Shepherd Hotel developer Irving Moskowitz top donor to GOP foreign affairs chair Ros-Lehtinen

Politico- Irving Moskowitz, the retired [casino magnate] who is developing a controversial Jewish apartment project at East Jerusalem’s Shepherd Hotel, is a top campaign contributor to Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), the new GOP chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, campaign finance records show.

Israeli bulldozers began on Sunday to demolish the Shepherd Hotel, located in the predominantly Palestinian Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, to make way for the apartments for Jewish residents.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday criticized Israel moving ahead with the controversial project, which the United States, United Kingdom and European Union have long strongly opposed.

“We are very concerned about the initiation of demolition of the Shepherd's Hotel in East Jerusalem,” Clinton said in a statement. “This disturbing development undermines peace efforts to achieve the two-state solution. In particular, this move contradicts the logic of a reasonable and necessary agreement between the parties on the status of Jerusalem.”

Moskowitz purchased the Shepherd Hotel, which was originally built for the mufti of Jerusalem, in 1985, and announced plans to develop 122 apartments for Jewish families there in 2007, plans which were later scaled back to 20 apartments.

In March 2010, the Jerusalem municipality issued final approval for construction of the 20 apartments to proceed, a fact which Israeli media reported hours before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to meet with President Barack Obama at the White House.

Campaign finance records show that Moskowitz and his wife Cherna Moskowitz together donated $9600* to Ros-Lehtinen in the 2010 election cycle. (*UPDATE: Post previously said $8600).

Cherna Moskowitz also donated $5000 to the National Action Committee PAC (Nacpac), a pro-Israel PAC which contributed $10,000 to Ros-Lehtinen in 2009-2010. Read more

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Peace Now - In what is perhaps the most outrageous grandstanding on Israel witnessed to date in the 111th Congress, on Monday afternoon Rep. Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), the ranking minority member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, circulated a Dear Colleague urging members to join her in sending a letter to President Obama defending Israel's aid program .

Government Press Release - The top recipient of donations from the East Jerusalem hotel demolisher: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Her pledge for her new role as Chair of House Foreign Relations Committee : "My worldview is clear: isolate and hold our enemies accountable, while supporting and strengthening our allies. I support strong sanctions and other penalties against those who aid violent extremists, brutalize their own people, and have time and time again rejected calls to behave as responsible nations. Rogue regimes never respond to anything less than hardball."

http://ros-lehtinen.house.gov/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=989

Ros-Lehtinen has been far-right in her support of Israel right-or-wrong. Here's more from the press release:

"I plan on using U.S. contributions to international organizations as leverage to press for real reform of those organizations, such as the United Nations, and will not hesitate to call for withdrawal of U.S. funds to failed entities like the discredited Human Rights Council if improvements are not made. "