Sheldon Adelson’s eulogy parade included almost the entire list of who and who of the State of Israel and the Jewish people. Some eulogizers have done so carefully and respectfully, making sure to say whatever is necessary in these circumstances, and no more. They are headed by President Reuven Rivlin, former Chief Rabbi Israel Lau – who has served for many years as chairman of Yad Vashem, an organization that has benefited from generous donations from Adelson – and the heads of the Taglit organization, to which Adelson has also donated significant sums.
Most of the eulogizers were others. Prominent among them were also those who did not mourn so much for the death of this unpleasant man, but mostly shed crocodile tears to impress his heirs. In the end, what Adelson gave belongs to history. It must now be ensured that those who inherit his money and business will continue to inject money into all the people, organizations, parties and journalists who have lived, prospered and progressed on Adelson’s carpet of money.
I want to make it clear that I am not objective when it comes to Adelson. Nothing I write here has any pretension to appear fair, just, considerate and respectful, according to the hypocritical and pious standards accepted in our places in such circumstances.
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Adelson’s wealth, and especially his status among the wealthy of the Jewish people, were very important to him. Once, at one of the reception ceremonies to which he was invited to the White House, he introduced himself to the President of the United States at the time and said: I am Sheldon Adelson II. The President was surprised: .
The president, who was aware of this tradition, said to him: Sheldon, you are a Jew. What is Sheldon Adelson II? According to the president, Adelson replied that it meant he was the second richest Jew in the world. Next year, he said, I will be the first Sheldon Adelson: the richest Jew in the world.
Adelson did not receive this honor. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Allison who founded Oracle, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg – all richer than him. He did not belong to their league, but was certainly very rich.
As part of the exaggerated outpouring after his death, many noted that Adelson was born into a poor family, that he grew up in a one-room apartment with his parents and three siblings and that he distributed newspapers in the streets to help his family survive. But what made Adelson very famous, both here and in America, was not his great wealth, but what he tried to do with his money. The way he used it to try to buy influence, with the aim of shaping the life patterns of millions in America and Israel, and as a result inevitably around the world.
In America he not only supported a particular candidate, but actually sought to buy the presidency and influence American life from the most senior position possible. American political history has known many great contributors. Adelson was not the first of them. Two have donated close to $ 100 million in the past. But they donated it to themselves. The first was Ross Pro, a Texan who owns a technology company who ran for president in 1992, and the second was Michael Bloomberg, who ran for mayor of New York in 2001. On occasion he told me he took $ 71 million out of his pocket to win.
The only one who tried to buy other candidates with his money, on a huge scale, was Adelson. In 2012, he donated tens of millions of dollars to the Republican nominee who he preferred to run for president, Newt Gingrich. When he retired from the race, Adelson assisted the party candidate who won the primaries, Mitt Romney, in amounts close to $ 100 million.
In 2016, Adelson donated a similar amount of about $ 100 million to Trump, as did 2020. No private individual has ever donated such sums to a single presidential candidate.
Adelson wanted an extreme right-wing, divided, conflicted America with most of the Western world. He supported America on the other hand, which is in the Cold War-style conflict, and in particular he expected America to solve the Iranian problem by dropping a nuclear bomb. That was his approach. He very much hoped that Trump would fulfill his dreams.
In part, when it comes to Israel, Trump was very close to Adelson and his declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel gave him immense satisfaction. If he could, Adelson might have been among the invaders trying to take over Capitol Hill after Trump’s election loss. But sadly for both of them, when Trump lost, Adelson died.
He loved Israel and contributed greatly to various bodies in it. But which Israel did he love? Israel that will expel all Palestinians from the territories under our control – he has said this many times. He loved Israel, which ignores its Arab residents and does not recognize them as equal citizens. Adelson believed in a right-wing, nationalist, fundamentalist Israel (though not known as an observant man), and also thought that if it had the ability, it should use nuclear weapons against Iran.
Adelson contributed to fueling hatred in Israeli society towards elements who did not identify with the extreme right, and were unwilling to bear the dominance of the settlers and their supporters. He founded the free (also known as “Bibiton”) “Israel Today”, invested hundreds of millions of dollars in it, which he lost, only to bring about a change of government while I was prime minister, and later to maintain the right-wing government led by Netanyahu, who replaced me.
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During my tenure as prime minister, having already set up the paper, Adelson and his wife asked Miri to meet with me in my office. My advisers recommended postponing the application. I agreed to meet. I thought it was permissible not to support the prime minister and even to attack him sharply, and still – to meet with him. The opposition in Israel did the same, and I also met with them. The meeting was hallucinatory, and Adelson tried to influence me not to give up homeland.
On another occasion, by the way, he told a very senior American official that “it is appropriate to get rid of Condoleezza Rice and Olmert,” and when asked why, he replied that the foreign minister was “against Israel” , Biden, Kerry and many more). As for me, the same senior American official quoted Adelson as saying “he is betraying Israel.”
At the end of the conversation between us, I asked Adelson if, as a fan and lover of Israel, he did not feel uncomfortable discrediting the prime minister of the country that was so dear to him every day. Adelson replied dryly: “I do not read ‘Israel Today'”.
Sheldon was interested in an Israel that most of the residents living in it do not want. He preached racism – hated by us. He supported the discrimination of Arabs – who we are not willing to agree to. He hated leftists, encouraged internal disputes and rivalries among us, and contributed to divisions in Israeli society, even though he did not live in Israel.
Everything he liked – I hated.
Everything I love about Israel is not related to Adelson.
He will rest on his bed in peace.