Sheldon Adelson

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Sheldon Adelson (born August 1933 in Boston, USA) is a US casino mogul, a hardline Zionist and a key bankroller of several Israel lobby initiatives. Owner of casino chains in both Nevada and Macao, Adelson, whose estimated net worth of $26.5 billion which, according to Forbes, made him the third richest man in the US and the sixth richest in the world has suffered losses of between £10-16 billion this year as a result of the world financial crisis[1][2][3]. A member of the Board of Directors of the conservative Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) Adelson is also a generous contributor to such Israel lobby projects as AIPAC, One Jerusalem, Freedom's Watch, Taglit Birthright and the Jerusalem-based Adelson Institute. Adelson is a staunch opponent of the two-state solution in Israel-Palestine. [4]

Contents

Lobbying Activities

Europe

In June 2007 Adelson attended the Democracy & Security International Conference in Prague, a gathering of what journalist Jim Lobe dubbed a 'Neoconservative International'. The event was cosponsored by the Adelson Institute, the Czech Foreign Ministry, the Prague Security Studies Institute, and Spain's Foundation for Social Studies and Analysis. [5]

Israel

According to Bruck Adelson's focus on Israel intensified with his marriage to Miriam in 1991, his political views becoming more conservative. He began spending a lot of time in Israel, where he also developed a close friendship with Netanyahu helping him in his successful 1996 bid for Prime Minister against Labor's Shimon Peres. Adleson has invested in high-tech companies, but his lobbying for the legalization of gaming have so far foundered in the face of Orthodox Jewish opposition to gambling.

Through his charitable foundation Adelson also funds Israeli causes and groups; he regularly appears at charitable events in Israel and makes lavish donations. In 2006 Adelson donated $25 million - the largest donation ever given by an individual - to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, where a museum of Holocaust art is named after his wife Miriam's parents as well as family members who perished in the Holocaust. Adelson gave Taglit-Birthright Israel - the program that flies Jewish youth to Israel for free tours - $60 million over a period of two years. He is the single largest donor to the program whose annual budget stands at $86 million.[6]

A staunch opponent of the two-state solution, Adelson has reportedly also tried to influence Israeli policy away from negotiating a peace with the Palestinians. In order to wield greater influence in Israel's internal politics Adelson has invested in the local media via Yisrael Hayom (Israel Today, a free daily paper) after a failed bid to take over major Israeli newspapers. The paper is seen widely as established solely to provide Likud's hardline leader Benjamin Netanyahu - a close friend of the Adelson's - with a platform. Netanyahu, reportedly, was also the middleman between Adelson and another friend of his, Shlomo Ben Zvi, in the failed partnership that produced the now-defunct freebie Yisraeli.

Furthermore, writes Amir Zohar:

Last year, they visited the Museum of Independence in Tel Aviv, and upon noticing a stained carpet immediately announced a donation to renovate the institution. During the Second Lebanon War they donated funds to renovate and maintain hospitals in northern Israel, and for an academic training center for former members of the air force. In conjunction with their growing philanthropic activity, they created the Adelson Foundation, which will henceforth operate on a budget of about $200 million a year.[7]

Adelson Institute

Adelson has also helped establish Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies, a far-right Likudnik think-tank with a $4.5-million grant at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem. Staffed by Netanyahu allies, the think tank is chaired by Natan Sharansky who also heads One Jerusalem. It was Sharansky who helped organize the Prague conference in June 2007, attended amongst others by Bush, where the focus of regime change in Iran.

Despite Adelson's aggressive intervention in Israeli politics criticism has been muted, mostly because of his massive philanthropic ventures which provide cover for his hardline politics. According to Ha’aretz, Adelson is creating a foundation that would give more than two hundred million dollars annually to Jewish causes. Bruck was told:

“There is a discernible amount of self-censorship going on,” the liberal Israeli-American writer Bernard Avishai said. “There is no ideological justification for what Sheldon is doing among the Israeli intelligentsia—and a revulsion at an American weighing in so heavily on Israeli politics, in such a crude, reactionary way. But they won’t speak.”


Affiliations

Zionist Projects

Private Sector

  • Las Vegas Sands - CEO; he owns two of city's giant casino resorts, the Venetian and the Palazzo.
  • Comdex - Developer

Advisers

  • Dan Raviv - PR man in charge of the worldwide positioning of the Adelson Group

Contact, References and Resources

Contact

Resources

References

  1. ↑ Ron Kampeas, AIPAC stance irks donors, JTA, 16 November 2007
  2. ↑ Iain Dey and Dominic Rushe, [5 days that shook the world], Sunday Times,12 October 2008
  3. ↑ Ophir Bar-Zohar, Noam Rodeh and Nimrod Halpern, TheMarker, Global financial storms threaten empire of Jewish billionaire, philanthropist Adelson, Haaretz, 9 November 2008
  4. ↑ Connie Bruck, The Brass Ring: A multibillionaire’s relentless quest for global influence, New Yorker, 30 June 2008.
  5. ↑ A Neoconservative International targets Iran, LobeLog, 9 June 2007.
  6. ↑ Kampeas, op. cit.; Zohar op. cit.; Bruck op.cit.
  7. ↑ Zohar op. cit.
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