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Initialed Gown. At his sister's modest two-room flat in Haifa he became a pampered guest, lounging about in a blue dressing gown initialed J.J. Israel has no extradition treaty with France, and under Israel's sweeping Law of the Return, Joanovici was confident of obtaining Israeli citizenship. But Joanovici's acute perceptions were getting a bit blurred: he had forgotten that, since the Suez invasion, France and Israel have become the staunchest allies, and that a dubious new immigrant would not weigh importantly in the scales against reasons of state. After 14 months of legal wrangling, the Israeli government ruled against Joanovici, and he was put aboard a ship bound for Marseille, with the unusual distinction of being the only one in a million Jewish immigrants to Israel ever to be expelled.
Last week at Marseille, besieged by French police, Joanovici at first petulantly refused to set foot on French soil. But at last, after a conference with his lawyer, he walked down the gangplank smoking a fat cigar, smiling pudgily for the photographers. To reporters he said airily: "I have no fears because I have confidence in French justice." To a welcoming friend, he muttered an aside: "Don't worry—I'll get out of it again."