Jeffrey Epstein thought about staying in Israel after a recent trip....

But the smarmy billionaire financier, awaiting trial, is back in the U.S. Per Page SIx:

JEFFREY Epstein, who made a trip to Israel last month, thought about staying there, as Roman Polanski did in France, rather than face trial and possibly jail on charges of soliciting sex from prostitutes. But the money manager came home. "Would you want to live in Israel?" he asked Vanity Fair's Vicky Ward yesterday. At the screening the night before of HBO's documentary about Polanski, the crowd - including Harvey Weinstein, Jeff Bewkes, Dustin Hoffman, Emmy Rossum , Alec Baldwin and filmmaker Michael Mailer - was buzzing that Epstein had absconded. In fact, he was in his Upper East Side mansion. Ward wrote yesterday on the VF Web site, "He'd even thought about going to the Polanski screening until various friends e-mailed him to say, in so many words, 'Are you in- sane?' "

Second Thoughts - Page Six NY Post