Friday, March 27, 2015

NYU's Michael Steinhardt, Wall Street and Golan Heights Oil Connection: Part 5


NYU Trustee Steinhardt’s Israeli Investments

In 1979, Steinhardt apparently began to invest his money more heavily in an Israeli society whose military violated the human rights of Palestinians. As he recalled in No Bull:

“In 1979…I went into partnership with an Israeli businessman, Lehu Veisser. We constructed industrial parks in…towns, including Kiryaf Gat, Natirot, Schderet, and Ofakim, that had been built near the southern border of Israel primarily for strategic purposes…I met Shimon Topor, who eventually became a partner of mine. He became my guide to all subsequent investments made in Israel, some of which have been substantial…”

Before becoming a business partner of Steinhardt, Shimon Topor, was, coincidentally, the Israel Continental Bank’s Chairman and CEO and managed the international operations of Israel’s Bank Hapoalim.


Given NYU Trustee Steinhardt’s “substantial” investments in Israel’s corporate-oriented economy, in 1990, not surprisingly, Steinhardt also “held a meeting of leading Israeli economic figures at” his “home” that “included the senior members of the” Israeli “Ministry of Finance, including then Finance Minister Berga Shohat, as well as the” Israeli “Ambassador to the United States.., Lester Crown, CEO of General Dynamics; Leonard Garment, a former…adviser to President Nixon; and…Richard Ravitch, former head of the Metropolitan Transit Authority…to discuss the development of new infrastructure programs for Israel,” according to No Bull.

(end of part 5)

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