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December 13, 2002/Tevet 8 5763, Vol. 55, No. 16
American scholar denies link to Arafat
JOE BERKOFSKY
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEW YORK - A leading American Jewish supporter of the Middle East peace process is denying reports that he made millions of dollars from a slush fund involving Yasser Arafat and an Israeli envoy.
Stephen P. Cohen, a national scholar with the Israel Policy Forum and president of the Institute for Middle East Peace and Development, told JTA on Dec. 10 that he never had business dealings with the Palestinians.
Cohen long has been involved in both behind-the-scenes and public efforts to forge Israeli-Palestinian ties.
But he denied last week's report in the Israeli daily Ma'ariv that he helped Israeli envoy Yossi Ginossar illegally transfer $300 million in Palestinian Authority funds to a secret Swiss bank account controlled by Arafat, the P.A. president.
"I was not involved in any way, at any time, with investment of funds or banking of the Palestinian Authority or of its leadership," Cohen told JTA in a prepared statement. "I know nothing about that story."
With Ginossar having served as a private channel to Arafat for three Labor Party prime ministers who were strong backers of the Oslo accords, fallout from the scandal is hitting the peace camp in the United States.
Some have questioned whether the affair will further hamper groups still advocating Israeli-Palestinian peace at a time when their mission already has been badly damaged by the Palestinian intifada.
"It may make it more difficult for the one group that has been most closely identified with Stephen P. Cohen - the Israel Policy Forum," said Lewis Roth, assistant executive director of Americans For Peace Now.
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