In 1978, Israel banned the extradition of its own citizens.
The law, enacted during the presidency of Menachem Begin, was intended to protect Jews from hostile foreign courts. But it later created a legal loophole, allowing Israeli citizens accused of crimes abroad to avoid extradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In September 1997, Samuel Sheinbein murdered 19-year-old Alfredo Enrique Tello Jr. in Maryland and fled to Israel. There, he acquired Israeli citizenship through his father, Sol, an Israeli-born dual-citizen lawyer, who provided him with a passport and a plane ticket to Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In doing so, Sheinbein secured protection from extradition to the United States, in a case that set a significant precedent for Israeli extradition law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Israel\u2019s Supreme Court blocked Sheinbein\u2019s extradition by a 3-2 vote, despite pleas from Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and threats from Congress to withhold financial aid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Supreme Court Chief Justice Aharon Barak, who wrote the dissenting opinion, argued that Sheinbein should be extradited, warning that such a decision could turn Israel into a haven for criminals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ultimately, Sheinbein was sentenced to 24 years in prison in Israel\u2014a sentence far less than he would have faced in the United States. Israel amended its law after the scandal, allowing the extradition of Israeli citizens under certain conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Sheinbein case exposed the conflict between Israeli law and international extradition obligations to the United States, leading to a broader review of the country\u2019s extradition framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the debate on the reform, Hanan Porat, head of the Knesset\u2019s Legislation Committee, warned that Israel should not become a \u201csafe haven for foreign criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By 2020, Jewish Community Watch had identified more than 60 suspected child sex offenders who had moved from the United States to Israel since 2014, with estimates suggesting the actual number was much higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Activists accused both Israel of failing to address the problem and the United States of not pushing hard enough to extradite the suspects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mordechai Yom Tov<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In December 2001, Mordechai Yom Tov, a teacher at Cheder Menachem Jewish School in Los Angeles, was arrested and charged with ten counts of lewd acts against three students, ages 8 to 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to court documents, he kept the boys locked in the classroom during recess and engaged in sexual acts with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In February 2002, Yom Tov pleaded guilty to two counts of continuous sexual abuse of a minor and one count of lewd acts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was sentenced to one year in prison, five years suspended, and ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment and to be placed on the sex offenders\u2019 registry for life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After his release, he violated the terms of his probation, fled through Mexico on a fake passport, and lived in Jerusalem for nearly 23 years, hiding in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Tel Arza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Jewish Community Watch organization tracked him down and filmed him with a hidden camera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Malka Leifer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Malka Leifer, the former principal of Melbourne\u2019s ultra-Orthodox Adass Israel school, fled to Israel in March 2008 after the community\u2019s leadership became aware of allegations of sexual abuse of female students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Evidence presented in court showed that the wife of a school board member had booked flights for Leifer and her four children that very evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Supreme Court of Victoria ruled that those who arranged her departure were determined to remove her from the country within hours. Australia filed a formal extradition request in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than 70 court hearings and a legal battle that lasted almost 13 years followed. Leifer and her lawyers have repeatedly argued that she was mentally unfit to stand trial, which has contributed to the long delay in the proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Israeli Health Minister Yaakov Litzman abused his position to block her extradition. Prosecutors alleged that he pressured ministry staff and offered kickbacks to psychiatrists to issue opinions declaring Leifer mentally unfit to stand trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2022, Litzman pleaded guilty to breach of duty and was sentenced to an eight-month suspended prison sentence and a 3,000 shekel fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Australia, Leifer was found guilty of 18 counts of sexual abuse, including the rape of a 17-year-old schoolgirl, and sentenced to 15 years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Epstein: The Secret Service Issue That Refuses to Go Away<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jeffrey Epstein, an American financier and convicted sex offender, pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting minors for prostitution. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, of which he served less than 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After his death in 2019, thousands of documents revealed details of his extensive network of powerful contacts, including connections to Israeli politicians and allegations of Israeli intelligence involvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These connections had begun to emerge long before his death, with a pivotal episode in 2008. The secret non-prosecution agreement (NPA) had been signed on September 24, 2007, and in the months that followed, Epstein\u2019s legal team attempted to renegotiate or rescind it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In April 2008, amid the resurgence of federal charges, Epstein traveled to Israel\u2014officially to meet with scientists and visit military facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rumors circulated that he had moved himself and his assets there to avoid prosecution. He later confirmed the trip, but claimed that he had returned to New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On June 30, 2008, he formally pleaded guilty to the state charges. A 2020 FBI memo included a confidential source\u2019s testimony that Epstein \u201ctrained as a spy\u201d under Ehud Barak and was an \u201cexposed Mossad agent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The document records the source\u2019s claim, but does not indicate whether it was cross-examined or verified. The source was later identified as Charles Johnson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, a close and longtime friend of Epstein, stayed at Epstein\u2019s Manhattan apartment. He later called their relationship \u201ca mistake,\u201d while denying any knowledge of Epstein\u2019s crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Published documents reveal that personnel with ties to the Israeli government installed and maintained security systems at the apartment, and that Barak had requested security assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Barak and his wife were guests there dozens of times. In addition, his assistant, Yoni Koren, a former officer in Israeli military intelligence, lived in Epstein\u2019s apartment for weeks, with Epstein covering the costs of his cancer treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the published documents, Epstein referred to the property as \u201cEhud\u2019s apartment\u201d in correspondence with his staff. Epstein also invested in Israeli startup Carbyne, which was associated with Barak and was later acquired by the US-based Axon in a deal that valued Carbyne at $625 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time, through his foundation, he donated $25,000 to the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces organization and $15,000 to the Jewish National Fund, which finances settlement activities in the West Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Arrested in the US, returned to Israel<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n US police arrested a high-ranking Israeli official in Las Vegas for attempting to approach a minor for the purpose of sexual exploitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, he was released after posting a $10,000 bail, without any travel restrictions being imposed on him. The Israeli government publicly presented the arrest as a simple \u201cinterrogation\u201d and within 48 hours the official had already returned to his homeland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This case, which took place in August 2025 and involved Tom Artyom Alexandrovich, a high-ranking official in the Israeli National Cyber \u200b\u200bDirectorate, is just one of many examples showing how Israel has become a safe haven for sex offenders, while the US turns a blind eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The \u201cAmerican Channel\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This phenomenon goes beyond a single case. The Jewish Community Watch (JCW) has documented how some American religious communities respond to similar accusations with collective denial and active support for the accused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Often, suspects move to other communities, where new victims emerge, as the various institutions may have a financial interest in avoiding litigation and civil liability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe exact same thing that is happening in the Catholic Church worldwide is happening in the same way in our own community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The cover-ups are the same, as is the stigma and shame,\u201d Meyer Seewald, founder of JCW, told CBS News. For her part, Shana Aaronson, JCW’s Chief Operating Officer, places blame on both sides: on the one hand, she accuses Jewish communities in the US and the US government of not pushing hard enough for the suspects’ extradition, and on the other hand, she criticizes Israeli law enforcement authorities for not prioritizing their detection and prosecution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The data the state did not want to release<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The most damning evidence about the system comes from data that the state itself tried to hide. In 2024, the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel (ARCCI) recorded 51,118 cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of these, more than 16,600 were new, while more than half involved minors. Only about 10% of victims filed a complaint with the police, while 81% of sexual assault cases handled by the Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office in 2024 were filed without charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Police, the Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office, the Prison Service, the Army and various ministries have refused to provide data that they shared in previous annual reports \u2014 data that the organization considers mandatory by law to be made public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Israeli media, ARCCI director Orit Soulitzeanou called the stance \u201can expression of contempt and abdication of responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2025, the Knesset held a series of hearings that shocked the country. Women testified about systematic, organized abuse that lasted for years, including torture, gang rape, and religious rituals, which had begun in their early childhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the survivors, Yael Sitrit, told the committee: Survivors described how they were taken \u201cfrom ceremony to ceremony\u201d across the country, drugged, tortured and forced to harm other children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to The Jerusalem Post, the perpetrators used religious symbols and threats to silence them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Among those allegedly involved were family members, rabbis, doctors, teachers, police officers, and former and current members of the Knesset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the victims, Hadar Feldman, testified that from the age of eight, her father took her weekly to the office of a Knesset member (who has since passed away), where she was sexually abused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She described years of ritual abuse, which included torture and forced participation in mock religious ceremonies. Many survivors reported that police investigations were concluded within months, without any meaningful and thorough investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Knesset Research and Information Center concluded that Israel lacks a specific legal definition of \u201critual abuse,\u201d making it difficult to classify and track such cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A study covering the past decade identified just four potentially relevant police files, while the police themselves admitted that they did not know how many such complaints had been filed or how to classify them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The moral “blank check”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For the US, a concerted conspiracy was not even necessary, as community silence, amicable settlement of disputes, failed extradition requests, and routine procedural negligence proved more than enough to keep the gates open for the fugitives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In March 2025, Christians United for Israel described support for the country as a \u201cbiblical and moral responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, for a movement that places morality at the heart of its foreign policy, supporting a country that harbors pedophiles feels more like a moral license than a position of principle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Epstein has captured the public\u2019s attention not only because his case exposed the extent of corruption and lack of accountability among the elite, but…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4493],"tags":[7446,153,7578,8322],"class_list":["post-30104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-special-reports","tag-epstein-files","tag-israel","tag-jeffrey-epstein","tag-sex-criminals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30107,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30104\/revisions\/30107"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-60.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
\u201cYou have no idea what ritual abuse means. The human brain cannot comprehend it. You cannot imagine what it means to program a three-year-old girl through rape and sadism to do whatever is asked of her without anyone knowing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n