Israel Matzav

Largest Democratic donor unhappy with Obama approach to Israel

I'd bet that this story is a better explanation for why the Obama administration is suddenly cozying up to 'Jewish leaders' than the possibility that they will lose the 'Jewish vote' in the next election. The Democratic party's largest donor (no, it's not George Soros), Egyptian-born Jewish billionaire Haim Saban, is said to be unhappy with the Obama administration's approach to Israel.

“To say I don’t sleep easily with the current administration’s relationship to Israel would be an understatement,” Saban told Channel 10’s reporter at an LA Gala dinner starring Idan Raichel and former ambassador John Bolton organized by the Israeli Leadership Council on Wednesday night.

“I’m an American now, so I don’t say everything I think, like I might have once,” he added in the footage aired by Channel 10 Thursday. Saban said he had made his concerns known to both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, and that Emanuel had characterized himself as more hawkish than 50% of Israelis.

Saban doubted an opinion poll would bear out this estimate.

Saban stressed Obama and his administration were not, as some Israelis think, “anti-Israel."

“Obama wants to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians, the same thing we want,” Saban said, just the way he was going about it was not to the taste of many in Israel. “They are leftists, really left leftists, so far to the left there’s not much space left between them and the wall,” he said of the Obama administration.

Follow the money. Heh.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:41 PM