Posted By Stephen M. Walt
Friday, May 7, 2010 - 11:45 AM
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From the New Yorker profile of Haim Saban:
His greatest concern, [Saban] says, is to protect Israel, by strengthening the United States-Israel relationship. At a conference last fall in Israel, Saban described his formula. His 'three ways to be influential in American politics,' he said, were: make donations to political parties, establish think tanks, and control media outlets."
Presumably Abe Foxman will now denounce Saban for peddling noxious anti-Semitic stereotypes about "Jewish influence." My view is different: I think Saban is just a smart businessman who cares a lot about a single issue and understands how the American system of interest group politics works.
JOERG KOCH/AFP/Getty Images
EXPLORE:BOOK CLUB, OBAMA AND THE ISRAEL LOBBY, MIDDLE EAST, CELEBS, ISRAEL/PALESTINE, MEDIA, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, POLITICS, U.S. CONGRESS, U.S. FOREIGN POLICY 
caught with your pants down, were you Haim?
"And today, Harman wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder expressing outrage that she had been wiretappe
This abuse of power is outrageous and I call on your Department to release all transcripts and other investigative material involving me in an unredacted form," Harman wrote. "It is my intention to make this material available to the public."
So she wants all the transcripts made completely public. Does that sound like someone who is guilty? All of this is based on leaks from unknown sources
As far as the Steve Rosen's case, it is being dismissed for lack of evidence
The Justice Department today asked a federal judge to dismiss the criminal case against two former lobbyists for Israel, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman.
"When this indictment was brought, the government believed it could prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt," based on the law, the lead federal prosecutor told the court today.
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/05/01/1918204.aspx
Which is no surprise to any lawyer familiar with the law as they have to prove that the defendants thought the information would be harmful to the US and none of it was.
Maybe you should add him to your list of "Afrikaner Jews" that Mearsheimer started, Professor Walt. Being an Israeli, Saban should be high on your Jew list. Sigh...
It's "new Afrikaaner" Dave!
Gosh! if your gonna joan on it atleast get the term right.
LOL
Like most intemperate spasm reactions, this one is patently false. At least one nation accepts israel's right to build in its sovereign territory--Israel itself.
Some other nations, with analagous issues, may do so as well.
Under international law much of the building is not in what some have called "settlements" but rather, "disputed territory".
And let's not forget that East Jerusalem was taken by force by Jordanian troops; Israel simply took it back by force. It's actual status, proposed by the UN but refused by the Arabs, was part of the UN partition plan, now a dead letter. Thus it cannot "belong" to Palestinians, who never had sovereignty, even as a result of conquest. If anyone has a claim, it is a de facto one by the Israelis, who reoccupied what had been territory abandoned by the Arabs by refusing partition, after a war by the Jordanians in violation of the UN partition plan. Further, the Jordanians formally gave up any claim to Jerusalem by treaty with israel. Thus there is NO legal Arab claim, even by conquest, to East Jerusalem.
If international law permitted a "we live there so its ours" claim, then any ethnic community anywhere in the world could claim territory away from the lawful sovereign. Let's make Harlem Blackistan, parts of London Hamastan, parts of France Islamistan, and parts of Germany Turkistan. Not likely.
Despite massive propaganda efforts by the Arabs and their friends, the Israelis have a pat hand in East Jerusalem, both by international law and de facto. It is only shameful bullying and blackmail by the current US administration and its friends that even makes this an issue.
Oh and by the way, the Harman accusation is the same accusation that was spread about her in 2006. Nothing has come of it in the last four years. It is just being brought up again because she is facing a challange in her congressional race
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1549069,00.html
Pro-Israel billionaires in American politics
Perhaps a highly important topic, in terms of influence on mainstream media properties, think tanks and policy centers, and the finances of both the Democratic and Republican Parties?
Any recommended additions, corrections or deletions from the following list? (I would define as a "billionaire" anyone with a net worth of a half billion dollars or more.) Is a club of fewer than 100 oligarchs exerting more control over American foreign policy than any other single lobby or combination of lobbies?
1. Arnon Milchan
2. Barry Diller
3. Bernard Marcus
4. Bruce Kovner
5. Eddie Lampert
6. Eli Broad
7. George Soros
8. Haim Saban
9. Henry Kravis
10. Howard Schultz
11. Irving Moskowitz
12. Larry Ellison
13. Larry Silverstein
14. Leonard Lauder
15. Leslie Wexner
16. Lev Leviev
17. Lowell Milken
18. Marc Rich
19. Maurice Greenberg
20. Mel Sembler
21. Michael Bloomberg
22. Michael Dell
23. Michael Milken
24. Michael Steinhardt
25. Mortimer Zuckerman
26. Pincus Green
27. Richard Mellon Scaife
28. Roger Hertog
29. Ronald Lauder
30. Ronald Perelman
31. Rupert Murdoch
32. S. Daniel Abraham
33. Sam Zell
34. Sandy Weill
35. Sergey Brin
36. Shari Arison
37. Sheldon Adelson
38. Stephen Schwarzman
39. Steve Forbes
40. Steve Wynn
41. Steven Spielberg
42. Sumner Redstone
43. Thomas Friedman
You mean the Arabs weren't just ranting
... when they said that Jews control Hollywood and the American press!?
I wonder what else they were right about?
We went to a stand-up comedy show recently with Russell Peters. Maybe you've heard of him? He's gotten famous for pointing out little ridiculous things about various minority groups in the US and Canada. He literally cracks on every possible ethnic group. He travels to Africa, Asia and the Middle East a lot so he does bits about those too.
But I swear, this last show, he paused, and with a straight face said to the crowd... "I work in Hollywood... so you'll never hear a joke about Jews from me." And he went on with the rest of the show.
We were all like... "what the hell!?!"
he said something similar when I saw him; joking/admitting that widely accepted notion. I thought it was funny the way he said it. He does another bit where he talks to the crowd and says "Any arabs in the building" and some people cheer. Then he says "Where my jewish brothers in the crowd at" and more people cheer. Then he says "Ok arabs, there are the jews, you two have fun." Hilarious.
a list of oligarchs . . .
At long last, sir, have you no shame?
The overwhelming majority of Americans identifies "pro-Israel." Even Walt refers to himself as such.
Friedman shouldn't be on this list
Sean, Tom Friedman is worth about $25 million.
"Kauft nicht bei Juden" ? Are you serious?
Do you want to emulate the german nazis? They too demanded not to buy from Jews.
Why this phobia of Jews? What happened to you in your childhood?
Saban and American Mideast policy
More from the Bruck article:
In 2002, he [Saban] contributed seven million dollars toward the cost of a new building for the Democratic National Committee—one of the largest known donations ever made to an American political party. That year, he also founded the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, in Washington, D.C. He considered buying The New Republic, but decided it wasn’t for him. He also tried to buy Time and Newsweek, but neither was available. He and his private-equity partners acquired Univision in 2007, and he has made repeated bids for the Los Angeles Times.
By far his most important relationship is with Bill and Hillary Clinton. In 2002, Saban donated five million dollars to Bill Clinton’s Presidential library, and he has given more than five million dollars to the Clinton Foundation. In February, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a major policy address at the U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha, co-sponsored by the Saban Center. And last November Bill Clinton was a featured speaker at the Saban Forum, an annual conference attended by many high-level Israeli and U.S. government officials, which was held in Jerusalem.
Presumably the Saban Center was created to pursue Saban's agenda of protecting Israel and the Israeli interest, not to analyze and promote the American interest from an objective standpoint, taking into account the totality of its interests in the Middle East and in the world at large.
Haim Saban is a smart business man?
What kind of smart businessman devotes so much time and money to try and maintain 8,000 measly sq miles of crappy real estate in the middle of the desert? The products he sold were even more toxic than the synthetic collateralized debt obligations peddled by Goldman Sachs. Remember Power Rangers? What an awful and racist show that was. The black power ranger had a black costume, the asian power ranger had a yellow costume. Smart businessman create value-added goods and services, not the crap of Haim Saban.
That 8000 sq miles of "crappy" real estate has given the world more Nobel laureates than any country other than the US, massive life-saving breakthroughs in medicine, major improvements in agriculture and irrigation, the latest major Intel computer chips (previously called the Nehalem and now the I5 and I7), and other endless contributions to both the US and the world.
In the past it gave the world the basis of Judaism, Christianity, and yes--even Islam: much of the Koran simply reflects the Torah.
In addition to the above, for the US aid contribution (now almost entirely military) the US gets a major ally and counterbalance to Arab despotism in the Middle East. Israel is essentially the US aircraft carrier in the region, and its aid from the US is only a little more than that to despotic regimes who provide nothing but blackmail of the US and support for terrorist murderers, with none of the above redeeming features.
Any demonization of Israel of Jews is, at bottom, merely anti-semitism based on denial of the above truths. Legitimate criticism as opinion, yes. Blatant bias and special pleading (suppression of material facts), no.
And as real estate values go, check out the prices of land in Tel Aviv or Israel's major industrial and economic areas. Compare THAT with the value of Gaza, or even Jericho real estate.
I mean, at least the guy is trendy...jajajajja Men, you cannot take anything seriously coming fromm a guy with that kinda watch.
Really cool hahahhahahah
I actually met Saban in Germany a few years ago
I helped his sick boy in a 3,000 euro a night suite at a luxury hotel in germany, staying an extra (unpaid) hour after my shift. His tip? nothing. Probably didn't much money left after the hotel bill and all the money he gives to israeli propaganda interests
Is is common for political scientists to have their theories so thoroughly confirmed in this way?
Pro-Israel billionaires and oligarchs
Mreino:
Most Americans are decidedly not pro-Israel activists (and certainly not pro-Israel militants, neoconservative- or neoliberal-style), and expend no time, energy or money (large sums of money in the case of Saban and some his fellow oligarchs and true believers) in promoting pro-Israel propaganda and pro-war policies on behalf of Israel. They are preoccupied with American problems and issues, mostly domestic, as one would expect them to be. You will not be able to successfully hide someone like Haim Saban, Bruce Kovner or Mortimer Zuckerman behind the profile of the average American.
Stephen Walt is "pro-Israel," but I doubt that he would describe himself as a "pro-Israel activist." You are playing dishonest word games, selectively separating adjectives from the nouns they modify.
Boughetto:
Regarding Thomas Friedman:
Friedman lives in "a palatial 11,400-square-foot house valued at $9.3 million, on a 7½-acre parcel just blocks from Bethesda Country Club." He "married into one of the 100 richest families in the country" - the Bucksbaums, whose real-estate Empire is valued at $2.7 billion."
http://www.politicalfriendster.com/showConnection.php?id1=1615&id2=4628
Regarding Jane Harman: she is one of the wealthiest members of Congress, and a key agent of the Israel lobby in the Democratic Party, who at the moment is agitating to ratchet up American conflict with Iran, in concert with the rest of the Israel lobby.
On another note: Gaza-steel barrier has been breached
This is an update from earlier, when we talked about the alleged 'impregnable" US-financed steelbarrier. Neither German built barriers around a Warshaw Ghetto or this American built on the border to the Gaza ditto can hold back the deep seated human quest for Freedom.
[CLICK] BBC News,6 May 2010: Gazans cut through Egypt's border barrier
According to Egypt it is made of bomb-proof, super-strength steel and is costing millions of dollars to build.
"We pay around a $1,000 (£665) for a man with an oxygen-fuelled cutter to come and break through it. It takes up to three weeks to cut through but we get there in the end," he says.
If they [Egypt] opened the border, we wouldn't need to dig tunnels. But until they do, we'll keep digging, whatever they do to try and stop us
Mohammed, tunnel diggerMohammed says the steel barrier is 5-10cm (2-4in) thick
Stephen M. Walt is the Robert and Renée Belfer professor of international relations at Harvard University.
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