mentions it favorably, with glowing anecdotes like this:
As Saban has said, “I’m a one-issue guy, and my issue is Israel.” When Bill Clinton was President and Ehud Barak was Israel’s Prime Minister, Saban, who was close to both men, says that occasionally he provided a back channel for communications. In July of 2000, shortly before the start of the Camp David negotiations, Israel’s planned two-hundred-and-fifty-million-dollar sale of an airborne radar system to China—furiously opposed by many at the Pentagon and in Congress—threatened to derail congressional support for a peace deal. Saban said, “I just called Ehud and told him, ‘In the middle of this peace thing, it’s impossible for Israel to do things that are perceived in the U.S. as against the interests of the U.S. I understand the financial aspect, I understand that it may not be really a security concern for the U.S.—it doesn’t matter. There’s a much bigger picture here, and you really should seriously consider.’ ” Barak suspended the sale. “How much impact my call had, I have no idea,” Saban added. During Camp David, he continued, “I was involved, but only on the periphery. If Barak could not say some things to Clinton to his face, he would ask me to convey a message, and vice versa.” At one point during the negotiations, Clinton, accompanied by his national-security adviser, Sandy Berger, had to go to Japan. “When they came back, I spoke to Sandy Berger, and gave him my two cents about dealing with issues. ‘Is that really super-important?’ ‘Well, why can’t Arafat give up on that?’ ” He laughed. “The usual!”
It is safe to say that without multi-billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s help the chances of Newt Gingrich becoming the Republican nominee for president would be zero — and consequently the race itself, going into Florida at the moment, would not be the competitive, drag-out fight it has become. Adelson, the hotel and casino magnate, has kept Gingrich alive, first through an infusion of $5 million into a super PAC, which allowed the former speaker to defend himself against attacks by Mitt Romney and led to Gingrich’s thumping victory in South Carolina. And now we know that Adelson’s wife, Miriam, has committed another $5 million to the cause of Newt.
One of Adelson’s passions — and a reason for his desire to play such a big role in American politics — is undoubtedly Israel. And his positions are unambiguously right-wing and hawkish to the extreme.
Cue scary music. OMG! The Jews are controlling the Republican candidate for president!
Yep. Your love for Israel is only a menace if you’re a Republican or, worse–a conservative.
Way to go, Forward. Keep on spreading those tropes about powerful Jews controlling American politics. The denizens of Stormfront thank you for it.
How about reporting on items like these instead of whitewashing Palestinian accountability for encouraging terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians?
Palestinian television aired an interview with the relatives of the Fogel family murderers earlier this month, praising the two cousins convicted with the brutal attack as “heroes.”
The broadcast was aired as part of a weekly show on the Palestinian state-run station called “For You,” which focuses on Palestinian prisoners incarcerated in Israel.
Ha’aretz managed to print it. It’s your turn, AP. And here’s even more of the Ha’aretz story to show you how the Palestinians lie when they say they want to live side by side, in peace, with Israel.
Hakim Awad’s mother sent her regards to her son, proudly describing him as the perpetrator of the Itamar attack and that he was sentenced to 5 consecutive life sentences.
Awad’s aunt then proceeded to describe her nephew as a “hero and a legend.”
This “hero” and “legend” murdered a three-month-old infant. What courage that must have taken! A baby, asleep in its bed–what a fierce Zionist soldier, and how heroic that her nephew was a part of the attack that subdued the mighty infant!
You can also add this to your news files, which shows that the Mufti of Jerusalem is lying when he said his words were taken out of context and that he didn’t call to kill the Jews in relation to the current conflict. Palestine Media Watch should be required reading for all Middle East reporters. They merely record and translate what the Palestinians are broadcasting.
Been a busy day. Writing, concert-going, and tablet-buying.
More tomorrow.
70 years after the Wansee conference, where Hitler gathered his top men to discuss how to eliminate the entire Jewish population of Europe, these things are happening now:
The world ignores Iran’s continuing calls to “wipe Israel off the map”: A modern euphemism for the genocide of the Jews which is pooh-poohed by Iran’s apologists on the left (Juan Cole, for one).
A major American university is hosting a conference to boycott, divest, and sanction Israel, ignoring the fact that the Palestinian BDS movement’s purpose is to ultimately destroy the state of Israel.
One out of five Germans still hate Jews, even as Germany is now hosting the world’s fastest-growing Jewish community. (They’re probably fleeing France and the Nordic nations.)
The Associated Press runs a profile of a wealthy Jew who is a “hard-liner” on Israel contributing millions of dollars to a Republican candidate for president (while never running the same sort of profile on, say, George Soros, who does not like Israel and donates millions to anti-Israel, liberal and Democratic causes).
The coauthor of the most anti-Israel book this side of neo-Nazi circles endorsed an anti-Israel and anti-Semitic book written by a Jewish anti-Semite and then huffed that he hasn’t got an anti-Semitic bone in his body, showing that now anti-Semites get to define anti-Semitism–which means that nothing they do will be defined that way.
Liberal Jews (and liberal non-Jews) are now calling Zionists, or Jews that evince any liking for Israel, it seems, as “Israel-firsters.” And they’re trying to say that there’s not anything wrong with that.
And of course, a trip through the unmoderated comments of any site that mentions Israel or religion will give you doezens of examples of anti-Semitic commenters, alive, well, and thriving in the anonymous world of the internet.
Happy International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Check out the original headline for an AP profile on Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire donor to the Gingrich campaign:
Gingrich’s biggest benefactor is a casino mogul, a hardliner on Israel and very, very rich
It has since been changed to one that is a little less overtly anti-Jewish:
Gingrich donor is casino mogul, Israeli hardliner
It is unbelievable grist for the neo-Nazi, Israel-firster, and anti-Zionist mills. It’s ostensible premise is that influence-peddling is back since the Supreme Court threw out donor limits with Citizens United, but the angle is entirely “Ohmigod, scary Jewish billionaire is buying a candidate for his hard-line views on Israel!!”
He’s an ardent supporter of Israel. A megabillionaire casino mogul whose Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS) is under federal investigation. And the self-proclaimed “richest Jew in the world.”
Sheldon Adelson is also, far and away, the biggest patron of Newt Gingrich’s surging Republican presidential bid. Adelson and his wife, Miriam, have pumped $10 million into a political action committee backing Gingrich that is run by the former House speaker’s onetime aides. Campaign finance experts say the two $5 million contributions are among the largest known political donations in U.S. history.
No other candidate in the race for president appears to be relying so heavily on the fortune of a single donor. It’s been made possible by last year’s Supreme Court rulings – known as Citizens United – that recast the political landscape by stripping away restrictions on contributions and how outside groups can spend their money.
Watch how the writer manages to take every instance and turn it around on how this one person is using his money and influence to make sure that Newt’s stance on Israel is in line with his own.
Sheldon Adelson is Citizens United come to life.
“The bottom line is that it creates that potential for one person to have far more influence than any one person should have,” said Fred Wertheimer, president of the campaign finance watchdog group Democracy 21.
When any candidate is beholden to a single donor for so much money, Wertheimer said, “it opens the door to corruption and influence peddling.” Wertheimer said the infusion of cash would raise questions about any decision Gingrich would make that touches on gambling, for example. And similar questions could be raised about Gingrich’s Mideast policies.
We are supposed to be calmed by this instance of journalistic objectivity, which assures us that both Newt and Adelson have “hardline” stances on Israel. But still, the insistence that Newt is now bought and paid for by the Zionist Occupational Government (and won’t THAT line get me all kinds of neo-Nazi search hits) is rampant throughout the article.
Friends say Adelson and Gingrich met when Gingrich was House speaker and Adelson was lobbying to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Gingrich backed the legislation and the two bonded over a shared hardline stance on Israel.
In Cocoa, Fla., Gingrich on Wednesday called Adelson “very deeply concerned about the survival of Israel” and the threat of a nuclear Iran. Asked if he had promised Adelson anything, Gingrich replied that he pledged “that I would seek to defend the United States and United States allies.
Yeah, sure. You lousy Israel-firster, you. We know you pledged yourself to Israel’s needs over America’s.
The article also takes a look at what Adelson’s money goes for. Okay, Yad Vashem, cool, but wait–what’s this? Birthright Israel? And a right-wing newspaper that supports Netanyahu? ISRAEL-FIRSTER! ZOG! JEWISH MONEY INFLUENCING THE WORLD!
Last year, Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Israel, said it received its largest private donation ever – a $25 million gift – from Adelson. Since 2007, he has donated more than $100 million to Birthright Israel, a group that sends young adult Jews from the United States and other countries on 10-day trips to Israel.
Adelson is an outspoken supporter of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and owns a widely read, right-wing Israeli newspaper, Israel Hayom, which is distributed at no cost throughout Israel and is supportive of Netanyahu.
The hefty donations to Gingrich’s presidential bid aren’t the first checks he’s written to help the former Georgia congressman. He ponied up more than $7 million to help get Gingrich’s conservative political group American Solutions for Winning the Future off the ground.
Some of you may think that I’m exaggerating the subtext of this news article. Maybe just a little bit. But it hits all the chords that anti-Semites have hit over the centuries. It profiles a rich Jew who is using his money to influence the politics of his country to support Israel. He is using his money to get American Jews over to Israel via Birthright Israel, presumably to create a stronger bond between them and Israel. And the candidate is marching to the billionaire’s drum. Witness:
In December, Gingrich proclaimed the Palestinians “an invented people.” Israel’s Haaretz daily reported later that month that Adelson approved of the remarks. And Gingrich has said that one of the first executive orders he would sign if elected president would move the American Embassy to Jerusalem.
This is how modern anti-Semitism works. In the shadows of the mainstream press, with the wink-wink nudge-nudges of innuendo and reading between the lines. Sheldon Adelson has bought and paid for a candidate who is running for president, and it’s clear that the quid pro quo will be Israel. Watch for Andrew Sullivan and his progressive brothers-in-arms to wave this news article like a flag on how Israel is controlling America.
Looks like I won’t be giving up this blog anytime soon. The Jew-haters won’t let me.
Dueling bomb analyses The New York Times Magazine runs a lengthy piece and says Israel will bomb Iran this year. Jeffrey Goldberg, who wrote a lengthy piece for the Atlantic not long ago, says it’s not gonna happen. I rather hope Goldberg is right.
Lather. Rinse. Repeat. The Palestinians are refusing to so much as enter the room to negotiate with Israel, so of course, the EU is trying to get Israel to offer concessions (read: bribes) to get them back to the table. Because that’s always worked before. Oh. Wait.
Okay, THAT was awesome: The Navy Seals did it again, killing Somail pirates and rescuing an American hostage, as well as a Danish one.
Early on Wednesday, two teams from SEAL Team 6 – the same unit that killed Osama bin Laden – parachuted under the cover of darkness out of an Air Force C-130 transport plane into the Somali city of Cadaado.
From there, they hiked nearly two miles to an encampment, where nine pirates were killed. The SEALs suffered no injuries. Army helicopters then picked up the SEALS and Buchanan and Thisted and flew them safely to the African nation of Djibouti.
Great job, guys!
The media has a new, scary Jewish billionaire to excoriate: A story on Sheldon Adelson gets the Negative Portrayal of the Month award for this AP profile of the billionaire donor behind Newt Gingrich, replete with shades of “Israel first” and ZOG hints, all couched in the pretty phrasing of the mainstream media. I will take this one apart later and show you how the AP manages to make it seem like Jews are behind the Gingrich campaign, and it’s partly the fault of the Citizens United decision. In the tank for Obama? All the way, you say.
