By TAMARA ZIEVEIsraeli-American media mogul Haim Saban.(photo credit: WIKIPEDIA)
Power Rangers, Chappie, Inspector Gadget and many others are all products of US-Israeli media mogul Haim Saban, the man behind a wide variety of world-famous TV and film productions.This year, Saban sold the rights to his successful Power Rangers franchise to Hasbro Inc. for $522 million. He is one of the richest men in America, with a net worth of $3.1b., according to Forbes magazine. In 2017, Saban was honored with the 2,605th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his achievements in television. He is also known as being a staunch backer of Israel who once told The New York Times: “I’m a one-issue guy and my issue is Israel.”Born in Egypt, raised in Israel and a veteran immigrant in the US, the 73-year-old Saban prides himself on strengthening relations between the US and Israel. He poured $15m. into Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign and warned that a Trump victory would be disastrous. Nonetheless, he has forged a relationship of sorts with senior adviser to the president Jared Kushner. In December, Kushner participated in the Saban Forum, an annual event organized by the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, which Saban founded together with former US ambassador Martin Indyk as its founding director. The forum gathers leaders from Jerusalem and Washington for dialogue on the alliance between their two countries and related issues. Saban, together with his wife, Cheryl, regularly tops charts as the single-largest donor to Friends of the IDF, in addition to donating to many other Israeli Jewish and Israeli causes.
