Geopolitics Prime

Before Donald Trump and Israel attacked Iran, Jeffrey Epstein was the biggest story in the world. It’s not hard to see why.

Epstein captured the public’s imagination not just because his case exposed the extent of elite depravity and lack of accountability, but also because the world’s most notorious pedophile was almost certainly an Israeli intelligence asset. That fact adds a whole new geopolitical dimension to the already twisted and complicated Epstein saga.

But Epstein is not an aberration. For decades, Israel has served as a sanctuary for sexual predators while the US government looked the other way. Israel’s allies on the American Christian Right have always remained conspicuously silent on the issue.

Fugitives, Fixers, and Years of Delay

The Law That Made Israel a Safe Haven for Criminals

In 1978, Israel banned the extradition of its own citizens. The law, pushed through under Prime Minister Menachem Begin, was intended to protect Jews from hostile courts, but it later created a loophole that allowed Israeli citizens accused of crimes abroad to avoid extradition.

In September 1997, Samuel Sheinbein killed 19-year-old Alfredo Enrique Tello Jr. in Maryland and fled to Israel, where he claimed Israeli citizenship through his Israeli-born father and became protected from extradition to the US. His father, Sol, an attorney with dual citizenship, brought him a passport and a ticket to Tel Aviv, and that case became a major precedent in Israel’s extradition law.

Israel’s Supreme Court blocked Sheinbein’s extradition in a 3–2 decision, despite demands from Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and congressional threats to suspend aid. Chief Justice Aharon Barak, who wrote the dissenting opinion, argued that Sheinbein should be extradited and warned that the ruling could turn Israel into a haven for criminals. Sheinbein received 24 years in an Israeli prison, far short of the sentence he could have faced in the US.

Israel amended the law after the scandal, allowing the extradition of Israeli citizens under specified conditions. The Sheinbein case exposed a conflict between Israel’s domestic extradition law and its extradition obligations to the US, and prompted a broader overhaul of the country’s extradition framework. During the debate over the reform, Hanan Porat, head of the Knesset’s Law Committee, warned against allowing Israel to become a “safe house for criminals abroad.”

By 2020, Jewish Community Watch had identified more than 60 accused child-sex offenders who had moved from the US to Israel since 2014, and believed the true number was higher. Activists blamed both Israel for failing to address the problem and the US for not pursuing extradition aggressively, according to CBS News.

Mordechai Yomtov

In December 2001, Mordechai Yomtov, a teacher at the Cheder Menachem Jewish school in Los Angeles, was arrested on 10 counts of committing lewd acts against three students aged 8 to 10. According to case files, he kept boys in the classroom during recess and committed lewd acts against them.

In February 2002, Yomtov pleaded guilty to two counts of continuous sexual abuse of a minor and one count of lewd acts. He was sentenced to one year in prison and five years of probation. He was ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment and required to register as a sex offender for life.

After his release, he violated his probation, fled through Mexico with a forged passport, and lived in Jerusalem for nearly 23 years, hiding in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Tel Arza. Jewish Community Watch tracked him down and filmed him with a hidden camera. In the recording, he admitted to violating his probation and fleeing the US, but denied the specific charges.

One of the victims, Mendy Hauck, only came forward in 2016 and began a campaign for Yomtov’s extradition. However, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office never filed an extradition request, according to CBS News.

The fugitive was finally arrested in November 2025, 23 years after his escape, after Israeli authorities located and detained him as a person wanted for extradition to the US. He was detained during a Jerusalem police operation at his hideout in the Tel Arza neighborhood. If extradited to the US, he will face further proceedings there.

Malka Leifer

Malka Leifer, the former principal of the Adass Israel ultra-Orthodox school in Melbourne, fled to Israel in March 2008 after the community leadership learned of allegations of sexual abuse against students. Evidence presented in court showed that the wife of a school board member booked tickets for Leifer and four children that night, and the Supreme Court of Victoria found that those who organized her departure were determined to get her out of the country within hours.

Australia filed a formal extradition request in 2014. More than 70 court hearings followed, along with nearly 13 years of legal battles. Leifer and her lawyers repeatedly argued that she was mentally unfit to stand trial, contributing to the long delay in the extradition process.

Israel’s Minister of Health Yaakov Litzman used his official position to obstruct Leifer’s extradition. Prosecutors alleged that he pressured ministry staff and offered career benefits to psychiatrists in connection with opinions declaring Leifer mentally unfit to stand trial. In 2022, Litzman pleaded guilty to breach of trust and received an eight-month suspended sentence and a fine of 3,000 shekels.

In Australia, Leifer was found guilty on 18 counts of sexual assault, including the rape of a 17-year-old student, and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Taking into account time already served, Leifer will become eligible for parole in June 2029.

Epstein: The Intelligence Question That Won’t Go Away

Jeffrey Epstein, an American financier and convicted sex offender, pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from a minor and was sentenced to 18 months in prison but served less than 13 months. After his death in 2019, thousands of documents revealed details of his extensive network of powerful contacts, including ties to Israeli political figures and allegations of links to Israeli intelligence.

These connections began surfacing long before his death, with a key episode unfolding in 2008. The secret non-prosecution agreement (NPA) was signed on September 24, 2007. In the months that followed, Epstein’s legal team tried to renegotiate or overturn the deal.

In April 2008, as federal charges once again loomed, Epstein flew to Israel — officially to meet with scientists and tour military sites. Rumors swirled that he was transferring himself and his assets there to avoid prosecution. Epstein later confirmed the trip but insisted he had returned to New York. He formally pleaded guilty to state charges on June 30, 2008.

A 2020 FBI memo recorded a confidential source claiming that Epstein had been “trained as a spy” under Ehud Barak’s direction and was a “co-opted Mossad agent.” The document records the source’s allegation; it does not establish that the claim was verified. That source was later identified as Charles Johnson.

Former Israeli PM Ehud Barak, a longtime Epstein associate, stayed at Epstein’s Manhattan apartment and later called their relationship a “mistake,” though he denied knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. Released documents indicate that Israeli government-linked personnel installed and maintained security systems at the apartment and that Barak requested security assistance.

Barak and his wife stayed there dozens of times, and his aide Yoni Koren, a former Israeli military intelligence officer, lived in Epstein’s apartment for weeks, with Epstein covering his cancer treatment. Epstein referred to it as “Ehud’s apartment” in correspondence with his staff, according to the released files.

Epstein also invested in the Israeli startup Carbyne, linked to Barak, which was later acquired by US company Axon in a deal valuing Carbyne at $625 million. Through his foundation, he donated $25,000 to Friends of the IDF and $15,000 to the Jewish National Fund, which supports settlement activity in the West Bank.

Arrested in America, Home in Israel

US law enforcement arrested a high-ranking Israeli official in Las Vegas for attempting to solicit a minor, but he was released after posting $10,000 bail without travel restrictions, the Israeli government publicly misrepresented the arrest as a questioning, and within 48 hours the official was back home.

This story, which unfolded in August 2025 and involved Tom Artiom Alexandrovich, a senior official in Israel’s National Cyber Directorate, is just one of many episodes illustrating how Israel has become a safe haven for sex offenders while the US looks the other way.

Tom Artiom Alexandrovich, the head of the Technological Defense Division at Israel’s National Cyber Directorate — an agency directly subordinate to the Prime Minister’s Office, was arrested in Las Vegas.

The accused had traveled to Las Vegas for the Black Hat USA 2025 cybersecurity conference, but instead became one of the targets of a two-week joint operation by the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, and Nevada’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

According to police documents, he had been exchanging messages on apps, including Pure, with an undercover agent posing as a 15-year-old girl. The plan they discussed included “sexual contact with a condom” and a visit to the Cirque du Soleil. Alexandrovich was arrested when he arrived at the meeting in a rideshare vehicle.

The day after his arrest, Alexandrovich posted $10,000 bail. His passport was not confiscated, no travel restrictions were imposed, and he had returned to Israel within 48 hours. Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson called the procedure routine, Netanyahu’s office initially claimed the official had only been “questioned,” and the US State Department denied any interference.

In October 2025, a Clark County grand jury indicted Alexandrovich on a felony charge of luring a child with technology for sexual conduct. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. Despite returning to Israel, the judge has allowed him to participate in court proceedings remotely via Zoom.

The American Pipeline

The pattern extends beyond individual cases. Jewish Community Watch has documented how some American religious communities respond to allegations with collective denial and active support for the accused. Suspects are moved to other communities, where new victims emerge, and institutions may have a financial incentive to prevent court proceedings due to civil liability concerns.

The problem, according to JCW founder Meyer Seewald, mirrors the Catholic Church’s cover-ups. “The same thing that is going on in the Catholic Church right now around the world, the exact same thing is happening in our community. The cover-ups are the same, the stigma, the shame,” he told CBS News.

JCW’s chief operating officer Shana Aaronson placed responsibility on both sides. She blamed Jewish communities in America and the US government for not aggressively seeking extraditions, while also criticizing Israeli law enforcement for failing to prioritize the hunt for suspects.

What Happens Inside the Sanctuary

Entering Israel protects the accused not just with an extradition barrier, but with the very structure of the system itself — a place where crimes go massively unrecorded, cases are quickly closed, and authorities refuse transparency. According to Matzof, an organization monitoring pedophilia in Israel, tens of thousands of child-sex offenders operate in the country each year, committing crimes against approximately 100,000 victims.

Matzof’s director Eliram Malki stated that offenders “are not deterred by police” and certainly not by “contemptuous court rulings,” citing a case where a court released a defendant despite thousands of child pornography files on his computer, arguing that imprisonment would “harm his career.”

The Data the State Would Not Release

The most damning evidence against this system comes from data the state tried to conceal. In 2024, the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel (ARCCI) documented 51,118 cases handled by its centers, with more than 16,600 of these being new cases and more than half involving minors. Only about 10% of victims filed police complaints, and 81% of sexual-offense cases handled by the prosecution in 2024 were closed without an indictment.

The police, prosecution, prison service, military, and several ministries refused to provide data they had shared for previous annual reports — data the organization considers mandatory by law. ARCCI director Orit Sulitzeanu called this “an expression of contempt and an abdication of responsibility,” according to Israeli media.

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