Haim Saban Throwing Israel Under
Bus for Access to Obama
by William Bigelow 27 Nov 2013
Haim Saban, the
Israeli whose capital group owns Univision, often boasts of his support for Israel.
Yet Saban held a fundraiser for President
Barack Obama Monday only two days after Obama announced a deal with Iran that puts Israel in mortal danger as it
enables the Iranians to escape sanctions and continue with their nuclear plans.
Saban actually had the chutzpah to say Obama’s “commitment to Israel’s
security has never been stronger.”
At his palatial Beverly Hills home, Saban introduced Obama
like this:
We’re out of Iraq, we’re out of
Afghanistan and the military and intelligence cooperation with Israel — our
staunchest ally in the Middle East, arguably in the world, has never been
deeper and the president’s commitment to Israel’s security has never been
strongerAnd if the Iranians are at the negotiating table today, make no mistake
about it, it is only as a result of President Obama’s resolve in striking down
the most strict sanctions ever.” The event was the second fundraiser of the night
for Obama and the first Saban has hosted for the President directly.
Just last month, Southern
California’s Public Radio reported that Saban
used to be distant from Obama:
But it took him a long time to
start writing checks to Barack Obama, whom he viewed as soft on Israel. “Saban
was very hesitant and very suspicious that Obama was, at the worst, anti-Israel
and the best, neutral on Israel,”
said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, senior fellow at USC’s Price School of Public
Policy. “And that didn’t cut it.
Saban used to be tough on the
Iranians. What happened? He told Haaretz in 2006,
When I see Ahmadinejad, I see
Hitler. They speak the same language. His motivation is also clear: the return
of the Mahdi is a supreme goal. And for a religious person of deep
self-persuasion, that supreme goal is worth the liquidation of five and a half
million Jews. We cannot allow ourselves that. Nuclear weapons in the hands of a
religious leadership that is convinced that the annihilation of Israel will
bring about the emergence of a new Muslim caliphate? Israel cannot allow that. This is
no game. It's truly an existential danger.
Contacted by TruthRevolt.org,
Saban would not comment on why he still supported Obama despite the new Iranian
deal. But when one examines statements he’s made in the past, it’s all too
clear that his statement to the New York Times in 2004, "I'm a one-issue
guy and my issue is Israel,”
is not where his heart truly lies. To understand that it’s proximity to power,
not Israel,
that matters to Saban, check out this bit from a 2004 interview with Haaretz:
But I do not belittle the fact
that I can go to Angela Merkel in the Chancellory and say, 'Hi, Angela, how are
you?' And she replies, 'Haim, nice to see you.' I don't minimize that. That's a
great pleasure. And that I sit with Clinton
in the White House and he goes to the refrigerator and asks me if I want
regular water or fizzy? Sometimes I tell myself that there's something a bit
nutty here. He's the president of the United States. I sell cartoons. So
he is going to serve me and ask if I want regular or fizzy water?
When he was asked if a President
Hillary Clinton would be capable of making tough decisions on Iran, he
replied:
Her policy will be different. She
believes, and I agree, that it's a mistake to conduct negotiations through the
European envoys. As I told you about Hamas, we have to talk with everyone,
including Ahmadinejad. Hillary Clinton intends to engage with Iran in order to try to find a political
solution that will ensure a non-nuclear Iran.
As long as Obama is president of
the United States,
Saban will suck up to him. Even if the “one issue” that matters to him has its
very existence threatened.
Israel
Note: Michelle Obama
was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.
Barack
Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin
LLP.
Newton
N. Minow is a senior counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP, and a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
R.
Eden Martin is counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP, and the president of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Commercial Club of Chicago,
Members Directory
Please note: This link for the
members of the Commercial Club of Chicago can no longer be found.
Valerie B. Jarrett
is a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, the senior adviser for the Barack
Obama administration, and her great uncle is Vernon E. Jordan Jr.
Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, an
honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a director
at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg
conference participant (think tank).
Cyrus F.
Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and an honorary trustee
at the Brookings Institution (think
tank).
Teresa Heinz
Kerry is an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and married to U.S. Department of State secretary John F. Kerry.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings Institution (think tank).
George
Soros is the chairman for the Foundation
to Promote Open Society.
Saban
Center for Middle East Policy was a policy center at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Martin S. Indyk
is a founding director for the Saban
Center for Middle East Policy, a director at the New Israel Fund, the Middle East peace envoy for the U.S. Department of State, was the assistant
secretary for the U.S. Department of
State, the VP & director of the Foreign Policy Program for the Brookings Institution (think tank), and
a U.S. ambassador for Israel.
Haim
Saban is a benefactor for the Saban
Center for Middle East Policy, an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and
a friend of Shimon Peres.
Shimon
Peres is a friend of Haim Saban,
and the president of Israel.
Barack
Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin
LLP, a chairman for the Chicago
Annenberg Challenge, and a director at the Woods Fund of Chicago.
Bernadine Dohrn
was a litigator for Sidley Austin LLP,
a member of the Weather Underground,
and married to William C. Ayers.
William C. Ayers
was a chairman for the Chicago Annenberg
Challenge, a director at the Woods
Fund of Chicago, a member of the Weather
Underground, is married to Bernadine
Dohrn, and Richard M. Daley’s
adviser.
Richard
M. Daley was the Chicago (IL) mayor,
Michelle Obama was his staffer, Valerie B. Jarrett was his deputy chief
of staff, William C. Ayers is his adviser,
and is a member of the Commercial Club
of Chicago.
Kathleen
Brown is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, Jerry Brown’s
sister, and was the California state government treasurer.
Mighty Morphin' Meg Whitman Counts Cash from Democratic
Donor
By Jackson West
Friday, Jan 29, 2010
Saban has given generously to
Democrats in the past, including $18,000 to Jerry Brown last year. Brown is the
presumptive Democratic nominee, though he hasn't officially declared his
candidacy.
Jerry
Brown is Kathleen Brown’s brother,
and the California state government governor.
R.
Eden Martin is the president of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP.
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