August 23, 2006
Despite the fact that many Jewish leaders in California have been sharply critical of the policies of the government of Israel and the vast majority of American Jews are liberal, especially in Hollywood, Michael Carmichael sees the defection of billionaire Saban and Spielberg to the Republicans in California as a significant move for the “Israel Lobby.”
As Israel prepares for round two in its battle against Hezbollah, and Iran moves onto a war footing with a defensive mobilization and with the US already at war in the Middle East, the California governor’s race has become a crucible of American politics. In the politically charged world of Hollywood, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has triggered a minor realignment on the Democratic right and some familiar names are now in the process of moving across the partisan divide.
Led by billionaire media mogul, Haim Saban, several prominent Hollywood Democrats: James Campbell, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Jerry Zucker and Bud Yorkin have announced their support for the Republican “Governorator,” Arnold Schwarzenegger, who once pitched a film that featured an unlikely hero, an “Everyman” characterized as a kind and decent Nazi caught up in the violent conflict of the Second World War. How Schwarzenegger planned to treat his character’s anti-Semitism remains obscure.
In recent months, Hollywood billionaire Haim Saban’s support for the Democratic Party came under intensifying public scrutiny. John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt focused on Saban’s growing political influence in their paper, The Israel Lobby. Describing Saban as an “ardent Zionist,” Mearsheimer and Walt demonstrated the formidable power base of the Israel Lobby in both political parties.
Reflecting on Mearsheimer and Walt, one of America’s leading experts in international law, Dr. Francis Boyle, has dubbed the Democratic Party “a front group for the Israel Lobby.” To a growing number of Americans, Boyle appears to be correct. Saban – not known for his restraint – has vacationed with former President Bill Clinton, a fragment of evidence that supports the lamentations of Boyle, Mearsheimer, and Walt.
A gifted, brilliant and industrious man, Saban was born into the Jewish community in Alexandria, Egypt. In the mid-fifties when the Arab-Israeli wars made their lives as Jews in Egypt more difficult, Saban and his family immigrated to Israel. There, he eventually became involved in promotional and sales activities. In the seventies, Saban relocated to France, where he operated a successful music business.
In the eighties, Saban left France for Hollywood and turned his hand to composing music for films – not major films mind you, but popular ones – and, of course, for television – with an emphasis on children’s TV. Eventually, his success with music, scores, and production for films and television series including: Heathcliff: The Movie; The Super Mario Brothers, Super Show!; Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: The Movie; Lord Zedd’s Monster Heads: The Greatest Villains of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers; and Casper meets Wendy put him in position to sell his production company, Fox Family Worldwide, to Disney for a personal profit that made him a billionaire overnight. For years, Saban has been a business partner of neoconservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch, another billionaire who admires George Bush and Tony Blair. Murdoch is the owner of Fox News and News International. Reports in the financial press indicate that Saban’s personal profit from the Fox-Disney transaction was $1.6 billion.
Today, Saban presides over the Saban Capital Group where he is currently in the process of negotiations for further media acquisitions. Criticized for the violent content of his children’s programming, Saban is regarded as a tough businessman with decidedly right-wing views. Saban makes no secret of his keen support for the neoconservative policies of George Bush, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Michael Ledeen, Richard Perle, John Bolton, James Woolsey, Daniel Pipes and Donald Rumsfeld.
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Show-biz brigade takes a stand vs. Hezbollah, Hamas
By O’Ryan Johnson
Thursday, August 17, 2006 – Updated: 01:16 AM EST (hat tip)
Hollywood heavyweights Nicole Kidman, Michael Douglas, Danny DeVito, Rupert Murdoch and more than 80 other stars played against type and entered stage right yesterday with an ad condemning Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Palestine and terrorists everywhere.
“We the undersigned are pained and devastated by the civilian casualties in Israel and Lebanon caused by terrorist actions initiated by terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah and Hamas,” the full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times reads.
Whatever will the crowd at Spago think?
The undersigned also include La-la luminaries Dennis Hopper, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Don Johnson, James Woods, Kelly Preston, Patricia Heaton of “Everyone Loves Raymond” and William Hurt.
Directors Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Michael Mann, Dick Donner and Sam Raimi also signed their names. Other Hollywood powerplayers who signed their John Hancocks included Sumner Redstone, the chairman of Paramount Pictures, and billionaire mogul Haim Saban.
The move is a variation on the usual script in Tinseltown, where the political noise has been predominantly anti-Bush, anti-war on terrorism and anti-war in Iraq from high-profile stars such as George Clooney, Barbra Streisand, Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn.
But this alternate A-List appeared to steal some of President Bush’s “A” material with lines like: “If we do not succeed in stopping terrorism around the world, chaos will rule and innocent people will continue to die. We need to support democratic societies and stop terrorism at all costs.”
Doug Ireland writes that instead of firing Tom Cruise for his Scientology-related behaviour, Sumner Redstone should be firing CBS chief Leslie Moonves for approving changes to the reality show, Survivor. According to Ireland, the cast will be split along racial lines, a move Ireland notes, that prompted Don Kaplan of the New York Post to suggest calling the show, “Survivor: Race War.”