What Sheldon Adelson wants

An editorial in the New York Times says: No American is dedicating as much of his money to defeat President Obama as Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate who also happens to have made more money in the last three years than any other American. He is the perfect illustration of the squalid state of political money, spending sums greater than any political donation in history to advance his personal, ideological and financial agenda, which is wildly at odds with the nation’s needs.

Mr. Adelson spent $20 million to prop up Newt Gingrich’s failed candidacy for the Republican nomination. Now, he has given $10 million to a Mitt Romney super PAC, and has pledged at least $10 million to Crossroads GPS, the advocacy group founded by Karl Rove that is running attack ads against Mr. Obama and other Democrats. Another $10 million will probably go to a similar group founded by the Koch brothers, and $10 million more to Republican Congressional super PACs.

That’s $60 million we know of (other huge donations may be secret), and it may be only a down payment. Mr. Adelson has made it clear he will fully exploit the anything-goes world created by the federal courts to donate a “limitless” portion of his $25 billion fortune to defeat the president and as many Democrats as he can take down.

One man cannot spend enough to ensure the election of an unpopular candidate, as Mr. Gingrich’s collapse showed, but he can buy enough ads to help push a candidate over the top in a close race like this year’s. Given that Mr. Romney was not his first choice, why is Mr. Adelson writing these huge checks?

The first answer is clearly his disgust for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, supported by President Obama and most Israelis. He considers a Palestinian state “a steppingstone for the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people,” and has called the Palestinian prime minister a terrorist. He is even further to the right than the main pro-Israeli lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which he broke with in 2007 when it supported economic aid to the Palestinians. [Continue reading…]

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3 thoughts on “What Sheldon Adelson wants”

  2. dickerson3870

    RE: “[What does Adelson want?] The first answer is clearly his [Adelson’s] disgust for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict… He [Adelson] considers a Palestinian state ‘a steppingstone for the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people’…” ~ NYT editorial

    MY COMMENT: Adelson has the mentality of the most extreme Israeli settlers in the West Bank – oops, I mean “Judea and Samaria”.

    SEE: “Inside A Foundation For Defense Of Democracies Sponsored Junket To Israel”, By John Walbridge, Lobelog.com, 6/11/12

    (excerpts) I am in Israel at the moment, having just completed a terrorism tour for academics sponsored by a group called the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). The organizer described them as “hawkish,” which is certainly true. . .
    . . . There is an obsession with Iran. A settler leader and aspiring right-wing Israeli politician (and former senior aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) was explaining why a peace agreement giving the West Bank–sorry, “Judea and Samaria”–to the Palestinians would be militarily unacceptable. He took us to a settlement on the edge of the Samaritan hills and pointed to the towers of Tel Aviv on the horizon. “Imagine,” he said, “if Iran were here!” ”Iran!” I blurted out, my resolve to keep my mouth shut overwhelmed by surprise. “What’s Iran got to do with it?” He looked at me as if I was a child.

    “Iran is going to take over Iraq. Jordan is very weak, so that will fall to them too. Then they will control Judea and Samaria and be able to attack Tel Aviv.”

    This preposterous scenario was extreme and our hosts apologized afterwards for exposing us to the naked political nuttiness of the settlers, but the notion that Iran might be lurking under every bed was widely shared. . .

    ENTIRE ARTICLE – http://www.lobelog.com/inside-a-foundation-for-defense-of-democracies-sponsored-junket-to-israel/

  3. Ian F Clark

    If Mr Adelson were to succeed, we would be faced either with an Israel having pushed all the Palestinians into Jordan or a single undemocratic Israeli state with a permanent sub-class.

    No, his influence will extend as far as dissuading some undecided in voting for Mr Obama.

    Israel will sort its own moral problems without external help.

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