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The Schmooze

Gadhafi Invited To Become Israeli

Muammar Gadhafi has been invited to become Israeli.

A Jewish family of Libyan descent has extended the offer to the deposed dictator, who as of this writing is still at large. Gita Boaron, who lives in the Tel Aviv suburb of Netanyahu, has told local media that Gadhafi is eligible to make aliyah because she and Libya’s former “Brotherly Leader” share a great-grandmother, and that religious tradition would define him as a Jew.

“She fled her Jewish husband for a Muslim sheikh,” she says, referring to the relative they supposedly have in common. “Her daughter was the colonel’s mother, making him Jewish under rabbinic law.”

Gadhafi’s fall from power has stirred up memories within Israel’s Libyan community, which numbers about 100,000. Some recalled his presence at a Jewish wedding in Tripoli in the 1960s, before he became famous as a terrorism-supporting tyrant. He has not been a notable supporter of Israel.

Call us crazy, but if the Shmooze had to guess, it would wager that Israel’s diplomatic corps and interior ministry wouldn’t be too keen to grant him citizenship.

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