U.S. Billionaire Political Rivals to Fight Israel Boycotts (1)
2015-06-08 07:41:05.965 GMT
(Updates with Netanyahu-Hollande conversation in 8th
paragraph.)
By Calev Ben-David
(Bloomberg) -- One donated more than $100 million to the
Republicans, the other has been the Clintons’ biggest backer.
Now billionaires Sheldon Adelson and Haim Saban, split on U.S.
politics, have united to fight boycott threats against Israel.
Adelson and Saban hosted a conference of pro-Israel
business executives and activists over the weekend in Las Vegas
to begin an initiative aimed at countering the growing threat of
international sanctions against Israel.
“That he’s a Democrat and I’m a Republican has really very
little to do with it,” said Las Vegas Sands Corp. founder
Adelson, who holds the 25th slot on Bloomberg’s Billionaires
Index, in a joint interview with Saban on Israel’s Channel 2 on
Saturday. While you can “rest assured” the two men will not be
supporting the same person in the 2016 presidential election,
Saban said, “when it comes to Israel, we are absolutely on the
same page.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has identified
the global trend to boycott, divest and sanction Israel over its
policy toward the Palestinians, known as the BDS movement, as a
major threat.
The boycott issue gained new prominence after Stephane
Richard, chief executive officer of Orange SA, said on Wednesday
that the Paris-based telecom company would end its licensing
deal with Israel’s Partner Communications Co. “tomorrow” if he
wasn’t concerned about legal repercussions. Richard later
apologized for his comments, made in response to a question over
a threatened boycott of Orange’s Egyptian subsidy, Mobinil, and
said they weren’t motivated by political concerns.
‘Blatant Lie’
The Israel-born Saban, who owns a controlling stake in
Partner, called Richard’s clarification “a blatant lie.”
“Any company that chooses to boycott business in Israel,
they’re going to look at this case, and once we’re done, they’re
going to think twice about whether they want to take on Israel
or not,” he said.
French President Francois Hollande spoke with Netanyahu
late Sunday and reiterated his opposition to boycotts of Israel,
according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office. Richard will
visit Israel in the coming weeks to reaffirm Orange’s commitment
to continue doing business in the country, the Haaretz daily
said Monday, citing French media.
BDS supporters say their tactics are the only effective
means of getting Israeli to stop building West Bank settlements
that most of the world views as illegal under international law,
and an impediment toward peace with the Palestinians.
Israeli officials view the BDS movement as part of a
campaign by the Palestinians to delegitimize their country. West
Bank settlements are not the real target of BDS supporters “but
our settling of Tel Aviv, Beersheba, Haifa, and of course,
Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said on Sunday.
Anti-Boycott Law
South Carolina on Thursday became the first U.S. state to
enact a new law designed to counter Israel sanctions. The
legislation prevents public bodies from doing business with
those engaged in the “boycott of a person or an entity based in
or doing business with a jurisdiction with whom South Carolina
can enjoy open trade.” Other states are weighing, or in the
process of approving, similar measures.
Adelson and Saban’s financial muscle and political
influence may boost efforts to counter the BDS movement and
score some individual successes, said Gadi Wolfsfeld, political
science professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It
won’t be enough to counter the larger trend of Israel’s
increasing diplomatic isolation, he added.
“If they sponsor serious research which comes up with
damaging facts that can hurt the legitimacy of the BDS movement,
and publicize that among the world’s political and business
elites, that can have an effect,” Wolfsfeld said. “But the
overall political movement, related to the general feeling that
Israel has no intention of ever leaving the territories and the
international community’s growing frustration over that, is not
going to be stopped.”
Blames Netanyahu
Israeli lawmaker Isaac Herzog, head of the opposition
Zionist Union party, said Netanyahu’s policies must share some
of the blame for the tide of international condemnation.
Pushing back against the sanctions movement requires “a
strong and very close connection with the administration in
Washington, and a diplomatic initiative to alter our
situation,” Herzog said Sunday on Israel Radio. “Netanyahu has
failed at both.”
Some members of Netanyahu’s Likud party and other factions
in his government oppose any concessions to the Palestinians.
One such politician, Education Minister and Jewish Home party
leader Naftali Bennett, said Sunday that the best response to
the BDS movement was building more Jewish settlements in the
West Bank.
“We will attack our attackers,” Bennett said at a
conference in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv. “We will boycott our
boycotters.”
For Related News and Information:
Orange CEO Richard Says He’s Sorry About Israel Controversy
Billionaire Saban Assails Orange Plan to Pull Brand From Israel
Israel Risks EU Settlement Label Threat as Boycott War Heats Up
Top Israel News: TOP IS <GO>
Top Government News: TOP GOV <GO>
Top Stories: TOP <GO>
Israel Daybook: NI ISRAELDAY<GO>
--With assistance from Jonathan Ferziger in Tel Aviv.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Calev Ben-David in Jerusalem at +972-2-640-1105 or
cbendavid@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Alaa Shahine at +971-4-364-1053 or
asalha@bloomberg.net
Jack Fairweather
2015-06-08 07:41:05.965 GMT
(Updates with Netanyahu-Hollande conversation in 8th
paragraph.)
By Calev Ben-David
(Bloomberg) -- One donated more than $100 million to the
Republicans, the other has been the Clintons’ biggest backer.
Now billionaires Sheldon Adelson and Haim Saban, split on U.S.
politics, have united to fight boycott threats against Israel.
Adelson and Saban hosted a conference of pro-Israel
business executives and activists over the weekend in Las Vegas
to begin an initiative aimed at countering the growing threat of
international sanctions against Israel.
“That he’s a Democrat and I’m a Republican has really very
little to do with it,” said Las Vegas Sands Corp. founder
Adelson, who holds the 25th slot on Bloomberg’s Billionaires
Index, in a joint interview with Saban on Israel’s Channel 2 on
Saturday. While you can “rest assured” the two men will not be
supporting the same person in the 2016 presidential election,
Saban said, “when it comes to Israel, we are absolutely on the
same page.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has identified
the global trend to boycott, divest and sanction Israel over its
policy toward the Palestinians, known as the BDS movement, as a
major threat.
The boycott issue gained new prominence after Stephane
Richard, chief executive officer of Orange SA, said on Wednesday
that the Paris-based telecom company would end its licensing
deal with Israel’s Partner Communications Co. “tomorrow” if he
wasn’t concerned about legal repercussions. Richard later
apologized for his comments, made in response to a question over
a threatened boycott of Orange’s Egyptian subsidy, Mobinil, and
said they weren’t motivated by political concerns.
‘Blatant Lie’
The Israel-born Saban, who owns a controlling stake in
Partner, called Richard’s clarification “a blatant lie.”
“Any company that chooses to boycott business in Israel,
they’re going to look at this case, and once we’re done, they’re
going to think twice about whether they want to take on Israel
or not,” he said.
French President Francois Hollande spoke with Netanyahu
late Sunday and reiterated his opposition to boycotts of Israel,
according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office. Richard will
visit Israel in the coming weeks to reaffirm Orange’s commitment
to continue doing business in the country, the Haaretz daily
said Monday, citing French media.
BDS supporters say their tactics are the only effective
means of getting Israeli to stop building West Bank settlements
that most of the world views as illegal under international law,
and an impediment toward peace with the Palestinians.
Israeli officials view the BDS movement as part of a
campaign by the Palestinians to delegitimize their country. West
Bank settlements are not the real target of BDS supporters “but
our settling of Tel Aviv, Beersheba, Haifa, and of course,
Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said on Sunday.
Anti-Boycott Law
South Carolina on Thursday became the first U.S. state to
enact a new law designed to counter Israel sanctions. The
legislation prevents public bodies from doing business with
those engaged in the “boycott of a person or an entity based in
or doing business with a jurisdiction with whom South Carolina
can enjoy open trade.” Other states are weighing, or in the
process of approving, similar measures.
Adelson and Saban’s financial muscle and political
influence may boost efforts to counter the BDS movement and
score some individual successes, said Gadi Wolfsfeld, political
science professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It
won’t be enough to counter the larger trend of Israel’s
increasing diplomatic isolation, he added.
“If they sponsor serious research which comes up with
damaging facts that can hurt the legitimacy of the BDS movement,
and publicize that among the world’s political and business
elites, that can have an effect,” Wolfsfeld said. “But the
overall political movement, related to the general feeling that
Israel has no intention of ever leaving the territories and the
international community’s growing frustration over that, is not
going to be stopped.”
Blames Netanyahu
Israeli lawmaker Isaac Herzog, head of the opposition
Zionist Union party, said Netanyahu’s policies must share some
of the blame for the tide of international condemnation.
Pushing back against the sanctions movement requires “a
strong and very close connection with the administration in
Washington, and a diplomatic initiative to alter our
situation,” Herzog said Sunday on Israel Radio. “Netanyahu has
failed at both.”
Some members of Netanyahu’s Likud party and other factions
in his government oppose any concessions to the Palestinians.
One such politician, Education Minister and Jewish Home party
leader Naftali Bennett, said Sunday that the best response to
the BDS movement was building more Jewish settlements in the
West Bank.
“We will attack our attackers,” Bennett said at a
conference in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv. “We will boycott our
boycotters.”
For Related News and Information:
Orange CEO Richard Says He’s Sorry About Israel Controversy
Billionaire Saban Assails Orange Plan to Pull Brand From Israel
Israel Risks EU Settlement Label Threat as Boycott War Heats Up
Top Israel News: TOP IS <GO>
Top Government News: TOP GOV <GO>
Top Stories: TOP <GO>
Israel Daybook: NI ISRAELDAY<GO>
--With assistance from Jonathan Ferziger in Tel Aviv.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Calev Ben-David in Jerusalem at +972-2-640-1105 or
cbendavid@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Alaa Shahine at +971-4-364-1053 or
asalha@bloomberg.net
Jack Fairweather