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Israel debates Sheldon Adelson’s media, political heritage

Following the death of Jewish American Sheldon Adelson, the Israeli right and left disagree about how he influenced Israel’s media, society.
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“If you don’t control a newspaper, you can’t really rule.” This was a mantra that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s media team heard incessantly from him after his first term as prime minister. Over the years, the message only got louder.

As Netanyahu became increasingly convinced that the left controlled the Israel media, he reached the inevitable conclusion that what was needed as a counterbalance was a powerful and influential media outlet on the right. Founding such an outlet became his meta-goal; in order to fulfill it, he worked relentlessly to win support and funding from a prominent right-wing tycoon.

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