The Hank Greenberg Of Israeli Real Estate*

In case you were unaware, Mayor Bloomberg has international cachet:

A new luxury apartment complex rising in Israel is using Mayor Bloomberg’s name to promote its multimillion-shekel apartments.

While Mr. Bloomberg says he has never even stepped foot in the “Jerusalem of Gold” complex on Rabbi Akiva Street in Jerusalem, its Web site links to an article in a local newspaper claiming that the mayor was about to seal the deal on a penthouse apartment.

The front-page article features a photo of the mayor smiling, his arms outstretched and thumbs thrust in the air. It said Mr. Bloomberg was “in negotiations” to buy the apartment and that his representatives had been to Israel to look at the project and scope out the security situation.

“The mayor is not buying a home in Jerusalem” and “is not buying real estate in Israel,” a spokesman for the mayor, Stuart Loeser, said when asked about the article.

. . .

A managing partner at the Manhattan firm Massey Knakal Realty Services, Shimon Shkury, who is Israeli, said he didn’t know anything about Mr. Bloomberg’s involvement in the project. But, he said, Mr. Bloomberg is “highly appreciated in Israel” and any project would benefit from an association with him.

*Title rejected on the grounds of being too obscure and perhaps too logically inconsistent: “Bloomberg As The Blomberg Of Israeli Real Estate”.