{"id":71,"date":"2004-12-23T10:21:49","date_gmt":"2004-12-23T18:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2004\/12\/bowling_for_palestine.html"},"modified":"2004-12-23T10:21:49","modified_gmt":"2004-12-23T18:21:49","slug":"bowling_for_pal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/archives\/2004\/12\/bowling_for_pal.html","title":{"rendered":"“Bowling for Palestine”"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Bowling for Palestine” is how the Daily News and the Post (see also “PIN-HEAD ARAFAT’S TERROR ‘$TRIKE'”) are describing the revelation that Yasser Arafat had $1.3 million invested in the company that owns Greenwich Village’s Bowlmor Lanes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The news, first reported in Bloomberg Markets Magazine, hit some Bowlmor patrons like a 15-pound ball taking down the headpin.<\/p>\n

“If I had known, I wouldn’t have come, but I promised the kids,” said financier Steve Saslow, 55, with his 4-year-old and 8-year-old in tow.<\/p>\n

It apparently also came as a surprise to Bowlmor’s owners, a company called Strike Holdings, which runs the bowling alley called Strike in New Hyde Park, L.I., as well as lanes in Maryland and Florida.<\/p>\n

The firm said it was “shocked” to learn Arafat was behind the investment – and planned to return the money and sever any ties to the Palestinians.<\/p>\n

“This information was never disclosed to us previously, and had we known the source of these funds, which represents approximately 2% of our company’s equity, we never would have accepted them,” spokeswoman Marcia Horowitz said.<\/p>\n

“We do not endorse their values, and we do not want to be affiliated with them in any way.”<\/p>\n

Bowlmor has been around since 1938, but it was sold in 1997 to entrepreneur Tom Shannon.<\/p>\n

Shannon happened to attend business school with Arafat’s U.S. investment manager, Zeid Masri, who decided to park some Palestinian Authority cash in Bowlmor.<\/p>\n

The $1.3 million, funneled through a company called Onyx Funds, was just a small piece of a $799 million fortune that Arafat invested in companies across the Middle East and the U.S.<\/p>\n

Masri figured the stake would be a moneymaker, but it looks like a gutter ball for the Palestinian Authority, since Strike has not paid any dividends on the investment.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, with its disco atmosphere, $9 games and prime location, Bowlmor has become the top-grossing alley in the city – a popular spot for office parties and young singletons.<\/p>\n

Its Web site also advertises it as a hot spot for bar mitzvahs, complete with a kosher caterer and a special room for candlelighting ceremonies.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oh, the irony! Love that irony!<\/p>\n

But of course there are also those who are able to disengage the personal from the political:<\/p>\n

Sam Rubin, 30, an Israeli-born NYU student walking into Bowlmor yesterday, said the Arafat link would not stop him from tossing a couple of games.<\/p>\n

“I’m glad Arafat’s dead, but I like to separate … politics and bowling,” he said.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Bowling for Palestine” is how the Daily News and the Post (see also “PIN-HEAD ARAFAT’S TERROR ‘$TRIKE’”) are describing the revelation that Yasser Arafat had $1.3 million invested in the company that owns Greenwich Village’s Bowlmor Lanes: The news, first reported in Bloomberg Markets Magazine, hit some Bowlmor patrons like a 15-pound ball taking down […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-manhattan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}