David S. Steiner (with Sylvia L.)
March 5, 2001 In 1992, David Steiner received a phone call from Harry Katz, a New York businessman who expressed interest in Steiner's work as president of a pro-Israel lobby called the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee. Steiner boasted about his political sway, saying he had "cut a deal" with the Bush administration to give more aid to Israel. He had arranged for "almost a billion dollars in other goodies," he added, and was "negotiating" with the incoming Clinton administration over appointing a Secretary of State who was pro-Israel. "We have a dozen people in his (Clinton's) headquarters," Steiner bragged, "and they are all going to get big jobs." What Steiner didn't know was that Katz was tape recording the conversation. The businessman sent transcripts to the Washington Times, prompting an apology from Steiner and his resignation from the AIPAC leadership. "In an effort to encourage and impress what I thought was a potential political activist, calling on the telephone, I made statements which were beyond overzealousness and exaggeration and were simply and totally untrue," Steiner said in a statement following the revelations. Since then, Steiner has kept a lower profile, though he remains one of the nation's biggest Democratic fundraisers. He has also continued to support the pro-Israel lobby as vice-chairman of the National Democratic Leadership Council. His political influence stems from the Steiner Equities Group, a real estate concern which oversees millions of square feet of commercial and industrial property from its New Jersey headquarters. One of his most recent projects: developing the 15-acre old Brooklyn Navy Yard into a Hollywood-style movie studio. Ironically, among those protesting the project are leaders from the local Hassidic community. "It's like bringing Times Square into the middle of Amish country," Rabbi Abraham Zimmerman complained to the Associated Press in January. -- Michael Scherer | | |
