Mideast Report

TEL AVIV (JTA) -- An Israeli court sentenced a man who had fled a U.S. indictment. Zev Ben-Simon was convicted in October by a court here of bilking more than $20 million from four California banks.

On Monday, he was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison.

Ben-Simon fled to Israel before being indicted in 1993 by a grand jury in San Francisco. He was tried in Israel because Israeli law at the time did not permit his extradition to the United States.

Trio of Israelis perish in downed Swiss plane

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Two Israeli doctors and one economist were killed in Saturday's Crossair plane crash.

The 97-seat plane crashed in a Swiss forest while attempting to land at Zurich Airport late Saturday night. The two doctors were identified as Dr. Ya'acov Matzner, dean of faculty at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical Center, and Dr. Amiram Eldor, head of the hematology department at Ichilov Hospital. The third man was Avishai Berkman, a senior Tel Aviv municipal official.

Cairo forum explores Western take on Islam

CAIRO (JTA) -- A conference opened here to discuss how to improve Westerners' image of Muslims. Hosted by the Arab League, the conference is dealing with the world's alleged readiness to equate Islam with terrorism.

The League's secretary-general, Amre Moussa, asked delegates whether they themselves were responsible for some of these negative attitudes. "Did we try to explain our culture, our civilization to others?" he asked. Moussa added that the League had started a fund with an initial $1 million donation from the United Arab Emirates to finance publications promoting dialogue among civilizations.

Israel's 'best hope' picked for Eurovision

TEL AVIV (JPS) -- Singer Sarit Hadad was chosen today to represent Israel at the next Eurovision song contest.

The competition will be held in Estonia in about six months, Army Radio reported.

A special Broadcasting Authority committee chose Hadad after members decided she would be Israel's best hope for victory.