Japanese official: Netanyahu asked me to advance franchise for Sheldon Adelson’s casino

The senior Japanese official was shocked by the unusual request, and rejected it out of hand. He was so astonished that already during the visit he told his associates about the Israeli prime minister’s request.

HAARETZ

Exactly a year ago, in February 2014, Las Vegas Sands, which is owned by Sheldon Adelson, released a dramatic announcement to the media in Tokyo. The company, considered the largest gambling firm in the world in terms of market value, announced its intention of investing $10 billion in Japan – in the expectation that it would become the second largest casino market in the world.

In his announcement Adelson declared that the company would open offices and recruit workers in the Land of the Rising Sun. Only one small problem remained – although Japan is the third-largest economy in the world, establishing and operating casinos there is illegal. There is a voracious appetite for gambling in Asia, a fact of which Adelson – who made his fortune with a gambling empire in the Chinese city of Macao – is well aware.

His working assumption was that in the wake of the choice of Tokyo to host the 2020 Olympic Games, the country would approve the establishment of a casino. That was also the assumption of the two large gambling enterprises that compete with him in the Asian market, and therefore the race was twofold: both to convince the Japanese government to follow in the footsteps of flourishing Asian gambling capitals such as Singapore and Macao in terms of legislation, and to receive the desired franchise ahead of the competitors.

Three months after Adelson’s announcement, in May 2014, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Japan, on what was officially described as an “economic work visit.” Among those accompanying Netanyahu was the director general of the Prime Minister’s Office, Harel Locker, and the head of the National Economic Council, Eugene Kandel. Sources in his entourage explained that “the visit was designed to increase contact between the countries and to promote the economic relations between them,” adding that “in the context of the visit Israel and Japan decided to promote a mutual investments agreement.” Netanyahu visited Tokyo and Kyoto and met with the Japanese emperor, the prime minister and his deputy, and with several other senior ministers, along with prominent figures in the business sector.

In his meeting with Japanese businessmen toward the end of the visit, Netanyahu declared: “We held very productive talks, and I believe that something new is beginning here … Israel is one of the centers of innovation, and I think that Japan is another … We have reorganized our economy in order to enable entrepreneurs to make money, to lose money, to take risks, to risk capital and so on. We have shaped our economy to enable risk taking.”

But at least in one instance during the course of the visit Netanyahu chose to take a risk himself: He turned to a very senior Japanese government official and asked to meet with him privately regarding granting a legal franchise to build a casino – for Sheldon Adelson. The senior Japanese official was shocked by the unusual request, and rejected it out of hand. He was so astonished that already during the visit he told his associates about the Israeli prime minister’s request.

This may be an original interpretation by Netanyahu of his declaration during that visit: “We have reorganized our economy in order to enable entrepreneurs to make money,” but the story forces us to ask the question: For whom is Benjamin Netanyahu really working? For the citizens of the country that he leads, or for his major overseas patron? Here we should once again mention that Netanyahu chose to dismantle his government and disperse the Knesset without any obvious urgent reason, several days after the law to limit the power of the free newspaper Israel Hayom [funded by Adelson] passed its first reading.

As the head of the Israeli government Netanyahu also defied diplomatic logic by working to support Adelson’s political protégés in the midst of stormy U.S. elections: Once when he supported Newt Gingrich when he was running for the leadership of the Republican Party, and a second time when he supported Mitt Romney when he was running for the presidency against Barack Obama. These candidates were supported by Adelson to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, and constituted a red flag to the White House and the Democratic Party.

At present, as we know, Netanyahu is dragging himself and Israel into another dramatic crisis in relations with the U.S. political establishment – this time with his insistence on going to Washington without an invitation from the White House or the State Department, in order to speak to Congress about the Iranian issue. That too serves the confrontational policy of the Republican Party and one of its major sponsors – the extreme right-wing gambling mogul from Macao, Sheldon Adelson. Whether in Washington or in Tokyo, it turns out that there is only one person to whom the Israeli prime minister owes an accounting.

I turned to the Prime Minister’s Office to ask why Mr. Netanyahu saw fit to promote Mr. Adelson’s gambling enterprise during the course of an official visit to Japan, and whether Netanyahu is working in other ways in the context of his position in order to promote Adelson’s gambling businesses worldwide. The PMO’s response: “It never happened.”