Israeli Aide to NJ Governor McGreevey Gains New Work Visa From INS

By Josh Margolin

The Israeli national who served briefly as Gov. James E. McGreevey’s security adviser until questions were raised about his credentials has been granted a new work visa and can remain as a McGreevey aide, the Immigration and Naturalization Service said yesterday.

The decision means that the INS and U.S. Labor Department have concluded that Golan Cipel, now a special counsel to McGreevey on nonsecurity matters, has unique qualifications and expertise for his new job, described on his résumé as “providing strategic advice for and analysis of various policy issues.”

So far, according to McGreevey in an interview yesterday, Cipel has done an efficiency review of the state’s New Jersey-Israel Commission, worked on plans for trade missions to Israel, Ireland and the Dominican Republic, and concluded arrangements for an April security conference at Princeton University.

Work visas generally are reserved for foreign nationals of “distinguished merit and ability” who are hired into jobs for which there is no American available, according to INS visa guidelines.

McGreevey said Cipel (pronounced See-pell) meets those guidelines. “Golan is smart, incisive, hard-working and trustworthy, and he has brought a unique point of view to the work he does.”

Cipel, 33, a former campaign aide who is paid $110,000 a year, was removed as McGreevey’s homeland security adviser two weeks ago after Republican senators threatened to block all appointments unless he appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to outline his qualifications.

One of their major issues was that Cipel, as a foreign national, would not qualify for a security clearance to receive intelligence information from federal agencies monitoring terrorist activities.

The governor, citing his aide’s privacy rights, declined yesterday to release Cipel’s new visa application or an accompanying letter from his chief counsel, Paul Levinsohn, detailing Cipel’s qualifications for his new post. McGreevey said the visa application was prepared by Cipel’s own lawyer.

The governor also declined to release Cipel’s previous visa application, filed in 2000 when Cipel worked for the Democratic State Committee as McGreevey’s campaign liaison to the Jewish community. Cipel earned $10,000 for that work.

The Israeli native has been something of a mystery in Trenton since his hiring as McGreevey’s special adviser on homeland security was disclosed last month.

When criticism of the appointment began to mount, the governor erected a protective wall around his aide. McGreevey declined to make him available for interviews, refused a Judiciary Committee request that he appear before the panel, called reporters personally to defend the hiring, and has stood by his aide when questioned on radio call-in shows.

McGreevey met Cipel two years ago at a reception near Tel Aviv while on a visit sponsored by the United Jewish Federation of Metro West. They were introduced by David Mallach, the federation’s assistant director.

“I introduced him to Jim and mentioned that this is the Democratic candidate or something like that and I guess they started talking,” Mallach said.

At the time, Cipel was a spokesman in the office of the mayor of his hometown of Rishon Lezion (translation: Zion’s First), the fourth-largest city in Israel. Before that, he was chief information officer at the Israeli consulate in New York.

McGreevey said he was immediately impressed by Cipel. He “was bright and tough, not a yes man,” the governor said.

The mayor of Rishon Lezion, Meir Nitzan, said that six months later Cipel “asked me to release him” so he could go to the United States to work on McGreevey’s gubernatorial campaign. At the time, Cipel was earning the equivalent of $36,000 annually.

“It was an opportunity which is unique in his life to get some practice in American politics with someone who is in a high-ranking job ... And I think he had a girlfriend in the States,” the mayor said.

Cipel’s mother, Leah, said she was not surprised that her son accepted an offer to work on McGreevey’s campaign.

“He loves New York and the United States better than Israel,” Mrs. Cipel said in a mix of Hebrew and English in a telephone interview from the family home in Rishon Lezion.

When Cipel got to the United States, McGreevey said, he recommended him to his top political contributor, developer Charles Kushner, for a second job to supplement his income from the campaign. Kushner hired Cipel for a $30,000-a-year public relations job at Kushner Cos.

In the past decade, Kushner, his family members and associates have donated more than $418,000 to McGreevey’s campaigns. McGreevey recently nominated him to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The governor said campaign aides also made arrangements for an apartment and car for Cipel. He moved into a rental at the Gill Lane Apartments in Woodbridge, located less than a tenth of a mile from the governor’s own condo. The complex is owned by another of McGreevey’s top contributors, the Halpern family, which controls Atlantic Realty Development Corp., the state’s largest land-development company.

The governor credited his aide for his work ethic and drive.

“For somebody to pick up and leave 6,000 miles to come here and work hard, that says something about effort and commitment,” McGreevey said. He dismissed the controversy over his aide’s security credentials as “part of the [political] process. To paraphrase [President] Truman: ‘If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.’”

But Colette Avital, an Israeli parliament member who hired Cipel when she served as Israel’s consul general in New York, said she was surprised to learn of Cipel’s security job.

“It seemed unusual to me. When he worked for me, he did plain public relations work. We used to issue bulletins. I don’t know that he has any qualifications on the issues of terrorism,” she said.