Trump A Winner and Adelson In Pursuit

You Don’t Need a Weathervane to See Which Way the Wind-and Sheldon Adelson-Blows | Tikun Olam |

Excuse the arcane reference in the post title to a revolutionary Dylan song from my youth. But if you did need a weathervane to tell which way Sheldon Adelson was “blowing” in this presidential election, you’d look no farther than Israel HaYom’s front page.

Yesterday, the lead story falsely claimed that the radical left was using a new “weapon” against Trump: violence. The subheader read:

“Many want to see Trump fail; protests have now become violent; Chicago rally crashed…”

« click for more info Bibiton's lede: "The New Weapon Against Trump: Violence."
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But Adelson has a problem in Donald Trump: he doesn’t need any money. So the major leverage Adelson has, his billions, don’t work in this instance. As a result, Trump can speak about Israel-Palestine issues as a bit of a loose cannon. Certainly, as far as the gambling mogul is concerned. Though Trump has taken on the personna of a Tea Party hell-raiser, he comes from the stream of moderate New York Republicanism. So his current views are peppered with some of those throwbacks to a bygone era.

That’s how Trump can tell the Republican Jewish Coalition he’s in favor of the U.S. being even-handed regarding Israel-Palestine; and how he can tell them he’s not persuaded the U.S. embassy must move to Jerusalem.

One might think that this would give Adelson pause. One thing he hates is a man who can’t be bought or controlled. And Donald apparently can’t. But he’s a winner, and that’s enough for Adelson.

Before leaving this subject, note the litany of Trump’s far right supporters: we have David Duke of course. And Jean-Marie Le Pen, who recently cheered the real estate baron on. Trump’s call for banning entry to the U.S. of all Muslims echoes the views of only the most far-right Islamophobic leaders, like Geert Wilders. Add Israelis to that list. Anyone who hates Arabs and Muslims as much as they do is viewed as Israel’s friend. Barack Obama? Definitely not. Trump? Why not.

This process of Israel’s ultra-nationalist political majority becoming chummy with the most virulent of European racists has been proceeding for years and I’ve profiled it here. Israel’s romance with Donald Trump is but another step along the way toward the sort of religious hatred and holy war which Trump’s rhetoric stokes. Israel makes its bed with European neo-Nazis and white supremacists. Now add Donald Trump to the list.