By Robert Inlakesh
The 78-year-old billionaire political donor, Miriam Adelson. (Photo: Gage Skidmore, via Wikimedia Commons) Miriam Adelson has made headlines recently, over her offer to be the top financier of the 2024 Trump campaign, on condition that the former President moves forward with the annexation of the illegally occupied West Bank, in violation of international law.
The 78-year-old billionaire political donor, Miriam Adelson, was born in 1945, during the British Mandate of Palestine in the city of Tel Aviv, making her older than the State of Israel.
She grew up in the occupied city of Haifa, with a wealthy father who was prominent in the Zionist Mapam Party which aided in ethnically cleansing some 750,000 Palestinians from their homes between 1947-49. Adelson served in the Israeli military and is both a citizen of Israel and the United States.
Sheldon Adelson
Inheriting the wealth of notorious Republican Party mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, who she married in 1991, she is now the 6th richest female billionaire in the United States and the richest Israeli alive. On top of owning the Las Vegas Sands casino and resort corporation, Adelson also co-owns the Dallas Mavericks basketball team.
She is also the publisher of Israel’s most-read newspaper Israel Hayom and the Las Vegas Review-Journal with her family members, giving her influence in the media sphere too.
It was revealed that her late Husband, Sheldon Adelson, donated 20 million dollars to a Super PAC supporting the Trump campaign in the 2016 election, which was reportedly conditioned on Donald Trump recognizing occupied Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel and moving the American embassy there. Sheldon, who died in 2021 once said he was “I’m a one-issue person. That issue is Israel.”
During the 2012 US Presidential elections, Miriam Adelson was the largest female donor and spent around 46 million dollars.
Come 2016, Miriam and Sheldon Adelson were the largest donors throughout Donald Trump’s campaign, essentially bankrolling his presidential bid, making it no surprise that Trump would go on to be the most pro-Israel President in US history.
Donald Trump
In February of this year, Miriam Adelson reportedly met with Donald Trump and agreed to finance his third bid to re-enter the White House. According to Politico, in May, Adelson agreed to contribute 90 million dollars to a pro-Trump Super PAC.
At that time, in order to demonstrate how significant such a contribution would be, the Biden campaign had around 84 million dollars in cash. It has been historically accurate to predict the outcome of US elections based on which side raises more funds.
In early June it was later revealed that after a little hesitation, Miriam Adelson had agreed to pledge a total of 100 million dollars to the Trump campaign in exchange for him to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the illegally occupied West Bank when President.
At a time when Donald Trump is being dealt financial blows due to multiple legal battles, Adelson’s support couldn’t have been more crucial.
The move by Miriam Adelson is in essence a dual Israeli-US citizen, who openly says she favors Israel and claimed to have been trapped in the United States by her former husband, essentially buying off a potential US President to support Israel.
If what she was requesting was support for Israel, that wouldn’t be too out of the ordinary, however, Adelson seeks to bankroll Trump’s presidential bid with the goal of having him support Israel violating international law and tearing up any hope of achieving a solution to the Palestine-Israeli conflict.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
– Robert Inlakesh is a journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. He focuses on the Middle East, specializing in Palestine. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.
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