The decision was a very difficult one for Israel's High Court of Justice. Meyer Lansky, 70, the reputed financial wizard of the U.S. underworld, had been living quietly in Israel for 26 months on a visitor's visa as a "retired business man," and had applied for Israeli citizenship. Was he entitled to claim automatic citizenship, like every other Jew under the "Law of the Return"? Or should Lansky be excluded under a clause in the law that bars Jews with criminal pasts who would endanger the public welfare? Specifically, should two minor convictions and pending charges of income tax evasion and...
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