Pro-Israel billionaire Miriam Adelson backs Trump's campaign, pushes for West Bank annexation

A pro-Israel billionaire donor to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is reportedly seeking support for Israel’s annexation of the West Bank, Haaretz reported on Monday.

Last week, it was revealed that Miriam Adelson, the widow of prominent Trump and Israel backer Sheldon Adelson, reportedly pledged to spend millions of dollars to support Trump in the upcoming general election after staying neutral in the Republican presidential primaries this year, Reuters reported.

Prior to the news of the donation going public, it was alleged that Adelson was pursuing US recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank, where there would be no Palestinian Authority or peace accords, following an interview with New York Magazine last month.

Israel has occupied the West Bank after an illegal invasion in 1967 and has gone on to build illegal settlements across the Palestinian land while subjecting Palestinians to violence over the decades.

Adelson, an American-Israeli physician whose family owns the Israel Hayom newspaper, is a resident of Herzliya and a regular donor to Israeli settlement campaigns.

The mogul has spent millions on Ariel University's medical school in the West Bank, which she once described as a "Zionist wall" and as a gift "to strengthen the settlers in Judea and Samaria". She said that "those names are meant to imply God gave the West Bank to the Jews — that the land belongs to the state of Israel".

She has also bought the ongoing services of HaShomer HaChadash, a Zionist group operating as a militia and tasked with defending agricultural land.

Adelson was married to Sheldon Adelson until his death in 2021. Adelson had previously donated to Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016. The donation was equal to $25 million and was part of a bigger $65 million donation to the Republican Party.

Adelson’s hefty donation was also speculated to have been given in exchange for moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in early 2018. The move was highly controversial and triggered anger among Palestinians as the city is seen as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

The founder of the American Las Vegas Sands resort company was also known for backing current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose extreme right-wing cabinet is waging the war in Gaza, ongoing for almost eight months.

36,550 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military since October 7, mostly women and children.

Trump, recently convicted of 34 felonies by a New York judge falsifying documents to cover up a payment to silence porn star Stormy Daniels, may carry out other pro-Israel activities should he be elected as US president.

In May, the former US President reportedly said he would "crush" the pro-Palestinian protest movement that has swept across multiple US college campuses, reported The Washington Post, and threatened to deport foreign students voicing pro-Palestinian support if elected.

Though his stance on Israel's war in Gaza has been described as "ambiguous" as he warned that Israel was "losing the PR game" if it continued to annihilate the Gaza Strip, Trump had implemented a number of pro-Israeli policies throughout his previous presidency.