The VIP cocktail reception for the annual Friends of the Israel Defense Forces Western Regional Gala was held Thursday at the Beverly Hilton. The event was chaired by producer and FIDF national board member Haim Saban and his wife, Cheryl.
“If you’re supporting Trump, I want nothing to do with you,” said Robert De Niro, after refusing to pose for a photograph with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“Are you voting for Trump?” De Niro kept asking Schwarzenegger, as he rebuffed the former California governor’s efforts to explain before backing off toward the other side of the room.
While Schwarzenegger publicly tweeted on Oct. 8 that he would NOT be voting for Trump, he still hasn’t made clear for whom he will be voting. In the tweet, he wrote: “For the first time since I became a citizen in 1983, I will not vote for the Republican candidate for President.”
“If you’re not part of the solution, then you’re part of the problem,” said De Niro.
Larry King, one of the 1,200 guests who attended the sold-out, star-studded event, agreed. “Not voting is a vote for Trump,” said King. “But if that’s the way they feel, I can’t tell them to vote. You don’t have to vote — but it’s a mistake. You should always pick one of the other.”
King, who said he cast his first presidential vote for Adlai Stevenson II in 1952, ranks this election cycle as the absolute worst he’s ever experienced.
“This is the worst — and I’ve covered many of them,” said King. “I’ve never seen anything like this. People are voting against — not for. You know what I think?
The gala raised a record-breaking $38 million dollars to help Israeli soldiers and their families in need.
Robert De Niro and Larry King chat with FIDF national board member Haim Saban.
“We are gratified to see that the FIDF’s important mission — to provide well-being and educational programs for the heroic men and women of the IDF — continues to resonate with the Los Angeles community,” said Saban.
“When I was governor, Israel was the first country that I visited on a trade mission,” said Schwarzenegger. “Everybody was up in arms because I didn’t visit Mexico or Canada, the neighboring countries, first. Israel, to me, has always been a country I love. I enjoyed visiting it for the first time in 1978 and I’ve been there many times since. It’s just a great ally of America.”
King, who’s interviewed every Israeli prime minister with the exception of David Ben-Gurion, said, “Haim Saban is one of the best men I know, and this is a very worthy cause.” Like so many others, King is hopeful that one day there will be peace in Israel and the Middle East. “Yitzhak Rabin was my favorite—there was no one like him,” said King, referring to the optimistic period of the Oslo Peace Accords. “Bill Clinton told me that he thought we had a deal. I hope eventually we have a two-party, two-state system.”