Fidel Castro's 1994 Characterization of U.S. Political System Revisited

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro and supporters in 1994

In a January 28, 1994 speech in Havana--which the U.S. corporate media wasn't too interested in broadcasting--then-Cuban President Fidel Castro described the U.S. Power Elite's two-party political system in the following way:

"The United States also has one party, because the Republican Party and the Democratic Party are more alike than two drops of water.

"The empire is a single-party structure...The empire's role of world police is determined by a single-party structure. Just look at what's happening now, in 1994, now that the cold war is over and there's no socialist bloc, the Pentagon's funds haven't been touched, its budget hasn't been cut by so much as a red cent. Why else would it need such enormous armed forces if not to act as a world police force, if not to intervene worldwide. It's crystal-clear; the U.S. government cuts everything but the defense budget. It is truly incredible, completely bereft of logic, and after it has said the cold war is over. It looks like it is getting ready for a hot war against the Third World countries. That's why it wants military bases all over the place, because it wants to intervene everywhere..."

In the same speech, Castro also asserted that "because Cuba stands firm, because Cuba defends its sovereignty, because Cuba defends its independence, Cuba must be punished, blockaded, starved into surrender, blown up from within, so as to wipe out even the memory of Cuba because the U.S. government won't forgive Cuba for the way our heroic people have stood firm for the last 35 years." Castro also complained in 1994 that "they invade us through their mass media, they make us see not what we are interested in seeing but what they want us to see" and "through the transnational news agencies they control almost all the news and they give their self-interested versions of what is happening in the world." 

Israel's Historic Rothschild Dynasty Connection Revisited: Conclusion

Rothschild & Co.office location in Silicon Valley/Palo Alto/Bay Area of Calif.

In the 21st-century, the mainstream corporate media monopoly conglomerate news departments and most of the U.S. power elite foundation-subsidized alternative media groups are generally not interested in mentioning much the historic role that members of the Rothschild Dynasty played in supporting the Zionist movement’s settler-colonialist project in Palestine; that eventually led to the violation of Palestinian democratic self-determination and national rights, and Palestinian human rights, especially following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. But in addition to having a fully-staffed office in Tel Aviv, the Rothschild Dynasty’s Rothschild and Co., not surprisingly, also has some business offices in the United States in the 21st-century.

A May 7, 2017 press release of Rothschild and Co., for example, announced the “opening of new San Francisco Bay Area office;” and noted that “the Bay Area office” was “the seventh Rothschild office in North America.” In this same May 7, 2017 press release, Rothschild Global Advisory Managing Partner and Head Robert Leitao is also quoted as saying:

“We have been serving clients in the San Francisco Bay Area for some time, and the opening of our office there will allow us to strengthen our team, ensuring that our clients continue to have access to the best people and advice. The U.S. and North American markets are a strategic priority for our firm, and this announcement demonstrates our commitment to the region. Following the opening of our Chicago office last year and the success of our team in Los Angeles over the past few years, Silicon Valley is another key piece in our plan to build out the business in the U.S.”

And a May 24, 2017 press release of Rothschild and Co., for example, also noted that because of “expansion of Rothschild’s Global Advisory business in North America Rothschild Global Advisory” was “further strengthening its North American business by announcing four more senior hires.” The same 2017 press release also quotes Rothschild Global Advisory Managing Director Peter “P.J.” Moses, “who heads the” Rothschild and Co.’s “Consumer team in North America,” as saying that “Over the past 3 years, our North American franchise has experienced tremendous growth as clients have come to appreciate the differentiated advice and insights that we bring along with the uniquely coordinated reach of our global platform.”

Palestinian Workers: Still Economically Exploited and Nationally Oppressed In 21st-Century

In the 21st-century the Rothschild and Co. of the Rothschild Dynasty, that historically funded the Zionist movement’s settler-colonialist movement in Palestine, may be expanding its “Global Advisory” business operations in North America in recent years. But in Palestine, the economic exploitation of Palestinian workers in the economic and political system established by the Zionist movement’s State of Israel continues in 2020. As, for example, a Joint Open Letter from the European Trade Union Network for Justice in Palestine and other European labor movement organizations to the General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation {{ITUC], Mrs. Sharan Burrow, on June 11, 2020 noted:

“…We would like to express our deep concern about the situation of Palestinian workers in Israel and illegal settlements…While the situation of Palestinian men and women, especially workers, is difficult after decades of Israeli colonization and occupation, the Covid-19 pandemic makes it even more acute. Before the lock-down, nearly 130,000 Palestinian workers in the West Bank were forced to work in Israel or illegal settlements to survive. As in the rest of the world, the pandemic shows that these exploited workers are in fact doing work that the Israeli economy depends on. That is why, despite the current health crisis, the Israeli State has asked 40,000 of them to remain working in Israel, while Israelis remain confined to their homes…”

In addition, according to a December 31, 2018 Middle East Monitor article, a 2018 report of Israel’s National Insurance Institute “found that the percentage of Palestinian citizens of Israel living below the poverty line is almost double the national average, pointing to a huge disparity between Palestinian and Jewish Israelis:” and “found that 47.1 per cent of Palestinian-Israeli families live below the poverty line, versus a national average of 28.4 per cent..”

(end of article)

Israel's Historic Rothschild Dynasty Connection Revisited: Part 9

Edmond de Rothschild (Israel) Ltd. business offices in Tel Aviv in 21st-century

In the 21st-century, not surprisingly, members of the Rothschild Dynasty (which, historically, initially funded the Zionist movement’s settler-colonies in Palestine in the late 19th-century) also have business offices in Tel Aviv. As a May 15, 2015 article, titled “A New Prestigious Address for Edmond De Rothschild Israel,” that was posted on the Edmond de Rothschild (Israel) Ltd. firm’s website noted:

“On 14 May 2015, Edmond de Rothschild (Israel) Ltd. inaugurated its new offices on 20 Boulevard Rothschild in Tel-Aviv. Ariane de Rothschild reiterated her family commitment to Israel, and emphasized her intention to see the Group do more business in Israel to become a major player in the Israeli economy and its financial markets. She paid tribute to the impressive work achieved by the team in Tel-Aviv under the leadership of Miki Kliger….

“In 2007, the Edmond de Rothschild Group purchased the building at 20 Rothschild Boulevard...Benjamin de Rothschild is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Edmond de Rothschild Holding SA, the umbrella entity of the Edmond de Rothschild Group. The overall management of all the businesses of the Edmond de Rothschild Group is the responsibility of the Executive Committee, which is chaired by Vincent Taupin.”

Baroness Ariane de Rothschild: Wife of Edmond de Rothschild Holding SA Chairman

Another business firm controlled by members of the Rothschild Dynasty in the 21st century is Rothschild & Co, which has a business office at 32 Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv.  According to the Rothschild & Co.’s website, “Rothschild & Co. is a global and family-controlled group” that provides “M&A, strategy and financing advice, as well as investment and wealth management solutions to large institutions, families, individuals and governments, worldwide. The Rothschild & Co. website also describes itself in the following way:

“Having been at the centre of the world's financial markets for over 200 years, we can rely on an unrivalled global network of trusted professionals and decision makers.  This means that we have in-depth market intelligence, bringing us closer to current issues than any other global financial institution.

“Our 3,600 talented employees in over 50 offices around the world have a strong track record of outstanding execution in three business lines: Global Advisory, Wealth and Asset Management, and Merchant Banking.”

David de Rothschild is the Chairman of Rothschild & Co. He was first appointed Chairman of Rothschild & Co. Gestion, the Managing Partner of Rothschild & Co, in 2012, before leaving that post in May 2018 to become Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Rothschild & Co.

Eric de Rothschild, the current Vice-Chairman of Rothschild & Co, was previously appointed on 8 June 2012 as Chairman of the Supervisory Board, a position he held since 2004;” and “along with David de Rothschild, he was the main driving force in bringing together the English and French branches of the Rothschild family, and holds several other duties and positions within the Group and the family's wine-making companies,” according to the Rothschild & Co. website. In addition Rothschild & Co. Vice-Chairman Eric de Rothschild is also a member of the Board of Directors and General Manager of Rothschild Concordia SAS.

Another member of the Rothschild & Co. board of directors, Anthony de Rothschild, “over the last fifteen years” has “focused on developing a broad portfolio of investments, including music, fashion and retail companies,” according to the Rothschild & Co. website. And yet another Rothschild family member of the Rothschild & Co. board of directors, Arielle Malard de Rothschild, has also been a Managing Director at Rothschild & Cie SCS since 2006.

In addition, Rothschild & Co. board member Arielle Malard de Rothschild is also currently a “member of the Board of Directors of Groupe Lucien Barrière (France) and Imerys (France), ” Chairwoman of CARE France and Vice-Chairwoman of CARE International (Switzerland),” and a “member of the Board of Directors, Nomination and Remuneration Committee and Audit and Risk Committee of Electrica SA,” according to the same website.

Besides including Rothschild Dynasty family members (who possessed 62.7 percent of the Rothschild & Co.’s shareholders’ voting rights power and owned a 49.7 percent share of Rothschild & Co. stock as of December 31, 2019), the Rothschild & Co. board of directors also includes some rich folks who aren't members of the Rothschild Dynasty's family, like the following types of rich folks:

1. A Vice-Chairwoman who is also a CEO and Director of Bankque Martin Maurel, Hopital Saint-Joseph Foundation Director and a Vice-Chairwoman of the Association Francaise des Banques;

2.  A second Vice-Chairman who is also a Chairman of Matheson & Co. and a Director of Dairy Farm, Hongkong Land, Jardine Matheson, Jardine Strategic, Mandarin Oriental, Ferrari NV and Yabuli China Entrepreneurs Forum;

3. A Managing Partner of Hombuger AG and a Director of dorma+korba Holding AG;

4. A Senior Advisor of Bain Consulting and Operating Partner of Advent International, a board member of Memo Bank and the Chairman of the Board of Dexia;

5.  A Senior Partner of Morgan Lewis Stamford LLc and member of the Boards of Directors of Axa and Sanofi;

6. A Director of Eutelsat Communications, Sanofi (France and Naxos UK Ltd. (United Kingdom);

7. The Chairwoman of Todini Construction Generali SpA, Todini Finanziaria SpA, and Comitato Leonardo and a member of the Board of Salini Costruttori SpA; and

8.  A member of the Board of Directors of Valeo.

According to its website, in the 21st-century the Rothschild Dynasty’s Rothschild & Co. is also “able to provide a highly informed perspective on the Israel market to our clients, through our fully-staffed office in Tel Aviv and supported by the expertise and connections of our senior staff” and it shares “this insight with Israeli companies on domestic and cross-border M&A and equity transactions...” In addition, according to its website, the Rothschild & Co. leverages its “ global network to advise international clients looking to invest in the country.”

Rothschild Dynasty's Rothschild & Co. business office in Tel Aviv

(end of part 9)

Israel's Historic Rothschild Dynasty Connection Revisited: Part 8

The headquarters of the Rothschild & Co Bank in UK (photo by Adrian Welch)

Neither the mainstream corporate mass media conglomerates nor the U.S. imperialist power elite foundation-subsidized alternative left media groups were generally interested in examining the role that the super-rich Rothschild Dynasty members were still playing in world history during the last two decades of the 20th-century—even after the military of the historically Rothschild Dynasty-funded Zionist movement invaded Lebanon in 1982. And just as some journalists who examined whether lobbying groups in the USA like AIPAC were still exercising a special influence over U.S. government foreign policy decisions in the Middle East after 1982 were often falsely accused of being “anti-Semitic” by Zionist movement supporters, some writers who examine  the role that Rothschild Dynasty member have played in post-1982 economic life around the globe are sometimes falsely accused of “promoting anti-Semitism, like Adolf Hitler did” by Zionist movement supporters.

But in his 1999 book, The House of Rothschild: The World’s Bankers 1849-1999, Niall Ferguson indicated how members of the Rothschild dynasty that were the initial funders of the Zionist movement’s settler-colonialist projects in Palestine over 100 years before, were apparently continuing to make a lot of money during the last two decades of the 20th-century:

“The N.M. Rothschild group is thus a multinational entity (more than 50 percent of its assets are now held outside the UK) with a wide geographical reach—again reminiscent of the system of houses which had been developed by Mayer Amshel [Rothschild]’s sons after 1815. But it is also controlled by the family through another Swiss company—Rothschild Concordia AG—which has a majority (52.4 percent) stake in Rothschilds Cotinuation Holdings AG. Closely linked to this structure is the Paris-Orleans holding company which controls 37 percent of Rothschild & Cie Banque in Paris, around 40 percent of Rothschild Wort America, 20 percent of Rothschild Canada and 40 percent of Rothschild Europe…

“…The subsidiaries in Europe, the Americas and Asia perform functions similar to those performed by the Rothschild agents a century and a half ago, often in the same places…Both ownership and leadership of the group are shared between the key family members…Today [in 1999] 6 members of the family have between them a total of 37 board seats (including chairmanships and vice-chairmanships) on 15 of the principal companies of the N.M. Rothschild group…”

According to Niall Ferguson’s book, “the structure of the” Rothschild “group” in 1999 could then be described in the following “simplified” way:

“At the top of the `pyramid’ is Rothschilds Continuation Holdings AG, a Zurich-based holding company, the principal investments of which are the following 19 firms, here grouped geographically:

“N.M. Rothschild & Sons Ltd., Rothschild Continuation Ltd., N.M. Rothschild Corporate Finance Ltd. and Rothschild Asset Management Ltd. (UK);

“N.M. Rothschild & Sons (CI) Ltd. and Rothschild Asset Management CI Ltd. (Channel Islands);

“Rothschild & Cie Banque and Rothschild & Cie (France);

“Rothschild Bank AG (Switzerland);

“Rothschild Europe BV and Rothschild Asset Management International Holdings BV (Netherlands);

“Rothschild North America Inc. and Rothschild Asset Management Inc. (USA);

“N.M. Rothschild & Sons (Australia) Ltd., N.M. Rothschild Australia Holdings Pty Ltd. andRothschild Australian Asset Management Ltd.;

“N.M. Rothschild & Sons (Hong Kong) Ltd and Rothschild Asset Management (Hong Kong) Ltd.

“N.M. Rothschild & Sons (Singapore) Ltd.”

(end of part 8)

Black Male Worker Jobless Rate Still Over 15 Percent In USA In July 2020

The official seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the United States for African-American male workers, under the Republican Party-controlled White House and U.S. Senate and the Democratic Party-controlled U.S. House of Representatives, continued to exceed 15 percent in July 2020. Also, regarding the current unemployment situation for all workers in the USA, according to the the August 7, 2020 Bureau of Labor Statistics press release:

"In July...the number of permanent job losers and the number of unemployed reentrants to the labor force were virtually unchanged over the month, at 2.9 million and 2.4 million, respectively. (Reentrants are persons who previously worked but were not in the labor force prior to beginning their job search)...

 "Among the unemployed, those who were jobless less than 5 weeks increased by 364,000 to 3.2 million in July, and the number of persons jobless 15 to 26 weeks rose by 4.6 million to 6.5 million...The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more), at 1.5 million, was little changed over the month...

"In July...the component of general merchandise stores that includes warehouse clubs and supercenters lost jobs (-64,000)... Job losses continued in nursing and residential care facilities (-28,000)... 

"An employment gain in motor vehicles and parts (+39,000) was partially offset by losses in fabricated metal products (-11,000), machinery (-7,000), and computer and electronic products (-6,000)... Mining continued to shed jobs in July (-7,000), reflecting a loss in support activities for mining (-11,000)...."

In July 2020, 16,338,000 people in the United States were still unemployed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' seasonally adjusted figures; and the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for all U.S. workers was 10.2 percent.

Israel's Historic Rothschild Dynasty Connection Revisited: Part 7

Rothschild's De Beers Consolidated: Exploited Miners In South Africa

As The Rothschilds: A European Family book observed, in the 20th-century supporting the Zionist movement’s “settlements in Palestine and building the state of Israel became a project that a large part of the” Rothschild “family dedicated itself to.” Yet, some of the money that was used by the Rothschild Dynasty to fund this Zionist movement’s “project” in Palestine, apparently was obtained from the Rothschild family’s exploitation of the gold and diamond resources of countries like South Africa. As the same 1994 book recalled:
“…Throughout the 19th-century, all 5 Houses of Rothschild were involved in the precious metals trade…By virtue of its gold and diamond fields, South Africa became one of the domains in which the London branch operated. The Rothschilds occupied such an important position in this market that, from 1919 until the present day [in 1994] the world price of gold has been fixed on the New Court premises of the Rothschild Bank in London.
“…Diamonds were discovered near the South African town of Kimberley in 1870…Soon the rights to the mines were owned by only 2 firms…Under the leadership of Cecil Rhodes, one of the 2 firms tried to buy the other one out. The necessary capital was put up by the English House of Rothschild. In 1889, for the sum of 1.4 million pounds, the French firm was incorporated into a new company, De Beers Consolidated, which now held a monopoly of diamond mining in Kimberley. The Rothschilds were the company’s largest shareholders…”

In his 1962 book, The Rothschilds: A Family Portrait, Frederic Morton also indicated how the Rothschild Dynasty obtained in the 19th-century much of the wealth that was later used to help fund the Zionist movement’s settler-colonialist activity in the 20th-century, in the following way:
“…In England, N.M. Rothschild & Sons invested heavily in Indian mines; it financed Cecil Rhodes’ diamond dominion in South Africa (a burly uncut diamond still lives on the mantel of the Partners’ Room in New Court, and the house is still connected with de Beers; its banking and loan operations covered most of South America. In France, de Rothschild Freres went into the electrical industries, developed the Mediterranean Railway, branched out to North Africa and exerted such control over the Baku oil fields in Russia that the French family was for a number of years a principal competitor of the Rockefeller trust. In Austria, S.M. Rothschild und Sohne extended its scope into Hungary through the famous 6 percent Gold Loan of 1881; the Creditansalt…grew to be a…giant subsidiary of the Family bank and became a financial force in every corner of the Habsburg realm…”

The Rothschild Dynasty also apparently obtained some of the surplus wealth, that it used to help fund the Zionist movement’s settler-colonist projects in Palestine, by profiting from its involvement with and investments in the weapons manufacturing industry and from war-profiteering. As Niall Ferguson recalled in his 1999 book The House of Rothschild: The World’s Bankers 1849-1999:

“There is no doubt that the Rothschilds had their own economic interests in…rearmament. In 1888 the London house issued shares worth 225,000 pounds for the Naval Construction and Armaments Company and subsequently issued 1.9 million pounds of shares and debentures to finance the merger of the Maxim Gun Company with the Nordenfelt Guns and Ammunition Company…Natty [Rothschild] retained a substantial shareholding in the new Maxim-Nordenhelt company and exerted a direct influence over the firm’s management. The wider significance of this lies in the fact that Maxim-Nordenfelt’s flagship product was the lethal automatic gun, used to devastating effect against opponents of British imperial expansion from the Sudan to Matabeleland, and famously cited by Hilaire Belloc as the key to Euroopean hegemony. Similarly,…Rothschilds also financed the Vickers brothers’ takeover of the company (along with the Naval Construction and Armaments Company) in 1897…
“The Austrian Rothschilds also had an interest in the arms industry. In addition to their railway interests, they retained a substantial stake in the Witkowitz ironworks, which became an important supplier of iron and steel to the Austrian navy and later of bullets to the Austrian army…If the 19th-century imperialism had its `military-industrial complex’ the Rothschilds were unquestionably part of it…”

(end of part 7)

Israel's Historic Rothschild Dynasty Connection Revisited: Part 6

Nathan Rothschild: Engaged in smuggling, profited from UK gov't link/bond speculation

During the first two decades of the 19th-century, the Rothschild Dynasty that began bankrolling the Zionist movement’s settler-colonialists by the end of the 19th-century also acquired its family wealth from an illegal smuggling business operation. As The Rothschilds: A European Family book recalled:

“Nathan [Rothschild] engaged in highly profitable smuggling: he had cash illicitly imported into France. Waiting at the French coast, his brother James [Rothschild] took receipt of the cash and used it to buy bills drawn on London that were on the market for below nominal value owing to the trade embargo. Nathan [Rothschild] then redeemed them in London at their face value.”

But, when a general of the early 19th-century UK imperialist government, named Wellington, invaded France and “needed French cash or bills draw on banks in Southern France,” Nathan Rothschild “decided to place his smuggling activities in the service of the British” imperialist “government;” and “his plan for supplying money to Wellington was carried out under the strictest secrecy,” according to the same book. In addition, “the link thus forged with the British government was to pay off for the Rothschilds” who “were entrusted with the payments of subsidies destined for the British allies” which were “transferred via the Rothschild Bank,” that received “risk-free commission,” according to The Rothschilds: A European Family book.

As a result, as the same book recalled:

“The five [Rothschild] brothers made their greatest profits after 1815 by speculating in bonds, by exploiting differences in quotations on the various exchanges and by conducting money transactions swiftly…In the first decades of the 19th-century the Rothschilds overtook all the other banks. They built up a monopoly on loans to the major European powers and established a second pillar for their business, namely railway construction, at an early date before the business in state bonds declined. Their wealth had reached an unprecedented size…”

By the second half of the 19th-century, Rothschild Dynasty members were profiting from their exploitation of the oil resources of Russia, which was then undemocratically ruled by a monarchical and institutionally anti-Semitic Czarist government. As The Rothschilds: A European Family book observed:

“…At around 1870 the French Rothschilds already had a stake in the importation of American crude oil to France. In this context the Rothschilds had oil refineries built in Fiume in Austria and in Spain.

“The need for cheap oil supplies for their refineries soon sparked the Rothschild’s interest in the oil fields around Baku in Russia…Within a short time the Rothschilds had become the second most powerful oil group in Russia…”

And by 1912, the Rothschild Dynasty that was funding the Zionist movement’s settler colonialists in Palestine owned stock in the Shell/Royal Dutch transnational oil corporation that profited from the exploitation of the oil resources of Dutch imperialism’s Indonesian colony. As the same book noted:

“…Oil had increasingly come to be used as engine fuel and this had prompted drilling for oil in Indonesia, a Dutch colony. This led to the company Royal Dutch being set up, which soon merged with the transport from Shell. The Paris House of Rothschild decided to join this new group, which became ever more powerful…In 1912 the Rothschilds swapped their holding in the Russian joint stock company [of Czarist Russia’s “second most powerful oil group”], worth a total of 27.2 million roubles, for shares in Shell/Royal Dutch…”

Shell/Royal Dutch: Oil firm owned by Rothschilds, profited from Dutch Imperialism

 (end of part 6)

Israel's Historic Rothschild Dynasty Connection Revisited: Part 5

Meyer Amschel Rothschild: Profited From Funding Monarchist Military Attacks on French Revolution

Over 100 years before the Zionist movement’s settler-colonialists from Europe began establishing their settlements on Palestinian land that Edmond Rothschild financed and managed, the Rothschild family members began to accumulate so much surplus wealth from the financial deals the Rothschilds made with undemocratic European regimes, that by the early 1800’s the Rothschilds “increasingly came to be regarded as the epitome of dominance and exploitation," according to the 1994 book, The Rothschilds: A European Family, that Georg Heuberger edited. As the same book recalled:

“About 1764…Meyer Amschel Rothschild set up his own business as a dealer in coins and bills in Frankfurt…The deliveries he made to the…court of the Landgrave William of Hanau gave him the opportunity in 1769 to…acquire the title of Court Agent to said court…Shortly after being awarded the title of Agent to the Court of Hesse-Hanau, Meyer Amschel [Rothschild] married Gutle Schnapps, whose dowry was quite considerable…Alongside trading in coins…he also bought bills of exchange and worked as an agent procuring loans…

“The coin trade was of great significance for him…Wegener, who was in charge of the Hanau Coin Collection, later became director of the Hanau Country Treasury. It sold bills of exchange issued by the English government and redeemable in London. These bills were in payment for troops from Hanau that fought on the English side during the American war of Independence.

“Contact with the men in charge of the Court Coin Collection thus afforded Meyer Amschel [Rothschild] the opportunity to acquire bills from the Hanau Treasury and resell them for redemption in London. This trade in bills was highly profitable…”

So, not surprisingly, when the undemocratic monarchical European governments attacked the revolutionary government of France in the early 1790’s, Rothschild family members and their business partners were apparently able to profit from the resulting war. As The Rothschilds: A European Family book noted:

“In 1792 Austria and other countries attacked France…At the outset of the war Meyer Amschel succeeded, together with two business partners…, Wolf Loeb Schott and Beer Nehm Rindskopt, in concluding a contract with the Imperial Army. They provided the money to pay the soldiers as well as grain and equipment for the army during its operations in the Rhine/Main region against the French…The profits were…so considerable that between 1792 and 1795 Meyer Amschel moved…to the highest class of taxpayer in the tax estimates of the Jewish community…From now on, Meyer Amschel’s 3 eldest sons, Amschel, Salomon and Nathan, were also active in his business…”

The same book also observed that, by 1800, Meyer Amschel Rothschild “was well on his way to getting a foothold in the door of the uppermost class of court Jews;"  and “the breakthrough for Meyer Amschel” Rothschild “came in 1803 when he succeeded for the first time in floating a bond for the state of Denmark.” Then, after Meyer Amschel’s son, Nathan Rothschild, married the “daughter of the prominent London merchant, Levy Barent Cohen” in 1806, the Rothschild Dynasty’s family gained access to the “financial elite of early 19th-century London,” because Nathan Rothschild’s father-in-law (who died in 1808) “was the center of a kinship network linking” some of “the most important families in London’s financial sector,” including “the Montefiores, the Mocattas and the Goldsmids.”

Nathan Rothschild:  Member of early 19th-Century UK financial banking elite

According to The Rothschilds: A European Family book:

“The Mocattas were among the richest traders in London, while the Goldsmid brothers dominated the English bond market up until 1810. Members of the Cohen and Montefiore families were stockbrokers.”

And after the head of the leading Goldsmid bank shot himself in 1810, Nathan Rothschild “was soon to fill the vacuum this left behind in the London banking world,” according to the same book.

Rothschilds Mansion in UK (photo by Pam Brody)

(end of part 5)

Israel's Historic Rothschild Dynasty Connection Revisited: Part 4

Ex-Prez Clinton/2016 Dem Prez Nominee Clinton & Sir Evelyn de  Rothschild & wife 

Following James Rothschild’s death in 1957, his Rothschild Dynasty money was also given to the Zionist movement’s State of Israel to finance “the Weizmann Scientific Institute in Tel Aviv, while his widow Dorothy [Rothschild] set up the Yad Hanadu education foundation,” which Jacob Rothschild continued to support during the rest of the 20th century, according to Niall Ferguson’s 1999 book, The House of Rothschild: The World’s Bankers 1849-1999. In addition, according to the same book:

“One Rothschild—Gay [Rothschild]’s sister Betsabee—actually settled in Israel. Like that of his grandfather and namesake, Edmond [Rothschild II]’s commitment to the new state was especially strong. He visited Israel in 1958 to discuss the financing of an oil pipeline from the Red Sea and even flew to Jerusalem during the 1967 Six Day War to make public his support of the Israeli government…The London Rothschilds…were reported to have donated to the Jewish Palestine Appeal in 1967…”

According to the 2007 edition of the Encyclopedia Judaica, another member of the Rothschild Dynasty, who lived between 1910 and 1990 and “in 1965 became research coordinator of the Royal Dutch Shell Group,” named Lord Nathaniel Meyer Victor Rothschild, was also “keenly interested” in the Zionist movement’s State of Israel; and, during his lifetime, “he was appointed a governor of the Weizmann Institute of Science and of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.”

The 2007 edition of the Encyclopedia Judaica also described how a member of the Rothschild Dynasty who was born in 1936, named “Nathaniel Charles Jacob Rothschild, Fourth Baron Rothschild,” came to be historically honored by the Zionist movement in Palestine/Israel:

“…He joined the family bank, N.M. Rothschild, in 1964 and…revived its fortunes. He left…in 1980, after conflict with its head, his cousin Evelyn de Rothschild, over Jacob’s conduct of Rothschild Investment Trust. A series of mergers which he subsequently masterminded led to the creation of the influential financial institution Charterhouse J. Rothschild. From 1971 he was chairman of St. James’s Place Capital (formerly J. Rothschild Holdings plc) and from 1980, chairman of Five Arrows Ltd…

“…In 1992, the year of the opening of the Israeli Supreme Court Building, a gift of Yad Hanadis, the Rothschild family foundation, he was awarded an honorary Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1992) and he was made an Honorary Fellow of the City of Jerusalem. In the same year he became president of the Institute of Jewish Affairs.

“He succeeded his father as fourth Baron Rothschild in 1990…”

The Fourth Baron Rothschild, Jacob Rothschild, and his son, financier Nat Rothschild, were, coincidentally, accused of allowing 2008 GOP presidential candidate John McCain to hold a campaign fund-raising event at “the family home in Spencer House, St James's, the only privately owned 17th-century palace in central London,” in violation of U.S. federal election campaign laws that prohibit political donations or benefits in kind from overseas by U.S. candidates for federal office, according to an October 23, 2008 London Independent article by Andy McSmith, titled “The Rothschilds and their 200 years of political influence.” The same article noticed that “Serena Rothschild, Nat Rothschild's mother, was one of the largest individual donors” to the UK’s Conservative Party in 2007, a year in which Serene Rothschild gave that  right-wing political party 190,000 pounds. In addition, according to the 2008 London Independent article:

“When another member of the clan, Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, married the New York businesswoman Lynn Forester, they spent the night of their wedding dinner in the White House as guests of Bill Clinton. Lady Rothschild was a fund-raiser for the Democrats, but defected to the McCain camp after her friend Hillary Clinton was beaten to the nomination by Barack Obama.” 

Rothschilds Mansion in UK (photo by Pam Brophy)

(end of part 4)

Israel's Historic Rothschild Dynasty Connection Revisited: Part 3

James Armand Rothschild: Was president of Palestine colonization association [PICA]

Despite the evidence after November 1917 that the vast majority of Palestinian Arabs did not want Palestinian society to be transformed in the way that the Zionist movement wanted it to be, members of the Western European-based Rothschild dynasty continued to back the Zionist movement’s settler-colonialist project, during the end of World War I and after World War I. As the 2007 edition of Encyclopedia Judaica recalled, James Armand de Rothschild, Edmond Rothschild’s son, during World War I, “was sent to Palestine to recruit volunteers for the Palestinian battalion of the Jewish Legion” of UK imperialist troops; and “when the Zionist Commission arrived in Palestine” in 1918, James Armand Rothschild “was seconded to it as liaison officer and from that time on his interest in Palestine never flagged.”

According to the same book, in 1924, for example, James Armand Rothschild “was appointed president for life of the newly-founded Palestine Jewish Colonization Association [PICA], which was largely financed by his father;” and “he also took an active interest in other enterprises in Palestine, including the Palestine Electric Corporation, the Hebrew University, and excavations at `Hazor,’ which “he sponsored.” In addition, following James Armand Rothschild’s death in 1957, his wife transferred Rothschild Dynasty money to the Israeli government to help finance “the construction of a new Knesset building in Jerusalem.”

As the 1994 book, The Rothschilds: A European Family, which Greg Heuberger edited, observed, “as the largest” Zionist “landowner in Palestine, the PICA made land and money available for the” Zionist settlers, “who were again arriving in large numbers above all from Russia” after World War I; and “without the land that Edmond” Rothschild (who died in 1934), “made available from 1918 onwards through the PICA, and without the technicians and engineers, whom he had employed and paid, without the reports that he commissioned and the machinery he had bought, Palestine would not during the years,” when under UK imperialist rule, “have developed into a `national homeland’ that could serve as the basis for the foundation” of the Zionist movement’s “State of Israel.”

According to a March 1997 Jewish News of Northern California article, for example, “it is estimated that” Edmond Rothschild’s total “expenditure in Palestine between 1884 and 1934 was about $6 million, an enormous sum at the time;" and “on his death in 1934, almost 125,000 acres of land and more than 40 settlements testified to his contribution and support.”

According to Simon Schama’s 1978 book Two Rothschilds and the Land of Israel, “PICA found itself in the 1930s” at “the crossroads of its history;” and “at Edmond Rothschild’s death in 1934” it “could still lay claim to an immense estate: some 440,000 dunams (including 80,000 acres across the Jordan), 30 settlements owned, founded or assisted by the Association, 23 of which, Petah Tikva, Roshan Le Zion…and Hadim…were all small townships rather than overgrown villages,” in part, because “immediately after” World War I, Edmond Rothschild “had clinched some important deals with Elias Sursuq and a number of other Beirut absentee landowners, mostly for properties in Lower Galilee and the Upper Jordan basin.”

The same book also noted that James Armand Rothschild “himself had on many occasions gone on record as being against the restraint of new settlement” in Palestine “and was a prime mover in the establishment, not only of Ashdot Ya’aqov in 1933 but the `Massada’ group near Yavnie, which became the kibbutz Mishmar Hashlosha,” so that “of the 65,000 cultivable dunams acquired by PICA” after 1914, “45,000 had been leased by 1940” to Zionist movement settler-colonialists. In addition, according to the 1978 Two Rothschilds and the Land of Israel book:

“…The PICA settlements and industries had depended exclusively on finance originating with the single source of Edmond de Rothschild…In the last 6 years of its career, PICA…entered into a comprehensive and ambitious programme of development. The last land reserves were duly colonized. Ma’agan Michael (1950), Beeit Hanania (1951) and Talmey Elazar (1954) being established on the Sharon coastal plain and Sde Eliezer (1952) in the Huleh Valley north-west of Ayelet Hashahar…The development of Caesarea as a future tourist resort combining the cultural interest of the excavation with a recreation dear to James [Rothschild]’s heart: golf…”

In a 1957 letter that James Rothschild wrote, shortly before his death in 1957,  to the then-prime minister of the Zionist Movement’s State of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, James Rothschild summarized the Rothschild Dynasty’s historic connection to the Zionist movement’s settler-colony and State of Israel, in the following way:

“My father began his colonization work…75 years ago…When in 1924 my father set up the Palestine Jewish Colonication Association—PICA—he assigned it the task of colonizing all his landholdings. It fell to me to preside over PICA since its inception.

“…All these lands were then colonized by PICA. Today there is no cultivable land left to PICA for further colonization…I propose to transfer now all remaining PICA lands (leased and not leased) to National Institutions…We intend to provide the sum…for the construction of the new Knesseth building in Jerusalem. Let the new Knesseth building become a symbol…”

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Israel's Historic Rothschild Dynasty Connection Revisited: Part 2

Lord Walter Rothschild: Recipient of UK Imperialism's 1917 "Balfour Declaration"

Israel’s Historic Rothschild Dynasty Connection Revisited: Part 2

During World War I, members of the Rothschild dynasty in the UK also used their special influence to get Lord Balfour of the British imperialist government’s foreign office to write a Nov. 2, 1917 letter to Lord Walter Rothschild, which noted that the UK cabinet had approved a “declaration of sympathy” with “Zionist aspirations” (but which also stated, however, “that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine,” the Palestinian Arabs, who still then composed 93 percent of Palestinian’s population and still owned 95 percent of Palestine’s land in 1917). As the 1994 book, The Rothschilds: A European Family, which Greg Heuberger edited, recalled:

“…After Turkey had entered the war on the side of Germany in 1914, the two Zionist leaders Chaim Weizman and Nahum Sokolow tried to whip up support in Great Britain for a…homeland in Palestine…The Zionists were dependent…on the aid of…the Rothschilds, with their high public profile and their contacts to English politicians.

“Alongside Edmond and his son James Armand, Lord Walter Rothschild, his sister-in-law Rozsika, his brother Charles and his mother avidly supported the Zionist cause after the outbreak of World War I.

“The joint efforts culminated in the declaration made by Lord Balfour, the British Foreign Minister, that the government would support setting up a national homeland for Jews in Palestine. The declaration was passed on to Lord Walter Rothschild on Nov. 2, 1917 in the simple form of a letter…”

Ironically, as Lenni Brenner noted in his 1984 book, The Iron Wall: Zionist Revisionism from Jabotinsky to Shamir, “in 1914, after meeting Balfour for the second time,” Zionist movement leader Weizman “wrote to a friend that” Balfour “told me that he once had a long talk with Cosima Wagner in Bayrouth and that he shared many of her anti-Semitic ideas.’”

Then-Democratic U.S. President Woodrow Wilson asserted during World War I that his administration supported the right of national self-determination for colonized peoples around the globe. Yet the 95 percent of the people who lived in Palestine in 1917 who were Palestinian Arabs, of non-Jewish religious backgrounds, were not allowed to democratically determine whether or not Palestine should be transformed into “a homeland” for the Zionist movement, before Lord Balfour sent his Nov. 2, 1917 letter to Lord Walter Rothschild.

So, not surprisingly, “a formal reading of the Balfour Declaration by a British official in Palestine in February of 1920…sparked large demonstrations in Palestinian cities” in opposition to the UK imperialist government cabinet’s November 1917 “declaration of sympathy with…Zionist aspirations” in Palestine, according to the Palestine Book Project’s 1977 book, Our Roots Are Still Alive: The Story of the Palestinian People. And on both the third anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, on Nov. 2, 1920 and the second anniversary of the day UK imperialist troops entered Jerusalem, on Dec. 9, 1920, Palestinian Arabs demonstrated, Palestinian “Arab shops closed their doors,” Palestinian Arab “newspapers appeared with black borders,” and Palestinians “draped black crepe paper on their houses and flew black flags” in “a day of mourning” to express Palestinian opposition to the UK imperialist government’s support for the Rothschild family-backed Zionist movement’s settler-colonialist “aspirations” in Palestine, according to the same book.

 (end of part 2)

Israel's Historic Rothschild Dynasty Connection Revisited: Part 1

Edmond de Rothschild: Funded initial Zionist settlers in Palestine

                                                                 

“…During 1883-84, the first settlement began to be patronized by Rothschild. Due to his desire to remain anonymous in this venture, he was known by a cover name `Ha-Nadiv-ha Yadu’a’ (`the Well-Known Benefactor’)…”

--from the 2007 edition of Encyclopedia Judaica

Israel’s Historic Rothschild Dynasty Connection Revisited: Part 1

In the United States, neither corporate media monopoly conglomerate news departments nor most of U.S. power elite foundation-subsidized alternative media groups have generally been interested, since the end of World War II, in examining very much the role that the super-rich Rothschild Dynasty has played in world history during the last three centuries. And just as writers who examine the degree to which pro-Zionist movement lobbying organizations in the USA, like AIPAC, may have exercised a special influence over U.S. government foreign policy in the Middle East have often been stereotyped as being “anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists,” people who are interested in discussing the historical role of the Rothschild Dynasty are often falsely accused of being “anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists, like Adolf Hitler, etc.” 

   

But at least one member of the super-rich Rothschild banking family, played an important role in supporting the Zionist movement’s settler-colonialist project in Palestine; that eventually led to the violation of Palestinian democratic self-determination and national rights and Palestinian human rights, especially following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. As Frederic Morton recalled in his 1962 book, The Rothschilds: A Family Portrait:

“The story starts on Sept. 28, 1882…in Edmond [Rothschild]’s office…He began by financing the settlement of exactly 101 Russian Jews not far from Jaffa. Gradually he went on to subsidize…Jewish colonies and to create others…Of the 7 new Jewish agricultural communities existing in Palestine in the middle 1880’s, 3 escaped bankruptcy only through Rothschild. A fourth was altogether of his own making. The rest benefited vitally, if more indirectly, from his help. The initial colony of Rothschild-propelled emigrants was soon followed by many hundreds and later thousands of such settlers…

“…Before long Edmond [Rothschild] found himself intervening with the Turkish government, at that time in control of Palestine, in favor of Jewish colonization. He did diplomatic backstage work…When a deputation of Russian Zionists called on him to discuss the need to reform in some of his settlements, he grew purple…: `These are my colonies, and I shall do with them as I like.’…

“…He…sparked the industrial development of Israel-to-be. His funds facilitated the formation of the Palestine Electric Corporation Ltd., the Portland Cement Company’s `Nesher Ltd.,’ the Palestine Salt Company and the Samarita Water Company…He even made sure that the colonies he bought clustered strategically across Judea, Samaria and Galilea, to serve as strongholds in time of need. The time of need came 4 decades later…”

Before transferring 62,500 acres of his Palestinian agricultural settlement land and a cash grant of 14 million French francs to the Zionist movement’s Jewish Colonization Association [JCA] in 1901, “all the agricultural experiments carried out in” these “settlements by French experts were covered” by Edmond Rothschild’s “funds,” according to the 2007 edition of Encyclopedia Judaica. The same encyclopedia also observed that “under JCA the settlements expanded, to a large degree with Rothschild’s direct and indirect support” and “Rothschild played a major role in the development of the wine industry” in Palestine.

According to the 1994 book, The Rothschilds: A European Family, which Georg Heuberger edited:

“In Haifa, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, in Rishon Le-Zion and in numerous other places in Israel, streets and buildings are named after Edmond and Adelheid de Rothschild and their son James Armand…This honour  dates back to Edmond de Rothschild’s commitment…From his 37th year onwards, he devoted himself to establishing…settlements in Palestine. And he dedicated the larger part of his wealth to this undertaking…

“Edmond’s commitment…commenced in the summer of 1882…Edmond de Rothschild’s commitment started with concrete promises of help for the settlers in Rishon Le-Zion…Edmond granted them 25,000 francs. He also sent technical equipment and experts…Almost all the settlements founded around 1881-3 in Palestine…applied to Edmond for help…As we know from countless handwritten letters sent by him, Edmond concerned himself with all the different sides to the settlements…He sent gardeners, engineers and administrators from France, furnishing them with far-reaching power. These officials were instructed to inform Edmond in great detail about the settlements and the settlers…The power of money in distant Paris decided the day and Edmond ruled with an…iron fist…”

By 1903, 28 Zionist movement “settlements existed in Palestine, of which 19 were partially or completely financed by Baron Edmond de Rothschild” and “furthermore, he had purchased large tracts of land for future” Zionist movement “settlements,” according to The Rothschilds: A European Family book; and in the early years of the 20th-century Edmond Rothschild was now the chairman of a “Palestine Commission” which managed the Zionist movement’s settler-colonialist activities in Palestine.

The Jewish News of Northern California website also noted in a March 1997 article that “Baron Edmond de Rothschild developed a deep interest in Zionism in the 1880s” and initially “asked that none of his efforts be publicly acknowledged.” For that reason, “on one of his trips to” Palestine, “so as to arrive in relative anonymity,” Edmond Rothschild “insisted on leaving his private yacht at Alexandria and traveling on to Jaffa by ordinary passenger boat;” and “he even eschewed the public use of his name, and was known instead only as Hanadiv Hayadua (the well-known benefactor),” according to the same 1997 article.

According to Simon Schama’s 1978 book, Two Rothschilds and the Land of Israel, in 1900 the Zionist movement settlements that Edmond Rothschild established in Palestine “covered 145,000 dunams or 67 percent of all” Zionist movement-controlled “land in Palestine;” and in 1914, “235,000” dunams and “56 percent” of all Zionist movement-controlled land in Palestine were owned by the settlements established by Edmond Rothschild.

So, not surprisingly, one of the streets in Tel Aviv that was originally called “Rehov Ha’Am” or “the people’s street” was renamed “The Rothschild Boulevard” in 1910, in honor of the Rothschild Dynasty member who funded the initial settlements of the European-initiated Zionist movement’s settler-colonialist project in Palestine.

Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv

 (end of part 1)