Losing the argument? Buy it back


November 12, 2014
Sarah Benton


Tycoon take-over: L, Haim Saban, wants to ‘bomb the daylight out of these sons of bitches’ [Iranians], R, Sheldon Adelson, cast doubt on the importance of Israel remaining a democracy and called the Palestinians “an invented people”.

Adelson and Saban Try To Out-Hawk Each Other

By Nathan Guttman, Jewish Forward
November 09, 2014

What do you get when you put two of the largest pro-Israel donors — Sheldon Adelson and Haim Saban — on one stage?

For participants at the Israeli American Council’s inaugural conference, this meeting of Jewish finance titans produced several historical insights about the roots of the Palestinian people (Adelson: they have none); a bit of advice on how to deal with Iran (Saban: “bomb the sons of bitches”); and some media criticism (Adelson: “I don’t like journalism” — especially not the Forward.)

Adelson and Saban, one a mega donor to the Republican Party, the other a top backer of the Clintons, may have their differences when it comes to U.S. politics. But on Israel, both engaged in one-upmanship, trying to outdo each other’s hawkishness.

When discussing a possible nuclear deal with Iran, which is now being negotiated between Iran and several international powers, both expressed skepticism. Adelson said that if the deal does not satisfy Israel, then putting himself in the shoes of Israel’s prime minister, he “would not just talk. I would take action.”

But Saban went further. “A stick and a carrot, yes — but I think that we showed too many carrots and a very small stick,” he said of the Obama administration negotiators.

And what would he do if he were Benjamin Netanyahu facing an unsatisfactory deal? “I would act,” the Los Angeles-based media magnate said. “I would bomb the daylight out of these sons of bitches.”

Adelson quickly caught up when the discussion turned to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He provided the audience with a lengthy historical lecture, arguing that the Palestinians have no history in the region and that, as his protégé Newt Gingrich has said, they are in fact “an invented people.”

The casino owner suggested building a “big wall” around Israel, but later would not explain whether by advocating this, he was expressing support for unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank.

Saban, who declared he fully agreed with Adelson’s historical analysis, argued that he still believes in a two-state solution because that is the only way of maintaining Israel’s Jewish and democratic identity. But how important is that? Adelson, as it turns out, doesn’t think that’s a real problem.

“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?”

The two Jewish philanthropists pondered how to save Israel from the local and international media that are biased against it. They suggested solving the problem by opening their pocketbooks. “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. Saban, apparently, already tried something similar. He attempted to purchase the Washington Post, but failed. The paper was sold last year to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, for $250 million, or as Saban described it, “bupkis.”

Adelson, who admitted at the opening of the discussion that he does not like journalism, later took issue with the Forward reporter — yours truly — who spoke on an earlier panel discussion about the media. “You heard what this guy Guttman said here today,” Adelson told the audience. “He said ‘we look for the wrong, to tell the people what’s wrong in life. Are they insane from that? Yeah, they’re mad.’ That’s not professional journalism.”

This statement, attributed to me by Adelson, was never uttered during the panel discussion.
Adelson is IAC’s largest donor. He recently came in as a funder with more than $2.5 million. Saban has been supportive of the group for years, but Adelson’s contributions dwarfed his.

The perspective offered by the two funders to conference participants was in line with the general spirit of the event. The conference, taking place from Friday to Sunday at the Washington Hilton, highlighted speakers critical of the Obama administration. Mitt Romney, the former presidential candidate, was the featured keynote speaker on the opening night, attacking Obama on his Iran policy. Former independent senator Joe Lieberman also delivered gibes at the president, and Senator Lindsey Graham, who spoke at the second night gala dinner, promised to use his position in Congress to block a deal with Iran if Israel does not accept it.

Organizers insisted time and again that IAC is not a partisan organization.

Saban and Adelson, both supportive of the IAC and of other pro-Israel causes, take different routes when it comes to their political giving. Saban is invested in the prospect of Hillary Clinton taking over the White House, while Adelson is expected to generously support at least one Republican candidate. One of them will get the VIP treatment at the White House after the 2016 elections.

Adelson made sure the audience knew what he’d like to see in the next White House. He recalled that last time he visited 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, during the Hanukkah reception in the Bush administration, “they ran out of potato latkes.” The next president, he hopes, will have sufficient latkes for all.


Israeli-American Council jumps onto national stage with a splash

By Jared Sichel,
November 12, 2014


Israeli-American Council Chairman Shawn Evenhaim, former Sen. Joseph Lieberman, former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Israeli-American businessman and IAC board member Adam Milstein. Photo by Shahar Azran

At the Israeli-American Council’s (IAC) three-day inaugural conference in Washington, D.C., last weekend, nearly 800 attendees and Washington journalists witnessed the high-profile entrance on to the public stage of what was, until recently, a quietly expanding and well-funded Los Angeles group created with the comparably modest vision of providing educational, cultural and religious resources for Southern California’s large Israeli-American community.

The IAC’s first foray into the national spotlight — and its ability to attract top politicians from both parties and their donors — points to a group on its way to becoming the go-to resource for Israeli Americans across the country and their political voice in Washington.

“We will be a growing community in the United States. We will rise to national recognition and will influence the Jewish community,” said Adam Milstein, an Israeli-American businessman and philanthropist, and a founding IAC board member.

Milstein said that the group’s goal in holding its inaugural conference in the heart of the nation’s capital was to make Israeli Americans a “brand name community in the United States and to make sure that Washington notices.” On the latter point, it undoubtedly succeeded: Political correspondents for top news outlets filled the press section to cover the IAC’s prominent speakers, including former (and possibly future) Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ), and billionaire rival political kingmakers Haim Saban and Sheldon Adelson.

That Friday evening, as a packed ballroom at the Washington Hilton enjoyed Shabbat dinner, Romney told his former foreign policy senior adviser Dan Senor, in an onstage discussion, that President Barack Obama has been “divisive and dictatorial and demeaning to our friends,” and also that Democrats were routed in the recent midterm elections partly because voters felt the Democratic candidates had been disingenuous in distancing themselves from Obama’s policies.

Meanwhile, Senor and former Sen. Joseph Lieberman both strongly suggested they would like to see Romney attempt another presidential run: “It would be doubly refreshing to hear your voice in the public debate going forward,” Senor told Romney as he concluded their discussion.

The following night’s plenary, while modest by comparison, saw Graham threaten to cut off funding to the United Nations if it “turns into the most anti-Semitic force on the planet,” and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer — who was a frequent and vocal guest on cable news during the recent Gaza war — joked that the key to a happy marriage between an American and an Israeli is for the American to “preemptively concede the argument to the Israeli spouse.”

“Then you’ll actually have a chance of having your way,” Dermer said to an admiring crowd. “Now what that means for diplomacy and U.S.-Israel [relations], I’ll leave it to all the sharp reporters in the room to figure out.”

The conference’s first two plenaries, though, were only the starter for the weekend’s highlight: the first-ever public discussion between billionaires Saban and Adelson, two of the country’s most sought-after, and generous, political donors for Democratic and Republican politicians, respectively. While their conversation, which was moderated by IAC Chairman Shawn Evenhaim, at times sounded like a debate, Saban stole the spotlight when Evenhaim asked him what he would do if he were in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s shoes and Western powers signed a nuclear agreement with Iran that risked Israel’s security.
“I would bomb the living daylights out of those sons of bitches,” Saban said to thundering applause, striking a tone starkly to the right of Adelson, who only spoke in general terms of Israel needing to “take action” and “not just talk.” Earlier, Saban said that if such a deal is signed, he would come to the “full realization we are screwed, baby.”

Adelson, for his part, provided his own memorable remarks, sharply criticizing journalists in general and particularly The Forward’s Washington correspondent Nathan Guttman. He also cast doubt on the importance of Israel remaining a democracy and called the Palestinians “an invented people.”

Saban, a media mogul, and Adelson, a casino tycoon, then engaged in what sounded like either banter or an impromptu investment strategy session, discussing how to influence mainstream American media outlets when it comes to coverage of Israel, which Saban called “very left-wing” except when it comes to “maybe a bit the Wall Street Journal and definitely Fox News.”

“I wish that [Amazon.com CEO] Jeff Bezos didn’t buy the Washington Post,” Saban said. “It would have been nice if you and I could have bought it, Sheldon.”

“For $250 million — bupkis!” Saban continued, as the audience laughed.

Adelson responded: “I wish I had known it was available,” then asked Saban, again to raucous applause, “Why don’t you and I go after The New York Times?”

Saban said he has tried to purchase the news giant, but that “it’s a family business” and would not sell. Adelson, sharing some corporate takeover advice with the audience, told Saban that the only way to get The New York Times would be to bid more than its worth and count on the family shareholders rejecting the offer, which would give minority, non-family shareholders a right to sue for a sale.

While marquee attractions such as Saban and Adelson provided the bang for IAC’s weekend, mornings and afternoons were filled with speakers from across the Jewish and pro-Israel world who talked about sensitive topics, especially for a group seeking to tow the line between American and Israeli and Jewish identities—such as the dilemmas facing a possible “double identity” and how to integrate Israeli Americans into the American-Jewish community.

Evenhaim, in a telephone interview following the conference, said he wants Israeli Americans to integrate within America’s broader Jewish community, but said that integration has not been a priority of the organized American-Jewish community, in Los Angeles and across the United States.

“If the Jewish-American community put that as a priority for them, there probably wouldn’t be an IAC,” Evenhaim said.

At the same time, though, IAC’s goal is to help foster a unique Israeli identity among not just Israeli expats, but their American-born children and grandchildren, too.

“We don’t want to become just Jewish Americans,” Evenhaim said. “The Israeli message is important to us, and it’s important to give to the next generation.”

To that end, the IAC runs programs including Celebrate Israel festivals across the country every year and Sifriyat Pijama B’America, which sends free Hebrew-language children’s books and music to Israeli-American families.

“Israel is our homeland,” Milstein said, when asked to discuss the vision of IAC in the context of America’s historical success in assimilating immigrants. “Our relationship with Israel is more unique than Italian Americans, Irish Americans, Chinese Americans — we are different.”
He said the IAC plans to become a “catchall” group for Israeli Americans, focusing not just on Israel advocacy, but eventually seeking to influence national policy on things like access to charter schools and Jewish education.

“Our community has issues that are important to them, and it will be our mandate to advocate for those issues in Washington,” Milstein said.

Formed as the Israeli Leadership Council (ILC) in 2007 at the request of Ehud Danoch, the Israeli consul general of Los Angeles at the time, the ILC rebranded itself two years ago as the Israeli-American Council when its leadership realized the need to be viewed not as Israelis or as Americans, but as “Americans of Israeli descent,” as Milstein wrote in the Times of Israel one year ago. Until then, he wrote, “The State of Israel labeled us as yordim [a derisive characterization for Israelis who leave]. Americans saw us as U.S. citizens, and our children definitely didn’t want to be perceived as kids of foreigners.”

Now viewed as a potential asset by top American politicians as well as the Israeli government — as evidenced by the presence last weekend of numerous Israeli politicians and diplomats — the IAC plans to open four to six new regional councils in the next year, in addition to the existing five, and has its eyes on a 2015 conference, which Milstein said will likely again be in Washington, D.C., and, he predicts, will attract two to three times as many people.


Note

Israeli-American Council

About Us

Community Empowerment. Philanthropy. Activism.

The mission of the Israeli-American Council (IAC) is to build an engaged and united Israeli-American community that strengthens our next generations, the American Jewish community, and the State of Israel.

Over half a million Israeli-Americans live in the United States today. As a vital component of American society, they play a major role in social activism, academia, culture and innovation. The Israeli-American Council (IAC) is the largest Israeli-American organization in the Unites States, serving this vibrant sector of American society. IAC’s effectiveness and success is the direct result of its ability to organize, activate, and engage the Israeli-American community nationwide. The IAC strives to achieve these goals through programs and events for all ages, as well as by empowering and sponsoring a wide array of non-profit organizations within the Israeli-American community.

OUR GOALS

Encourage a culture of giving, activism, and connection to Israel through personal examples of community involvement.
Connect the next generation to the community, their Jewish identity, the Hebrew language, and the State of Israel.
Foster active support of initiatives that further Israel’s welfare, security, education and its relations with the United States.
Translate the Israeli-American community’s needs, desires, and values into action and a strong and influential voice.
Serve as a professional and financial resource for initiatives that support the development of an active and unified Israeli-American community with strong connections to the State of Israel, now and in the future.
Strengthen the relationships between the Israeli-American community and the Israeli community in Israel.
Build bridges between the Israeli-American and Jewish American communities in the United States.

HOW WE DO IT

IAC dedicates and focuses its resources towards transforming Israeli-Americans into an empowered and organized community by:

Bringing individuals together around the causes – predominantly Israel-related – about which Israeli-Americans are most passionate.
Connecting individuals with their own community through cultural initiatives and programs for the younger generation
Encouraging a culture of giving and involvement through community engagement and philanthropy.
Inspiring activism through participation and sponsorship of public events related to Israel-American relations.
Building a communal structure and spirit through professional and financial support for nonprofit organizations and initiatives.
Creating new community-based organizations and programs that will ensure a continuous and long term community involvement through the support of educational, cultural, and leadership initiatives.
Bridging the Israeli-American and Jewish-American communities through the creation of partnerships that support inter-community activities and initiatives.
Mobilizing the community to respond to strategic causes that support US-Israel related initiatives and Zionist education for the second and third generation of Israeli-Americans.

OUR HISTORY

Based in Los Angeles, the IAC was established in 2007 to serve the estimated 250,000 Israeli-Americans who reside throughout Greater LA. Since its inception, the IAC has grown tremendously and currently engages 50,000 direct participants across all age groups. In addition, the IAC supports over 20 organizations working with the Israeli-American community. In 2013, the IAC went national, building community and supporting Israeli-American organizations throughout the United States. The IAC continues to pursue its vision of strengthening the Israel-American community, the State of Israel, and securing a strong Jewish future.

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