| Author | Message | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2004 6:03 am Post subject: US Billionaire: "I'm a one-issue guy... Israel" |
| US Billionaire: "I'm a one-issue guy and my issue is Israel"
New York Times
September 5, 2004
Schlepping to Moguldom
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/05/business/yourmoney/05sab.html?pagewanted=print&position=
LOS ANGELES
HAIM SABAN, one of the nation's richest and most improbable media
magnates,
was slouched in a leather seat aboard his Gulfstream jet during a trip
from Los
Angeles to New York this spring, rattling on about his support for
Israel.
After devouring a bagel covered in lox, he leaned forward and launched
into his
favorite story from the Democratic presidential primaries.
"Did I tell you what Howard Dean told me?" he asked, knowing full well
that
he had not, at least not yet today. "Do you know how he tells me that
he is
going to support Israel?" he recounted, with a look of incredulity. "He
tells me,
'Don't you know my wife is Jewish?' "
Mr. Saban, 59, let out a sharp laugh, pausing for effect, before
delivering
his punch line. "Do you know what I told him? I said, 'Governor, the
fact that
your wife is Jewish is your problem.' " [Mr. Saban's wife, by the way,
is not
Jewish.]
A self-described "cartoon schlepper," Mr. Saban became a billionaire by
turning the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers into a global franchise that
he merged
with Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and, in 2001, sold to the Walt
Disney
Company for $5.3 billion. He has since emerged as perhaps the most
politically
connected mogul in Hollywood, throwing his weight and money around
Washington
and, increasingly, the world, trying to influence all things Israeli.
"I'm a one-issue guy and my issue is Israel," he said in his first
extensive
interview in years.
To that end, he has become one of the largest individual donors in the
country to the Democratic Party and its candidates, giving millions
over the past
decade - $7 million in just one donation to the Democratic National
Committee in
2002. He recently had Senator John Kerry over to his chateau-style home
in
Beverly Hills. ("We played guitar and kibitzed," he said.) He regularly
spends
hours at a time on the phone with Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime
minister. He
vacations with Bill Clinton.
At the same time, Mr. Saban has been bidding - or at least kicking the
tires
- on media properties around the world as he looks to expand his empire
and,
by extension, his political reach.
But what really has people talking in Hollywood and Washington is his
most
ambitious project yet: he is the proud owner of the largest television
broadcaster in Germany. "I know, I know. I get the irony," he said with
a smile.
A year ago, Mr. Saban beat out his one-time partner, Mr. Murdoch, and
many
other media titans to buy the broadcaster, ProSiebenSat.1 Media,
putting him in
control of a company that owns the rough equivalent of CBS, ABC, TBS
and
Nickelodeon.
"That level of ownership would never be allowed in the U.S.," he
acknowledged. "It would be too much concentration."
Since taking over the broadcaster, he has turned it around - cutting
costs
and sending it American hits like "The OC," a Fox Network series about
teenage
tribulations, and "Nip/Tuck," a drama centered in a plastic surgery
clinic. Not
only is the company making money, but Mr. Saban may finally be shaking
a
reputation that has long dogged him: that he has gone further on luck
than talent.
"It's easy to be jealous of someone like Haim," said Peter Chernin,
president
and chief executive of the News Corporation. "But I think the Germany
situation has the potential to be not just a financial score but serve
as the
cornerstone of something bigger."
That, Mr. Saban readily acknowledged, is the plan. As one of the
richest
people in Hollywood, he hears about possible deals constantly. He is
toying with
the idea of buying The Jerusalem Post from Hollinger International,
which has
been canvassing for buyers. "If they ever come to earth with the price,
I would
be interested in it," he said.
He has also stirred controversy in Britain, where he publicly expressed
interest in buying ITV, the country's biggest commercial network, while
accusing
its competitors, BBC News and Sky News, the news arm of the pay-TV
provider
British Sky Broadcasting, of pro-Arab coverage.
Of course, not every deal has panned out. Last year, he joined a
consortium
led by Edgar Bronfman Jr. that was bidding on Warner Music, only to
drop out at
the 11th hour, worried that the group was overpaying. Now that Warner
Music
is on an upswing, it looks as if he may have missed an opportunity. But
Mr.
Saban says he has moved on.
"I don't even think about it," he said.
Mr. Saban said he had other deals up his sleeve, but he refused to tip
his
hand. You can count on him to pursue them tirelessly. "I don't play
golf and I
don't collect stamps,'' he said. "I don't ride horses. I don't go
mountain
hiking, I don't go star gazing. I don't do any of that."
Don't bother asking him what his hobby is. "I have none. Zero. It's my
family
and work."
Mr. Saban's path to moguldom has certainly been unusual. He was born in
Egypt
but fled to Tel Aviv with his parents, his brother and his grandmother
after
the 1956 Suez War. Struggling to get by, the family lived in a one-room
apartment and shared a bathroom, he recalled, "with a hooker and a
pimp."
As a teenager, he took up the bass guitar and began managing bands and
promoting concerts. But his business was wiped out by the 1973 Yom
Kippur War and he
decided to move to Paris with his business partner, Shuki Levy.
HIS big break came soon after that. While vacationing in Tel Aviv, he
got a
call from a producer in Paris who wanted one of Mr. Saban's clients,
Noam
Kaniel, a child singer, to record the theme song for a cartoon called
"Goldorak,"
which was wildly popular in France in the 70's. So he flew back to
France and
headed to the studio.
"It was just one of the worst songs I ever heard in my life," he
recalled.
"But we schlepped all the way there so I said, 'Let's do it so we can
get out of
here and get back to the pool at the Sheraton in Tel Aviv.' " About a
month
later, Mr. Saban got a copy of the master and a bill for $2,000 from
the
producer.
"I said: 'I do you a favor and you want $2,000. I don't want the
master,' ''
he remembered. "So now I'm schlepping around to record companies
looking for
someone to give me a licensing deal and pay me an advance of $2,000.
But the
song is so awful nobody wants to give it to me, nobody. So I find this
guy at
CBS just out of school who is willing to just ship a few hundred
copies."
When "Goldorak" became hugely successful, its theme song started
selling, and
those few hundred copies soon turned into 3.5 million.
During that process, he had his eureka moment. Because he owned the
master
recording for the TV program, he collected all of the profit. "I found
out on a
TV deal all the money came to me, not to the record company,'' he said.
"On a
licensing deal you only get 20 percent. I was swimming in money. I
didn't know
what to do with myself. Everything went whoosh from there."
He and his partner started releasing music soundtracks in France for
television shows like "Dallas" and "Knots Landing." In late 1983, Mr.
Saban moved to
Los Angeles and began writing and producing cartoon soundtracks, though
not
always with much success.
"When I moved to this country in 1983, you can rest assured that they
weren't
waiting in lines to meet me and see me and make deals with me," he
said. "Did
I wait for hours for a cartoon producer to see me so I could play him
some of
our music and after hours his assistant would come out and say, 'Well,
he
won't be able to see you today'? Yes."
Soon, however, he was on a roll. He wrote the theme song for the
cartoon
series that eventually became the Disney movie "Inspector Gadget," for
example,
and then bought the television rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles from
the creators of the comic book characters. The television program
became an
overnight sensation.
Then, in 1985, on a business trip to Tokyo, he hit gold in a room at
the
Imperial Hotel. "They have all these crazy game shows on and I didn't
understand
anything and then this thing came on," he said, referring to a
children's
cartoon show known as "Dinosaur Task Force Zyuranger."
"I said: 'Oh my God. Oh my God.' It was fascinating. I thought it was
magical. It was incredible."
For half a million dollars - "which is not nothing," he noted - he
bought the
rights to broadcast the program outside of Asia. After eight years of
begging
and pleading, he finally persuaded the News Corporation's Fox Network
to
broadcast the show, renamed "The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers," in the
summer of
1993. It was an instant hit.
With the hottest children's show in the world on his hands, Mr. Saban
formed
a joint venture with Fox in 1996. It turned out to be a shrewd move.
The next
year, the venture acquired the Family Channel from its founder, Pat
Robertson,
for $1.9 billion and turned it into the Fox Family Channel. Four years
later,
Michael D. Eisner, the Disney chief executive, negotiated a deal to buy
the
channel for Disney for $5.3 billion.
THE deal is considered one of Mr. Eisner's worst, one that he has
acknowledged as a drag on his company. But Mr. Saban walked away with
some $2 billion for
himself. "People say they overpaid,'' Mr. Saban said. "Beauty is in the
eye
of the beholder. I will be very honest with you and this may sound
somewhat
arrogant - I will tell you that I ended up with about a half-billion
less than
what I thought I could have gotten for those assets."
In any event, some of the proceeds from that sale helped to underwrite
Mr.
Saban's relatively newfound passion: politics.
He said he caught the political bug in the mid-1990's, when he felt
that
support for Israel was slipping in the United States. He and his wife,
Cheryl
(who, by the way, is not Jewish), slept in the White House several
times during
President Clinton's two terms. And Mr. Saban has remained close to the
former
president.
"Haim Saban has been a very good friend, supporter and adviser to me,"
Mr.
Clinton said in an e-mail message. "I am grateful for his commitment to
Israel,
to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East and to my foundation's
work,
particularly on reconciliation issues."
Mr. Clinton might have added that he is also grateful for Mr. Saban's
commitment to the Democratic Party, including his $7 million donation
two years ago,
the largest individual donation in its history.
While Mr. Saban is a vocal opponent of President Bush - "I think Bush
is just
messing it up every day more" - he supports some of Mr. Bush's
policies. "On
the issues of security and terrorism I am a total hawk," he said. "I'm
a
Democrat for the reinforcement of the Patriot Act. It's not strong
enough. The
A.C.L.U. can eat their heart out, but they are living in the 1970's. We
should all
have ID's. You betcha. What do you have to hide? Some friends of mine
on the
left side think I'm crazy."
Why is he so supportive of Israel? "I hate quoting Tom DeLay, I really
do,"
Mr. Saban said. "If you're going to quote me quoting Tom DeLay, say I
hate
quoting him." He continued, apparently quoting Mr. DeLay, the House
Republican
leader: "He said: 'It is the right thing for us to do to be supportive
of Israel.
The reasons go back to the beginning of time.' "
Mr. Saban's views on the matter are straightforward. He is a tireless
cheerleader for Israel. But when it comes to conflict there, his views
are hardly
sanguine. "I'm going to make a very controversial statement and I hope
to God
that I am proven totally wrong: I think that any resolution will have
to go both
on the Palestinian side and Israeli side to some form of civil war.
It's not
going to be without spilling blood."
In 2002, he pledged $13 million to start a research organization at the
Brookings Institution called the Saban Center for Middle East Policy.
("I've heard
from leaders on both sides of the aisle in the United States and
leaders in
Europe about what Sharon shouldn't do," he said. "I've haven't heard
one
educated suggestion about what he should do.") Mr. Saban spends hours
every week
drumming up support for a variety of charitable causes and, especially,
for
Israel, sponsoring lunches and dinners at his home and around the
country to raise
money for candidates who he believes will support his cause. "He has no
hesitation to bang on your door for a cause he believes in," said Ron
Meyer,
president of Universal Studios, who called Mr. Saban one of the few
guys "who puts his
money where his mouth is."
In a faxed letter, Mr. Sharon said of Mr. Saban: "To me he will always
be a
dear personal friend. Haim Saban is a great American citizen and a man
who
always stood by Israel and the Jewish people in times of need. His
contribution to
strengthening ties between Israel and American political leaders from
all
parties has been quite remarkable and outstanding.''
So how did Mr. Saban wind up putting so much of his money in Germany?
In 2002, Leo Kirch's empire, KirchMedia, the largest media company in
Europe,
went bankrupt. Flush with cash from the sale of Fox Family to Disney,
Mr.
Saban was scouring for deals and sensed an opportunity. "These kind of
assets
people don't go around selling," he said. "At a normal time we wouldn't
have had
a prayer in hell."
BY his own account, the timing was perfect. "There was a very small
window of
opportunity where every single studio had its own issues," he said, and
his
rivals, thus distracted, were not in a good position to bid against
him. Mr.
Murdoch never had his heart in the auction because he was working on
his deal
for DirecTV. Time Warner was still struggling with its acquisition of
AOL.
Viacom could not get enthusiastic about the deal. And Disney was still
struggling
with the purchase of Fox Family, renamed ABC Family.
"Our biggest advantage was that we had the cash but no business," Mr.
Saban
said. "These assets really should have been bought by one of the majors
as an
outlet for their programming in Europe." Indeed, he is now among the
biggest
single buyers of Hollywood programming outside of the United States.
In Germany, foreign entrepreneurs like John C. Malone, chief executive
of the
Liberty Media Group, have failed in efforts to buy assets, perhaps
because
their cavalier attitude created problems with regulators. Mr. Saban
sweet-talked
them. He also used some of his political influence, asking the American
ambassador to put in a good word for him.
Mr. Saban has not been shy about calling on his political friends to
help
sell advertising, too. This year, he invited Germany's most prominent
advertising
executives to his home in Los Angeles for dinner with Mr. Clinton. The
executives, he said, were stunned.
"These people never saw Leo Kirch in their life," Mr. Saban said. "They
never
saw him. And now the new owner all of a sudden has them in his home
with Bill
Clinton speaking to them."
Mr. Saban remembers precisely where he was when he clinched the deal
for
Pro-Sieben: on his cellphone, as he was standing in the middle of the
former
concentration camp at Dachau, where he and his family had gone to
visit. "I found
it kind of interesting, to say the least, that the timing and the
geography all
came together the way they did," he said.
Investing in Germany was an easier decision for him than some people
might
imagine, he said. "I'm not suggesting we ignore what happened in
Germany 50
years ago," he said, "but I am suggesting that we don't allow it to
keep us from
going into the future."
He added that the German government had been very supportive of him,
but not
because of his history. "There have been all kinds of theories because
of the
fact that I'm an Israeli-American and the like,'' he said. "I don't
think so.
I think it's a pure economic issue."
Well, maybe not all economics. Haim Saban "is not like one of the guys
just
assembling trophy properties," said Steven Rattner, the managing
director of
the Quadrangle Group, an investment firm that backed Mr. Saban in ProSi
ebenSat.1. "He'd rather be considered a mogul in Germany than here,''
Mr. Rattner said.
"He thinks Germany is critical to Israel."
Last edited by Alpha on Tue May 05, 2009 9:43 am; edited 2 times in total | |  | | Alpha | | Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2004 7:17 am Post subject: Profile of a Jewish Media Boss |
| Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2004 16:29:44 -0700
Subject: Profile of a Jewish Media Boss
HAIM SABAN: PROFILE OF A JEWISH MEDIA BOSS
Haim Saban may not be well known, but as the following New York Times
profile makes clear, he and others like him wield enormous power and
influence, and have a profound impact on our lives. Saban, a Jewish
billionaire, is one of the world’s most powerful media bosses. He uses
his great wealth and influence to fervently promote Jewish-Zionist
interests. "I'm a one-issue guy and my issue is Israel,” says Saban. He
has given millions of dollars to pro-Israel politicians, and he’s a
close friend of both Ariel Sharon and Bill Clinton.
-----------------------------------------------------------
SCHLEPPING TO MOGULDOM
By Andrew Ross Sorkin, from Los Angeles --
The New York Times -- Sunday, Sept. 5, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/05/business/yourmoney/05sab.html?pagewanted=print&position=
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2004/09/10/us-billionaire-i-m-a-one-issue-guy-israel.php
Haim Saban, one of the nation's richest and most improbable media
magnates, was slouched in a leather seat aboard his Gulfstream jet
during a trip from Los Angeles to New York this spring, rattling on
about his support for Israel. After devouring a bagel covered in lox,
he
leaned forward and launched into his favorite story from the Democratic
presidential primaries.
"Did I tell you what Howard Dean told me?" he asked, knowing full well
that he had not, at least not yet today. "Do you know how he tells me
that he is going to support Israel?" he recounted, with a look of
incredulity. "He tells me, 'Don't you know my wife is Jewish?' "
Mr. Saban, 59, let out a sharp laugh, pausing for effect, before
delivering his punch line. "Do you know what I told him? I said,
'Governor, the fact that your wife is Jewish is your problem.' "
A self-described "cartoon schlepper," Mr. Saban became a billionaire by
turning the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers into a global franchise that
he
merged with Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and, in 2001, sold to the
Walt Disney Company for $5.3 billion. He has since emerged as perhaps
the most politically connected mogul in Hollywood, throwing his weight
and money around Washington and, increasingly, the world, trying to
influence all things Israeli.
"I'm a one-issue guy and my issue is Israel," he said in his first
extensive interview in years.
To that end, he has become one of the largest individual donors in the
country to the Democratic Party and its candidates, giving millions
over
the past decade - $7 million in just one donation to the Democratic
National Committee in 2002. He recently had Senator John Kerry over to
his chateau-style home in Beverly Hills. ("We played guitar and
kibitzed," he said.) He regularly spends hours at a time on the phone
with Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister. He vacations with Bill
Clinton.
At the same time, Mr. Saban has been bidding - or at least kicking the
tires - on media properties around the world as he looks to expand his
empire and, by extension, his political reach.
But what really has people talking in Hollywood and Washington is his
most ambitious project yet: he is the proud owner of the largest
television broadcaster in Germany. "I know, I know. I get the irony,"
he
said with a smile.
A year ago, Mr. Saban beat out his one-time partner, Mr. Murdoch, and
many other media titans to buy the broadcaster, ProSiebenSat.1 Media,
putting him in control of a company that owns the rough equivalent of
CBS, ABC, TBS and Nickelodeon.
"That level of ownership would never be allowed in the U.S.," he
acknowledged. "It would be too much concentration."
Since taking over the broadcaster, he has turned it around - cutting
costs and sending it American hits like "The OC," a Fox Network series
about teenage tribulations, and "Nip/Tuck," a drama centered in a
plastic surgery clinic. Not only is the company making money, but Mr.
Saban may finally be shaking a reputation that has long dogged him:
that
he has gone further on luck than talent.
"It's easy to be jealous of someone like Haim," said Peter Chernin,
president and chief executive of the News Corporation. "But I think the
Germany situation has the potential to be not just a financial score
but
serve as the cornerstone of something bigger."
That, Mr. Saban readily acknowledged, is the plan. As one of the
richest
people in Hollywood, he hears about possible deals constantly. He is
toying with the idea of buying The Jerusalem Post from Hollinger
International, which has been canvassing for buyers. "If they ever come
to earth with the price, I would be interested in it," he said.
He has also stirred controversy in Britain, where he publicly expressed
interest in buying ITV, the country's biggest commercial network, while
accusing its competitors, BBC News and Sky News, the news arm of the
pay-TV provider British Sky Broadcasting, of pro-Arab coverage.
Of course, not every deal has panned out. Last year, he joined a
consortium led by Edgar Bronfman Jr. that was bidding on Warner Music,
only to drop out at the 11th hour, worried that the group was
overpaying. Now that Warner Music is on an upswing, it looks as if he
may have missed an opportunity. But Mr. Saban says he has moved on.
"I don't even think about it," he said.
Mr. Saban said he had other deals up his sleeve, but he refused to tip
his hand. You can count on him to pursue them tirelessly. "I don't play
golf and I don't collect stamps,'' he said. "I don't ride horses. I
don't go mountain hiking, I don't go star gazing. I don't do any of
that."
Don't bother asking him what his hobby is. "I have none. Zero. It's my
family and work."
Mr. Saban's path to moguldom has certainly been unusual. He was born in
Egypt but fled to Tel Aviv with his parents, his brother and his
grandmother after the 1956 Suez War. Struggling to get by, the family
lived in a one-room apartment and shared a bathroom, he recalled, "with
a hooker and a pimp."
As a teenager, he took up the bass guitar and began managing bands and
promoting concerts. But his business was wiped out by the 1973 Yom
Kippur War and he decided to move to Paris with his business partner,
Shuki Levy.
His big break came soon after that. While vacationing in Tel Aviv, he
got a call from a producer in Paris who wanted one of Mr. Saban's
clients, Noam Kaniel, a child singer, to record the theme song for a
cartoon called "Goldorak," which was wildly popular in France in the
70's. So he flew back to France and headed to the studio.
"It was just one of the worst songs I ever heard in my life," he
recalled. "But we schlepped all the way there so I said, 'Let's do it
so
we can get out of here and get back to the pool at the Sheraton in Tel
Aviv.' " About a month later, Mr. Saban got a copy of the master and a
bill for $2,000 from the producer.
"I said: 'I do you a favor and you want $2,000. I don't want the
master,' " he remembered. "So now I'm schlepping around to record
companies looking for someone to give me a licensing deal and pay me an
advance of $2,000. But the song is so awful nobody wants to give it to
me, nobody. So I find this guy at CBS just out of school who is willing
to just ship a few hundred copies."
When "Goldorak" became hugely successful, its theme song started
selling, and those few hundred copies soon turned into 3.5 million.
During that process, he had his eureka moment. Because he owned the
master recording for the TV program, he collected all of the profit. "I
found out on a TV deal all the money came to me, not to the record
company,'' he said. "On a licensing deal you only get 20 percent. I was
swimming in money. I didn't know what to do with myself. Everything
went
whoosh from there."
He and his partner started releasing music soundtracks in France for
television shows like "Dallas" and "Knots Landing." In late 1983, Mr.
Saban moved to Los Angeles and began writing and producing cartoon
soundtracks, though not always with much success.
"When I moved to this country in 1983, you can rest assured that they
weren't waiting in lines to meet me and see me and make deals with me,"
he said. "Did I wait for hours for a cartoon producer to see me so I
could play him some of our music and after hours his assistant would
come out and say, 'Well, he won't be able to see you today'? Yes."
Soon, however, he was on a roll. He wrote the theme song for the
cartoon
series that eventually became the Disney movie "Inspector Gadget," for
example, and then bought the television rights to the Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles from the creators of the comic book characters. The
television program became an overnight sensation.
Then, in 1985, on a business trip to Tokyo, he hit gold in a room at
the
Imperial Hotel. "They have all these crazy game shows on and I didn't
understand anything and then this thing came on," he said, referring to
a children's cartoon show known as "Dinosaur Task Force Zyuranger."
"I said: 'Oh my God. Oh my God.' It was fascinating. I thought it was
magical. It was incredible."
For half a million dollars - "which is not nothing," he noted - he
bought the rights to broadcast the program outside of Asia. After eight
years of begging and pleading, he finally persuaded the News
Corporation's Fox Network to broadcast the show, renamed "The Mighty
Morphin Power Rangers," in the summer of 1993. It was an instant hit.
With the hottest children's show in the world on his hands, Mr. Saban
formed a joint venture with Fox in 1996. It turned out to be a shrewd
move. The next year, the venture acquired the Family Channel from its
founder, Pat Robertson, for $1.9 billion and turned it into the Fox
Family Channel. Four years later, Michael D. Eisner, the Disney chief
executive, negotiated a deal to buy the channel for Disney for $5.3
billion.
The deal is considered one of Mr. Eisner's worst, one that he has
acknowledged as a drag on his company. But Mr. Saban walked away with
some $2 billion for himself. "People say they overpaid,'' Mr. Saban
said. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I will be very honest with
you and this may sound somewhat arrogant - I will tell you that I ended
up with about a half-billion less than what I thought I could have
gotten for those assets."
In any event, some of the proceeds from that sale helped to underwrite
Mr. Saban's relatively newfound passion: politics.
He said he caught the political bug in the mid-1990's, when he felt
that
support for Israel was slipping in the United States. He and his wife,
Cheryl (who, by the way, is not Jewish), slept in the White House
several times during President Clinton's two terms. And Mr. Saban has
remained close to the former president.
"Haim Saban has been a very good friend, supporter and adviser to me,"
Mr. Clinton said in an e-mail message. "I am grateful for his
commitment
to Israel, to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East and to my
foundation's work, particularly on reconciliation issues."
Mr. Clinton might have added that he is also grateful for Mr. Saban's
commitment to the Democratic Party, including his $7 million donation
two years ago, the largest individual donation in its history.
While Mr. Saban is a vocal opponent of President Bush - "I think Bush
is
just messing it up every day more" - he supports some of Mr. Bush's
policies. "On the issues of security and terrorism I am a total hawk,"
he said. "I'm a Democrat for the reinforcement of the Patriot Act. It's
not strong enough. The A.C.L.U. can eat their heart out, but they are
living in the 1970's. We should all have ID's. You betcha. What do you
have to hide? Some friends of mine on the left side think I'm crazy."
Why is he so supportive of Israel? "I hate quoting Tom DeLay, I really
do," Mr. Saban said. "If you're going to quote me quoting Tom DeLay,
say
I hate quoting him." He continued, apparently quoting Mr. DeLay, the
House Republican leader: "He said: 'It is the right thing for us to do
to be supportive of Israel. The reasons go back to the beginning of
time.' "
Mr. Saban's views on the matter are straightforward. He is a tireless
cheerleader for Israel. But when it comes to conflict there, his views
are hardly sanguine. "I'm going to make a very controversial statement
and I hope to God that I am proven totally wrong: I think that any
resolution will have to go both on the Palestinian side and Israeli
side
to some form of civil war. It's not going to be without spilling
blood."
In 2002, he pledged $13 million to start a research organization at the
Brookings Institution called the Saban Center for Middle East Policy.
("I've heard from leaders on both sides of the aisle in the United
States and leaders in Europe about what Sharon shouldn't do," he said.
"I've haven't heard one educated suggestion about what he should do.")
Mr. Saban spends hours every week drumming up support for a variety of
charitable causes and, especially, for Israel, sponsoring lunches and
dinners at his home and around the country to raise money for
candidates
who he believes will support his cause. "He has no hesitation to bang
on
your door for a cause he believes in," said Ron Meyer, president of
Universal Studios, who called Mr. Saban one of the few guys "who puts
his money where his mouth is."
In a faxed letter, Mr. Sharon said of Mr. Saban: "To me he will always
be a dear personal friend. Haim Saban is a great American citizen and a
man who always stood by Israel and the Jewish people in times of need.
His contribution to strengthening ties between Israel and American
political leaders from all parties has been quite remarkable and
outstanding.''
So how did Mr. Saban wind up putting so much of his money in Germany?
In 2002, Leo Kirch's empire, KirchMedia, the largest media company in
Europe, went bankrupt. Flush with cash from the sale of Fox Family to
Disney, Mr. Saban was scouring for deals and sensed an opportunity.
"These kind of assets people don't go around selling," he said. "At a
normal time we wouldn't have had a prayer in hell."
BY his own account, the timing was perfect. "There was a very small
window of opportunity where every single studio had its own issues," he
said, and his rivals, thus distracted, were not in a good position to
bid against him. Mr. Murdoch never had his heart in the auction because
he was working on his deal for DirecTV. Time Warner was still
struggling
with its acquisition of AOL. Viacom could not get enthusiastic about
the
deal. And Disney was still struggling with the purchase of Fox Family,
renamed ABC Family.
"Our biggest advantage was that we had the cash but no business," Mr.
Saban said. "These assets really should have been bought by one of the
majors as an outlet for their programming in Europe." Indeed, he is now
among the biggest single buyers of Hollywood programming outside of the
United States.
In Germany, foreign entrepreneurs like John C. Malone, chief executive
of the Liberty Media Group, have failed in efforts to buy assets,
perhaps because their cavalier attitude created problems with
regulators. Mr. Saban sweet-talked them. He also used some of his
political influence, asking the American ambassador to put in a good
word for him.
Mr. Saban has not been shy about calling on his political friends to
help sell advertising, too. This year, he invited Germany's most
prominent advertising executives to his home in Los Angeles for dinner
with Mr. Clinton. The executives, he said, were stunned.
"These people never saw Leo Kirch in their life," Mr. Saban said. "They
never saw him. And now the new owner all of a sudden has them in his
home with Bill Clinton speaking to them."
Mr. Saban remembers precisely where he was when he clinched the deal
for
Pro-Sieben: on his cellphone, as he was standing in the middle of the
former concentration camp at Dachau, where he and his family had gone
to
visit. "I found it kind of interesting, to say the least, that the
timing and the geography all came together the way they did," he said.
Investing in Germany was an easier decision for him than some people
might imagine, he said. "I'm not suggesting we ignore what happened in
Germany 50 years ago," he said, "but I am suggesting that we don't
allow
it to keep us from going into the future."
He added that the German government had been very supportive of him,
but
not because of his history. "There have been all kinds of theories
because of the fact that I'm an Israeli-American and the like,'' he
said. "I don't think so. I think it's a pure economic issue."
Well, maybe not all economics. Haim Saban "is not like one of the guys
just assembling trophy properties," said Steven Rattner, the managing
director of the Quadrangle Group, an investment firm that backed Mr.
Saban in ProSi ebenSat.1. "He'd rather be considered a mogul in Germany
than here,'' Mr. Rattner said. "He thinks Germany is critical to
Israel."
================================================================
ONE THE WORLD’S WEALTHIEST AND MOST POWERFUL JEWISH MEDIA BOSSES SPEAKS
OUT / A PROFILE OF HAIM SABAN
Haim Saban, a Jewish billionaire, is one of the world’s most powerful
media bosses. As this New York Times profile notes, he uses his great
wealth and influence to promote Jewish-Zionist interests. "I'm a
one-issue guy and my issue is Israel,” says Saban. He has given
millions
of dollars to pro-Israel politicians, and he’s a close friend of both
Ariel Sharon and Bill Clinton.
Saban, and others like him, may not be well known, but they wield
enormous power and influence, and have a profound impact on our lives.
-------------------------------------------------------------
SCHLEPPING TO MOGULDOM
By Andrew Ross Sorkin, from Los Angeles --
The New York Times -- Sunday, Sept. 5, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/05/business/yourmoney/05sab.html?pagewanted=print&position=
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2004/09/10/us-billionaire-i-m-a-one-issue-guy-israel.php
Haim Saban, one of the nation's richest and most improbable media
magnates, was slouched in a leather seat aboard his Gulfstream jet
during a trip from Los Angeles to New York this spring, rattling on
about his support for Israel. After devouring a bagel covered in lox,
he
leaned forward and launched into his favorite story from the Democratic
presidential primaries.
"Did I tell you what Howard Dean told me?" he asked, knowing full well
that he had not, at least not yet today. "Do you know how he tells me
that he is going to support Israel?" he recounted, with a look of
incredulity. "He tells me, 'Don't you know my wife is Jewish?' "
Mr. Saban, 59, let out a sharp laugh, pausing for effect, before
delivering his punch line. "Do you know what I told him? I said,
'Governor, the fact that your wife is Jewish is your problem.' "
A self-described "cartoon schlepper," Mr. Saban became a billionaire by
turning the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers into a global franchise that
he
merged with Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and, in 2001, sold to the
Walt Disney Company for $5.3 billion. He has since emerged as perhaps
the most politically connected mogul in Hollywood, throwing his weight
and money around Washington
and, increasingly, the world, trying to influence all things Israeli.
"I'm a one-issue guy and my issue is Israel," he said in his first
extensive interview in years.
To that end, he has become one of the largest individual donors in the
country to the Democratic Party and its candidates, giving millions
over
the past decade - $7 million in just one donation to the Democratic
National Committee in 2002. He recently had Senator John Kerry over to
his chateau-style home in Beverly Hills. ("We played guitar and
kibitzed," he said.) He regularly spends hours at a time on the phone
with Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister. He vacations with Bill
Clinton.
At the same time, Mr. Saban has been bidding - or at least kicking the
tires - on media properties around the world as he looks to expand his
empire and, by extension, his political reach.
But what really has people talking in Hollywood and Washington is his
most ambitious project yet: he is the proud owner of the largest
television broadcaster in Germany. "I know, I know. I get the irony,"
he
said with a smile.
A year ago, Mr. Saban beat out his one-time partner, Mr. Murdoch, and
many other media titans to buy the broadcaster, ProSiebenSat.1 Media,
putting him in control of a company that owns the rough equivalent of
CBS, ABC, TBS and Nickelodeon.
"That level of ownership would never be allowed in the U.S.," he
acknowledged. "It would be too much concentration."
Since taking over the broadcaster, he has turned it around - cutting
costs and sending it American hits like "The OC," a Fox Network series
about teenage tribulations, and "Nip/Tuck," a drama centered in a
plastic surgery clinic. Not only is the company making money, but Mr.
Saban may finally be shaking a reputation that has long dogged him:
that
he has gone further on luck than talent.
"It's easy to be jealous of someone like Haim," said Peter Chernin,
president and chief executive of the News Corporation. "But I think the
Germany situation has the potential to be not just a financial score
but
serve as the cornerstone of something bigger."
That, Mr. Saban readily acknowledged, is the plan. As one of the
richest
people in Hollywood, he hears about possible deals constantly. He is
toying with the idea of buying The Jerusalem Post from Hollinger
International, which has been canvassing for buyers. "If they ever come
to earth with the price, I would be interested in it," he said.
He has also stirred controversy in Britain, where he publicly expressed
interest in buying ITV, the country's biggest commercial network, while
accusing its competitors, BBC News and Sky News, the news arm of the
pay-TV provider British Sky Broadcasting, of pro-Arab coverage.
Of course, not every deal has panned out. Last year, he joined a
consortium led by Edgar Bronfman Jr. that was bidding on Warner Music,
only to drop out at the 11th hour, worried that the group was
overpaying. Now that Warner Music is on an upswing, it looks as if he
may have missed an opportunity. But Mr. Saban says he has moved on.
"I don't even think about it," he said.
Mr. Saban said he had other deals up his sleeve, but he refused to tip
his hand. You can count on him to pursue them tirelessly. "I don't play
golf and I don't collect stamps,'' he said. "I don't ride horses. I
don't go mountain hiking, I don't go star gazing. I don't do any of
that."
Don't bother asking him what his hobby is. "I have none. Zero. It's my
family and work."
Mr. Saban's path to moguldom has certainly been unusual. He was born in
Egypt but fled to Tel Aviv with his parents, his brother and his
grandmother after the 1956 Suez War. Struggling to get by, the family
lived in a one-room apartment and shared a bathroom, he recalled, "with
a hooker and a pimp."
As a teenager, he took up the bass guitar and began managing bands and
promoting concerts. But his business was wiped out by the 1973 Yom
Kippur War and he decided to move to Paris with his business partner,
Shuki Levy.
His big break came soon after that. While vacationing in Tel Aviv, he
got a call from a producer in Paris who wanted one of Mr. Saban's
clients, Noam Kaniel, a child singer, to record the theme song for a
cartoon called "Goldorak," which was wildly popular in France in the
70's. So he flew back to France and headed to the studio.
"It was just one of the worst songs I ever heard in my life," he
recalled. "But we schlepped all the way there so I said, 'Let's do it
so
we can get out of here and get back to the pool at the Sheraton in Tel
Aviv.' " About a month later, Mr. Saban got a copy of the master and a
bill for $2,000 from the producer.
"I said: 'I do you a favor and you want $2,000. I don't want the
master,' " he remembered. "So now I'm schlepping around to record
companies looking for someone to give me a licensing deal and pay me an
advance of $2,000. But the song is so awful nobody wants to give it to
me, nobody. So I find this guy at CBS just out of school who is willing
to just ship a few hundred copies."
When "Goldorak" became hugely successful, its theme song started
selling, and those few hundred copies soon turned into 3.5 million.
During that process, he had his eureka moment. Because he owned the
master recording for the TV program, he collected all of the profit. "I
found out on a TV deal all the money came to me, not to the record
company,'' he said. "On a licensing deal you only get 20 percent. I was
swimming in money. I didn't know what to do with myself. Everything
went
whoosh from there."
He and his partner started releasing music soundtracks in France for
television shows like "Dallas" and "Knots Landing." In late 1983, Mr.
Saban moved to Los Angeles and began writing and producing cartoon
soundtracks, though not always with much success.
"When I moved to this country in 1983, you can rest assured that they
weren't waiting in lines to meet me and see me and make deals with me,"
he said. "Did I wait for hours for a cartoon producer to see me so I
could play him some of our music and after hours his assistant would
come out and say, 'Well, he won't be able to see you today'? Yes."
Soon, however, he was on a roll. He wrote the theme song for the
cartoon
series that eventually became the Disney movie "Inspector Gadget," for
example, and then bought the television rights to the Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles from the creators of the comic book characters. The
television program became an overnight sensation.
Then, in 1985, on a business trip to Tokyo, he hit gold in a room at
the
Imperial Hotel. "They have all these crazy game shows on and I didn't
understand anything and then this thing came on," he said, referring to
a children's cartoon show known as "Dinosaur Task Force Zyuranger."
"I said: 'Oh my God. Oh my God.' It was fascinating. I thought it was
magical. It was incredible."
For half a million dollars - "which is not nothing," he noted - he
bought the rights to broadcast the program outside of Asia. After eight
years of begging and pleading, he finally persuaded the News
Corporation's Fox Network to broadcast the show, renamed "The Mighty
Morphin Power Rangers," in the summer of 1993. It was an instant hit.
With the hottest children's show in the world on his hands, Mr. Saban
formed a joint venture with Fox in 1996. It turned out to be a shrewd
move. The next year, the venture acquired the Family Channel from its
founder, Pat Robertson, for $1.9 billion and turned it into the Fox
Family Channel. Four years later, Michael D. Eisner, the Disney chief
executive, negotiated a deal to buy the channel for Disney for $5.3
billion.
The deal is considered one of Mr. Eisner's worst, one that he has
acknowledged as a drag on his company. But Mr. Saban walked away with
some $2 billion for himself. "People say they overpaid,'' Mr. Saban
said. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I will be very honest with
you and this may sound somewhat arrogant - I will tell you that I ended
up with about a half-billion less than what I thought I could have
gotten for those assets."
In any event, some of the proceeds from that sale helped to underwrite
Mr. Saban's relatively newfound passion: politics.
He said he caught the political bug in the mid-1990's, when he felt
that
support for Israel was slipping in the United States. He and his wife,
Cheryl (who, by the way, is not Jewish), slept in the White House
several times during President Clinton's two terms. And Mr. Saban has
remained close to the former president.
"Haim Saban has been a very good friend, supporter and adviser to me,"
Mr. Clinton said in an e-mail message. "I am grateful for his
commitment
to Israel, to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East and to my
foundation's work, particularly on reconciliation issues."
Mr. Clinton might have added that he is also grateful for Mr. Saban's
commitment to the Democratic Party, including his $7 million donation
two years ago, the largest individual donation in its history.
While Mr. Saban is a vocal opponent of President Bush - "I think Bush
is
just messing it up every day more" - he supports some of Mr. Bush's
policies. "On the issues of security and terrorism I am a total hawk,"
he said. "I'm a Democrat for the reinforcement of the Patriot Act. It's
not strong enough. The A.C.L.U. can eat their heart out, but they are
living in the 1970's. We should all have ID's. You betcha. What do you
have to hide? Some friends of mine on the left side think I'm crazy."
Why is he so supportive of Israel? "I hate quoting Tom DeLay, I really
do," Mr. Saban said. "If you're going to quote me quoting Tom DeLay,
say
I hate quoting him." He continued, apparently quoting Mr. DeLay, the
House Republican leader: "He said: 'It is the right thing for us to do
to be supportive of Israel. The reasons go back to the beginning of
time.' "
Mr. Saban's views on the matter are straightforward. He is a tireless
cheerleader for Israel. But when it comes to conflict there, his views
are hardly sanguine. "I'm going to make a very controversial statement
and I hope to God that I am proven totally wrong: I think that any
resolution will have to go both on the Palestinian side and Israeli
side
to some form of civil war. It's not going to be without spilling
blood."
In 2002, he pledged $13 million to start a research organization at the
Brookings Institution called the Saban Center for Middle East Policy.
("I've heard from leaders on both sides of the aisle in the United
States and leaders in Europe about what Sharon shouldn't do," he said.
"I've haven't heard one educated suggestion about what he should do.")
Mr. Saban spends hours every week drumming up support for a variety of
charitable causes and, especially, for Israel, sponsoring lunches and
dinners at his home and around the country to raise money for
candidates
who he believes will support his cause. "He has no hesitation to bang
on
your door for a cause he believes in," said Ron Meyer, president of
Universal Studios, who called Mr. Saban one of the few guys "who puts
his money where his mouth is."
In a faxed letter, Mr. Sharon said of Mr. Saban: "To me he will always
be a dear personal friend. Haim Saban is a great American citizen and a
man who always stood by Israel and the Jewish people in times of need.
His contribution to strengthening ties between Israel and American
political leaders from all parties has been quite remarkable and
outstanding.''
So how did Mr. Saban wind up putting so much of his money in Germany?
In 2002, Leo Kirch's empire, KirchMedia, the largest media company in
Europe, went bankrupt. Flush with cash from the sale of Fox Family to
Disney, Mr. Saban was scouring for deals and sensed an opportunity.
"These kind of assets people don't go around selling," he said. "At a
normal time we wouldn't have had a prayer in hell."
BY his own account, the timing was perfect. "There was a very small
window of opportunity where every single studio had its own issues," he
said, and his rivals, thus distracted, were not in a good position to
bid against him. Mr. Murdoch never had his heart in the auction because
he was working on his deal for DirecTV. Time Warner was still
struggling
with its acquisition of AOL. Viacom could not get enthusiastic about
the
deal. And Disney was still struggling with the purchase of Fox Family,
renamed ABC Family.
"Our biggest advantage was that we had the cash but no business," Mr.
Saban said. "These assets really should have been bought by one of the
majors as an outlet for their programming in Europe." Indeed, he is now
among the biggest single buyers of Hollywood programming outside of the
United States.
In Germany, foreign entrepreneurs like John C. Malone, chief executive
of the Liberty Media Group, have failed in efforts to buy assets,
perhaps because their cavalier attitude created problems with
regulators. Mr. Saban sweet-talked them. He also used some of his
political influence, asking the American ambassador to put in a good
word for him.
Mr. Saban has not been shy about calling on his political friends to
help sell advertising, too. This year, he invited Germany's most
prominent advertising executives to his home in Los Angeles for dinner
with Mr. Clinton. The executives, he said, were stunned.
"These people never saw Leo Kirch in their life," Mr. Saban said. "They
never saw him. And now the new owner all of a sudden has them in his
home with Bill Clinton speaking to them."
Mr. Saban remembers precisely where he was when he clinched the deal
for
Pro-Sieben: on his cellphone, as he was standing in the middle of the
former concentration camp at Dachau, where he and his family had gone
to
visit. "I found it kind of interesting, to say the least, that the
timing and the geography all came together the way they did," he said.
Investing in Germany was an easier decision for him than some people
might imagine, he said. "I'm not suggesting we ignore what happened in
Germany 50 years ago," he said, "but I am suggesting that we don't
allow
it to keep us from going into the future."
He added that the German government had been very supportive of him,
but
not because of his history. "There have been all kinds of theories
because of the fact that I'm an Israeli-American and the like,'' he
said. "I don't think so. I think it's a pure economic issue."
Well, maybe not all economics. Haim Saban "is not like one of the guys
just assembling trophy properties," said Steven Rattner, the managing
director of the Quadrangle Group, an investment firm that backed Mr.
Saban in ProSi ebenSat.1. "He'd rather be considered a mogul in Germany
than here,'' Mr. Rattner said. "He thinks Germany is critical to
Israel."
Last edited by Alpha on Sat Dec 29, 2007 4:35 pm; edited 2 times in total | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Wed Sep 22, 2004 2:24 pm Post subject: A Look at the Powerful Jewish Lobby |
| http://www.rense.com/general27/jlobby.htm
A Look At The Powerful
Jewish Lobby In America
By Mark Weber
7-12-2
"It makes no sense at all to try to deny the reality of Jewish power and prominence in popular culture." -- Michael Medved, well-known Jewish author and respected film critic.
For decades Israel has violated well established precepts of international law and defied numerous United Nations resolutions in its occupation of conquered lands, in extra-judicial killings, and in its repeated acts of military aggression.
Most of the world regards Israel's policies, and especially its oppression of Palestinians, as outrageous and criminal. This international consensus is reflected, for example, in numerous UN resolutions condemning Israel, which have been approved with overwhelming majorities.
"The whole world," United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan recently said, "is demanding that Israel withdraw [from occupied Palestinian territories]. I don't think the whole world ... can be wrong." [note 1]
Only in the United States do politicians and the media still fervently support Israel and its policies. For decades the US has provided Israel with crucial military, diplomatic and financial backing, including more than $3 billion each year in aid.
Why is the U.S. the only remaining bastion of support for Israel?
Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, who was awarded the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, has candidly identified the reason: "The Israeli government is placed on a pedestal [in the US], and to criticize it is to be immediately dubbed anti-Semitic," he said. "People are scared in this country, to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is powerful -- very powerful." [note 2]
Bishop Tutu spoke the truth. Although Jews make up only about three percent of the US population, they wield immense power and influence -- vastly more than any other ethnic or religious group.
As Jewish author and political science professor, Benjamin Ginsberg, has pointed out: [note 3]
"Since the 1960s, Jews have come to wield considerable influence in American economic, cultural, intellectual and political life. Jews played a central role in American finance during the 1980s, and they were among the chief beneficiaries of that decade's corporate mergers and reorganizations."
Today, though barely two percent of the nation's population is Jewish, close to half its billionaires are Jews. The chief executive officers of the three major television networks and the four largest film studios are Jews, as are the owners of the nation's largest newspaper chain and the most influential single newspaper, the New York Times ... The role and influence of Jews in American politics is equally marked.
Jews are only two percent of the nation's population yet comprise eleven percent of what this study defines as the nation's elite. However, Jews constitute more than 25 percent of the elite journalists and publishers, more than 17 percent of the leaders of important voluntary and public interest organizations, and more than 15 percent of the top ranking civil servants.
Stephen Steinlight, former Director of National Affairs of the American Jewish Committee, similarly notes the "disproportionate political power" of Jews, which is "pound for pound the greatest of any ethnic/cultural group in America." He goes on to explain that "Jewish economic influence and power are disproportionately concentrated in Hollywood, television, and in the news industry." [note 4]
Two well-known Jewish writers, Seymour Lipset and Earl Raab, pointed out in their 1995 book, Jews and the New American Scene: [note 5]
"During the last three decades Jews [in the United States] have made up 50 percent of the top two hundred intellectuals ... 20 percent of professors at the leading universities ... 40 percent of partners in the leading law firms in New York and Washington ... 59 percent of the directors, writers, and producers of the 50 top-grossing motion pictures from 1965 to 1982, and 58 percent of directors, writers, and producers in two or more primetime television series."
The influence of American Jewry in Washington, notes the Israeli daily Jerusalem Post, is "far disproportionate to the size of the community, Jewish leaders and U.S. official acknowledge. But so is the amount of money they contribute to [election] campaigns." One member of the influential Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations "estimated Jews alone had contributed 50 percent of the funds for [President Bill] Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign." [note 6]
"It makes no sense at all to try to deny the reality of Jewish power and prominence in popular culture," acknowledges Michael Medved, a well-known Jewish author and film critic. "Any list of the most influential production executives at each of the major movie studios will produce a heavy majority of recognizably Jewish names." [note 7]
One person who has carefully studied this subject is Jonathan J. Goldberg, now editor of the influential Jewish community weekly 'Forward.' In his 1996 book, Jewish Power, he wrote: [note 8]
"In a few key sectors of the media, notably among Hollywood studio executives, Jews are so numerically dominant that calling these businesses Jewish-controlled is little more than a statistical observation ... Hollywood at the end of the twentieth century is still an industry with a pronounced ethnic tinge. Virtually all the senior executives at the major studios are Jews. Writers, producers, and to a lesser degree directors are disproportionately Jewish -- one recent study showed the figure as high as 59 percent among top-grossing films."
The combined weight of so many Jews in one of America's most lucrative and important industries gives the Jews of Hollywood a great deal of political power. They are a major source of money for Democratic candidates.
Reflecting their role in the American media, Jews are routinely portrayed as high-minded, altruistic, trustworthy, compassionate, and deserving of sympathy and support. While millions of Americans readily accept such stereotyped imagery, not everyone is impressed.
"I am very angry with some of the Jews," complained actor Marlon Brando during a 1996 interview. "They know perfectly well what their responsibilities are ... Hollywood is run by Jews. It's owned by Jews, and they should have a greater sensitivity about the issue of people who are suffering." [note 9]
A Well-Entrenched Factor
The intimidating power of the "Jewish lobby" is not a new phenomenon, but has long been an important factor in American life.
In 1941 Charles Lindbergh spoke about the danger of Jewish power in the media and government. The shy 39-year-old -- known around the world for his epic 1927 New York to Paris flight, the first solo trans-Atlantic crossing -- was addressing 7,000 people in Des Moines, Iowa, on September 11, 1941, about the dangers of US involvement in the war then raging in Europe. The three most important groups pressing America into war, he explained, were the British, the Jews, and the Roosevelt administration.
Of the Jews, he said: "Their greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio, and our government." Lindbergh went on:
"For reasons which are understandable from their viewpoint as they are inadvisable from ours, for reasons which are not American, [they] wish to involve us in the war. We cannot blame them for looking out for what they believe to be their own interests, but we must also look out for ours. We cannot allow the natural passions and prejudices of other peoples to lead our country to destruction."
In 1978, Jewish American scholar Alfred M. Lilienthal wrote in his detailed study, The Zionist Connection: [note 10]
"How has the Zionist will been imposed on the American people?... It is the Jewish connection, the tribal solidarity among themselves and the amazing pull on non-Jews, that has molded this unprecedented power ... In the larger metropolitan areas, the Jewish-Zionist connection thoroughly pervades affluent financial, commercial, social, entertainment, and art circles."
As a result of the Jewish grip on the media, wrote Lilienthal, news coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict in American television, newspapers and magazines is relentlessly sympathetic to Israel. This is manifest, for example, in the misleading portrayal of Palestinian "terrorism." As Lilienthal put it: "One-sided reportage on terrorism, in which cause is never related to effect, was assured because the most effective component of the Jewish connection is probably that of media control."
One-Sided 'Holocaust' History
The Jewish hold on cultural and academic life has had a profound impact on how Americans look at the past. Nowhere is the well-entrenched Judeocentric view of history more obvious than in the "Holocaust" media campaign, which focuses on the fate of Jews in Europe during World War II.
Israeli Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer, a professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, has remarked: [note 11]
"Whether presented authentically or inauthentically, in accordance with the historical facts or in contradiction to them, with empathy and understanding or as monumental kitsch, the Holocaust has become a ruling symbol of our culture ... Hardly a month goes by without a new TV production, a new film, a new drama, new books, prose or poetry, dealing with the subject, and the flood is increasing rather than abating."
Non-Jewish suffering simply does not merit comparable attention. Overshadowed in the focus on Jewish victimization are, for example, the tens of millions of victims of America's World War II ally, Stalinist Russia, along with the tens of millions of victims of China's Maoist regime, as well as the 12 to 14 million Germans, victims of the flight and expulsion of 1944-1949, of whom some two million lost their lives.
The well-financed Holocaust media and "educational" campaign is crucially important to the interests of Israel. Paula Hyman, a professor of modern Jewish history at Yale University, has observed: "With regard to Israel, the Holocaust may be used to forestall political criticism and suppress debate; it reinforces the sense of Jews as an eternally beleaguered people who can rely for their defense only upon themselves. The invocation of the suffering endured by the Jews under the Nazis often takes the place of rational argument, and is expected to convince doubters of the legitimacy of current Israeli government policy." [note 12]
Norman Finkelstein, a Jewish scholar who has taught political science at City University of New York (Hunter College), says in his book, 'The Holocaust Industry,' that "invoking The Holocaust" is "a ploy to delegitimize all criticism of Jews."[note 13] "By conferring total blamelessness on Jews, the Holocaust dogma immunizes Israel and American Jewry from legitimate censure. ... Organized Jewry has exploited the Nazi holocaust to deflect criticism of Israel's and its own morally indefensible policies." He writes of the brazen "shakedown" of Germany, Switzerland and other countries by Israel and organized Jewry "to extort billions of dollars." "The Holocaust," Finkelstein predicts, "may yet turn out to be the 'greatest robbery in the history of mankind'."
Jews in Israel feel free to act brutally against Arabs, writes Israeli journalist Ari Shavit, "believing with absolute certitude that now, with the White House, the Senate and much of the American media in our hands, the lives of others do not count as much as our own." [note 14]
Admiral Thomas Moorer, former Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, has spoken with blunt exasperation about the Jewish-Israeli hold on the United States: [note 15]
"I've never seen a President -- I don't care who he is -- stand up to them [the Israelis]. It just boggles the mind. They always get what they want. The Israelis know what is going on all the time. I got to the point where I wasn't writing anything down. If the American people understood what a grip those people have got on our government, they would rise up in arms. Our citizens certainly don't have any idea what goes on."
Today, the danger is greater than ever. Israel and Jewish organizations, in collaboration with this country's pro-Zionist Christian fundamentalist "amen corner," are prodding the United States -- the world's foremost military and economic power -- into new wars against Israel's enemies.
As the French ambassador in London recently acknowledged, Israel -- which he called (a quote which shocked millions -ed) "that shitty little country" -- is a threat to world peace. "Why should the world be in danger of World War III because of those people?," he said. [note 16]
In summation:
Jews wield immense power and influence in the United States.
The "Jewish lobby" is a decisive factor in US support for Israel.
Jewish-Zionist interests are not identical to American interests. In fact, they often conflict.
As long as the "very powerful" Jewish lobby remains entrenched, there will be no end to the systematic Jewish-Zionist distortion of current affairs and history, the Jewish-Zionist domination of the U.S. political system, Zionist oppression of Palestinians, the bloody conflict between Jews and non-Jews in the Middle East, and the Israeli threat to peace.
Notes
1. Quoted in Forward (New York City), April 19, 2002, p. 11. 2. D. Tutu, "Apartheid in the Holy Land," The Guardian (Britain), April 29, 2002. 3. Benjamin Ginsberg, The Fatal Embrace: Jews and the State (University of Chicago, 1993), pp. 1, 103. 4. S. Steinlight, "The Jewish Stake in America's Changing Demography: Reconsidering a Misguided Immigration Policy," Center for Immigration Studies , Nov. 2001. http://www.cis.org/articles/2001/back1301.html 5. Seymour Martin Lipset and Earl Raab, Jews and the New American Scene (Harvard Univ. Press, 1995), pp. 26-27. 6. Janine Zacharia, "The Unofficial Ambassadors of the Jewish State," The Jerusalem Post (Israel), April 2, 2000. Reprinted in "Other Voices," June 2000, p. OV-4, a supplement to The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. 7. M. Medved, "Is Hollywood Too Jewish?," Moment, Vol. 21, No. 4 (1996), p. 37. 8. Jonathan Jeremy Goldberg, Jewish Power: Inside the American Jewish Establishment (Addison-Wesley, 1996), pp. 280, 287-288. See also pp. 39-40, 290-291. 9. Interview with Larry King, CNN network, April 5, 1996. "Brando Remarks," Los Angeles Times, April 8, 1996, p. F4 (OC). A short time later, Brando was obliged to apologize for his remarks. 10. A. Lilienthal, The Zionist Connection (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1978), pp. 206, 218, 219, 229. 11. From a 1992 lecture, published in: David Cesarani, ed., The Final Solution: Origins and Implementation (London and New York: Routledge, 1994), pp. 305, 306. 12. Paula E. Hyman, "New Debate on the Holocaust," The New York Times Magazine , Sept. 14, 1980, p. 79. 13. Norman G. Finkelstein, The Holocaust Industry (London, New York: Verso, 2000), pp. 130, 138, 139, 149. 14. The New York Times, May 27, 1996. Shavit is identified as a columnist for Ha'aretz, a Hebrew-language Israeli daily newspaper, "from which this article is adapted." 15. Interview with Moorer, Aug. 24, 1983. Quoted in: Paul Findley, They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel's Lobby (Lawrence Hill, 1984 and 1985), p. 161. 16. D. Davis, "French Envoy to UK: Israel Threatens World Peace," Jerusalem Post, Dec. 20, 2001. The French ambassador is Daniel Bernard.6/02
About the author
Mark Weber is director of the Institute for Historical Review. He studied history at the University of Illinois (Chicago), the University of Munich, Portland State University and Indiana University (M.A., 1977). For nine years he served as editor of the IHR's Journal of Historical Review. www.ihr.org | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 3:43 pm Post subject: |
| Deep pockets can hold sticky details
By Walter F. Roche Jr. and Michael A. Hiltzik
May 02, 2007 in print edition A-15
http://articles.latimes.com/2007/may/02/nation/na-donors2
What’s a politician to do upon discovery that a generous billionaire donor turns out to be a major tax dodger? It’s a dilemma already encountered by the Republican and Democratic parties in this season of unprecedented political fundraising.
At a time when newly powerful Democrats, including presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, are pressing for aggressive pursuit of unpaid tax bills to boost federal revenue, the party’s biggest financier and prominent Clinton backer is tied to one of the largest individual tax avoidance schemes on record.
And two Republican billionaires – Texas brothers who have poured a small fortune into supporting the presidential bids of two George Bushes and, more recently, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) – were accused last year of exploiting offshore havens to escape taxes on nearly $200 million in gains.
Amid predictions that the 2008 presidential campaign will be the most expensive in history, with spending possibly topping $1 billion, pressure to raise huge sums of cash is a certainty. For candidates, the question is whether the headlong pursuit of deep pockets may also risk embarrassment over their donors’ financial baggage.
Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics, said that candidates sometimes have to make their own “cost-benefit analysis.”
“The political cost of taking tainted money can be far greater than the value of the contribution itself,” she said.
The alleged tax-dodging billionaires may offer a case in point. They ended up being challenged by the Internal Revenue Service and investigated by Congress. The billionaires denied wrongdoing even as they acknowledged trying to avoid or defer significant tax bills.
And while some politicians have returned the businessmen’s donations, others seem not to have been troubled by their gifts. Such cases tend to be complex and the distinction between error and wrongdoing murky.
“It all boils down to which side the public comes down on. Will they blame the candidate for being involved, or the donor?” Krumholz said.
With a personal fortune worth billions and control of the leading Spanish-language media company in the U.S., Hollywood mogul Haim Saban stands alone among Democratic Party donors.
Over the three election cycles from 2002 through 2006, Saban contributed $12.7 million to the party and to Democratic candidates – outstripping the runner-up in individual donations, real estate investor and movie producer Stephen L. Bing, who gave $8.9 million. Saban has been a fervent supporter of Clinton in her quest for the White House, as he was of her husband, President Clinton.
Mixed blessing
What makes his support something of a mixed blessing is his aggressive use of offshore tax shelters in 2001. In recent months, Saban has been negotiating final settlement of a massive IRS claim over his attempt to avoid paying taxes on a $1.5-billion capital gain – a savings of $300 million or more.
Stephanie Pillersdorf, a spokeswoman for the financier, said this week that Saban has agreed to pay all taxes due, as well as penalties and interest. She would not say what the total payment would be.
The details of Saban’s IRS-challenged tax strategy were first disclosed in August by the investigations subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
The billionaire’s close ties to the Clintons compound the potential for political embarrassment.
For example, a company created as part of Saban’s tax avoidance scheme was used to make a $10-million loan in 2004 to the William J. Clinton Foundation to help fund construction of the Clinton library in Little Rock, Ark., the Los Angeles Times has learned. A spokesperson said the Clintons and the foundation were unaware of Saban’s tax troubles at the time, so the use of any questionably sheltered funds was unwitting.
Democrats defend Saban, noting that he has publicly acknowledged his attempted tax dodge and has agreed to settle the case. A spokesman for Hillary Clinton called Saban “a strong supporter” and said Clinton was unaware of his tax problems until they were publicly disclosed.
Phil Singer, a Clinton campaign spokesman, also endorsed the Hollywood tycoon’s defense that he had simply followed the advice of lawyers.
“As Haim Saban himself has said, not even he knew about the tax issues surrounding” his company, Singer said.
Like Saban on the Democratic side of the political fence, the Texas billionaire brothers Sam and Charles J. Wyly Jr. have been heavy donors to Republicans for years. Their generosity has gained them invitations to the White House and Camp David.
Sam, 72, and Charles, 73, left jobs at IBM to found software companies and invest in a range of other ventures, including the Michaels chain of craft supply stores and Green Mountain Energy, which markets electricity from “clean” sources. The Wylys’ use of offshore trusts as tax shelters has prompted investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the IRS and Congress.
Public records show that contributions from the Wyly brothers, their family members and their companies to the GOP totaled $1.1 million in 2000 and 2002. Since the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law went into effect the day after the 2002 election, they have contributed roughly $500,000 to the party and some $350,000 more to state GOP committees or individual candidates.
In fact, they have been prominent Republican financiers since the Nixon presidency, giving the party and its candidates a total estimated by the Wylys of about $10 million. In 2000, the Center for Public Integrity noted that the brothers ranked ninth on the list of patrons of George W. Bush’s political career.
That same year, they helped underwrite an ad campaign during the GOP primary attacking Bush rival McCain’s environmental voting record. In 2004, they contributed to attack ads against Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry by the Swift Boat veterans.
Last year, the Wylys and McCain appeared ready to forget their differences. The brothers donated $20,000 to McCain’s 2008 presidential bid in early 2006 and agreed to co-chair a Dallas fundraiser on his behalf.
By then, the family’s business practices were under investigation. As the Senate committee later reported, the Wylys had employed “an armada of lawyers, brokers, financial professionals and offshore service providers” to engage in “the most elaborate offshore operations” it had seen: a network of 58 overseas trusts and corporate shells designed to evade taxes on $190 million in corporate compensation.
McCain refunded their $20,000 in April 2006 and canceled the brothers’ role in the Dallas fundraiser. His campaign said it rejects gifts from anyone under investigation. At the time, then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee also returned $5,000 the Wylys gave his political action committee.
But others still accept their money. Records show that in the last year since the Wylys came under federal scrutiny, the Republican National Committee and its Senate and congressional campaign committees have received $175,000 from them.
Nor have their donations been refunded by other Republican senators during the same period, among them John Cornyn of Texas, Orrin G. Hatch of Utah and Jon Kyl of Arizona, records show.
The Wyly brothers refused an invitation to appear before the Senate and said they would invoke their 5th Amendment rights if compelled to appear. In their absence, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) chastised them for what he called their “scam and scheme.”
Transactions defended
The Wylys’ tax advisors defend their transactions, which are still under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the IRS and a grand jury.
“This was a tax-deferral strategy, one that the Wylys do not believe violated any law,” said their Dallas-based attorney William A. Brewer III. He added that the brothers cooperated fully with the Senate subcommittee. “Not only were the transactions pursued under the watchful eyes of high-powered professionals, but they were entirely appropriate strategies used by many people during that period of time,” Brewer said.
The tax-avoidance strategies of Saban and the Wylys became public last summer when the Republican-led Senate subcommittee held its hearing into notable examples of tax schemes. It attracted limited media coverage at the time.
Unlike the Wyly brothers, Saban appeared at the Senate hearing Aug. 1. He pleaded ignorance, said he mistakenly trusted tax advisors who received fees in excess of $50 million and promised he would repay the government.
Saban, 66, and his wife, Cheryl, have been big donors to the Clintons and other politicians, mostly Democrats. According to public records, they have given $40,400 to Hillary Clinton’s Senate campaigns and political action committees since 1999.
In 2002, Saban announced the largest single individual gift to the Democratic Party, $7 million toward a new party headquarters in Washington.
Saban also donated $5 million to Bill Clinton’s presidential library, on top of providing the short-term $10-million loan to the Little Rock, Ark., project.
The corporate partnership making the Clinton library loan, Titanium Acquisition Corp., was created as the vehicle for Saban’s tax shelter. Officials of the William J. Clinton Foundation said they did not know about Saban’s tax maneuver or Titanium’s role in the strategy at the time of the loan.
The loan, which was made in December 2004 and repaid the following March, was arranged to help the library bridge a temporary cash-flow problem related to construction, a Clinton spokesman said. The 2.48% interest on that loan was forgiven, Saban’s spokeswoman said.
The Hollywood billionaire’s brashness also has long attracted attention. As he recounted to the Washington Post in 2000, he was determined to rank as the top donor to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that year. Told that another donor exceeded his total by $250,000, he submitted his own check for $250,000 to the committee – and attached to it a $1 bill.
Earlier this year, he offered an outspoken defense of Hillary Clinton after the Clintons’ much-publicized split with longtime supporter David Geffen. Saban told The Times: “David knows in his heart of hearts that Hillary is the most qualified person to be the next president of the USA.”
Saban declined to be interviewed for this report. The scope of his tax scheme and his relationship with the Clintons and their foundation were pieced together through interviews, congressional documents and other public records.
He is a native of Egypt with dual Israeli and American citizenship. Saban made his fortune in the entertainment industry as the producer of the successful children’s television show “Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers” in the 1990s. More recently, he joined a consortium of private investment houses to buy the Spanish-language media company Univision Communications Inc. from A. Jerrold Perenchio for $12.3 billion.
Saban served as a University of California regent from 2002 to 2004 and is well-known in Southern California as a philanthropist. In 2003, he and his wife donated a record $40 million to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, part of a total of $100 million in gifts they made to health and educational institutions in the U.S. and Israel during that period.
Under questioning by Senate investigators, Saban conceded he was embarrassed by the tax controversy. “You have before you a very disappointed person, who feels misled, lied to, cheated,” he said.
But Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.) chided Saban and others for employing questionable shelters, saying that paying taxes is a civic duty.
“You sought the shelters, you got the shelters,” Lautenberg said. “And now, when they’re out here in the public light, they don’t look nice.”
wally.roche@latimes.com
michael.hiltzik@latimes.com | | | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
