Just a few blocks away from the United Nations General Assembly headquarters in New York, specifically at the famous Roosevelt Hotel in the Manhattan suburb, and a few hours after US President Donald Trump's speech to the assembly in September 2017 in which he harshly criticized Iran and the nuclear deal, a group of Among the most prominent anti-Iran hawks in the lobby of the hotel to hold their first annual conference, and while the faces of all those present were known and familiar to those familiar with such gatherings, the spotlight was focused this time on the unfamiliar face of a confident fifty-man dressed in an elegant three-piece suit. , While steadfastly making his way to the stage to deliver his speech, while moderator, former US Ambassador to the United Nations Mark Wallace, is presenting him briefly: the businessman, art lover, and philanthropist; Thomas Kaplan.

This was Kaplan's first public appearance at an official event organized by the "United Against Nuclear Iran" group, one of the most active anti-Iran groups in the United States and abroad, and yet, Kaplan's speech on that day bore all the traditional features of hawkish rhetoric practiced by anti Tehran, where the businessman started his speech by presenting a facts summary about the Iranian regime’s “aggressive” foreign policy, before he presented a popular conspiracy interpretation of this policy through a “pious” lens, accusing Tehran of encouraging Shiite Muslims to practice systematic lies for religious purposes. Finally, Kaplan He decided to escalate his aggressive language against Tehran, likening it to a snake that devoured its prey. The intended prey was simply the countries of the Middle East such as Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.

For a wealthy businessman keen to associate his image with philanthropic activities, environmental protection efforts and the acquisition of rare art paintings, appearing at the heart of an anti-Iran political forum was an unusual step that placed him at the heart of one of the most controversial issues of US policy, but the most direct impact of Kaplan's new appearance was not Concerning his person, it did not happen in New York or most likely in the United States, but he fell more than ten thousand kilometers there in Tehran itself, where Kaplan's speech caused a humanitarian ordeal for a group of people who had never had anything to do with the game of high geopolitics Risks.

Thomas Kaplan (European News Agency)

A group of Iranian ecologists working on a project to preserve the rare Asian cheetah from extinction within the ranks of the Persian Wild Heritage Foundation had begun to feel cautious and anticipating with Kaplan's exciting appearance in New York, and this concern was mainly due to the fact that their foundation was assisted by an association called Panthera, one of the non-political societies of Kaplan who just stood speaking publicly in front of a very anti-regime group in their country, and as a result, in a desperate attempt to distance themselves from his controversial policies, officials of the Persian Heritage Foundation sent an urgent message to "Panthera" During them, they expressed their clear concern about the statements Kaplan made against Iran, stressing that his allegations against their country are completely unfounded, and that his statements were insulting to Iran and its people, stressing their regret because of the "negative impact of personal policies on efforts to protect the environment", according to their description.

But Panthera never replied to this message, and over the next few weeks it became clear that it was the Iranian environmentalists who would pay the highest price for their financier’s policies. In January 2018, Iranian authorities arrested Murad Tahbaz, founder of the Persian Heritage Foundation, alongside Eight other employees of the institution, and included them in an urgent trial in which they accused them of obtaining money from an enemy country, and seeking to monitor the secret military sites in the country and missile launchers using the surveillance equipment that they installed under the pretext of monitoring and controlling wild leopards.

#FreeRouhaniHostages
6
Iranian environmental activists have been unlawfully convicted of espionage - without any evidence.

Nilufer Bayani: 10 years
Murad Tahbaz: 10 years
Taher Ghadarian: 8 years
Human Joker: 8 years
Amir Hussain Khaliji: 6 years
Sepideh Kashani: 6 years pic.twitter.com/ou3SXVsxzB

- International Observatory for Human Rights (@IOHRArabic) November 22, 2019

As expected, all of the accused were convicted and received prison terms ranging from 6 to 8 years, but the catastrophic results of the case did not stop there. After less than two months after their arrest, and before the issuance of the judicial rulings, the death of one of the imprisoned environmental activists was announced. He is Canadian citizen Kavouss Sayed Imami, in his detention facility in the notorious Evin Prison northwest of Tehran, and while the government claimed that the death occurred because of suicide, Imami's family questioned this account, citing the facts of physical torture that detainees reported during their trial sessions, and included Threatening to inject them with hallucinogenic drugs to force them to sign confessions the authorities want.

Despite all this, and with the exception of the official accusations revealed during the trials, Tehran has never disclosed the reasons for the panic that characterized the way the authorities in the country dealt with the issue of environmental activists, and while the matter was often interpreted according to the direct causes related to Thomas Kaplan's own orientations, and his active role in Funding anti-Iranian institutions in the United States, the Iranians were behind the scenes much larger than that, as the Iranian Revolutionary Guards felt a great deal of suspicion about the activities of the American billionaire in the Middle East, and his growing relations with the power leaders in the region, specifically that close relationship that He has a relationship with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a relationship that has caused Iran's growing fears that the alleged environmental protection activities that Kaplan sponsors are merely a front for concealing his true goals, and his actual role as one of the most important power brokers who take care of the interests of the Emirates, not only in Washington, But in the Middle East, too.

Billionaire art collector Thomas Kaplan on working with Sheikh Mohamed and why he loves the UAE https://t.co/M3cuXb92FG pic.twitter.com/NfHQuhXFjh

- The National (@TheNationalUAE) February 17, 2019

"I have reached a point where I feel the only asset I can trust is gold."

(Thomas Kaplan)

During the last decade of the twentieth century, there were very few businessmen and fund managers who realized the importance of retaining a portion of their fortunes in gold and natural minerals as a precaution against volatility in the financial markets, but thirteen-time investor Thomas Kaplan was seeing what was More than that, and influenced by the theses of his family citizen, Swiss economist Mark Faber, who considered that precious metals are the largest insurance against the "financial folly of governments", and considering his doctoral thesis at Oxford University, during which he studied British involvement in the Malaysian islands after World War II aims to secure natural resources such as rubber and precious tin, Kaplan realized the extent to which governments can go to secure natural resources, especially in times of crisis.

As a result, the Swiss native of New York City built his emerging economic ambitions around natural resources, starting his journey from Israel, the home of his wife Daphna Recanati, the descendant of the prominent financial Rikanati family, and the daughter of the famous Israeli financier, Leon Recanati, director of the investment fund "Glen Rock Israel", where He first advised the country’s hedge funds, before he succeeded in gaining the confidence of renowned investor Avi Tumkin, taking his first step to the heart of the big business world.

By 1993 Kaplan had established his first company, Apex Silver Mines, to take advantage of the expected demand for metals, especially silver, and unlike other investors who traditionally tend to place their money in politically stable countries, Thomas Kaplan believed that Betting on minerals requires investing in chaos, and apparently, that was the message that the Apex group promotes clearly and without equivocation, as confirmed by the group's 2002 annual report, which pointed to turmoil in the Gulf region and the Middle East, tensions between India and Pakistan, and the potential for confrontations Nuclear with Iran or North Korea, and even extremism and terrorism, as factors that should push investors to invest in minerals and assets such as silver produced by Kaplan companies.

Thomas Kaplan (left) and Keith Holly (right), president and vice president of "Apex Silver Main" speak with their representative in Bolivia in 1998, about reopening the silver mine in San Cristobal. The mine is one of the largest in the world. (Reuters)

In light of this, it was not surprising that most of Kaplan's first investments were in countries politically or economically unstable, and was often described as a capital repellent, beginning with Bolivia where Kaplan invested in the San Cristobal mine which is today considered one of the largest silver and zinc mines In the world, passing through Peru and Mesquid to Kyrgyzstan, before heading later to Africa and specifically to the strongholds of platinum in Zimbabwe and South Africa, where he became the largest investor in the South African Resources Group, known today as African Platinum Plc, responsible for the largest projects Exploration and extraction of platinum in South Africa.

Later on, Kaplan expanded its investment to the exploration and production of hydrocarbons in the United States, establishing Leor Exploration & Production LLC, which in a short period became the fastest growing company in the field of exploration and production of hydrocarbons in the United States, but Kaplan suddenly decided in the middle In the past decade he has disposed of some of his investments in the field of minerals, in 2004 he disposed of his stake in Apex (the company declared bankruptcy in 2008), and later in 2007, Kaplan sold his stake in African Platinum to Impala Platinum Limited in a deal valued at $ 580 million, and in the same year, Lior's entire assets were sold in a massive deal for $ 2.55 billion.

By selling his shares in African Platinum and Lior, Kaplan apparently aimed to restructure his investments and direct them mainly towards gold in line with the repercussions of the global financial crisis in 2008, through his most important company Electrum Ltd, which had an international portfolio Diversified assets of gold exploration and production, the most important of which are its large investments in Nova Gold Resources and Gabriel Resources Limited, which possessed many of the largest proven gold resources in the world. Apparently, Kaplan was betting that governments around the world would not be able to The end is to address the effects of the problems facing the global financial system, leaving gold alone as a last resort for all.

Kaplan was in no hurry to get the returns on his investment in gold, confirming that if he was right about the big picture he would be rewarded for his patience, but the elegant businessman did not seem to wait long, and by 2010 it was clear that Kaplan's bets had come Fruiting with it, as the value of assets collapsed due to the global financial crisis, gold prices set new records exceeding $ 1,250 an ounce, driving countries, central banks, investors and even ordinary people to race in order to increase their returns from gold bars to coins and jewelry, and in light of this pessimistic atmosphere, it was Thomas Kaplan is one of the few who have managed to take advantage of the climate of chaos and pessimism that swept the world.

"The Emiratis are my partners on various levels in a way that is not matched by anyone but my wife."

(Thomas Kaplan)

Far from gold, Thomas Kaplan never misses an opportunity to announce his fondness for Brambrand van Rijn, the famous Dutch artist of the seventeenth century, a penchant that seems to have cost him tremendous wealth throughout his life, since he decided to make his first conquests in the art world in 2003, investing $ 150 A thousand pounds for the purchase of the "Dirk van Bernstein" painting by Dutch painter Geret Deux, who is today known as the first and most important student of Rembrandt.

Thomas Kaplan at the opening of an exhibition of 11 artworks by Rembrandt van Rijn (European News Agency)

It was not a painting by Rembrandt himself, but it was a suitable start to satisfy Kaplan's passion for art, and the first step on his way to fulfill his dream of creating a private library of rare art paintings, so it was not surprising that a prominent businessman and his wife spent a few million dollars over the following years on Collecting more than 250 paintings of the most important holdings of the Dutch Golden Age, including 40% of Rembrandt's privately owned heritage, and some of Johannes Vermeer's paintings, make Kaplan the only private owner of the famous Vermeer heritage.

In order to display his art collection, Kaplan and his wife established in 2017 the Leiden Art Collection, with the aim of promoting their holdings of paintings in the largest art museums around the world, which was already achieved for them within a short period, after Kaplan art collections decorated the walls of the most famous museums in the world, such as a museum The famous Louvre in Paris, the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, and the Beijing National Museum in China, while the last - and apparently favorite - of the Kaplan Collection was the Louvre Museum in Abu Dhabi, where he took many intimate photos with the country's leaders, led by me The reign of Abu Dhabi Muhammad bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who Kaplan made no effort to conceal his personal passion and pride in the special relationship that binds them.

Kaplan claims that his love for the UAE is an extension of his great love for fine arts, and he believes that his relationship with Mohammed bin Zayed is based primarily on that shared passion for the arts, and mutual interest in preserving heritage and wildlife, and this is evidenced by the fact that his organization specialized in protecting wild cats, "Panthera He donated $ 20 million for 10 years from Muhammad Bin Zayed personally, and the Malaysian businessman Joe Lu, whose name will become famous later because of his involvement in the famous embezzlement scandal from the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, before Ibn Zayed himself appointed Kaplan President of the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Zones, an institution established in Geneva in 2017 on a joint initiative between the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and former French President Francois Hollande, with the aim of protecting cultural heritage in Syria and Iraq from the effects of wars.

A meeting of the Board of Directors of the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage "A" to study upcoming projects to protect # threatened cultural heritage in conflict areas.
Bilateral commitment is a priority within the French-Emirati partnership. # France_UAE 🇫🇷🇦🇪 pic.twitter.com/09uIWP4ifx

- Ludovic Pouille (@ludovic_pouille) February 13, 2019

Kaplan's intimate relations in the Gulf did not stop at the borders of Abu Dhabi, it seems, the prominent investor and his friend, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, have found a third companion for them in the trip to the alleged love of arts and wild cats, who is the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who became Kaplan during the two years The last two are one of the favorite investors in his nearby circle. While the owners of the money were fleeing the company of Ibn Salman in the wake of his accusation of involvement in the murder of the journalist “Jamal Khashoggi”, Kaplan did not find anything wrong with visiting Riyadh to follow a car race in the Saudi capital accompanied by the Saudi crown prince. , A gesture that Kaplan was rewarded with a generous $ 20 million contract signed "Panthera" with an Arab Panthers initiative affiliated with the Saudi Ministry of Culture.

Nevertheless, it is believed that Kaplan's professional relationship with the Gulf countries began much earlier, perhaps more than a decade ago when Kaplan was introduced as an investor to the UAE for the first time, but at the level of personal ties, we can easily claim - and we will not be wrong about that - The ties that brought together the American billionaire with the financial and power circles in the region began much earlier in his life, particularly since he was a student at the prestigious Swiss boarding school, Le Rosey, known for the title of “The School of Kings” due to the enrollment of a large number of princes and kings in its ranks since its foundation. At the end of the nineteenth century, the likes of the King of Belgium, "Albert II", and even "Farouk I", the last king of Egypt.

Kaplan spun his financial networks, his own circuits of influence, and even his family life, depending on his early relationships in Le Rosey, starting with his wife Daphna Recanati, who studied at the same school to later become her husband's largest partner, especially in his nonprofit projects, starting with " Panthera, "the organization for the protection of cats and rare cheetahs founded by the couple in 2006, and passed through the association" Ouran Society ", named after their daughter's name, and is specifically concerned with preserving the eastern indigo snake in American pine forests, and not the end of the famous Leiden group that made the couple's reputation Rich people in the world of art.

Inside the Le Rosey School itself, Kaplan made his first Gulf ties through his colleague Muhammad Khashoggi, the eldest son of the late Saudi billionaire Adnan Khashoggi, who was for decades the chief mediator between the American defense industry and the Arab world, and his sister Nabila Khashoggi, a businesswoman and former actress, and the first fruit of a partnership Kaplan with Khashoggi is the Bridge Capital investment fund that the two men founded in the late 1980s, before Khashoggi decided, in the 1990s, to invest in the first Kaplan mining company, "Apex Silver Mines", and it seems that the partnership between the two former colleagues continues. The Saudi businessman and owner of MK associates is a member of the advisory board of the Kaplan Charitable Foundation, Panthera, to this day.

Within that advisory board of the Panthera Foundation itself, very familiar Gulf names can easily be distinguished, headed by the UAE ambassador to the United States Youssef Al Otaiba, his wife Abeer Al Otaiba, and Princess Rima Bint Bandar Al Saud, the ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Washington, along with other common names. The reputation is like the former commander of the US Central Command, David Petraeus, the famous British diplomat Jonathan Powell, the former Israeli intelligence man Isaac Dar, and others, but if we move one step up to the Panthera board itself, we will find names no less important Representing the Saudi Minister of Culture, Badr bin Abdullah Al Saud, Razan Al Mubarak, Executive Director of the Abu Dhabi Environment Agency, his brother Khaldoun Al Mubarak, member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, head of the Mubadala Fund, the eminent financial arm of the emirate, and a member of the inner circle of the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohamed bin Zayed.

Khaldoun Al Mubarak is specifically considered one of the main figures in the Kaplan circles in Abu Dhabi, to the point that the American billionaire has a voice word in nominating candidates to take up prominent positions in the UAE sovereign fund, which was clearly evident with the Mubarak in 2018 hiring Eric Vincent, The former CEO of Electrum Group between 2012-2017 to take over the task of developing Mubadala Capital, a subsidiary of the Fund, at a time when Vincent is still a member of the board of directors of Sunshine Silver Mining, a mining mining company owned Partially Electrom Group (at 72%), operating mainly in the US and Mexico.

"Unite against a nuclear Iran does not have Tomahawk missiles or aircraft carriers, yet what we have done to subjugate Iran is greater than any other private sector initiative and also most public initiatives."

(Thomas Kaplan)

It may be difficult to track the extent of the influence of Kaplan’s relations with the rulers of the Gulf, and the UAE in particular, on his career as a prominent businessman and investor, except perhaps for Mubadala’s investments in Kaplan’s Electrom Group, but this relationship has certainly had profound implications for his direction And his political biases, nearly a decade ago, the gold mogul was not known in any form of political presence in Washington, except for some electoral donations distributed almost equally between both parties, but it seems that the growing relationship between Kaplan and Ibn Zayed has caught the attention of the two men that what unites them Not only the alleged love of cats and paintings, but also true hatred, and inherent hostility, toward Iran.

By virtue of his belonging to an ancient Jewish family, and later by virtue of the relationship of intermarriage that I had with the prominent Israeli Recanati family, and the working relationship that I had with a number of prominent Zionist poles, led by his spiritual father, Avi Tomkin, one of the most prominent funders of the prestigious Herzliya Institute for Studies in Tel Aviv and the Herzliya, the annual with a prominent role in shaping Israeli politics, Kaplan has been a steadfast and loyal advocate of various issues related to Jews and Israel, as revealed by his role as a permanent donor to the Eternal Jewish Family, an organization dedicated to overseeing the rules of conversion to Judaism, and his clear ideological commitment Toward preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

It is precisely at this point that Kaplan's relationship with Mohammed bin Zayed appears to have found real significance and a common goal, even though the United Union Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) organization, which is today the most prominent front in the comprehensive Kaplan war against Iran, was established more than a decade ago. And specifically, in 2008, by three former US diplomats - Dennis Ross, Richard Holbrooke, and Mark Wallace, and the latter specifically with a long history of working in Kaplan's economic and political institutions - the organization remained almost completely inactive until 2013, and had a budget Modest is estimated at $ 1.7 billion, and it is not surprising, of course, that 80% of this money came exclusively from two American Jewish billionaires who have a strong relationship with Israel, Thomas Kaplan himself (he provided $ 843,000 through two special funds, the Butterfield Fund and the New Generations Fund. ), And the famous casino magnate Sheldon Adelson ($ 500,000).

But in 2014, "United" suddenly entered into a massive reorganization, divided into two separate projects, "United against nuclear Iran" (UANI) and "Counter-extremism Project" (CEP), while both projects were grouped under the umbrella A third entity, the United Extreme Extremism Project (CEPU), has given the organization greater comfort in fundraising and access to funds, and it appears that this regulation has paid off as the revenue of the United Extremist Group suddenly rose to $ 16 million in 2016, reaching $ 22 million in 2017, and in turn, the new group continued to pump at least a third of its growing revenue to "United".

The anti-Iran organization has used these funds very effectively to turn itself into a private implementer of sanctions against Tehran, as it has prepared special records for hundreds of companies around the world that have trade relations or plan to trade with the Persian state, and has attacked and maimed these companies through The media, and urged the official authorities to impose penalties on them, without exception, even for pharmaceutical and biomedical equipment companies such as Pfizer, Abbott, Merck, Lilly and others, and at the same time, the organization urged companies to sign a declaration endorsing it. It does not do business with Iran, nor does it intend to do so, and considered signing this announcement as a certificate of confidence for these companies, and of course it was not surprising that many major companies such as the giant "General Electric" group and the prestigious heavy equipment production company "Caterpillar", And the famous chemical company "Huntsman", and others, had to respond to the "blackmailers" blackmail and sign their own declaration.

In conjunction with this, "United" and "Anti-Extremism Project" have hired new financial returns to accumulate their boards of directors and advisory boards with a long list of former diplomats and symbols of neo-conservatives and anti-Iranian hawks, and give them exorbitant salaries and consulting fees, a list that includes names such as John Bolton Former Trump National Security Adviser who received $ 240,000 in advisory fees from the United Extremism Project, an apparently sufficient amount to pay Bolton to cut a portion of his busy time while he was still working with the US administration to write a tweet on him On criticism directed by the Russian Foreign Ministry to "United", because of a letter sent by the organization to some Russian companies warning it against continuing to work with Iran.

In turn, Norman Rowley, a former CIA veteran and former Iranian affairs official at the National Intelligence Agency, received $ 366,000 in advisory fees from the organization, money that would also have persuaded him to go to Saudi Arabia with Kaplan to meet the Saudi crown prince, and harness His efforts later to promote his alleged reforms through newspapers and satellite stations, while two Israeli companies, Darlink and Grove Business, together received about $ 2 million from the budget for the UAV project, in exchange for unreported consulting and services.

This heavy spending has raised many questions about the generous sources of funding for these organizations, especially since they are not all registered as pressure agents for foreign countries, and some of them have interrelated working relationships with the US State Department, which makes them not obliged to disclose in detail about their funding sources, and they have been strengthened These questions are particularly due to the ability of these organizations to bring in many diplomats and former intelligence officials, not only in the United States but also in Britain, Israel, Poland, Italy, Canada, Spain and Australia, a gathering that no similar organization has ever had to mobilize, and yet, all attempts to deliver A comprehensive look at the "Uniting Against a Nuclear Iran" funding sources and an "anti-extremism" project often failed.

The most prominent of these attempts occurred in 2014, when a Greek businessman working in the field of shipping called Victor Restis filed a lawsuit against "United" accusing him of publicly defaming him by claiming that his companies violated the sanctions imposed on Iran, calling for the disclosure of the organization's funding sources and the identity of whom He is behind it, and the surprise was that the US Department of Justice intervened to stop the lawsuit, benefiting from the privilege of "protecting the state secrets", which implies that the disclosure of "united" donors will harm American national security.

Greek businessman "Victor Restis" (Reuters)

The interference of the US government in a lawsuit between two private parties was largely unusual, which raised more doubts about the identity of those the government wants to protect them from exposure due to the lawsuit, and while no one has provided any decisive answers on this question to this day, there have been Always hints about foreign parties funding the activities of "United" and the project to combat extremism. Of course, the fingers were directed directly to the United Arab Emirates, because of its close relations with Thomas Kaplan, the most prominent known financier of "United" on the one hand, and because of its known efforts to influence think tanks. Opinion and employment of lobbyists in the United States, on the other hand.

These facts prompted journalist Elie Clifton to attempt a deeper examination of the nature of the Emirates relationship with Thomas Kaplan and the controversial organizations associated with him, away from the intense publicity that focuses on cats and paintings, and the leaked letters to the Emirates Ambassador in Washington, Yousef Al Otaiba, provided a fertile material for this purpose. For example, a letter dating back to September 2015 addressed to Al-Otaiba by former US Homeland Security Adviser Francis Townsend, who officially manages the United Counter-Extremism Project (CEPU), refers to her communication with Mark Wallace, CEO of "United". "To coordinate the UAE's support for the organization, I proposed to organize a conference for it in Abu Dhabi, without forgetting, of course, that its letter expresses its deep thanks to Al Otaiba for his generous support for the project."

In the same vein, another letter dated January 2015 shows that Townsend herself requested Al-Otaiba’s help in organizing a meeting with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed, while a third letter from Norman Coleman, one of the pressure agents working on behalf of Saudi Arabia under a formal contract, contained With Hogan Lovels, details about the tax status of the anti-extremism project were included, as Coleman confirmed that he had sent this message to Al-Otaiba on the orders of then Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir.

Youssef Al-Otaiba (Reuters)

In total, it is believed that there were $ 35 million in unidentified funds that flowed within two years to political organizations associated with Kaplan, funds that were used to recruit a suspicious and unconnected network of anti-Tehran activists that started from the United States and ended in the Middle East, a network that included the foreign minister American Mike Pompeo and former National Security Adviser John Bolton, former Saudi intelligence chief Turki Al-Faisal, UAE Ambassador to Washington Yusef Al-Otaiba, Bahrain’s Ambassador Abdullah bin Rashid Al Khalifa, and even the Israeli ambassador to Washington Ron Dreamer, and a selection of former and current intelligence officials in several countries, And a number of the most prominent pressure agents, and even leaders of the PMOI, the Iranian opposition classified as a terrorist organization in the United States.

This network apparently aims to formulate its own unilateral vision, and to impose it with soft power on decision makers and the media in the United States and the West, a vision that presents Iran, its allies and all the opponents of authoritarian rulers in the Middle East as a source of all evil, and at the same time it portrays the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Israel as victims Extremism and terrorism and loyal allies of Washington, a vision that is generously funded by Abu Dhabi and Riyadh money, and supported by the Tel Aviv lobby, led by a controversial ambitious billionaire made his fortune among the chaos of chaos, before he decided to invest part of it in building his reputation as an orphaned cat lover and a devoted lover of art.