The Knesset Finance Committee will be asked to examine the involvement of US business Sheldon Adelson, an associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and publisher of "Israel Today", in the Israeli media market. The decision comes after the committee decided to move forward on a private members bill by MK Haim Oron (Meretz), which calls for government intervention to dilute the concentration of tycoons' holdings, and to establish a public committee to examine concentration in the economy.
Adelson pays Hebrew daily "Haaretz" NIS 100 million a year to print "Israel Today".
Oron is a member of the Finance Committee. He told "Globes" that the bill will require the government to intervene in a series of measures to dilute over-concentration. Measures include complete separation between financial and real asset holdings. He added that the specific issues that the committee would discuss were not yet clear, but that it was clear that the agenda would include concentration in the media and financial markets.
Oron said, "One of the items will be Adelson's intervention in the media market, but not just the issue of "Israel Today" will be examined. We'll also look at other cross holdings in the sector." Oron apparently meant, among other things, the cross holdings of Noni Mozes, who is the controling shareholder in newspaper Yediot Ahronot and and also holds a minority stake in cable television company HOT, and of Eliezer Fishman, who controls "Globes" and also has minority stakes in Yediot Ahronot and in HOT.
Meretz party chairman Oron will submit his bill to the Knesset by tomorrow.
Knesset Finance Committee chairman MK Moshe Gafni said that if the government set up a public enquiry into the question of concentration, the Finance Committee would cooperate with it, but that if not, it would promote Oron's bill.
The big question is whether the prime minister will back an enquiry liable to harm the interests of his friend Adelson.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 7, 2010
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