American Elections and Jewish Money

The Israeli media has recently been publishing reports about the flow of money from prominent American Jewish millionaires into American political campaigns, both for the Republican and Democratic parties. This phenomenon has emerged over a few decades, but despite its recent emergence, there has been an increase in the role of this money in determining policies.

In recent weeks, news has been spreading about the support of the rich American Jew Sheldon Adelson for extremist Republican candidate Newt Gingrich, who aspires to win the Republican candidacy for president of the United States. Gingrich’s name became known in recent months from repeated statements in which he said that, “there was no Palestine as a state,” and alleged that the Palestinians are an, “invented people.” This sort of statement is even absent in Israel, where Golda Meir popularized the use of such statements 40 years ago.

The millionaire Adelson is not just a name, but among the closest associates of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and in 2007 he began to publish a free daily newspaper in Israel called, “Israel HaYom,” which is entirely pro-Netanyahu and defends all of his domestic and foreign policies.

At this time, when Gingrich’s chances of victory in the Republican primary are decreasing, Adelson, according to the Israeli press, has suggested to Gingrich’s stronger Republican competitor Mitt Romney that he is ready to donate to his campaign in the general election campaign against Obama.

Up to now, we have read in the Israeli press about the magnitude of wealthy Jewish support for the American Democratic Party and its candidate Barack Obama. It was said at the time that 60 percent of the money donated to the Democratic Party came from wealthy Jews, despite the fact that that the Jews in the United States comprise 1.6 percent of the population and about 1.8 percent of the voting population. But this ratio increases a little bit more, because the ratio of voters from amongst the Jews is higher than the general ratio. According to estimates, somewhere between 67 percent and 73 percent of Jews vote for the Democratic Party.

In general conditions, we would gloss over this news on the basis that the Jews that are Americans live in that country. But when we see this Israeli and Zionist preoccupation, and that of members of the Knesset, especially on the right, with flooding the United States with support for Gingrich, our reactions change.

We now leave all this to look beyond the money, though it is closely linked the next issue, that of senior advisors in the White House. When Obama took his place as president, an unusual group of activists from the Zionist lobby and institutions belonging to the Jewish Agency for Israel became senior advisors, like the outgoing White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and three advisors were movers in the Middle East field of conflict. They are Dennis Ross, who recently resigned, and continues to provide advice to Obama, while preparing to help him in the presidential elections, according to the newspaper Haaretz. Then there is Dan Shapiro, who was appointed more than a year ago as ambassador for his country to Tel Aviv, and Martin Indyk, who worked as an advisor to Envoy George Mitchell. Except for Emanuel, about whom we have not read much, each of these names is closely linked with government institutions in Israel and the Zionist lobby. Likewise, Ross returned in recent days to take over the leadership of the so-called Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, founded by the Jewish Agency for Israel.

Of course, the issue is not a chauvinist tendency on our part against Jewish religious groups in the United States. On the contrary, some of the truth that was approved by opinion polls over many years is surprising, and was spread by the Israeli media. This surprising truth is that the vast majority (over 75 percent) of American Jews support a peaceful solution in the Middle East, and they approach it from a far different direction than the current government policies.

But prominent voices from among the Jews are mostly far-right extremists and among them the majority are powerful, wealthy Jews. They believe that Israel is a “safety valve” for interests inside and outside of the United States. This convergence of interests and dangerous mutual cooperation is not contrary to the people’s interests and, if you like, is not contrary to the interests of most American Jews.

The Zionist lobby, especially in this escalating atmosphere of right-wing extremism that has tightened its grip on all aspects of Israeli government institutions, plans to increase its impact on the White House, just as it seems that the lobby is biased toward Israeli policies more than the existing American official bias.