Arthur Finkelstein

Arthur Finkelstein is a political consultant/spin doctor working primarily for New York governor George Pataki, and the New York Republican Party. Although Finkelstein is a secretive character, Berkowitz lists some of his background:


 * Finkelstein has had a long and colorful political career that has seen him work with some of the most reactionary politicians both at home and abroad. He runs Arthur J. Finkelstein & Associates, and during his thirty-year career he has worked for President Reagan and President Nixon. In addition to spearheading the then-little-known Pataki's 1994 victory over Mario Cuomo, he was also a top adviser to Alfonse D'Amato and Jesse Helms during their Senate careers. But he hasn't always led his clients to victory -- in 1996 he was a major, if well-hidden, consultant to Senator Bob Dole's losing presidential campaign.


 * In addition, Finkelstein was also an early director of Terry Dolan's groundbreaking political operation, the National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC).


 * Finkelstein is an international player as well. According to AP's Humbert, "Finkelstein has been increasingly active in Israeli politics. He helped Benjamin Netanyahu during his 1996 campaign for prime minister and he is an adviser to the current Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon."


 * And, you can add one more element to Finkelstein's reality; he is gay, yet he's worked for a gaggle of gay-bashing Republican Senators including Lauch Faircloth (R-N.C.), Jesse Helms (R-N.C), Don Nickles (R-Okla.) and Sen. (Bob) Smith (R-New Hampshire), all of whom voted against legislation banning discrimination against gays while Finkelstein was working for them.


 * Finkelstein is also Jewish, but that didn't stop him from using anti-Semitism during a 1978 South Carolina congressional race between Republican Carroll Campbell and Democrat Max Heller.

On 16 January 2006, Jeff Halper, an Israeli-American anthropology professor and anti-occupation activist stated: (33:35 min mark) Casting yourself as a victim is so effective politically, because, again, you are off the hook, you cannot be held accountable -- so that Israel didn't want to give it up. It tries to mix -- it is very hard to do -- it tries to mix this image of Shin Bet agents, effective spies, the Six Day War, defeating the higher Arab world, Israel as the ally of the United States in the war against terrorism, we are now going to nuke Iran, that whole thing that makes Israel a major player... But wait a minute, if we are a major player somebody is going to ask about the occupation. At the same time that we are the fourth largest nuclear power sending our missiles to Iran, we also have to present ourselves as the victims -- the little Jews in the ghetto that those bad bully Arabs are going to beat up. So, that is a very difficult sell, but I think that Israeli PR is so sophisticated. They use the most sophisticated American PR firms, specially a guy called Finkelstein that you have never heard of in the States, but he is the dirty tricks guy for the Republicans. When Karl Rove and the Republicans when they go through all the campaign and you start getting negative advertising, the dirty tricks, and the Swift Boats, the dirty-dirty stuff, that is Finkelstein. And Finkelstein always runs the Likud campaigns in Israel. And Paul Wolfowitz -- I don't know if people know this -- the former deputy Secretary of Defense, the architect of the Iraq war, today the president of the World Bank, the leading neocon, was Netanyahu's campaign manager in 1996. So, this is all a hand and glove type of a thing. So you use these American firms, like Finkelstein's firms, to get over this contradiction to show that Israel is a strong proud Jewish state, that is a strong regional power that could take on anybody, but at the same time sell the other image that Israel is the little Jew as the victim. And has done so successfully.

Clients

 * Nir Barkat, the mayor of Jerusalem.

External Resources

 * Bill Berkowitz, Hunting Hillary Clinton: Arthur Finkelstein, long-time GOP political consultant, to lead campaign to defeat Hillary re-election and derail her presidential hopes", DissidentVoice, February 17, 2005.
 * Adam Nagourney, "G.O.P. Consultant Weds His Male Partner," New York Times, April 9, 2005.