WSJ: All Jews should be denied bail because they are de facto DUAL-CITIZENS!

[MikeWB]

Citizenship in Israel At Center of Bail Fight - WSJ.com


Citizenship in Israel At Center of Bail Fight - WSJ.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1229654 ... lenews_wsj
By JESS BRAVIN

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department is contending that a Jewish defendant in Iowa should be denied bail in part because he, like all Jews, is entitled to Israeli citizenship if he seeks to immigrate to the Jewish state.

The argument against the defendant, Sholom Rubashkin, could in theory apply to all Jewish criminal suspects. Mr. Rubashkin faces multiple charges related to the alleged hiring of illegal immigrants at a kosher meatpacking plant he formerly headed in Postville, Iowa.

Federal agents raided Agriprocessors Inc.'s slaughterhouse in May and arrested nearly 400 illegal immigrants. Later, several managers and supervisors were charged, and two believed to be Israeli citizens fled to Israel, the government says.

Prosecutors cited several reasons that Mr. Rubashkin, 49 years old, is a flight risk, including a large amount of cash found in a travel bag in his home, along with his birth certificate and passports for some of his 10 children. They also argued that Mr. Rubashkin's "Jewish heritage" made him a "de facto dual citizen" who could abscond to Israel.

"If defendant were released, he would easily be able to immigrate to Israel under the Israel's right-to-return law, and would be allowed what essentially is...as a practical matter, dual citizenship," Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Deegan Jr. said at a Nov. 19 hearing.

Mr. Rubashkin's attorney, Baruch Weiss of the firm Arent Fox, said the government's argument discriminates against Jews.The Justice Department's position "means that 5,300,000 Americans would be viewed as heightened bail risks simply because they are Jews," he argues in legal papers.

Bob Teig, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Cedar Rapids, said the government is not singling out Jews, but "making an argument related to citizenship. If someone was a citizen of Guatemala or had dual citizenship" with that country, a similar argument would apply, he said.

A spokeswoman at the Justice Department in Washington declined to comment.

Israel's 1950 Law of Return states that "every Jew has the right to come to this country" with limited exceptions such as those with a criminal past.

Washington and Jerusalem signed an extradition treaty in 1962, but federal prosecutors long complained about roadblocks to bringing Israeli defendants to the U.S. for trial. The two countries recently revised the treaty, bringing "it up to the standards for our modern extradition practice," a Justice Department official told a Senate committee in 2005.

Write to Jess Bravin at mailto:jess.bravin@wsj.com">jess.bravin@wsj.com

[Ognir]

Screw it, lose $50b and they let you stay @home in Jew York
Good find Mike