Final_Judgment

[90] Final Judgment 151
would tend to explain why the International Credit Bank [i.e. Banque de
Credit International or BCI], `Rosenbaum's Baby," became gambling czar
Meyer Lansky's Number One conduit abroad.
"Rosenbaum was more than a friend to the Jews, however. When his
bank was rocked with scandal after the collapse of [Bernard Cornfeld's] IOS,
the newspaper Ha'aretz solemnly declared, 'Tibor Rosenbaum is Israel.'
And the paper wasn't far from wrong. While Rosenbaum's bank facilitated
the flight-capital schemes worked by IOS, it also served as a source of secret
funds for the Mossad, Israel's intelligence service, and as one of the
country's primary weapons brokers. At one point 'as much as ninety
percent of the Israeli Defense Ministry's external budget flowed . . . through
Rosenbaum's bank on the Rue de Conseil General.'
"In economic matters he was equally important, founding the Israel
Corporation with the help of Baron Edmond de Rothschild, a French
aristocrat committed to the Zionist cause. The raison d'etre of the Israel
Corporation was to raise money among the world's Jews, money to be
invested in a variety of public and semi-public Israeli enterprises.
By finding money abroad to fund development projects in "the
homeland," Rosenbaum and Rothschild freed Israeli tax monies to be spent
on the country's critical military needs. Accordingly, [Rosenbaum] became
the "Mr. Fixit" of Israeli finance, cementing friendships with the country's
most important military and political leaders.
"The mix of Mob, Mossad, IOS, and Rothschild monies was an
intoxicating one in which the common denominator appears to have been a
love of Israel. Certainly Rosenbaum and Cornfeld shared that affection with
Lansky and the French baron." 247
THE ISRAEL CORPORATION
There is yet another interesting Lansky-BCI-Israel link in the
aforementioned Israel Corporation. It was Rosenbaum's BCI that held the
bulk of funds for the Israel Corporation, a $200 million investment trust.
The founders of the Israel Corporation included a host of longtime figures
who moved in Lansky's sphere of influence.
Prominent among them was Sam Rothberg of the National Distilleries.
Rothberg, in fact, was one of the initial investors in Lansky's first Las
Vegas casino, established by Benjamin Siegel, the Flamingo Hotel.
Rothberg was one of the leading lights in the American Jewish community
and the U.S. director of the Israeli Bonds drive. Rothberg later came to
Lansky's aid and fought against Lansky's forced return to the United States
to face criminal charges following Lansky's flight to Israel (more about
which later in this chapter.)
Others included two interesting figures in particular:
Shaul Eisenberg, Israel's wealthiest industrialist and longtime
Mossad operative—a key figure in Israel's nuclear bomb project; and
Philip M. Klutznick, a top-ranking figure in the Anti-Defamation
League (ADL) of B’nai B’rith. 248