If The Israel Lobby Had a Name
If The Israel Lobby Had a Name
Israeli-American philanthropist Adam Milstein is easily one of the most influential of foreign lobbyists. Post Oct. 7, his role is even more imperative.
Adam Milstein is an Israeli-American real estate investor and influential Zionist lobbyist. The 72-year-old philanthropist's role in shaping US foreign policy is marked by his personal mission.
Identity is at the core of Milstein’s advocacy. The Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation (MFF) “supports a diverse group of non-profit organizations that strengthen American values, the US-Israel alliance, the State of Israel and the Jewish people.”
Milstein is also a co-founder of the Israeli-American Council (IAC), serving as a chairman of the board. The organization is said to prioritize Israeli-American and Jewish-American identities along with the State of Israel.
In 2011, the MFF, in partnership with the IAC, launched Sifriyat Pijama B’America, providing books to tens of thousands of Israeli children nationwide.
The official site details the MFF’s linked mission with the IAC and Sifriyat Pijama B’America:
I. From IDF to “Jewish Philanthropy” Tax Fraud
Adam Milstein served in the Israel Defense Forces during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, after which he embarked upon his crusade to the West as a real estate investor.
Two years after his arrival, he connected with David Hager, an Israeli who would bring him into the world of “Jewish philanthropy.” His business, Hager Pacific Properties, is very much intertwined with his pro-Israel lobbying, such as with the group Nahal Haredi.
Milstein jumped in on the game and began donating to organizations affiliated with Spinka, a Hasidic Jewish sect within Haredi Judaism. It eventually became a vehicle to evade taxes for himself and Hager.
Caught red-handed, Milstein ultimately pleaded guilty to two counts of federal tax evasion. He admitted to giving $170,000 to Spinka between 2005 and 2007, declaring it as donations on his tax returns while receiving 90% of it back.
The Intercept reported that Hager, Milstein’s philanthropic mentor, was sentenced to six months in prison while Milstein himself was ordered to serve three months, complete 600 community service hours, and pay a minimal $30,000 fine for the tax evasion.
Elliot Broidy of the Republican Jewish Coalition, the same organization which former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) is on the board of directors, advocated for Milstein, but after a year, he pleaded guilty to paying off New York officials in exchange for business.
According to The New York Times, Broidy’s office was entrenched in an investigation of conspiracy, money laundering, and illegal lobbying for foreign officials.
Ester Renzer and Roz Rothstein of StandWithUS, Elliot Mathias of Hasbara Fellowship, senior AIPAC consultant Carol Aimoff, and others also requested leniency for Milstein postconviction.
What is even more noteworthy is Jacob Dayan's intervention. Dayan was, at the time, Israel’s consul-general in Los Angeles. He wrote on an official Israeli government letterhead praises of Milstein:
I have known Mr. Milstein to be an integral part of the greater community through his remarkable compassion and extensive philanthropic activities … [Mr. Milstein] has personally assured me that in the future he will follow the precise letter of the law.
Electronic Intifada warned prosecutors of “an obvious concern that much of his philanthropy appears to have been merely a device to defraud the government.”
While under supervised release, Milstein managed to travel to Israel, Jordan, Italy and Egypt, primarily under the affiliation of AIPAC. He even met with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior Israeli and Jordanian officials, reported Electronic Intifada.
He saw Jordan’s King Abdullah, Prime Minister Samir al-Rifai, General Muhammad Raqqad and US Ambassador Robert S. Beecroft. Lastly, he met with the then-Israeli President Shimon Peres, and Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad of the Palestinian Authority. His visit to Egypt had him meeting with then-dictator Hosni Mubarak, too, just months before he was ousted from office.
II. Anti-BDS and Anti-Muslim Action
The Intercept detailed that Milstein spent millions to stifle the BDS movement and critics of Israeli policies. The reporter, Alex Kane, stated that he uses "anti-speech tactics to suppress people of color" and that his focus is to humiliate and label adversaries to his Zionist agenda as "racists."
Milstein has tried to counter the BDS movement heavily on college campuses. Liz Jackson, a founding staff attorney for Palestine Legal, told The Intercept:
He is uniquely proud of such aggressive, anti-speech tactics to suppress people of color. This is a war of personal attacks. … They’re different fronts of the same attack on our ability to openly talk about Palestine. The smear attacks shut down many people, with crippling consequences for individuals.
The article further indicates that Milstein levied dual loyalty accusations against Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rep. Tlaib Rashida (D-Mich.). He claimed that these Muslim reps had links to the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamicist group founded in Egypt. The receipts—Milstein’s Tweets—have been removed, carefully covering his tracks.
III. The UCLA Bruins Student Council Scandal
In 2014, Milstein was very active on college campuses against the rise of the BDS pro-Palestine movement. On this occasion, the real estate mogul solicited funds on behalf of two student senate candidates at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).
Money was reportedly funneled through the university’s Zionist campus organization, Hillel, by Mondoweiss’ Alex Kane. The UC Berkeley campus newspaper, The Daily Californian, unearthed emails showing Milstein directed donors to send checks for the two candidates, Avid Oved and Avinoam Baral of the Bruins United party, to UCLA Hillel’s director of fundraising, requesting donors to earmark their checks for “UCLA student government leaders,” according to The Electronic Intifada.
The candidates emailed Milstein, saying:
[We] and the rest of the Bruins United slate are prepared to make sure that UCLA will maintain its allegiance to Israel.
The campaign was, too, marred by Milstein’s emotional Tweeting against Muslims and former President Barack Obama for allegedly “cuddling up to Islam.”
As a result of the calamity, the UCLA Hillel hired public relations firms to safeguard pro-Israel backing on the campus, reported Mondoweiss.
UCLA has specific election policies that provide oversight of student government manipulation by outside interests. The Jewish Daily Forward noted that the actions violated the bylaws of UCLA Hillel. Rachael Petru Horowitz, development director of UCLA Hillel, argued against the claim despite benefitting from the funds.
IV. Bizzare Online Reputation Management
Adam Milstein’s legal name is Tuvia Milzstein. Under that name, he has created profiles on LinkedIn, SlideShare, Flickr and many others. There are even multiple domain names with his name, registered back to 2010.
He has accounts on Naymz and iKarma, too. Naymz is designed to “manage your social reputation,” while iKarma acts similarly for businesses and professionals.
The author of Web Reputation Management for Dummies told The Electronic Intifada that such actions are demonstrative of securing a good reputation. Even search engine optimization (SEO) consultant Thomas Léger said the usage of “Tuvia Milzstein” is “definitely some kind of attempt at search engine manipulation.”
Several of Milstein’s accounts sport a photo of someone else entirely. Milstein appears to be trying to hide something that hasn’t been fully unearthed or reported on. And, with his connections to prominent Jewish and Israeli NGOs, it’s unlikely anything will come to the surface.
V. Israel’s Good American Boy
Milstein sits on the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's (AIPAC) national council and has quite the portfolio of pro-Israel philanthropy.
Court records indicate he is worth $147 million as of 2009. From 2004 to 2016, his foundation gave over $4.4 million to pro-Israel groups, according to foundation tax records. His group, the MFF, has donated $1.9 million to the American Israel Education Foundation in just over a decade.
As mentioned before, Milstein has been heavily active against pro-Palestinian speech at the university level. He lobbies for The Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC), which works with the Israeli government, targetting students through secretive online campaigns.
ProPublica found that the ICC operated Facebook ad campaigns, in particular in 2016, accusing Remi Kanazi, a Palestinian-American poet, of "violence and hate."
The ICC is also adjoined to SJP Uncovered, which deems pro-Palestine groups as terrorist, racist and antisemitic. The group functions much like Canary Mission, blacklisting individuals on social media and their website. Additionally, Al Jazeera found that Milstein is actually funding Canary Mission, although he has denied it.
He has also funded the David Horowitz Freedom Center, which is connected to FrontPage Magazine, DiscoverTheNetworks.org, Jihad Watch, Stop K-12 Indoctrination and Stop Campus Jew Hatred.
What is evident from this is that this Israeli-American Jew from Forest Hills, Queens, a former Marxist now described as a neoconservative, holds a strong disdain for Muslims.
Milstein has funded the Jewish News Syndicate, which republishes Jewish publications across the US. He is also the co-founder of the Israeli-American Council (IAC).
To fulfill his endeavors, Milstein abides by the state religion, giving to Democrats and Republicans who staunchly back Israel. Open Secrets has a list of over 500 politicians and associations he has donated to.
The Intercept stated his major impact has been through the IAC, where he sits as the board's chair. It is an arm of the Israeli-American Coalition for Action, which is a self-proclaimed:
non-profit, non-partisan 501(c)(4) organization that advocates to policymakers nationwide on behalf of the pro-Israel and Israeli-American Communities.
Milstein additionally sits on the boards of:
Israel on Campus Coalition
StandWithUS
Hasbara Fellowships
Birthright Israel
Stand By Me
Jewish Funders Network
American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) National Council*
*After he made the dual-loyalty comments on Twitter about Muslim Reps. Omar and Talib Milstein he withdrew from the 2019 AIPAC conference.*
Other associations he founded or is involved with include:
Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation (MFF)
Israeli-American Council
Sifriyat Pijama B’America
The Donor Forum
Campus Maccabees Summit
Hillel International
Project Interchange
Milstein also runs and operates Sifriyat Pijama B’America, and in 2016, he founded “The Donor Forum,” which links pro-Israel donors.
In June 2015, he helped organize the inaugural Campus Maccabees summit, which brought 50 organizations together to combat antisemitic groups or college activities.
In 2016, The Jerusalem Post named Milstein as one of the world’s 50 most influential Jews. In 2015 and 2016, Algemeiner Journal listed him as one of the “Top 100 People Positively Influencing Jewish Life.”
Author Gil Troy refers to Milstein as a leader of cultural Zionism in his book The Zionist Ideas: Visions for the Jewish Homeland — Then, Now, Tomorrow. In it, Troy claims Milstein has a “vision of Israeliness to invigorate Zionism and Jewish identity—in Israel and abroad.”
With all of this, it is tough to ignore the impact and potential of Adam Milstein’s advocacy. Maybe that is indeed why he is trying to bury the information on him.