“Most Jewish Ever” 2016 US Election

The New Observer
October 22, 2015

Less than four weeks after Jewish former senior White House staffer Tevi Troy announced that the 2016 US presidential campaign was the “most Jewish” ever, the New York magazine has run a banner headline proclaiming that Jewish gambling mogul billionaire Sheldon Adelson is “ready to buy the presidency.”

The astonishing admission—from Jewish sources—comes less than a year after the Washington Post reported on the first “Israeli-American Council” (IAC) meeting that Jewish “billionaire political kingmakers planning to bankroll much of the 2016 presidential campaign spoke out together with blunt warnings on key issues for their respective parties.”

The “billionaire political kingmakers” to whom the Washington Post referred were Adelson and Hollywood mogul Haim Saban.

According to an August 2015 report in the New Jersey Jewish News, Troy announced that the 2016 American presidential election is the “most Jewish” ever in history.

Troy was the keynote speaker at a recent meeting of the major donors’ dinner of the Jewish Federation in the Heart of NJ (an organization which says its mission is to provide “major financial and in-kind support to programs addressing critical issues in Jewish life”).

He previously served as Deputy Secretary in the Department of Health and Human Services, White House Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy at the Department of Labor, policy director for Senator John Ashcroft (R-MO), and as White House Deputy Cabinet Secretary and Liaison to the Jewish community.

In his speech to the New Jersey Jews, Troy said that both

“leading candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, have machatunim,” Jewish in-laws of their daughters. (Chelsea Clinton is married to the Jewish Marc Mezvinsky, and Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, married the Orthodox Jared Kushner, originally of Livingston, after converting.)

“It’s remarkable how little comment there is” on this phenomenon, Troy said. “The larger American society accepts this with nary a second thought. I can’t think of any other country where the leading candidates have machatunim—except Israel.”

Other examples of the “Jewish flavor” permeating the campaign arena: Vermont Democrat Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has been gaining ground on Clinton in the race, is Jewish, and Lauren Bush Lauren, niece of Republican hopeful Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, is married to the Jewish David Lauren (son of fashion designer Ralph Lauren).

Moving on to the political targeting of the Jewish vote, Troy said candidates have been making a play for the Jewish vote, particularly in the “purple” states, like Florida, rather than in places like Brooklyn, a solidly “blue” area. A truism behind this approach, he said, is that “if the Democrats get more than 80 percent of the Jewish vote, they usually win. If the Republicans get more than 30 percent, they usually win. That is why there is a big difference between getting 20 and 30 percent of the Jewish vote,” said Troy. “It almost seems like it’s getting to be a race for Jewish support.”

Nothing perhaps demonstrates this more than the fund-raiser former Texas Gov. Rick Perry held at a kosher restaurant in Des Moines, Iowa. “I don’t know what is more surprising: that there is a kosher restaurant in Iowa or that Rick Perry chose to have a fund-raiser there,” joked Troy.

The New York magazine article of September 9, 2015, featured a photograph of an unidentified politician appearing to kiss and bow before Adelson, in a scene more reminiscent of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion—but not even this blatant display of chutzpah was enough for that publication, which went on to boast that:

Among the 17 candidates currently vying for the Republican presidential nomination, most are also competing in the “Adelson primary”: the hotly contested race for the donor’s heart, which runs through Israel.

The stakes of getting on his good side are enormous. In 2012, Adelson spent $20 million supporting Newt Gingrich, single-handedly keeping him afloat during the primaries and doing great damage to Mitt Romney in the process; then, after Gingrich finally fell, Adelson shelled out $30 million to plump up Romney. All told, Adelson reportedly spent $100 million against Obama in 2012.

In 2016, says one prominent Republican operative, “every candidate thinks, I can either be the Gingrich of the cycle, meaning Sheldon could give me oxygen, or I don’t want to be on the opposite side of who his Gingrich is this cycle. They want to benefit from Sheldon’s largesse or make sure no one else benefits from it.”

In his office at the Venetian Hotel, accessed via an inconspicuous elevator just off the casino floor, Adelson receives a steady stream of presidential hopefuls.

“Can you think of worse optics for Jews than having the casino magnate sitting out in Vegas and having all these Republican candidates schlep out to see him and kiss his ring?” frets one prominent Jewish Republican.

And when the candidates aren’t physically visiting Adelson, they’re keeping close to him in other ways. Marco Rubio reportedly phones Adelson every other week.

It is not only the Republican candidates who depend on Jewish money—and therefore pro-Israeli policy positions—for their campaigns. As the Washington Post pointed out in November 2014, Saban (possibly best known by the public for being behind the Power Rangers TV series) is the single largest financier of the Democratic Party hopefuls.

Hilary Clinton, for example, depends heavily on a “Super PAC” (Political Action Committee”) called “Priorities USA Action,” which has already contributed some $15 million to her campaign funds.

This Super PAC is largely funded by left wing Jews from Hollywood, as reported in the Hollywood Reporter (“Jeffrey Katzenberg’s Secret Call to Hillary Clinton: Hollywood’s 2016 Support Assured,” 10/30/2013):

“Several months ago, Jeffrey Katzenberg reached out to Hillary Clinton to assure her that if she runs for president in 2016, he will support her.

Katzenberg is one of Hollywood’s premier political kingmakers and one of the Democratic Party’s top national fundraisers, so the call had to be a welcome one.

Katzenberg, according to a source close to him, was “favorably impressed” by Clinton during her phone call with him. As one of the biggest financial backers of the super PAC Priorities USA Action, which raised a war chest of $79 million and supported Obama in 2012, the DreamWorks Animation CEO is crucial not only for his money but also for his ability to mobilize others.

“The center of power in the Democratic Party in terms of money really has moved to Katzenberg,” says one top national Democratic strategist. “The most important person you should get is Jeffrey. He should be her No. 1 priority.”

The Hollywood Reporter then added that the “close No.2” priority for Clinton had to be Katzenberg’s close associate, the homosexual Jew and studio executive David Geffen. Others on the Hollywood Reporter’s list included music manager Irving Azoff, and, of course, Saban.

Troy’s observation to the New Jersey Jews is therefore highly accurate: the Jewish lobby dominates every aspect of the political “debate” in America, Republican or Democrat.

No matter who wins the 2016 race for the White House, one outcome is certain: they will have won it with Jewish money, and will have a debt to pay to the Jewish Lobby and Israel.