https://vimeo.com/427607699

The CIA used an Adelson controlled company to spy on Julian Assange. Billionaire Casino owner Sheldon Adelson was a key player in making Trump president; has a history of money laundering; consorting with organized crime families; is a fervent supporter of the Israeli right, and advocates for attacking Iran. Max Blumenthal joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news podcast.

Transcript

Paul Jay

Welcome to theAnalysis.news podcast. Max Blumenthal is the editor of “The Grey Zone” and is the author of several books. His latest is “The Management of Savagery.” His latest article on Gray Zone is titled “New Court Files Expose Sheldon Adelson, Security Team and U.S. Spy Operation Against Julian Assange.”  Now joining us to discuss one of the major powers behind the Trump throne is Max Blumenthal. Thanks for joining us, Max. 

Max Blumenthal

Thanks for having me on.

Paul Jay

So let's start with for some viewers who might not get why Sheldon Adelson is worth talking about. Give a little bit of background, and then let's get into the story of what the spying is on Assange.

Max Blumenthal

Well, I think Sheldon Adelson is one of the, as you said in the intro, the major force behind the Trump throne, and particularly when it comes to Trump's policies in the Middle East, vis-a-vis Israel, Palestine and Iran. Sheldon Adelson speaks for Netanyahu in the United States. He has funded Benjamin Netanyahu's political career and provides the major financial and political leverage inside Washington for Netanyahu to exercise his influence. He's definitely far more influential over the Trump administration than other billionaires we’ve  heard more about in the past few years, including, I would argue, Robert Mercer or the Koch brothers. And he's certainly been more influential than Russia, which was the subject of an investigation that captivated American media for the past three years. What has Adelson done? Well, we can go back to 2015 and recall Donald Trump's appearance as he was getting his presidential campaign off the ground before the Republican Jewish Committee, a group which substantially benefits from Adelson’s funding. And Donald Trump was heavily criticized for saying that he's a dealmaker, and that he’ll exercise his power as president to negotiate a two state solution, which went against everything Adelson stands for. He also said to the crowd, you guys know how to make deals. You’re  deal makers; a lot of you are in real estate. So he was accused of anti-Semitism. Adelson then brought his fortune to bear on the Trump campaign. And Trump changed his tune. Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, happened to be from a family that was close to Benjamin Netanyahu, that hosted Netanyahu when he'd come to New York as opposition leader in the 90‘s. Kushner would have to actually get out of his bedroom and move to another room so Netanyahu would take his bed. He was literally in bed with Jared Kushner. Kushner is the executive chairman of the Kushner Family Foundation, which funds illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. And thanks to this special relationship with Sheldon Adelson, we've seen the Trump administration really shatter the status-quo on Israel/Palestine in so many ways. They're now moving towards annexation of large settlement blocks in the West Bank, which is a key goal of Netanyahu.This will all take place under the auspices of the deal of the century, which Kushner helped negotiate. Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam, were seated in the front row of the rollout for this. This policy that Palestinians call the steal of the century because it will essentially just take th...