Russian born Israeli billionaire Arkady Gaydamak attended the Upsherin of an Einikle of the Alshag Rebbe Shlita last week. (Click on images to ENLARGE them.) He also intends to start establish a new party in Tel Aviv to challenge the country’s political establishment in the next election.
Arkady Gaydamak’s new faction, which will be called Social Justice, would not involve itself in security issues like other Israeli parties, but would eventually merge with former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right wing Likud Party.
“(Prime Minister Ehud) Olmert is a professional politician and he should definitely be concerned about a man shown in opinion polls to be popular among the Israeli electorate,” Gaydamak said.
As Israel’s beleaguered prime minister gave his annual news conference for foreign journalists, Gaydamak referred to polls which showed his support among Israel’s large Russian minority was such that his new party could win between 14 and 25 seats in the next election.
Olmert’s personal popularity with the electorate is in single digits and his Kadima party would only win 11 seats if an election were held today, polls say.
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12 Responses
Why is the headline labeled “his adventures”? Why is this activity different from anyone elses? Or when the rich do something, its an adventure & for the simple folks its just life.
PIDYON SHEVUYIM?
Gaydamak, a father of three who has homes in Moscow and the upscale Israeli town of Caesarea, has never been convicted of a crime.
But he faces under an international arrest warrant because of a French investigation into alleged arms trafficking to Angola in the early 1990s.
Gaydamak, who first came to Israel in 1972, is trying to purchase himself a safe haven. He has elicited comparisons him to Shmuel Flatto-Sharon, a Jewish businessman who escaped to Israel in the late 1970s to avoid embezzlement charges in France and had himself elected to Parliament to use his parliamentary immunity to avoid extradition.
Did he pay you to post a picture of him
To azh Says:
It’s easy to put down people, but it’s a whole lot harder to prove it. I don’t have any special reason to stick up for Gaydamak, but it’s interesting that only you know about this arms traficking story.
It is public knowledge in all of israel that Gaydamak was heavily involved in illegal activities – most commentators explaining that he was the equivilant of a mafia don, which is how he made his fortunes.
Over the past year he has made some brilliant moves in Israel which have bought him (literally) the support of many of the amcha. He paid for sderot residents to spend 3 dyas in eilat; he paid to put up a massive tent “village” to house the Jews who fled Northern Israel during this summers’ Lebanon war.
Unfortunately, he is using dirty money – with the purpose of establishing a political base in Israel – protecting himself from extradition.
According to a story on Ynet’s website, Gaydamak is the owner of the Beitar Yerushalayim Soccer Club. Do they play on Shabbos and Yom Tov, or perhaps Gaydamak has a shtar mechirah for those days?
actually, i believe they do not play on shabbat, but this may need checking out. (two teams do not play on shabat — i beileve his is one of them)
as for norman’s comment all (or — almost all) the russian oligarchs are like russian mafia dons. so behave accordingly.
true, to get anything done in russia, one must pay off the russian mafia, and that includes the russian govt, a separate branch of the mafia.
in a sense, the govt here in the us is also a mafia.
(Edited by site staff)
GOODJEW613 IT IS NOT NICE BIG DEAL IF HE WHANTS SOME SUPPORT FROM A REBBE
Why does everybody care about about his political ambitions. He might be good for Israel. And that he is trying to flea from extadition from France thats nobodies business. Let the man live in piece without all this Lashon Horah. He is a Frum Yid who is Shomer Torah Umitzvos
He fully deserves the article. A russian jew with no religious upbringing. But the respect toward religious Jews, projects etc he has and the Zedakah he donates for them is rarely seen……
Who’s the Alshag rebbe? Never heard of him.
Even if the russian money is dirty all they have done is take money back from the russians and communists who stole millions and probably billions from jews over the years