The last jew in Kabul goes to a Brooklyn court

The first mention followed the US invasion of Afghanistan, when a Times reporter, embedded with the Special Forces, was told by a tea drinking informer that there were still two Jews in Kabul, “but they always argue about everything, worse than Christians and Moslems.” The reporter found the last two Jews, one an elderly tailor who was living in a dingy street level apartment in a narrow alleyway, the other a middle age carpet dealer with few rugs and fewer customers. They both spoke of the exodus of the Jewish community, how well they got along with their Muslim neighbors (and how dangerous it was after the Taliban fled). But they also spoke of how “corrupt” the other “so-called Jew” behaved (the tailor about the rug merchant) and what a “hypocrite” and “thief” the tailor was (according to the rug merchant). According to the Times, the rug merchant was planning to move to Israel and join his progeny. The tailor was going to stay and be buried with his ancestors, “if they can find the grave stones, after the big bombs fell on our cemetery, you know nothing is sacred anymore, even for the Americans.”

The second story in the Times on Ben Levi was a brief mention of his arrest in a Brooklyn apartment as a participant in a missile smuggling deal, with an alleged Al Queda representative (an FBI plant) and a British-Pakistani gun runner. The Times followed up the Pakistani-Al Queda connection, but Jacob ben Levi went from page one to page none - he disappeared from the story. The judge set bail at $10 million dollars for the two terrorists arms suppliers, but only the former rug dealer from Kabul was bailed out, much to the surprise of the judge, prosecutor and court secretary. A lawyer from one of New York’s leading law firms put up the bail money on behalf of his client.

There was plenty of buzz that afternoon among the District Attorney’s gathering after hours at Houlihan’s watering hole.

“The Brotherhood came through, once again,” Pete Doherty, the court-appointed lawyer, who was quickly replaced, commented. “They really stick together sight unseen.”

“But can you imagine, a creepy bum, coming up with $10 million bucks!” Monahan exclaimed.

“Come on”, Doherty retorted, “He probably doesn’t even know where the money came from.”

“The real question is why did they put up the money? Who was our Jacob working with?” the clear gravely voice of Dean Graham, the veteran prosecutor interjected.

There was a moment of silence, as everyone looked toward Dean.

“Well I was talking with the FEEBEES and they think he was a double agent for the Mossad, infiltrating Al Queda? When he got caught, they sprang him before he might blow the cover.”

“I dunno, to me he was in it for the big bucks. He looks the type to sell his grandmother’s bones,” Doherty commented. “He doesn’t give a fart for the Jews or Israel, he was selling missiles that could have killed Jews here or in Israel, all he was interested in was the commission on the sale.”

“I think you are both wrong.” Chief-investigator Murphy challenged. “Ben Levi was hanging out in those brothel bars run by the Russian Jewish Mafia in Brighton Beach, it was the only place where the lap dancers could get around his pot belly. He started out with Hassidics picking up small change in the car accident scams, one of the Mafia’s’ sidelines to white slavery, money laundering and you name it. They went big time. Stealing uranium and missiles smuggled out of Russia to the Middle East terrorist market, probably sold it to some Arab playboys from Saudi. How Ben Levi got into the deal? He probably played on his Afghan background and told them he could get them some Taliban customers with big bucks. They were dumb enough to buy into it and Ben Levi was dumb enough to hook up with an FBI agent.”

“Murphy, you’re a smart cop, you do great leg work and keep up worthy files but you don’t understand the politics of something like this,” Dean spoke condescendingly to his Celtic colleague. “How do you explain the fact that the Times stopped mentioning Ben Levi. I mean he disappeared from sight, here in the midst of all this “War against Terrorism” that’s going around 24 hours a day, every day of the year. No coverage of the role of a Jew working with Al Queda - selling missiles for terrorist plotters? A high-powered law firm, whose senior partners are big donors and fund raisers for the State of Israel, putting up $10 million dollars for a collaborator of Al Queda. No its not the Russian Jewish Mafia nor his grandmother’s bones scattered in a Kabul graveyard not the Brotherhood Solidarity Fund, it is Mossad, Israel and its local backers who are in this.”

Dean stopped and finished off his drink.

Doherty burped and got up. “Got to go home fellows. See you tomorrow.”

Murphy felt Dean put him down, “Well, try laying that out in court and see how short your career lasts, ‘anti-Semite’,” he grinned.

“Not now, but one of these days, they’ll go too far. You’ll see,” Dean smiled back.