U.S. Gambling Millionaire Causing a Crisis in American-Israeli Relations
Casino owner Irving Moskowitz (www.stopmoskowitz.org)
The Obama and Netanyahu administrations are gearing up for a public showdown over the issue of Israeli settlement in occupied Palestine. The issue is stalling the nascent peace process and might soon require the UN to step in. And it all revolves around the meddling of a Florida gambling casino millionaire named Irving Moskowitz.
Mr. Moskowitz's Hawaiian Gardens Casino is located in a blue-collar area south of Los Angeles.
This weekend, Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren was summoned to the White House and asked to convey President Barack Obama’s request that a highly controversial new Jewish settlement right in the heart of Arab East Jerusalem – in a building seized from a Palestinian owner after the 1967 war – be halted by Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu. Not only has the PM refused to do so, he refused in a brash, loud denunciation of the “two states for two peoples” doctrine he so bravely proclaimed just last month. From Voice of America:
“Mr. Netanyahu said Jews are entitled to live anywhere in Jerusalem. He said it would be an international scandal if Jews were not allowed to live in certain neighborhoods of New York, London or Paris, and the same should apply to Jerusalem. But the Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, and the United States sees Israeli construction in the area as an obstacle to peace.
“United Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish people and the State of Israel,” Mr. Netanyahu told the Cabinet, and he said, “Israeli sovereignty in the city is indisputable.” “
It’s important to remember here that no one disputes the right of Jewish people to live in the part of Jerusalem that is part of Israel – West Jerusalem. West Jerusalem comprises most of Jerusalem – about 3/4 of the land and population. Living there today are about 650,000 Jewish residents – the largest ethnic group in the city by far. West Jerusalem is home to the Knesset and all of the major institutions and universities, including two of the world’s most memorable museums, Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial, and the Israel Museum, site of the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit and the giant outdoor recreation of Jerusalem at the time of Herod. I had a great visit to West Jerusalem a few months ago – it’s cosmopolitan, prosperous and peaceful – full of Hebraic people from all over the world, excellent restaurants, nightlife, and rich culture.
Most nobably, no one has to dangle a subsidized mortage, a free car, segregated roads, a government-subsidized job, Uzi-toting guards, or Army escorts to persuade people to move to West Jerusalem. On the other hand, to persuade Israeli Jews to infiltrate East Jerusalem and other parts of occupied Palestine – the stressful and dangerous guarded, gated, heavily-armed urban settlement blocks, rural agricultural settlement-kibbutzim, and pioneer “outposts” – someone offers all these incentives – and then some. So many financial incentives that it costs more than $556 million a year to keep the settlement enterprise going. Israeli government officials in 2005 estimated the cumulative cost of settlements at $60 billion.
That’s where Irving Moskowitz comes in. Moskowitz has given upwards of $70 million to settlements, including the highly secretive Ir David project near the Old City that was outed in the New York Times in May. He “owns” the building in the Arab Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem that he wants to turn into another settler enclave – a move so controversial it involves a U.S. president.
40-year-old Palestinian Mahmoud al-Abbasi stands amid the rubble of his home after it was demolished by the occupying Israeli forces to make way for a Ir David, a kind of religious-archaeological theme park, underwritten by Irving Moskowitz, in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan. Currently, an additional 88 homes in this neighborhood, all owned by Arabs, have been ordered demolished to make way for the theme park. Photograph: Gali Tibbon
As of this weekend, Moskowitz is infamous on an international scale, but he’s been a pariah among mainstream American Jews for years. Here’s a profile of Moskowitz written ten years ago by the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Weekly.
Below is a profile of him and his supporters just last month by the video journalist Max Blumenthal [ h/t to Steve Clemons at the Washington Note]:
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Eileen, you haven’t given one single good reason why Jews shouldn’t live in East Jerusalem, where they lived in large numbers until they were expelled by the Jordanian army when it took that part of the city in 1948. Whether financial inducements are offered or not is irrelevant. Rather a large red herring to raise. And surely political beliefs, while you may find them repugnant, are not a reason to disqualify someone from living in a neighborhood either. It’s called “discrimination.”
Layla,
In response to another comment. See in context »I appreciate your view. I personally value heterogeneity. One issue I have with regard to East Jerusalem is, why have 200,000 people of the Jewish persuasion been given financial and other incentives to move there in the past decade, while only a few thousand people of the Arab and Christian religious groups been allowed to move in, and without financial incentives? It looks like a kind of social/religious engineering. If the settlement blocks weren’t segregated by religion, I would be more comfortable with them. If the government and private millionaires like Mr. Moskowitz didn’t offer financial grants, cars, below-market apartments, government jobs, etc, I would be more comfortable with settlements. Anyway, thanks again for commenting and please keep challenging me.
Eileen
By the way, Sheikh Yousuf Qaradawi of Qatar has granted $21 million to Hamas to buy buildings in eastern Jerusalem for Hamas activists. Sheikh Qaradawi is a strong supporter of suicide bombings in Israel, and Hamas’ charter calls for the elimination of the state. But we’re supposed to believe that Moskowitz funding religious Jews to live in Jerusalem is problematic?
Hi again Layla,
I will definitely look into this sheikh’s involvement in East Jerusalem. Since currently, the Tel Aviv government has very strict zoning laws in East Jerusalem, there should be records available of what he bought or tried to buy. Let’s keep in touch on this.
Moskowitz – if the settlements were for people of all religions, I would have no problem with them. The whole settlement enterprise – the segregation of them, the guards, barbed wire, and gates, the private roads, the wall snaking around them – doesn’t communicate a message of peaceful coexistence.
Best,
Eileen
Eileen, I know Max Blumenthal’s work but had never seen this remarkable video. It’s truly repellant and racist. I’m ashamed to see fellow Jews who are so ignorant and hateful to people who live practically right alongside them.
Layla’s argument about Jews living in E. Jerusalem would be stronger if Arabs could live in West Jerusalem. They can’t. They certainly can’t own property there. A few live in short term rentals in Jewish settlements in Jerusalem like French Hill because of the housing shortage in Arab neighborhoods.
I’ll make you a deal, Layla, if tell me you oppose Israeli laws that prevent Arabs from living in Jewish areas and neighborhoods then I could see supporting Jews living in Arab neighborhoods as long as they didn’t use subterfuge to gain possession of said land (as is often the case).
Richards, thanks for your comments. It’s a really tough issue, and one where a lot of Israelis feel like the world is dictating to them. One problem is, the international justice community has benignly neglected the post-1967 occupation of Palestine, leading many Israelis believe that land is theirs. BTW, this morning on AlJazeeraEnglish, Gregory Aronson from the Foundation for Middle East Peace, the former mayor of Jerusalem, and a Palestinian university professor had a thoughtful discussion about Israel’s right to develop settlements in the occupied territories.
In response to another comment. See in context »Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/aljazeeraenglish#play/uploads/0/0ZC8NOw6g_M
[...] rest is here: Eileen White Read – Peacemakers – U.S. Gambling Millionaire … Share and [...]
[...] Last but not least, if you’re a Jewish Bingo Mogool from Florida, then, too, you can legally build in East Jerusalem, Eileen Read writes. [...]