which church are you refering to? Jewish Pressure on Clinton Moves Fugitive Marc Rich From “Most Wanted” to “Most Want to Forget” List
By Delinda C. Hanley A quiet but nasty tug-of-war has broken out among Washington insiders and Jewish community activists over the role played by Israel in President Clinton’s decision to pardon fugitive billionaire Marc Rich. The Jan. 20 pardon has touched off a storm of protests. It followed extensive lobbying by Israeli and American Jewish leaders. More than 100 letters were written on Mr. Rich’s behalf, almost half from Israelis, according to a list obtained by Forward. The aftermath is fast turning into a free-for-all involving the lead players of some of the messiest Washington feuds of the last decade.” —Forward, Feb. 16, 2001 Fugitive commodities trader Marc Rich was one of 140 people Bill Clinton pardoned during his last hours as president. Rich, 66, was charged in 1982 with the largest tax-evasion scheme in U.S. history, having evaded more than $48 million in income taxes. In 1983 Rich was indicted on 51 additional counts of racketeering and wire fraud. Rich also violated the Trading with the Enemy Act by conducting business with Iran, even as U.S. embassy staff were being held hostage. In 1983, Rich fled to Switzerland, never serving a day in jail. After fleeing the United States, Rich became an Israeli citizen and a major benefactor of Jewish charitable organizations, giving nearly $80 million to Israeli hospitals, museums, orchestras, and universities. A 1999 profile in the Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv called Rich “the biggest donor to artistic and cultural institutions in Israel” over the past 15 years. Cultural and educational institutions in Israel had no problem accepting money that was supposed to go into U.S. tax coffers. In the U.S. Rich’s generosity includes $5 million pledged to Birthright Israel, which has sent 17,000 young American Jews on free trips to Israel. According to Avner Azoulay, formerly with the Mossad, who runs Rich’s foundation in Israel, the trader also helped Mossad search for missing Israeli soldiers and brought dozens of Jews from Ethiopia and Yemen to Israel. He may have been entangled in a failed 1992 Israeli agreement with North Korea whereby the Asian country would cease selling long- range ballistic missiles to Middle Eastern states in exchange for $100 million in Israeli investments and mining aid. Americans want to know if there was a money-for–pardon deal. Rich’s ex- wife, songwriter Denise Rich, a major Democratic fund-raiser, contributed $450,000 to Clinton’s presidential library foundation and more than $1 million to Clinton’s campaign coffers. Did that money actually come from Marc Rich? There is little doubt that Rich’s charitable contributions helped produce letters to Clinton from dozens of Israeli and American Jewish leaders. The letters came from what The New York Times called “a virtual Who’s Who of Israeli society and Jewish philanthropy.” America’s outrage over the pardons caught the Jewish community by surprise, and there was some backpedaling from leaders who earlier had supported Rich’s case. Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Reform movement’s Union of American Hebrew Congregations, was critical of Jewish lobbying on Rich’s behalf. He charged in a Washington Jewish Week article that the Jewish community was “bought” and that its leaders failed an “important moral test.” The Jewish weeklies moaned about two “stationery mix-ups.” According to a March 1 Washington Jewish Week article, Marlen Post, chair of Birthright Israel and a past president of Hadassah, mistakenly sent a “first-draft” of her letter on Hadassah stationery instead of Birthright stationery. Rabbi Irving “Yitz” Greenberg, chair of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, meant to use Jewish Life Network letterhead instead of Council stationery. Hadassah and the Holocaust Memorial Council—the organization that oversees the taxpayer-supported Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC—were embarrassed that they had appeared to support a pardon. Michael Schneider, executive vice president of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), said his organization was a recipient of donations from the Rich Foundation. He was “very surprised,” however, to learn that a letter thanking Rich for a donation in December 2000 was included in a packet of similar letters sent to the White House in support of a presidential pardon for Rich. The Feb. 23 Forward quotes Schneider as saying, “It wasn’t exactly correct to use our letter in such a way.” In addition to urging from Clinton’s American Jewish constituents, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami, Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, and the former head of Mossad, Shabtai Shavit, also lobbied for the pardon. Clinton’s aides have told lawmakers that it was Barak’s support of Rich’s petition that was key to its success. Barak talked to the president about it as many as four times.Joseph diGenova, the attorney representing Rich’s lawyer before congressional investigators, told Forward that it was Israel’s direct, heavy involvement that won the pardon. In a Feb. 19 New York Times op-ed essay, former President Clinton tried to explain to the American people why he pardoned Rich. After enumerating seven reasons relating to Rich’s prosecution, Clinton said: “Finally, and importantly, many present and former high-ranking Israeli officials of both major political parties, and leaders of Jewish communities in America and Europe, urged the pardon of Mr. Rich because of his contributions and services to Israeli charitable causes, to the Mossad’s efforts to rescue and evacuate Jews from hostile countries, and to the peace process through sponsorship of education and health programs in Gaza and the West Bank.” Clinton’s op-ed piece triggered harsh criticism from right-wing Jewish opinion makers, including those who have been among the most hawkishly pro-Israel. William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, put it bluntly. “He tried to blame it all on the Jews,” Kristol told the New York Observer. “Playing the Jewish card like this is a new low, even for Clinton.” Rabbi Hier in the Feb. 23 issue of Detroit’s Jewish Week, called the president’s statement “absolutely troublesome to me as a Jew. It opens the door to anti-Semites. It feeds into the idea that Jews control everything, control the world, control the White House. He’s dumping a lot of garbage on the doorstep of his friends, the Jews.” Ronald Lauder and Malcolm Hoenlein, chairman and executive vice president respectively of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, were outraged by the op-ed and accused Clinton of “scapegoating” Jews. Others thought it was Clinton who was the victim of scapegoating. “For Jewish leaders to blame President Clinton for their behavior is outrageous,” Martin Begun, the head of the New York Jewish Community Relations Council, told the Observer. “If Clinton used poor judgment, that’s one thing—but for them to apply pressure on him and then blame him for inciting anti-Semitic behavior is a baffling twist of logic. The poor man was pressured to death.” “The notion appears to be that Mr. Clinton’s citing of Jewish and Israeli support for Mr. Rich’s pardon…was an anti-Semitic attempt to blame history’s eternal victims for his own wrongdoing,” a March 4 Forward editorial chided. “Politics, lobbying and fund-raising operate by their own sets of rules. Jewish advocacy has flourished under these rules; when Jewish activists stumble, they should take their hits. For Jews to have lobbied a president, and then to cry ‘scapegoat’ when he acknowledges their appeals, is disingenuous,” the Forward editorial concluded. Jewish leaders constantly remind Americans that Israel and the U.S. share “common values,” but in recent times they all seem to value the dollar more than honor or integrity. A Ha’aretz article by Joseph Alpher reprinted in the March 4 Forward sums up Israel’s recent actions that have resulted in a public relations nightmare and made many Americans question Israel’s values. “Prior to the collective effort to secure a pardon for Mr. Rich was Israel’s attempt to sell its Phalcon espionage plane to China in total disregard for the protests made by both the Pentagon and Congress. Even Israel’s handling of the current al-Aqsa intifada—especially the economic closure of the territories and the assassination of key Palestinians— is increasingly being regarded in Washington as running counter to those commonly held values. In the background there is, of course, the Pollard affair itself. The fact that both Pollard and Mr. Rich are American Jews could harden attitudes toward Israel even among members of the American Jewish community, which is Israel’s second-most- important strategic ally—at least among those members of the community who were not themselves dazzled by Mr. Rich’s philanthropy.” Some Jewish activists protested that Israeli and Jewish pressure for Rich’s pardon should have been directed toward a pardon for convicted American spy Jonathan Pollard, who is serving his 16th year for spying for Israel. Yediot Achronot quotes former White House officials as saying that Rich’s people pushed Barak to link the pardon for Rich with a pardon for Pollard: “They were counting on Clinton not freeing Pollard and on giving them the pardon for Rich as a consolation prize.” In a separate Yediot interview, Pollard said he was stunned by Rich’s pardon. “For 16 years I have been waving the flag of Israel, crying out to the Israeli political establishment for help,” the spy lamented. “But with the Marc Rich clemency campaign, I realize that I made a mistake. I should have been waving bags of money instead to get their attention. These are the depths that Israel’s leaders have sunk to.” Israel Hires P.R. Firms In the wake of the Rich controversy, bad press from Israel’s heavy- handed response to the Palestinian uprising, and Israel’s election of war criminal Ariel Sharon as prime minister, Israeli newspapers reported in mid-February that the Sharon team has hired two major public relations firms to orchestrate a major U.S. media campaign. They hope to rectify any damage Sharon’s election and the intifada may have done to Israel’s special relationship with the United States. “AIPAC officials have gone on the offensive in recent weeks,” reported Detroit’s Jewish News, “seeking to educate lawmakers in the new Congress about the facts on the ground and the cause of the latest casualties in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” The Zionist Organization of America also has hired a third lobbyist on a temporary basis—just to help make the case for Sharon to members of Congress. A group of American Jewish philanthropists met Feb. 28 to establish a privately funded organization to enhance Israel’s image. Former Seagram chief Edgar Bronfman, president of the World Jewish Conference, and Birthright backer Michael Steinhardt denied reports in the Jerusalem Post that they would be investing $8 million in their new organization, to be named Emet, and that the Israeli Foreign Ministry will give another $1 million. “There is a lot of demonization of Sharon, particularly in the media,” admitted Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice-chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, the national Jewish umbrella group. Clearly, the American Jewish unity and their new public relations group have their work cut out for them. Delinda C. Hanley is the news editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. On Mar 23, 3:39 pm, rigsy03 <[email protected]> wrote: > Bill Clinton is the president who tapped into church groups first, > Doc. > > On Mar 22, 10:41 pm, Doc Holliday <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > Wait a minute now. Lets not forget the religious fanatics (faith based > > initiative) and the folks that elected Bush and or the Bush name, "by > > god" ;-) and being president Bush had both bases covered! to wit > > > The throne and altar were twins -- two vultures from the same egg. > > > James I. said: "No bishop, no king." He might have added: "No cross, > > no crown." The king owned the bodies of men; the priest, the souls. > > One lived on taxes collected by force, the other on alms collected by > > fear -- both robbers, both beggars. > > > Peace, > > Doc > > > On Mar 21, 9:51 pm, rigsy03 <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Women elected Clinton and Obama because they were sexually charged by > > > these two charlatans. > > > > On Mar 21, 9:40 pm,DocHolliday <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > Ohhhhh yes; ownership of the media and the FCC helps? > > > > > Peace, > > > >Doc > > > > > On Mar 21, 9:15 pm, dick thompson <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > MEDIA OUTNUMBER > > > > > <http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com/2009/03/media-outnumber-mob-pro...> > > > > > THE ANTI-A.I.G. PROTESTERS: Check out the press mob in this picture. > > > > > <http://www.flickr.com/photos/32731...@n08/3373315869/sizes/l/in/set-7...> > > > > > Well, it's certainly not like that at the tea party protests. > > > > > <http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/74050/> Plus this: "Maybe you can > > > > > swing by Chris Dodd's lavish house and see if he can help you." > > > > > > UPDATE: The Great CWFP AIG Intimidation Run Round-Up. > > > > > <http://moelane.com/2009/03/21/the-great-cwfp-aig-intimidation-run-rou...> > > > > > Paper tiger? > > > > > > ANOTHER UPDATE: These are not the brownshirts you were looking for. > > > > > <http://templeofmut.wordpress.com/2009/03/21/fair-play-a-tour-of-ct-wo...> > > > > > > Posted at 7:52 pm by *Glenn Reynolds*- Hide quoted text - > > > > > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text - > > > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. 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