Arafat's Bowling Venture for Terror

Gary Fitleberg

Are you amazed? Arafat knocking down pins rather than people for profit?

According to the Associated Press, the “Chairman of Terror” and corrupt dictator of the Palestinian Authority/Palestine Liberation Organziation (PA/PLO) was morally bankrupt but financially flush despite desperation cries of near poverty.

Yasser Arafat was a secret investor in the city's hottest upscale bowling alley, according to a bombshell new report.

The Arab “Palestinian” corrupt dictator three years ago pumped $1.3 million into Bowlmor Lanes, the popular Greenwich Village recreation center that has attracted a galaxy of stars, from Cameron Diaz to Rudy Giuliani.

While his people suffered from poverty, billions of “humanitarian aid money” destined for clothing, education, food, and shelter went towards terrorism and his personal pocket.

The late Arab “Palestinian” invested the money in New York-based Strike Holdings, owner of Bowlmor Lanes in Greenwich Village, through a holding company he created called Onyx Funds, according to Bloomberg Markets Magazine.

"This is a complete shock to us," said Bowlmor founder Thomas Shannon.

The entrepreneur said he had no idea he was pocketing money from Arafat when a holding company that handled some of the Palestinian boss' financial affairs began buying up 2 percent of Bowlmor's parent company in 2001.

Shannon said he became aware of the connection only after Bloomberg Markets magazine revealed it yesterday in an exposé on Arafat's finances.

Bowlmor does not want to have anything to do with the terror-linked leader.

"You can't imagine that something like this will show up on your doorstep," Shannon told The Post. "You feel the way you feel when your apartment has been robbed."

Just this summer, GOP delegates threw two convention bashes at the hipster Greenwich Village hangout. Bowlmor has also hosted Jewish Defense League events and is a popular place for parents to hold children's bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah parties.

Bowlers at the lanes, where pins signed by Giuliani — a vociferous Arafat critic who once had him removed from Lincoln Center — Carson Daly and others grace the walls, said the Arafat connection left a taste in their mouth as sour as an old bowling shoe.

"I can't believe it," said Marci Selsberg, of West Orange, N.J. "I don't want to come back. I don't want to be a part of his investments."

Arafat became involved with Bowlmor through a complicated investment scheme designed to fund and support his terrorism as well as to pocket the proceeds to his own personal accounts.

His financial company placed money with a Virginia-based firm called SilverHaze, which set up some Delaware holding companies to invest in U.S. ventures.

One of those companies, Onyx Funds, invested $1.3 million in shares of the private company that owns Bowlmor, Strike Holdings.

Just how did Arafat's money get into a bowling alley, of all things?

It turns out that the SilverHaze executive who created the Onyx Funds, Zeid Masri, is a graduate-school classmate of Bowlmor founder Shannon.

Shannon said yesterday that Masri told him only that the SilverHaze money came from "wealthy European families."

"He never mentioned [Arafat]," Shannon said.

He also said that Arafat received no profits from his investment.

Masri could not be reached for comment. But he told Bloomberg that he believed companies in which Arafat's corporation invested knew were the money was coming from.

"When we invest, people want to know where the money is coming from," he said. "We're 110 percent comfortable about where the money came from."

A spokeswoman for Bowlmor said yesterday their lawyers were working "through the night" to sever the Arafat financial link, and the matter could be wrapped up as early as today.

The Bloomberg report also said that Arafat disclosed he had invested $799 million over the past two years. His money managers invested in venture capital funds, software startups and telecommunications company from Israel to Silicone Valley.

But one bowler who was enjoying an afternoon at the lanes yesterday thinks she knew what he would have said if he ever ventured past the club's velvet rope and saw what was going on there.

"He would say, 'Look at these stupid Americans, giving me money,' " said Samanta Balassa, 27.

"We are in the process of placing the funds in the amount they invested in escrow to be returned," Strike Holdings CEO Thomas Shannon said in a telephone interview. Strike Holdings also owns bowling alleys on Long Island and in Maryland and Florida.

"Effectively as of today the PCSC will have no investments in Strike Holdings," Shannon added. The PCSC is a Ramallah-based holding company owned by the Palestinian Authority/Palestine Liberation Organization (PA/PLO).

Later at a news conference at the bowling alley, Shannon said he was feeling "shock and outrage."

"We don't choose to be affiliated with any political-based organization, especially one that may or may not have ties to things we find absolutely abhorrent," Shannon said.

Zeid Masri, managing partner of SilverHaze Partners, a Virginia-based investment firm, had told Bloomberg Markets that he invested the money in Strike Holdings for Onyx because he had been a former classmate of Shannon's.

Shannon said at the news conference that he felt betrayed by Masri, that the origins of the money should have been revealed.

"My relationship with Mr. Masri is over," Shannon said.

Bowlmor is located several blocks from the campus of New York University and is popular with Manhattan hipsters, who pay about $8 a game per person to bowl in the evenings and on weekends.

News of the investment upset some customers at the alley, which advertises itself on its website as an ideal location for bar and bat mitzvahs for Jewish teens.

"If I had known, I wouldn't have come, but I promised the kids," Steve Saslow, 55, told the Daily News in Thursday editions.

The money was among $799 million in international investments by Arafat detailed in newly released documents, Bloomberg Markets reported. Other holdings included $285 million in Orascom, an Egyptian cellphone company, and $3.2 million in the U.S. software firm Simplexity, it said.

Arafat was a shrewd, smart and successful businessman and con artist who cared nothing about human lives especially those of his own his own people.

Arafat was listed as one of the richest men in the world by Fortune magazine.

Arafat literally got away with murder and lots of millions of dollars in “humanitarian aid” money.

A sick terrible tragedy of modern history.

Arafat created a fictional Arab “Palestine” nation and “Palestinian” people in an effort to annihilate the Jewish people and steal land and money.

Who will get the money? Victims of terror?

The recipients should not be the PA/PLO which despite the fact that its tactics of terror have never ever changed manages to extort millions more from the international community for the largest and most successful perpetual political propaganda ploy of a fictitious independent Arab “Palestine” nation and “Palestinian” people. Those who have suffered as the victims of all the bloody campaign of hatred, incitement, terrorism and violence launched with the aim to divert attention away from his corruption, murder and mayhem should be the ones to receive reparations for their pain and suffering.

###

Gary Fitleberg is a Political Analyst specializing in International Relations with emphasis on Middle East affairs. His articles have appeared internationally in numerous publications including La Prensa (Managua, Nicaragua equivalent to the L.A. Times), Pakistan Today, The Kashmir Telegraph, The Iranian and many more.

opinioneditorialcomments@yahoo.com