US president endorses mega donor at Knesset

US President Donald Trump highlighted the contributions of mega-donor Miriam Adelson in a speech to Israel’s Knesset on October 13th, according to Al-Monitor via Reuters.

Adelson is the Israeli-born physician and wife of the late Israeli-American political donor and philanthropist Sheldon Adelson, the founder and former head of the world’s largest casino empire, Las Vegas Sands Corp. Much of the casino fortune has been used to endorse conservative politicians and policies in both the US and Israel.

President Trump recalled how the Adelson couple would frequently visit the White House; Miriam has been a major donor to Trump’s presidential campaigns.

Sheldon Adelson, a long-time friend and supporter of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was the owner of the right-wing Israeli tabloid newspaper Israel Hayom.

Israel Hayom is highly critical of the political left and has long been considered a pro-Netanyahu publication, although an opinion piece published on November 7th, 2023, called for Netanyahu to leave office.

Trump told the Knesset on October 13th that Adelson “loves Israel,” and he credited the couple for contributing towards his 2017 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, along with his decision in 2018 to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem.

In 2018, Trump gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Miriam for her dedication to research, as well as for the founding of the Adelson Medical Research Foundation, which she established alongside her late husband.

Trump also spoke about Adelson’s support for his 2019 endorsement of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a territory that has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War, which ended with Israel also capturing East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

During his speech, Trump claimed that Adelson has a fortune of “$60 billion in the bank,” and fondly recounted to the Knesset how Adelson once refused to say if she loved Israel more than the US.

According to a senior US official, Adelson played a behind-the-scenes role in calling on Trump to strive for the liberation of Israeli hostages who were kidnapped by Hamas fighters during 2023.

Al-Monitor via Reuters, Maghrebi.org