

Rob’t Reich (photo by Perian Flaherty)

This is shocking and outrageous. Robert Reich, the former Labor Secretary now a professor of public policy, affects ignorance on the score of why Sheldon Adelson has given Newt Gingrich all that money. The long quote below is from his blog.

Reich suggests that Adelson’s gift has to do with his casino interests. He does not mention Israel or Adelson’s friendship with Netanyahu or his millions to Birthright or One Jerusalem (Adelson’s cause leading up to 2000 election when he sought to sabotage the peace process). He cannot say what the Wall Street Journal states in the lead of a news story: “A shared interest in supporting Israel, fostered over 15 years, is at the heart of casino mogul Sheldon Adelson’s support for Newt Gingrich’s presidential bid.”

This is an important moment because it epitomizes the refusal of intelligent, prominent liberal American Jews to acknowledge the role of the Israel lobby (let alone dime out their crazy cousins, the neocons). Reich. Emphasis mine: