Some wealthy Jews would like to influence American public opinion. They also appeal to their elected representatives.
That is the "news" in a Washington Post "exclusive" that ran Thursday, and the paper makes clear that there is something very untoward about it. The piece, by reporters Hannah Natanson and Emmanuel Felton, is based on an inside look into an online chat that included New York City mayor Eric Adams and several wealthy New York businessmen.
In that chat, several people pressed Adams to send the New York Police Department to clear out Columbia University’s dangerous, disgraceful, and violent pro-Hamas encampment, something that did not happen until student reprobates further escalated the situation and broke into and occupied a campus building several days later.
The Post surfaces no evidence—zero—to indicate there is any connection between the demands made in the chat and the cops’ appearance at Columbia, since the decision, of course, was left to Columbia University’s weak-kneed president Minouche Shafik.
A spokeswoman for the newspaper declined to comment, and the paper did not publish the piece in its print version on Friday.
Maybe this is why. "The messages offer a window into how some prominent individuals have wielded their money and power in an effort to shape American views of the Gaza war," the reporters write ominously. Get it? The piece is a modern-day echo of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in which Woodward and Bernstein—er, Natanson and Felton—mimic the uncovering of a secret plot.
We hope you’re sitting down, because the Post reveals that several of the billionaires also "worked with the Israeli government" to screen film footage of the Oct. 7 massacre compiled by the IDF and one of them, the hedge funder Bill Ackman, even facilitated its screening at Harvard.
Indeed, the wealthy men mentioned in their piece haven’t exactly been shy about their views. Ackman is waging holy war on Harvard. Real estate mogul Barry Sternlicht cut off his donations to his alma mater, Brown University. And billionaire Dan Loeb has said he’s reconsidering hiring from Ivy League schools.
We understand the Post prefers activism undertaken by the masked and violent, but bravo to these patriots for doing their civic duty: leaning on their lawmakers, trying to move public opinion, and putting their money where their mouths are. Post owner Jeff Bezos might note he could save $100 million a year by cutting out the middleman and texting elected officials directly.