Correspondents' Correspondence

...Hank Mes-sick's sensationahstic biography, Lansky, was published in the States and serialized in the weekend supplement of Ha'aretz, Israel's largest morning paper Suddenly the secluded guest of the Accadia Hotel was thrust into the limelight Several papers demanded that he be expelled, others insisted, with equal vigor, that since he had committed no crime in Israel and his extradition had not been requested by Washington, he should be allowed to live out his years in this country and be buried in Jerusalem beside his grandparents Meanwhile, Ha'aretz started running a series about organized crime in Israel, primarily the protection rackets aimed at Tel Aviv's restaurants, nightclubs and sprawling vegetable markets Under public pi essure, the Minister of Justice directed the Attorney General to look into the question The Ha'aretz articles neither stated nor implied any connection between Lansky and the local gangsters, but they did heighten concern that Israel's liberal entry regulations might make it a new meeting place for well-heeled underworld figures Thus when Israeli authorities were tipped (presumably by the fbi) that several questionable characters were on their way to visit Lansky, police met them at the airport and unceremoniously put them on the first outgoing plane Soon Washington began to display an openly revived interest in Lansky, the Justice Department gave a special Ha'aretz correspondent photostats of documents supposedly proving Lansky's underworld affiliations Yet the fact remains that the fbi has never obtained sufficient evidence to charge Lansky with anything more serious than tax evasion After the first reports based on the Washington documents were published here, events took a fantastic turn The correspondent, returned from overseas, was approached by a lawyer—who also happened to be a deputy mayor of Tel Aviv and a local politico of the National Religious party—offering to buy the documents with American dollars (an illegal act under the foreign currency laws) The correspondent immediately notified the police, who told him to pretend he was going along with the deal But when he came for the second meeting in the lawyer's office, he was informed that one of Israel's top-ranking police officers had warned the lawyer against the transaction The Minister of Police appointed a three-man committee of inquiry to examine the behavior of the officer, who did not deny having advised the lawyer but said his action was entirely bona fide Following two weeks of investigations, the committee, composed exclusively of government officials, exonerated the officer and dropped a bombshell of its own It declared that the Ha'aretz correspondent had been suspected of previous extortion and that the officer had simply cautioned the lawyer that he, too, might be blackmailed The committee never explained why, in that case, the coirespondent would first go to the police, nor why the editor of Ha'aretz was not notified of the suspicion against a membei of his staff No sooner was the report of the committee released than the police arrested the correspondent, charging him with having engaged two habitual criminals to steal from the files ot a certified public accountant several documents allegedly proving that an important Israeli corporation was involved in large-scale tax evasion (this was unrelated to the Lansky case) The correspondent flatly denied the whole story, insisting that he was being framed by the police At the same time, by curious coincidence, the Attorney General completed his enme investigation and revealed that he found no evidence of an Israeli Mafia And the Mimstei of Interior decided—tor the fiist time m 14 months—not to extend Lansky's tourist visa Nevertheless, things are tar horn over Lansky's lawyer announced he would appeal to the High Court of Justice for an order nisi against the Minister of the Intenor, who six months ago refused Lansky an immigrant visa he was entitled to under the Law of Return, which gives every Jew the right to settle in Israel The law excludes only applicants with criminal records whose presence in Israel might endanger law and public order The latter point certainly does not apply, Lansky's lawyer claims, and a sharply divided public now awaits the High Court ruling ?ELIAHU SALPETER The Reign in Spain MADRID—A delegation from the Cortes, Spain's national assembly, duly attended the recent Pans meeting of the Interparliamentary Union, a grotesque body that periodically brings together representatives of the world's democratic parliaments and their "colleagues" from the Soviet Bloc, Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan, and other such outposts of freedom The object of the exercise is to enable any dictator or racketeer who has fore-sightedly decorated his regime with some kind of tame "parliament" to assure the simple-minded that the legislature has international recognition and therefore cannot be as phony as critics allege Few Spaniards are impressed by the Cortes, which most people here consider a gigantic rubber stamp, yet some foreign visitors might have been deceived by the posters, newspaper ads and other electoral paraphernalia visible in every Spanish city during last month's parliamentary election It was, of course, a landslide victory for supporters of the regime No others were allowed to stand All candidates had to proclaim their attachment to "the principles of the Movement" and clear their electoral declarations through a government-controlled committee Within the regime and Movement there are, to be suie, competing factions, though their existence is not officially recognized In the September election, the government was said to have given discreet help to men associated with the secietive Catholic lay order Opus Dei, but since most voters did not know which candidates belonged to it—all had to stand as independents without or-ganizational labels ?the results could not be taken as an endorsement of any one faction Only about 55 per cent of those eligible to vote (male "heads of families" and married women) cast ballots for the 104 "family representatives" in the Cortes There are, how-evei some 450 additional members of the assembly, none of whom is elected by democratic vote Many have seats because they occupy official posts, others are nominated by the chief of state or by such government-controlled bodies as the trade unions and municipalities By virtue of his official appointments, the minister m charge of trade unions, Garcia Ramal, occupies four seats, the minister for the Movement, Fernandez Miranda, fills three, and several officials have two Even it numbers were not against them, the "family lepresentatives" would have little chance of influencing public policy Members of the Cortes aie not allowed to express "judgments of a political character" on the government's actions They may question a minister, provided they send him the text of their questions in advance, but they may not comment on his reply On thiee occasions during the last four years, some outgoing "family representatives' got ideas above their station and met privately to discuss matters that could not be debated in the Cortes The government called them to heel and issued a new regulation bar-ring such meetings m the future Meekly, they obeyed, courage is as unfashionable as conviction in the Cortes Meanwhile, the illegal workers' commissions, organized mainly by Catholic, Communist and independent Socialist groups, have been strengthened slightly this yeai by the support of the exiled Socialist Laboi party and the outlawed Socialist trade unions Formerly opposed to an alliance with the Communists, the Socialists are now saying, "Better Communist allies than none " President Nixon's unnecessary fawning on Geneial Franco, and Spiro Agnew's presence at this year's military parade commemorating Franco's mutiny against the Republic, have convinced them that it is hopeless to expect the United States and its punci-pal nato allies to do anything to promote democracy in Spain Two ministers have issued tough statements asserting that political liberalization is out of the question and that free political parties and unions are incompatible with the spirit of the regime Most people knew that already, but the reminder may not go amiss in Washington, where—diplomatic sources say—the decision has been taken to support a continuist regime (that is, one as nearly like the present dictatorship as possible) un-dei Don Juan Carlos when Franco moves on The Nixon Administration is reported to have urged intimates of Franco to persuade him to retne, arguing that if he personally super-vises the transfer of power and guides Juan Carlos' first steps there will be less chance of a toul-up All this move achieved, appaiently, was to annoy the military and other Right-wingers the U S is presumably eager to court Not only do they resent foreign interterence in Spanish af-fairs, they are far from convinced that Juan Carlos is a sufficiently strong personality to hold Spain to-gether after Franco's death They are supporting Juan Carlos in the short term, out of loyalty to Franco, but their long-term options are open ?RAY ALAN...

...TEL AVIV—Nobody paid much attention to Meyer Lansky's arrival at Lod airport in July 1970 Though allegedly a former chieftain of organized crime in the US, he received his visitor's visa just as hundreds of American tourists do every day He took a room at a luxury hotel in Herzha and, like other elderly pensioners who find that their retirement dollars stretch further here, he had no trouble getting his visa extended Last spring, however...