Final_Judgment

146 Israel’s Godfather [85]
supposed photos of Hoover engaged in homosexual activity. Although such
rumors about Hoover had been commonplace for years, no well-known
author had affixed his own name to the charge.
Citing numerous sources—some suspect and virtually all of them
unsavory—Summers claimed that not only Lansky, but also several others
had access to similar photos (which Summers is apparently unable to
produce). Summers reports that former OSS man and later longtime CIA
counterintelligence chief James Jesus Angleton also had control of the
Hoover photos, as did former OSS chief William Donovan.
The question, though, is whether Angleton, Donovan and company
gave the photos to Lansky—or vice-versa--either option being possible in
light of Lansky's own longtime association with American intelligence. 230
That both Lansky and Angleton were in possession of such evidence is
quite interesting in light of their joint interest in the welfare of the state of
Israel, a subject we will be examining shortly. Angleton, as we shall see in
Chapter 8 and Chapter 12, had been directly involved with the Lansky crime
syndicate through the CIA's dealings with Lansky's drug-smuggling allies in
the Corsican and Sicilian Mafias. He was also Israel's chief CIA patron.
THE GODFATHER
Clearly, Meyer Lansky was very much a "godfather" in organized crime,
far more influential than even the most powerful Mafia boss in any city in
America. All of this, then, accounts for Lansky's preeminent role in the
underworld. It is for this reason, then, that when we refer to the "Meyer
Lansky Organized Crime Syndicate" we are referring to not only the "Mafia"
but also to the powerful Jewish interests that are inter-connected here. It was
the Lansky Syndicate that played a pivotal role in the establishment of
Israel. Lansky, you see, was Israel's modern-day "Godfather." Lansky was
with Israel from the beginning.
GUN-RUNNING FOR ISRAEL
According to Hank Messick, "Certainly Jewish gangsters have long and
openly supported Jewish causes and the State of Israel. On the night
Lansky's ex-partner, Bugsy Siegel, was executed, the Flamingo was taken
over by Moe Sedway [a Lansky henchman]. When asked how he so
conveniently happened to be in Las Vegas, [Sedway] explained that he was
there to arrange a United Jewish Appeal fund drive." 231
Robert Lacey points out in his biography of Lansky that Israeli agents
were introduced to Lansky in the summer of 1948, the year that Israel
became a state. Lansky permitted the Haganah (Jewish terrorist underground)
fund-raiser, Joseph Baum, to hold a $10,000 benefit at (Lansky's gambling
house), the Colonial Inn. He gave a donation himself. Lansky told them:
"I'm at your service." 232 (As we noted in Chapter 4, one of the smaller
shareholders in the Colonial Inn—at least at one point—was a Dallas
nightclub keeper named Jack Ruby.)