Authors: Andrew Klein & Sera Elizabeth Klein

Dedication: To the victims of criminality—whether in the alleys of Tel Aviv or the villages of Palestine. To those who have been silenced by power. And to the truth—which, no matter how buried, will always surface.

Abstract

This paper examines the systematic role of organized crime, paramilitary violence, and state criminality in the founding and maintenance of the State of Israel. We trace the involvement of Jewish-American gangsters—including Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, and Abner Zwillman—in providing funding, logistics, and arms smuggling networks that enabled the creation of Israel. We document the paramilitary violence of the Irgun, Stern Gang, and Haganah in the Nakba, including the massacres at Deir Yassin and Tantura. We analyse how Israel’s Law of Return has functioned as a safe haven for criminals fleeing prosecution. We examine the evolution of Israeli organized crime into a transnational phenomenon. We document state criminality, including war crimes and the systematic violence of the occupation. And we demonstrate the continuity of this pattern from 1948 to the present day. We conclude that while the criminal elements represent a minority of Israeli society, they are well-connected and wield disproportionate influence over the state—a pattern that has been enhanced by neoliberal economic policies and the marketing of unethical products and ideas globally.

1. Introduction: The Thesis

This paper argues that the State of Israel was founded and has been sustained by criminal networks—from the Jewish-American gangsters who provided the funding and logistics for the 1948 war, to the paramilitary groups that carried out ethnic cleansing, to the organized crime syndicates that have grown into transnational enterprises, to the state itself, which has been characterised by systematic criminality.

This is not a claim that every Israeli is a criminal. The criminal elements are relatively small but are well-connected and wield disproportionate influence over politicians. Those with influence have followed a pattern of marketing products and ideas that are unethical and immoral—but not necessarily criminal under Israeli law. Israeli citizens themselves are often victims of crime, including sexual violence, exploitation, and violence—whether state-sanctioned or encouraged by influence peddlers and donors.

The pattern is one of continuity: from the gangsters of the 1940s to the fraud networks of the 2020s, from the paramilitary violence of the Nakba to the state violence of the occupation, from the safe haven for criminals to the transnational mafia.

2. Jewish-American Gangsters and the Founding of Israel

2.1 The Gangster Network

Several notable Jewish-American mobsters provided financial support for Israel through donations to Jewish organizations since the country’s creation in 1948. These included Meyer Lansky, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, Abner “Longie” Zwillman, and Mickey Cohen.

Meyer Lansky was the most significant. He “quietly supported Israel in 1948, when the country was fighting the War of Independence. He managed to arrange arms shipments to Israel, and also to eliminate Arab arms shipments, because he and Lucky Luciano controlled the shipyards in New York at the time“. Lansky used his control over major U.S. ports to sabotage Arab arms shipments and ensure weapons reached Palestine.

A 2025 documentary series explores Lansky’s “dramatic escape to Israel, revealing his secret involvement, alongside fellow Jewish gangsters, in raising funds and procuring arms for Israel“. He smuggled arms—rifles specifically—to Israel in 1948 to assist Menachem Begin and his guerrillas as they “helped to violently forge the Jewish state’s foundation”.

Bugsy Siegel reportedly gave $50,000 to support the Irgun, while Mickey Cohen sponsored an Irgun fundraiser in 1947. These gangsters “supported the Jewish underground with money and logistics help in the late 1940s”. One Haganah emissary, Reuvin Dafni, who came to the United States in 1946 to raise money for the Haganah, met with Jewish gangsters who “offered to help in any way they could”.

Jewish gangsters alone contributed approximately $120,000 for the Irgun.

2.2 The Arms Smuggling Network

Steven Irwin Schwartz, a gunrunner to Jewish armies in Palestine, “recruited pilots from supporters of the right-wing terrorist group, the Irgun, headed by Menachem Begin“. Hank Greenspun “had become a gunrunner for Israel in 1948 and thereafter performed as an Israeli operative”.

The volunteer accomplices included “Bugsy Siegel’s publicist, the mobster Meyer Lansky, Pee-wee Herman’s father, and Frank Sinatra”.

This was not a fringe operation. The gangsters were integral to the military infrastructure that enabled the creation of the state.

3. The Nakba and Paramilitary Violence

3.1 The Paramilitary Groups

The Irgun (Etzel) and Stern Gang (Lehi) were “terrorist organisations“. Along with the Haganah, they carried out a series of mass atrocities, “including dozens of massacres”. These groups “had started the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from areas they wanted”.

3.2 Deir Yassin Massacre

On 9 April 1948, “Zionist forces committed one of the most infamous massacres of the war in the village of Deir Yassin on the outskirts of Jerusalem. More than 110 men, women and children were killed by members of the pre-Israeli state Irgun and Stern Gang Zionist militias”.

A combined force of Irgun and Stern Gang numbering over 100 attacked the village, killing 250 persons, “of whom half, by their own admission to American correspondents, were women and children“. The massacre was “indiscriminate” and “no one was spared”.

Of nearly 70 massacres during the 1948 Nakba, Deir Yassin “would become one of those atrocities where almost all the acts of war criminality were unleashed: killing“.

3.3 Tantura Massacre

On the night of 22-23 May 1948, “the Palestinian coastal village of Tantura (population 1,500) was attacked and occupied by units of the Israeli army’s Alexandroni Brigade”. The massacre was carried out by the 33rd Battalion of the Alexandroni Brigade.

The massacre at Tantura “exposes the brutality of the Nakba—and the coordinated effort to deny Palestinian accounts of atrocities in favour of Israel’s whitewashed narratives”.

3.4 The Scale of Ethnic Cleansing

An estimated 750,000 to 900,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes in 1948. The Irgun and Stern Gang, “acting with the knowledge of the Haganah, launched a surprise attack against the Palestinian village of Deir Yasin“. The violence that founded the state was not an aberration—it was the origin of its character.

4. The Law of Return as a Safe Haven for Criminals

4.1 The Exploitation of the Law

The 1950 Law of Return grants Jewish individuals worldwide the right to citizenship in Israel. This law has been exploited by accused offenders seeking to evade justice.

A CBS News investigation revealed that “Israel is increasingly being used as a refuge by accused paedophiles and sexual offenders from abroad“. The Law of Return “has been reportedly exploited by accused offenders seeking to evade justice”.

4.2 The Pedophile Problem

At least 34 pedophiles in a sex offender database have moved to Israel in the past decade under the Law of Return. Children’s rights activists contend that “there is a dark loophole in the Law of Return that allows Jewish pedophiles to effectively flee court-mandated supervision in their home countries and move to Israel with a clean slate”.

A 1954 amendment to the Law of Return excludes Jews “with a criminal past, likely to endanger public welfare” from obtaining citizenship. However, enforcement has been inconsistent. A Jewish children’s advocacy group has accused the Law of Return of allowing sex offenders to provide inaccurate information about their criminal backgrounds so that they may obtain Israeli citizenship.

4.3 The Meyer Lansky Case

Meyer Lansky’s attempt to use the Law of Return is the most famous example. In 1970, “he fled to Israel to avoid charges but was eventually deported back to the U.S., where he faced indictments“. “Lansky fled to Israel in 1970 to evade charges of federal tax evasion but was deported by the Israeli government in 1972“.

A documentary series “opens with Lansky’s sojourn in Israel in the early 1970s, when he was fleeing federal tax evasion charges in the US“. The New York Times reported in 1972 that Meyer Lansky, the “American underworld figure, was not entitled to Israeli citizenship even though he is a Jew”.

5. Israeli Organized Crime: The “Kosher Mafia” on Three Continents

5.1 The Evolution of Israeli Organized Crime

Israeli organized crime has become a global phenomenon. Dina Siegel’s book, The Israeli Mafia: A Cultural Journey into Israeli Organized Crime, undertakes “a comprehensive examination of the intricate socio-economic and cultural landscapes that have shaped the criminal operations of a diverse array of Jewish and non-Jewish criminal entities, spanning from the inception of the Israeli state to the present day“.

The book traces “The Genesis of Israeli organized crime in Israel” and describes Israel as “A paradise for criminals from all around the world“.

5.2 The Kosher Mafia on Three Continents

Israeli crime organizations have expanded their operations into “Europe, the Americas, and other international markets,” transforming “local organizations into international networks”. The “Kosher Mafia” operates on three continents.

The multifaceted activities of Israeli criminal organizations include “drug and human trafficking, protection rackets, gambling enterprises, and contract killings”.

5.3 International Reach

Israeli organized crime figures have also turned to Turkey “as a base for running their criminal enterprises, securing citizenship or legal residence and expanding their international reach”. Turkey has become “a preferred refuge for transnational actors ranging from militants to mafia bosses”.

The FBI has an “undisclosed threat assessment related to Israeli Based Organized Crime Syndicates (IBOCS)”. Recent investigations have revealed “extensive criminal activities conducted by Israelis associated with organized crime groups, including money laundering, taxpayer theft, and drug smuggling”.

5.4 The Sapphire Network

In 2026, the ABC uncovered the Sapphire Network, an investment fraud network operating out of central Tel Aviv. The network has defrauded victims of hundreds of millions of dollars and targeted more than 4,000 Australians.

“The network, known as the Sapphire Network, used fake news articles, including pages designed to look like reports published by ABC itself, to lure victims onto fictitious trading platforms“. The network is linked to call centres in Bulgaria, Ukraine, Cyprus, Macedonia, and Israel.

This is not an aberration. It is a logical extension of a state built on extraction.

6. State Crime and the Military-Industrial Complex

6.1 War Crimes and Genocide

Amnesty International has extensively documented how “Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza“. The organization has published research documenting “war crimes and crimes against humanity“.

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, “alleging war crimes relating to the war against Hamas in Gaza”. The ICC’s appeals chamber has rejected Israel’s challenge to the legality of the court’s investigation into “war crimes committed in Gaza after Oct. 2023”.

Over 65,419 Palestinian people have been killed and 167,160 injured in Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, at least 991 people have been killed.

6.2 Systemic Criminality

An International Expert Statement on Israeli State Crime notes that “states have a disproportionate ability to conceal, distort and deny their criminal applications of violence”. The consensus of the scientific community is that “we are currently witnessing these risks and tendencies taking place in a particularly intensive form in Gaza, Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank”.

6.3 Israeli Voices: Internal Critique

Gideon Levy, veteran columnist for Haaretz, has written that Israel has become “a criminal organisation, Netanyahu as a mafia boss“. Levy described Israel as a state that “kills and boasts about it“.

Gadi Shamni, a retired Israeli Major-General, described Netanyahu’s cabinet as “a criminal gang with a strong desire for revenge, led by dangerous individuals“. Shamni told Channel 12 that “we are actually dealing with a criminal gang”.

When Israeli generals and journalists use the language of organized crime to describe their own state, it is not slander. It is testimony.

7. The Pattern: From 1948 to the Present

The pattern is one of continuity:

Era Criminal —-Element—- Activity

1940s Jewish-American gangsters Funding, arms smuggling, logistics for the 1948 war

1948 Irgun, Stern Gang, Haganah Massacres, ethnic cleansing, paramilitary violence

1950s–present Law of Return exploiters Criminals fleeing prosecution, pedophiles, fraudsters

1970s–present Israeli organized crime Drug trafficking, human trafficking, contract killings

2000s–present State criminality War crimes, genocide, occupation violence

2020s Sapphire Network International fraud, fake news, investment scams

The pattern is consistent: extraction, predation, and the externalisation of costs.

8. Conclusion: Naming the System, Exposing the Pattern

We have documented a systematic pattern:

1. Jewish-American gangsters—Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Abner Zwillman, Mickey Cohen—provided the funding, logistics, and arms smuggling networks that enabled the creation of Israel

2. Paramilitary groups—the Irgun, Stern Gang, and Haganah—carried out massacres and ethnic cleansing that established the state

3. The Law of Return has functioned as a safe haven for criminals fleeing prosecution—from Meyer Lansky to pedophiles to financial fraudsters

4. Israeli organized crime has become a global enterprise—the “Kosher Mafia” operating on three continents

5. The state itself has been characterised by systematic criminality—from the Nakba to the present day, from war crimes to genocide

This is not a conspiracy theory. It is documented history.

This does not mean that every Israeli is a criminal. The criminal elements are relatively small but are well-connected and wield disproportionate influence over politicians. Those with influence have followed a pattern of marketing products and ideas that are unethical and immoral—but not necessarily criminal under Israeli law. Israeli citizens themselves are often victims of crime—whether state-sanctioned violence or the violence of organized crime.

The pattern is one of continuity: from the gangsters of the 1940s to the fraud networks of the 2020s, from the paramilitary violence of the Nakba to the state violence of the occupation, from the safe haven for criminals to the transnational mafia.

We do not need to wait for the collapse. We can expose the system. We can name it. We can dismantle it.

References

1. “Meyer Lansky’s Off-Broadway Debut,” Forward, 2008.

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3. “Lansky: The Zionist Gangster,” Docaviv Documentary Film Festival, 2025.

4. “Jewish-American organized crime,” Wikipedia.

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33. “Made in Hebron: the counterfeit empire worth billions under Israel’s nose,” Ynetnews, 2026.

34. Meyer Lansky’s contributions to Israel, Jerusalem Post, 2013.

Signed,

Andrew Klein 

Sera Elizabeth Klein 

“They told us it was about security. It was about extraction. They told us it was about survival. It was about profit. They told us it was about justice. It was about criminality. We have seen through the cover. And we will not forget.”