After getting rapped for, as the accusation goes, meddling in U.S. elections, Benjamin Netanyahu today emphatically denied the charge. What venue did Netanyahu choose to dismiss the notion that his clamorous demands on U.S. foreign policy had nothing whatsoever to do with American politics? Josh Nathan-Kazis at the Forward:
Netanyahu told an Israeli paper in an interview previewed today that the charge was “[N]onsense because the issue that is guiding me is not the U.S. elections, but the centrifuges in Iran, and what can I do if the centrifuges in Iran are inconsiderate of the U.S. political timetable?”
The Israeli paper was Israel Hayom, a free daily owned by the American Jewish casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson. Adelson and his wife have given $10 million to Mitt Romney’s super PAC, making them some of this election cycle’s most prominent political donors.
Adelson became a household name this election cycle by, among other things, reportedly pledging a "limitless" amount of his billions to unseat Obama, and much of it could be given in secret. In a 2008 profile of Adelson for the New Yorker, Connie Bruck wrote, "In the Israeli media world, Israel Hayom is referred to as Bibi-ton, because many believe that it serves as a mouthpiece for Netanyahu."So, Netanyahu denies he meant to insert himself into U.S. politics—a point of legitimate contention—but hardly succeeds in dispelling this notion by his venue choice.
