RUTHFULLY YOURS

There is nothing like a few racy quotes from billionaire philanthropist Sheldon Adelson to get the liberal media in a tizzy. With all the carry-on surrounding statements he made on Tuesday evening at Yeshiva University in New York, one would have thought that he had the ear of U.S. President Barack Obama and the power to shape American foreign policy.

This is as laughable as the media frenzy that ensued over the casino magnate’s comments, made in the course of a forum on “Iran, Assimilation and the Threat to Israel and Jewish Survival.”

In the first place, Adelson’s highly publicized backing of Republican contenders to prevent Obama’s election in 2008 and reelection in 2012 failed. His current level of influence on the administration in Washington, then, is nil.

Secondly, the 80-year-old businessman and ideologue — who makes a habit of literally putting his money where his mouth is — has never made a secret of his political positions, however abhorrent they may be to his left-wing detractors. So, none of his public remarks should come as a surprise, least of all when they relate to issues closest to his heart and about which he is happily vocal. Tuesday night’s forum, moderated by “America’s Rabbi” Shmuley Boteach (best-selling author of “Kosher Sex” and other books on marital relations), covered three such topics.

The right-leaning, predominantly Jewish audience came to hear Adelson, Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens and Yeshiva University president Richard Joel discuss the pressing matters of the day from a conservative viewpoint. They were not disappointed.

Also in attendance, however, was Philip Weiss, co-editor of Mondoweiss, a “news website devoted to covering American foreign policy in the Middle East, chiefly from a progressive Jewish perspective.” Weiss, a self-described anti-Zionist, videotaped the event for the express purpose of ridiculing it. His main target for attack was Adelson, who dared cast aspersions on the Palestinians and call for action against Iran.

About the former he said: “They hate us, they don’t want us alive. If they really wanted peace, somewhere, somehow in the last 65 years they would have moved one millimeter toward the Jewish demands.”

When asked what he thinks about the latter, he replied, “I would say [to Iran]: ‘Listen, you see that desert out there, I want to show you something.’ …You pick up your cell phone and you call somewhere in Nebraska and you say, ‘Okay, let it go.’ And so there’s an atomic weapon, goes over ballistic missiles, the middle of the desert, that doesn’t hurt a soul. Maybe a couple of rattlesnakes, and scorpions, or whatever. Then you say, ‘See! The next one is in the middle of Tehran. So, we mean business. You want to be wiped out? Go ahead and take a tough position and continue with your nuclear development. You want to be peaceful? Just reverse it all, and we will guarantee you that you can have a nuclear power plant for electricity purposes, energy purposes.'”

Nothing there that could be considered earth-shattering, even if one disagrees with it.

Nevertheless, as soon as Weiss posted the clip, it began to spread. Media outlets across the world made indignant mention of its content. In Israel, the press had a field day, as it always does when Adelson’s name comes up. Any opportunity to go after the person who financed the establishment of Israel Hayom, the most popular newspaper in the country, is a golden one.

Rather than countering his arguments in the overwhelming majority of editorial and op-ed pages at their disposal, Israeli journalists repeatedly “report” on Adelson by asserting that he is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s puppeteer and that Israel Hayom is Netanyahu’s personal soap box. It is a transparent ploy to discredit the competition. But then, battling it out in the field of ideas might result in defeat.

Not a single piece written about Adelson’s proposal to threaten Iran by first bombing an unpopulated area presented an opposing view. This is because the fuss — like the headlines it generated — was not about American policy vis-à-vis Iran. It was merely much ado about Adelson.

Ruthie Blum is that author of “To Hell in a Handbasket: Carter, Obama, and the ‘Arab Spring.'”