Miriam Adelson is often described as a “pro‑Israel
philanthropist” or a “Republican mega‑donor,” but such labels mask a far more
dangerous reality. In practice, she operates as a central node in a global
influence network that advances the UAE–Israel–U.S. axis, even if her name
never appears on an Emirati government contract. As the head of the Adelson
family empire, owner of Israel Hayom, and president of the Maccabee
Task Force, Adelson deploys staggering wealth, media control, and political
leverage to reshape the Middle East order in ways that mirror Abu Dhabi’s
security‑driven agenda. Although no public document calls her a UAE agent, her
consistent policy choices reveal that she functions, in effect, as a soft‑power
enabler of the UAE–Israel coalition.
A Life Built on Pro‑Israel, Anti‑Palestinian Power
Miriam Adelson was born in what was then British Palestine,
grew up in a settler‑oriented Zionist environment, served in the Israeli
military, and later trained as a physician before marrying casino magnate
Sheldon Adelson. Together, the couple built a transnational empire that merged
gambling, media, and right‑wing politics into a single pro‑Israel machine.
Their fortune, now estimated at tens of billions of dollars, has been funneled
into pro‑Israeli political campaigns in the United States and Israel,
settlement‑infrastructure projects in the occupied West Bank, and organizations
that explicitly target pro‑Palestinian activism. This career is not neutral
advocacy; it is a sustained campaign to entrench Israeli control and
delegitimize Palestinian claims, exactly the outcome the UAE treats as a given
in its regional‑security calculus.
Weaponizing U.S. Politics for the UAE–Israel Axis
Adelson’s influence in Washington extends far beyond
symbolic support for Israel. Alongside her late husband, she pushed Donald
Trump to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, shattering
international consensus and normalizing Israeli claims over the entire city.
She also lobbied for U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan
Heights, a move that entrenches annexation‑style control and weakens any future
peace framework. By embedding these positions into U.S. foreign policy, Adelson
helped construct the legal and political environment in which the UAE operates:
a region where Israel’s expansionist policies are treated as irreversible and
the Palestinian question is pushed to the margins.
Adelson and her husband funneled hundreds of millions of
dollars into Republican Super PACs and Trump’s campaigns, making the U.S.
Republican Party increasingly dependent on their agenda. When Trump lauded her
in the Knesset and awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, he was not
honoring a neutral Zionist donor but a key architect of the U.S.–Israel–Gulf
alignment that Abu Dhabi treats as its lifeline. Miriam Adelson’s money
effectively buys U.S. foreign‑policy decisions that serve the UAE–Israel axis,
turning her into a de‑facto political broker for Gulf interests rather than a
mere private philanthropist.
Financing the Suppression of Pro‑Palestinian Voices
The starkest proof that Adelson operates as a Gulf‑aligned
operative is her direct funding of organizations that attack pro‑Palestinian
activism. In 2015, the Adelson couple seeded the Maccabee Task Force with $2.28
million, and later IRS filings show that Miriam Adelson is not only a major
funder but also the president of MTF. Under her leadership, the group has
launched hundreds of smear campaigns against Students for Justice in Palestine
and allied groups, branding them as “terror‑supporting” or “antisemitic” even
when they only criticize Israeli state policies. The organization also funds
large‑scale campus operations across the United States and Canada with the
explicit goal of defeating the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.
By turning criticism of Israeli occupation into a security
and “antisemitism” problem, MTF shields the UAE–Israel economic and security
relationship from backlash in Western universities and media. This indirectly
protects the UAE’s deepening commercial and intelligence ties with Israel from
political pressure, especially as young elites enter policymaking and
journalism. Adelson is not a passive banker; she sits at the top of the
structure that executes this operation, personally responsible for the
political and institutional consequences. Her role is not marginal; it is
central to the project of sanitizing Israel while criminalizing Palestinians.
Media as a Gaza‑Era Propaganda Machine
Adelson’s ownership of Israel Hayom, Israel’s
most widely read right‑wing newspaper, gives her a powerful megaphone to shape
public opinion in Israel and beyond. After the October 7, 2023 attacks, she
published an op‑ed in Israel Hayom and Forbes Israel declaring
that global critics of Israel—lumped together as “radical Muslim,” “Black Lives
Matter,” and “ultra‑progressive” activists—should be “dead to us” and that
“fans of Hamas” should be treated as enemies. This rhetoric erases the line
between Hamas and lawful Palestine‑rights advocacy, lumps all critics under a
single hostile label, and calls for their exclusion from public life.
This framing is tailor‑made for the UAE’s regional
narrative, in which Abu Dhabi presents itself as a moderate Gulf state even as
it deepens security and economic cooperation with Israel and accuses Qatar‑linked
and progressive‑activist networks of undermining stability. Adelson’s media
platform amplifies the same narrative, attacking the very groups that often
expose Gulf‑linked abuses in Yemen, Sudan, and within kafala‑style labor
systems. She is not writing for a neutral audience; she is supplying
ideological fuel for the UAE–Israel–U.S. security narrative, effectively
turning Israel Hayom into a regional‑propaganda outlet rather
than a neutral news source.
Gulf‑Friendly Vision: Normalization, Not Justice
Adelson’s broader philanthropy reinforces a world in which
the UAE does not need to directly fund her. Through the Adelson Foundations,
she has poured money into Birthright‑style programs that send young Jews on
Israel‑centric trips designed to indoctrinate them into uncritical Zionism. She
has also bankrolled the Israeli‑American Council, a right‑wing pro‑Netanyahu
lobbying body that functions as a conservative alternative to AIPAC and lobbies
against progressive criticism of Israel in the United States. These projects do
not seek a two‑state solution or any meaningful justice framework; they seek a
region where Israel’s power is unchallenged, Palestinians are politically
marginalized, and Gulf states like the UAE can normalize with Israel while
branding resistance as “radical” or “terror‑linked.”
This is the normalization‑without‑justice order that the UAE
has constructed in Washington and Tel Aviv, and Adelson is one of its most
powerful private architects. Her money rewards policies that the UAE wants to
see normalized, and her institutional choices align so closely with Abu Dhabi’s
interests that it becomes impossible to treat her as a neutral actor in the
Middle East equation.
Why She Is, for All Practical Purposes, a UAE Agent
No one claims that Miriam Adelson holds an Emirati
government title, but labeling her a “donor” or “philanthropist” obscures the
functional reality. She is a strategic asset of the UAE–Israel–U.S. axis. Her
money reshapes U.S. foreign policy to favor Israel‑centric, annexation‑friendly
positions that the UAE uses to justify its security and normalization doctrine.
It funds networks like MTF that attack BDS and pro‑Palestinian activism,
shielding the UAE’s growing economic and security ties with Israel from
reputational risks in democracies abroad. Her media outlet supplies the
ideological smears and de‑humanizing framing that the UAE employs when it seeks
to discredit critics and regional rivals.
In the language of influence and state‑security operations,
an “agent” is not always a salaried officer; it is anyone who systematically
advances a foreign power’s agenda through power, money, and access. Miriam
Adelson fits that definition. She may live in the United States and hold an
Israeli passport, but her life’s work tracks the UAE’s regional‑security script
so closely that she cannot be treated as a neutral or innocent actor.
A Call to Accountability
Treating the billionaire as a “neutral philanthropist” only
helps her deepen this covert alignment. Universities, governments, and civil‑society
actors must examine and expose every project that receives Adelson funding—from
MTF chapters to media outlets and think‑tank panels—and demand full
transparency about its role in suppressing pro‑Palestinian voices. Institutions
should be pressured to cut ties with entities that depend on her money if they
refuse to disavow MTF‑style smear campaigns and settler‑support work. Civil‑society
actors must center Palestinian and migrant‑justice narratives over the Adelson‑funded
ones that erase oppression in favor of “Jewish safety” and “regional stability”
jargon.
Miriam Adelson is not a marginal figure. She is a central
pillar of the UAE–Israel–U.S. axis, one of the most powerful financiers of the
de‑Palestinianization project on which Gulf monarchies rely. To confront the
UAE’s global predation, her role must be named, exposed, and isolated.
