US mega billionaire and super Jewish philanthropist Sheldon Adelson is currently in negotiations to purchase the official Herzliya Pituach residence of the US Ambassador to Israel, located north of Tel Aviv.
The asking price for the property is approximately NIS 300 million – the highest price ever paid for a private home in Israel — according to sources who spoke with the Globes business news site. The house is located at 40 Gali Tchelet Street; it’s a 1,000-square-meter building situated on a five-dunam plot of land on the most expensive street in Israel.
America’s current Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman lives in Jerusalem and works in the capital at the new US Embassy headquarters.
The Trump administration has been working to fast-track the deal to get it done before the presidential elections in November, according to Globes. Once the sale is completed, the administration will be able to say the transfer of the embassy to Jerusalem is truly complete.
There has been no response to media queries from the Adelson family, nor from the State Department. The US Embassy in Jerusalem said, however, that the sale has not yet been completed.
Adelson has gifted millions to the Birthright program, the Friends of the IDF, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Center in Jerusalem, and the new Ariel University Medical School in Samaria.
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The medical school — Israel’s sixth — is, in fact, named after Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam, an Israel-born physician, who were in attendance at the opening. The couple donated $20 million to the university in 2017 for expansion purposes, including building the medical school.