Sheldon Adelson

Shel­don Adel­son (August 4, 1933 – Jan­u­ary 11, 2021) was a bil­lion­aire casi­no mag­nate and major Repub­li­can megadonor renowned for his deep and last­ing ties to the State of Israel. He found­ed the free dai­ly news­pa­per Israel Hay­om in 2007, which quick­ly became the most wide­ly dis­trib­uted paper in Israel and a reli­able mouth­piece for Prime Min­is­ter Ben­jamin Netanyahu’s Likud par­ty. Adel­son also estab­lished the Adel­son Fam­i­ly Foun­da­tion, which has sup­port­ed numer­ous pro-Israel caus­es and insti­tu­tions, includ­ing Holo­caust remem­brance and med­ical research in both the U.S. and Israel. Finan­cial­ly, he was instru­men­tal in U.S. pol­i­cy­mak­ing favor­able to Israel—donating over $20 mil­lion to a pro-Trump super PAC and pres­sur­ing Pres­i­dent Trump to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. Adelson’s polit­i­cal influ­ence was con­sid­er­able, often cit­ed as Don­ald Trump’s largest indi­vid­ual donor in 2016 and 2020, and he used his media plat­form and foun­da­tion to pro­mote Israeli nation­al­ist poli­cies, includ­ing right-wing set­tle­ment expan­sion and a hard­line stance toward Iran.

Sources:

• Shel­don Adel­son – Wikipedia

• Trump tell‑all cites Adelson’s bankrolled Israel embassy move – Respon­si­ble Statecraft

• The man who changed the course of Israeli media – Israel Hayom

• GOP megadonor Shel­don Adel­son could help pay for the US embassy in Jerusalem – Vox