U.S. rich are giants in Israeli politics

Influence heavy in spite of laws

NEW YORK Sheldon Adelson, the U.S. casino mogul who has called himself the world’s richest Jew, couldn’t vote in Israel’s parliamentary elections in January. But that didn’t stop his free daily newspaper, Yisrael Hayom, from publishing a front-page editorial last year arguing in favour of bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities — an option voiced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Since its inception in 2007, Adelson’s Tel Aviv-based paper has supported Netanyahu, the leader of the Likud Party. The paper had the highest weekday readership in the country last year.

Adelson, the 79-year-old chairman of Las Vegas Sands Corp., who has a net worth of $25.9 billion, is one of at least five American billionaires who have spent their money trying to shape Israel’s political landscape. Some of the moguls donate directly to candidates and non-profits; another funds the construction of settlements in contested Jerusalem neighbourhoods.

Israeli election law prohibits foreigners from giving to parties during the general elections, so foreign contributions have to be made directly to candidates during the primary campaigns.

Seagram Co. beverage scion Charles Bronfman, 81, and his cousin Joanie donated almost $20,000 to the primary campaign of Tzipi Livni. Livni, the country’s former foreign minister, is an advocate for a twostate solution with the Palestinians.

The Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies Inc. has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the New Israel Fund, a non-profit organization that supports causes such as environmentalism and women’s rights in Israel.

The New York-based Open Society Foundations, started by billionaire George Soros, 82, has given money to various causes, including Breaking the Silence, a non-governmental organization that publishes testimony from Israeli soldiers who have served in the contested territories of Gaza and the West Bank.