Pistachio Wars: Powerful Couple, a Nexus of Iran Sanctions, California Drought, Netanyahu and Trump

Jan 15, 2019

Politics , Economy

Many Iranians know Las Vegas billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, as one of the staunch supporters of Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump who has pushed hard for Iran sanctions, but a recent editorial by Max Blumenthal points out to another powerful business behind Iran sanctions: California pistachio plantation owners, Stewart and Lynda Resnick. You might not recognize the name, but you’ve certainly seen their luxury Fiji Water bottles and Sunkist oranges. Lynda Resnick is also called The Pomegranate Princess by The New Yorker. According to Blumenthal:

Stewart and Lynda Resnick

Three years ago, journalist Yasha Levine and filmmaker Rowan Wernham producers of "Pistachio Wars: Killing California for a Snack Food" first arrived at the vast pistachio plantation of Stewart and Lynda Resnick in California’s parched Central Valley. There, they saw firsthand how a billionaire power couple had successfully manipulated the state’s political system to privatize its scarce water supply for their own financial benefit. Today, the Wonderful Company farm owned by the Resnicks soaks up more water than the entire city of Los Angeles. Their business was based on "a heist of epic proportions," according to Levine, that "will put family farms out of business, and push life in the biggest river estuary on the west coast of America towards mass extinction."

According to Levine, Resnick’s scheme did more than privatize a single piece of public infrastructure. It created a novel legal framework that gave Oligarch Valley farmers the power to create non-existent water out of thin air. Resnick created “paper water.” Paper water was the envy of every finance conman in the country. It was so brilliant and innovative, in fact, that the snake-oil experts at Enron couldn’t help trying to get in on the racket.

Steven Colbert stars in a commercial for the Resnicks' Wonderful Company

The story eventually took Levine and Wernham far beyond the parched Central Valley, and into the heart of America’s Israel lobby. It turned out that the Resnicks had been pumping their money into some of the most militantly pro-Israel think tanks in Washington, including the American Jewish Committee and the Washington Institute on Near East Policy (WINEP). Both of these outfits have lobbied heavily for sanctions on Iran and against the Iran nuclear deal. One WINEP executive, Pat Clawson, has even called on the US to stage a false flag attack that could trigger a war with Iran.

Levine and Wernham recognized that the Resnicks’ support for the Israel lobby was all about protecting their monopoly from Iran, a nation traditionally recognized as the producer of the world’s best pistachios. The billionaire nut barons were not only threatening the environment and livelihoods of their local competitors, they were bankrolling forces determined to take America to war against a rising Middle Eastern power. This is why the title of Levine and Wernham’s work in progress, "Pistachio Wars," is so apt.

Ironically, Israel has been a leading importer of Iranian pistachios, which are considered the best in the world. They do so through third parties like Turkey with whom they enjoy semi-normalized relations.

Read the Full Article HERE.

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