Stephen Sniegoski: Gingrich Backer is Sheldon Adelson!

Gingrich's faltering presidential campaign was completely resuscitated by a 5 million donation from Las Vegas casino king and super-Zionist Sheldon Adelson. According to Wikipedia, Adelson is currently the 8th wealthiest person in the world, with a net worth of $23.3 billion. Rising from the ashes, Gingrich now has won the South Carolina primary and has a decent chance of becoming the Republican presidential nominee. Adelson has been the major backer of Gingrich for some time. A Washington Post article on the Adelson-Gingrich connection, though kept out of the first section of the paper states: "Perhaps no other major presidential candidate in recent times has had his fortune based so squarely on the contribution of a single donor, as Gingrich has on Adelson, who spent millions in support of Gingrich and his causes over the past five years." As the Washington Post points out, Adelson and his Israeli-born wife, Miriam, have spent time and money lobbying for a bill to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Gingrich has promised that his first executive order as president would be the embassy move. Adelson is an ardent Zionist. Since 2007 the Adelson Family Foundation has made contributions totaling $100 million to Birthright Israel, which finances Jewish youth trips to Israel. Adelson is such a hard-line Zionist that he even stopped supporting AIPAC when it appeared to support a 2007 peace initiative championed by Olmert, President Bush, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.