How do you substantiate this?
Just tell me how you prove that the number of Jews involved is incredibly disproportionate. Why can't you do this?
I can do it, if I was asked, which I wasn't, I was bamboozled with tripe from you... Read the book "the red Mafia" authored by Robert Friedman.
www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316294748/qid=1134368498/sr=8-6/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i6_xgl14/102-0426222-1866516?n=507846&s=books&v=glance He makes it perfectly clear: the famous "Russian mafia" is actually Russian born Jews whom hold Israeli citizenship and are immune from prosecution because of Israels stance on not extraditing international criminals.
Here, for your convenience, is the article itself:
Red Mafia: How The Russian Mob Has Invaded America
By Robert I. Friedman
Of all the nations where the Russian mob has established a presence, none has been more deeply compromised than the State of Israel, America's staunchest ally in the volatile Middle East. More than 800,000 Russian Jews have made aliyah or settled in Israel since the first massive wave of immigration in the 1970s. The Russians took advantage of Israel's most sacred law--the Right of Return, which guarantees Jews the right to return to their ancestral home land, where they would receive citizenship and live as free men and women outside the odious yoke of anti-Semitism. "The Russians are a blessing," said Israel's top political columnist Nachum Barnea, who stands in public awe of their brilliant intellectual gifts in a variety of fields.
But just as in Brighton Beach, Russian immigration to Israel has brought a more unwelcome element--the vor v zakonye and their criminal minions. Ten percent of Israel's five million Jews are now Russian, and 10 percent of the Russian population "is criminal," according to NYPD notes of a briefing in Manhattan by Israeli police intelligence official Brigadier General Dan Ohad.
"There is not a major Russian organized crime figure who we are tracking who does not also carry an Israeli passport," says senior State Department official Jonathan Winer. He put the number at seventy-five, among whom are Mogilevich, Loutchansky, Rabinovich, and Kobzon.
Many of the mobsters who have Israeli citizenship, such as Eduard Ivankov and Sergei Mikhailov, are not even Jewish. In the mid-1990s, an Israeli police sting-- code-named Operation Romance--netted, among others, a high-ranking Interior Ministry official who was taking payoffs from Mikhailov and convicted KGB spy Shabtai Kalmanovitch to issue passports to dozens of Russian gangsters, according to Brigadier General Hezi Leder, the Israeli police attache in Washington, and classified FBI documents. (Kalmanovitch, after serving time in an Israeli prison for treason, became one of Moscow's most notorious mobsters and frequently returns to Israel.)
Russia's criminal aristocracy covets Israeli citizenship "because they know Israel is a safe haven for them," said Leder. "We do not extradite citizens."
"The Russians then use the safe haven to travel around the world and rape and pillage," added Moody.
The country has also remained attractive to gangsters because "Israel is good for money laundering," explained Leder. Under Israeli law, banks can accept large cash deposits with no questions asked. In one instance, a corrupt ex-deputy prime minister of Ukraine smuggled $300 million of illicit cash into Israel in several suitcases, and deposited it into a bank, as Israeli Minister of National Security Moshe Shahal told a gathering of intelligence heads in June 1996. "I've watched Russian mobsters exchange suitcases full of cash out in the open at the Dan Hotel's swimming pool," laughed an American underworld crime figure. "Israel is a country that encourages people to come and invest money," said Leder. "There is no mechanism to check the origin of the money."
Israeli police officials estimate that Russian mobsters have poured more than $4 billion of dirty money into Israel's economy, though some estimates range as high as $20 billion. They have purchased factories, insurance companies, and a bank. They tried to buy the now defunct, pro-labor Party Davar daily newspaper, and the pro-Likud Maariv, the nation's second largest newspaper. They have even put together a koopa, or a pool of money, for bribes and other forms of mutual support. One of Leder's greatest fears is that the Russians will compromise Israel's security by buying companies that work for the military-industrial complex. The mobsters, in fact, attempted to purchase a gas and oil company that maintains strategic reserves for Israel's military. "They could go to the stock market and buy a company that's running communications in the military sector," he complains.
Insinuating themselves throughout the country, Russian dens have bought large parcels of impoverished development towns, taking over everything from local charities to the town hall. For instance, Gregory Lerner, a major Russian crime boss who arrived in Israel with huge amounts of money, allegedly owns everything from fashionable restaurants to parts of several port city waterfronts.
"Do you know what Gregory Lerner did in Ashkelon!" Leder asked me during an interview in New York. "His mother was three times in the hospital there. He bought new medical equipment and dedicated it to his mother! It's the way the mobsters wash their name." They do so, he explains, in order to build up grassroots support and openly influence politicians -- or even run for elective office. Leder worries that one day three or four Russian gangsters who have bought their legitimacy will win Knesset seats, take over a key committee, and be in an ideal position to stop an important piece of anti-crime legislation, such as a proposed bill to criminalize money laundering.
One of Leder's worst fears came true when Russian gangsters handpicked several candidates to run for local and national offices, according to the minutes of a classified Israeli cabinet meeting held by the Committee of the Controller in June 1996. And in May 1997, Israeli police launched a probe into allegations that Lerner attempted to bribe former Prime Minister Shimon Peres, among other Knesset members and cabinet ministers. The investigation was inconclusive, however, and no charges were filed.*
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BBC
You are in: Special Report: 1998: 03/98: russian mafia
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Saturday, 21 November, 1998, 09:00 GMT
How Russia's mafia is taking over Israel's underworld
The Israeli authorities grant citizenship to anyone who can prove Jewish ancestry
The BBC's Kevin Connolly investigates the Russian mafia's covert invasion of Israeli society.
There are alarming signs that the Russian mafia has taken over the Israeli underworld and is using the country to launder its vast profits.
A wave of mass immigration from the former Soviet Union has brought 750,000 newcomers to the Jewish state in the last decade.
Amid the innocent exodus were Russian gangsters, many of whom are believed to have produced bogus proof of Jewish ancestry to enter the country.
Police in Israel have been keeping around 30 organised key crime suspects under surveillance.
Billions invested in Israel
Former police chief Asaf Hefetz says £2.5bn ($4bn) of organised crime money from the former Soviet Union has been invested in Israeli real estate, businesses and banks in the past seven years.
Gregory Lerner, who was arrested in 1997 for defrauding four Russian banks of £70m ($106m), was reputedly sent to Israel to head up one of the money laundering operations.
Gregory Lerner is under police guard in Israel
Lerner, 47, will serve six years in jail after reaching a plea bargain with Israeli prosecutors.
Detectives claim two Russian mafia groups are plotting to "spring" him from an Israeli jail.
Increasing Russian activity
Commander Meir Gilboa, chief of the Israeli Serious Crime Unit, has noticed the increasing activity of Russian gangsters.
He says: "They come here because in Israel it's easy to carry out their illegal activities.
"There is no law against money laundering or belonging to an illegal organisation.
"It's easy for Jews to receive Israeli citizenship. If they are not Jews they are smart enough to forge documents in order to become citizens. They feel much safer here than in Russia."
Prostitutes from Eastern Europe often end up in Israel
Threat to Israeli society
Commander Gilboa says Russian criminal organisations pose a threat to Israeli society: "They have the means at their disposal to corrupt government and economic systems.
"The other danger is that they will also increase crime here because they need a lot of money to support their luxurious lifestyles."
One highly profitable area in which they are thriving is prostitution.
Dozens of brothels and peepshows have sprung up in Tel Aviv and Haifa in the last few years.
Modern form of slavery
Many are controlled by Russian mobsters who recruit Eastern European women who then become trapped and subservient.
Rita Rasnic, of the Israeli Women's Aid Centre, describes it as "modern day white slavery".
The Russian mafia is making a fortune in Israel
Women are often traded between gangsters for £6,000 ($10,000) to £9,000 ($15,000) and routinely have their passports taken away by their pimps.
Detective Toni Haddad of the Haifa vice squad says: "They are sold like slaves.
"Nobody cares. I don't think it's life for them," as the prostitutes have to do whatever their bosses want. The woman are "not free to do anything."
