Gingrich and Adelson Forge Firm Alliance (excerpts)  Josh Nathan-Kazis, Nathan Guttman, Forward, Dec 8 2011

Billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, one of the wealthiest men in the world and a major donor to Jewish and conservative causes, is widely known as a Netanyahu stalwart. Less well known are his equally close ties to Newt Gingrich, to whom he has been a major giver in recent years. Adelson, who ranked eighth in Forbes’s 2011 list of the richest USAians, is chairman and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corp, which owns casinos in Las Vegas and Macau, China. He has been a major funder of Taglit-Birthright Israel, which sends young Diaspora Jews on free trips to Israel, and has been among the most significant US supporters of Netanyahu. In 2007 he launched a free right-of-center newspaper in Israel called Israel Hayom. At the same time, Adelson is among the largest political donors in the US. Adelson, who announced a new $5m gift to Birthright in late November, has made no secret of his support for Gingrich. Gingrich himself has carved out a set of hard-line positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and on Iran. In an address to the Republican Jewish Committee in June, Gingrich called for the US to end talks with the Palestinian Authority and for the dismantling of the UN refugee camps that currently hold 1.4 million Palestinian refugees. Gingrich also vowed to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. Gingrich’s foreign policy team, announced in late November, may also billboard an attempt to appeal to Jews. It includes Middle East hawks like onetime Dick Cheney adviser David Wurmser and Iran expert Ilan Berman, editor of a journal published by JINSA.