"I demonstrated against the Vietnam war, but my Jewish newspaper says this war could be good for Israel."
My sibling's comment suggested that there was a Jewish interest that overrode even the antiwar spirit in my family culture, and it led me to look into my religious background and the role of Zionism in American Jewish life. I'd avoided looking at Israel/Palestine till then. Now I had to study the way that neoconservatism and its Zionist underpinnings had affected the Jewish liberal presence in American life. Some of the intellectual way-stations for me were: Kenneth Pollack's book, The Threatening Storm, which laid the basis for liberal support for the Iraq war and never once mentioned the Israeli occupation, even vaguely dismissing "violence" in Israel/Palestine as a distraction to Pollack's bold plans to remake an Arab society. And Pollack had backing from a leading Zionist: Haim Saban.
Then of course there was Walt and Mearsheimer's paper, mentioning Saban and Pollack, and showing that the neocons had pushed the war out of concern for Israel's security, and that Sharon and Peres had jumped on board. Then I saw war-promoter Bill Kristol dismiss Walt and Mearsheimer as "schmucks" at Yivo and go on crazily about "conspiracy" theories about the neocons without speaking openly of his own Zionism. And lately reading Joe Klein's confession that "Jewish neocons" had sold the war to him as a "benign domino theory" that would serve Israel's interests.
All these people were reading my sibling's Jewish newspaper; and this agenda wasn't known to Americans.
I had a dream last night about a guy I'll call David, who is a lawyer in a New York firm with a strong Jewish character. He's a Zionist, and does some pro-Israel work, on the side. In the dream I was visiting David in jail. I was not allowed to see him, but I could phone him. I wanted to leave him a note. They would not allow that either. They wanted me to talk to him on a bugged phone, I just wanted to leave him a letter.
He'd been charged with dual loyalty. He was representing the U.S. government on a real estate deal with the Israeli embassy. The Americans wanted a certain price, but he was secretly in cahoots with the Israelis. Then the price dropped and it was right what the Israelis were hoping to pay. Then the U.S. government had found out he was actually working for Israel, and now he was in jail. He had been brought into the prison in camouflage with head covered, almost like Guantanamo. Along with another man.
It was a scary dream, about the treatment of Jews in the financial crisis. I had loving feelings toward him and conveyed them in the letter they wouldn't deliver. So I called him on the phone but I didn't hear his voice. Maybe he didn't trust me. I certainly felt guilty, like an informant. His family very afraid, but I was walking thru the corridors of the jail, then I left. Unscathed of course. And I have to say I didn't feel bad at the end, almost like it wasn't my problem.
The dream gets at my guilty feelings around my exposing dual loyalty, this hidden allegiance in many Jews. Per my wife, who studies this stuff, I am all the people in the dream, the jailers, the informant, and David too. Though there are some feelings like Esther Rosenberg's brother in it, about being Greenglass, the fink.The dream would also seem to be about the financial crisis and the fears some Jews have that Jews will be blamed.
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Anonymous2008-11-02 23:30
Haim Saban, the Israeli-American media entrepreneur behind the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, is a financial superhero to the Democratic Party. In 2002, his company, Saban Capital Group, ranked as the top donor to Democratic committees. Today, he and his wife, Cheryl, are the most important Hollywood backers of Hillary Clinton.
A native of Egypt whose family was forced to flee to Israel during the 1956 Suez crisis, Saban immigrated to the United States in 1983 to seek his fortune in the television industry. His production company, Saban Entertainment, hit the jackpot by creating the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, an Americanized version of the Japanese children’s genre in which a team of rainbow-costumed protagonists use martial arts and outlandish weaponry to battle alien invaders. In 1995, Saban merged his operation with Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Kids Network, creating a children’s TV empire that eventually reached more than 250 million homes worldwide. When ABC bought the company in 2001, Saban had a breathtaking $1.7 billion payday. Since then, he’s dabbled in German broadcast TV and was part of an investment group that acquired Univision, the Spanish-language TV network. Saban’s estimated net worth of $2.8 billion ranks 98th on Forbes magazine’s list of the 400 richest Americans.
Saban’s vast fortune has enabled him to become a major money player in the Democratic Party. Since 1994, he’s given more than $13.4 million to Democratic candidates and committees, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. His deep pockets are legendary; in 2000, when he learned that another donor had given $250,000 more than him to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, he sent the committee a check for that amount with a $1 bill attached. (“I hope this guy doesn’t find out,” Saban told The Washington Post. “He may send another $2.”) That money was just part of the nearly $1.5 million in soft-money contributions that Saban made in 2000. He was an even bigger player in the 2002 election cycle, when he gave nearly $9.3 million in soft-money contributions to various Democratic committees. In 2004, he and his wife gave $167,948 to Democratic committees and candidates, including every major presidential contender. (Perhaps to hedge their bets, they also gave $4,000 to George W. Bush’s reelection campaign.) In the 2008 presidential race, the Sabans are supporting Democrat Hillary Clinton. So far in 2007, they have given $9,200 to her campaign. The couple also co-hosted an event that raised $850,000 for Clinton in May at the Los Angeles home of Peter Chernin, the president of News Corporation.
The main issue on Saban’s political agenda seems to be his ardent support of Israel. “Look, President Bush is very one-sidedly pro-Israel, but look at the results of his policy,” he told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in 2006. “They were not beneficial for Israel. We are in a major mess. Look at the facts on the ground. Bush is a massive failure. Hillary will be more balanced than Bush. She will try to create credibility among the Arabs in order to mediate between them and us. We will get nowhere with them in direct negotiations. Only with billions, with pressure.” But he also admits to the allure of having intimate access to world leaders. “I’m not after power,” he told Haaretz. “But I do not belittle the fact that . . . I sit with [Bill] Clinton in the White House and he goes to the refrigerator and asks me if I want regular water or fizzy. Sometimes I tell myself that there’s something a bit nutty here. He’s the president of the United States. I sell cartoons. So he is going to serve me and ask if I want regular or fizzy water?”
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Anonymous2008-11-02 23:31
"I left Israel in 1976, after going bankrupt, and decided never to do business in Israel again," Saban related on the occasion of breaking his own word to himself and buying Bezeq , the Israeli national phone company, three years ago. "I don't like regulators because they're a pain in the pass. But if I look at the telecoms sector, it's tightly regulated the world wide. Regulation in Israel isn't light, but I can say it's fair and professional."
With a wink to Maor, who was chairing the discussion, Saban said that its easiest to work with Israeli banks, "though they're a little more expensive than the goyim".
In his turn, Idan Ofer described why he decided to invest in The Israel Corporation after years abroad. On his way finance minister New York to Israel one day, he read in the business section of Haaretz that the Eisenberg family was selling The Israel Corporation. He decided he wanted to buy it, on purely economic grounds, not Zionist ones.
Asked about it, Saban also said he'd bought the controlling interest in Bezeq for economic reasons, not Zionist ones. "I'm the most Zionist man in the world, but this was pure business."
Maor asked Saban if he means to turn Bezeq into a multinational company, developing activity abroad. No, Saban said without thinking twice: "Bezeq will not be an international company. The company has great cash flow and we need to use it to improve our cellular infrastructure, invest in digital TV (third-generation cellular) and to develop these businesses in Israel. All this requires heavy investment," he explained.
Broidy, co-founder of the Markston private equity fund, was asked if the fund had any exits on the agenda, and which is the best market for exits. He said there are intentions to float the irrigation systems company Netafim on Wall Street, in the next quarter. At this, Saban interrupted: "If Elliot will allow me, I'm willing to invest in Netafim, even 5% of it."
Idan Ofer said Israel welcomes foreign investment, and added that not all countries do. "I had bad experiences in several countries where we wanted to do business and were rejected, just because we were foreigners. And when the Chinese wants to invest in the U.S., they can't. In Israel assets aren't called national assets," he said.
The main obstacle to investment in Israel is jet lag, Saban contributed. "The jet lag is a killer. Fifteen hours flying time from Los Angeles is an obstacle. But every time you start to land in Israel, the heart starts beating."
Maor, who led the panel brilliantly, described Saban's life: born in Egypt, he emigrated to Israel at age 12, lived in France for eight years and then settled in the U.S. "Are you Egyptian, Israeli, French or American?" she asked him. Saban waited a moment before answering: "Right, I was born in Egypt, I apologize for that. France is another story. I define myself as an Israeli American."
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Anonymous2008-11-02 23:33
Haim Saban is an Israeli-American media-mogul, one of the biggest contributors to the campaigns of pro-Israel politicans in the U.S. and has been described by a New York Times reporter as a "tireless cheerleader for Israel." He has also founded various centers and institutions to produce policy research favorable to Israel. He is a financial donor and founder of the Saban Institute for the Study of the American Political System at the University of Tel Aviv. He is a member of the Board of Trustees at the Brookings Institution. In 2002 he pledged $13 million to found the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution."
Saban is the founder of Saban Entertainment and Fox Family Worldwide. More recently, he has made significant new gains. In 2003 he bought ProSiebenSat.1, Germany's largest privately-owned television network. [2] In 2006, he acquired Univision Communications, the largest Spanish-broadcasting television company in the US for the price of USD 12.3 billion.
At a broadcasting-industry conference last month in Cambridge, [Saban] not only expressed interest in acquiring ITV, but then went on to accuse the BBC and Sky News, a British satellite-channel owned by Rupert Murdoch, of putting out biased, overly pro-Arab coverage of the Middle East... His audience was left with the impression that this was “a man motivated by editorial concerns, not a businessman,” as one broadcasting executive put it. Officials at Ofcom, Britain's new media regulator, were amazed by what one called his "pig-ignorant" behaviour.
After Israel's Telecommunications monopoly Bezeq was privatized in 2005, a consortium headed by Saban acquired a 30% controlling stake in the company.
Saban was one of the major contributors to the former California governor Gray Davis, and in return Davis appointed him to the board of regents of the University of California. However, more recently, Saban, along with Steven Spielberg, have shifted their loyalties to Arnold Schwarzenegger after the new California governor's unequivocal support for Israel's latest invasion of Lebanon.
"To me he will always be a dear personal friend. Haim Saban is a great American citizen and a man who always stood by Israel and the Jewish people in times of need. His contribution to strengthening ties between Israel and American political leaders from all parties has been quite remarkable and outstanding." - Ariel Sharon on Saban
"I'm a one-issue guy and my issue is Israel" -Haim Saban
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Anonymous2008-11-02 23:36
Saban’s rise to power is much more familiar to Europeans than Americans. When Saban acquired Germany’s largest privately owned television network, he became the media mogul of Germany. An acquisitive investor, Saban ... owns a major interest in Keshet, an Israeli television broadcaster. He is a power in Israeli politics as well as a major shareholder (30-45.7%) in Bezeq, the formerly state-owned Israeli telecommunications provider. Bezeq was part of a privatization package that required intense negotiations between Saban and the Israeli government.
In 1988, Mr. Saban began his career in television with the formation of Saban Entertainment, an international television, production, distribution and merchandising company. Saban Entertainment produced several major hits, such as X-Men, numerous Marvel characters and the global phenomenon Mighty Morphin Power Rangers which to this day is the number one selling boy's toys in the United States.
A self-described "cartoon schlepper," Mr. Saban became a billionaire by turning the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers into a global franchise that he merged with Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and, in 2001, sold to the Walt Disney Company for $5.3 billion. He has since emerged as perhaps the most politically connected mogul in Hollywood, throwing his weight and money around Washington and, increasingly, the world, trying to influence all things Israeli.
By 1996, the popularity of the Power Rangers had faded and Saban executives had to determine the future of the Power Rangers. They met with the top five licensees and found that although most licensed categories were no longer in demand, toy sales were still strong, and the show was still at the top of the ratings list of most popular shows. Although the original fans had outgrown the Power Rangers, a younger generation was just discovering them. Saban Entertainment decided to heavily invest in the Power Rangers to get people to believe in it again. New staff were hired to expand Saban’s licensing and merchandising division, new licensees with strong track records with big retail buyers were brought on board, and the Power Ranger look was updated. The new style was high tech and featured space and astronomy themes.
Industry executives said that Saban saw FOX Family as a platform for his production operations. After years as a successful syndicator of international kids programming, most notably Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Saban was focused on programming that could be co-financed or readily syndicated worldwide.
Ok, is this the original vertion, or the freaken spin offs?
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Anonymous2008-11-10 19:30
All of them exist as a means to earn money from toy sales to fund Israel, including other Sentai adaptations localized by Saban. This explains why translations are so horrible- toy sales are the only motivating factor, not quality or artistic merit.
Wait a minute, The Power Rangers are made and owned by Bandai. A Japanes company that is known for Gundam anime and action figures. so how does a Japanes owned copy writen show have to do with the Jewish?
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Anonymous2008-12-26 18:49
Haim Saban licensed the show to make money in US markets. It's not an attempt to accurately import Zyuranger, if you haven't noticed.