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SUNDAY, JUNE 1, 2014 Pro-Israel Group's Lawsuit Against IRS May be Tea Party Game Changer by Daniel Greenfield
Since 2009, Lori Lowenthal Marcus, President of Z Street has not been able to receive a Charitable Tax Exempt 501c for her organization status since it is under special scrutiny because of their Pro Israel position.
The position of Z Street is that Israel has a right to exist and that Jews have a right to live in all parts of Israel without being removed and they believe that the goal of the Peace Process is peace and not a Palestinian State. Z Street wishes to educate the public with accurate information.
The policy position of the United States is to call for a Two State Solution. I haven't heard a different policy position even though Hamas and the PLO will announce their Unity Government on Monday, June 2, according to Palestinian Arab media outlet Ma'an.
Apparently, from my observation, after reading the news reports below, the policy position of the State Department is to strangle the settlements or in nicer language "end the four-decade Jewish settlement enterprise and foster a Palestinian State in the West Bank" and fund terrorism.
In the Wall Street Article, they quote from the New York Times "Why the special scrutiny for pro-Israel groups? A New York Times article in July 2010 provided a clue: Tax-exempt groups were donating to West Bank settlers, and State Department officials wanted the settlers out. "As the American government seeks to end the four-decade Jewish settlement enterprise and foster a Palestinian state in the West Bank," the Times wrote, "the American Treasury helps sustain the settlements through tax breaks on donations to support them."
"Asked about the slow pace of approval, the IRS auditor on the case, Diane Gentry, said the application was taking so long because auditors were supposed to give special scrutiny to groups "connected with Israel." Ms. Marcus says Ms. Gentry further explained that many applications related to Israel had to be sent to "a special unit in D.C. to determine whether the organization's activities contradict the Administration's public policies.""
I would like to address what the New York Times suggests as being relevant even though as Ms. Lori Lowenthal Marcus points out, her organization Z Street, does not provide resources to anyone so this excuse doesn't even apply to her organization. Z Street is suing the IRS for viewpoint discrimination.
For our discussion however, let us assume that an organization actually sends resources to aid settlement in Judea and Samaria. These monies go towards helping to pay purely humanitarian causes, help agricultural initiatives, schools, playgrounds, medical services, promote business for both Jews and non Jews alike. A company like Soda Stream is a role model business that builds healthy and productive communities. In addition funds of the organization might go towards exposing acts of terror. This money definitely would not go to fund terror or fund the education of terror. Until now the guidelines have been nontransparent and the IRS was able to withhold the applications without explanation. We hope that this is no longer true. Sultin Knish Daniel Greenfield writes "A federal judge refused to dismiss a suit brought by a pro-Israel group against the IRS. In her ruling, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson demanded that the agency stop “attempting to thwart this action’s advancement,” and ordered the IRS to respond to the complaint within thirty days."
For our discussion however, let us assume that an organization actually sends resources to aid settlement in Judea and Samaria. These monies go towards helping to pay purely humanitarian causes, help agricultural initiatives, schools, playgrounds, medical services, promote business for both Jews and non Jews alike. A company like Soda Stream is a role model business that builds healthy and productive communities. In addition funds of the organization might go towards exposing acts of terror. This money definitely would not go to fund terror or fund the education of terror. Until now the guidelines have been nontransparent and the IRS was able to withhold the applications without explanation. We hope that this is no longer true. Sultin Knish Daniel Greenfield writes "A federal judge refused to dismiss a suit brought by a pro-Israel group against the IRS. In her ruling, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson demanded that the agency stop “attempting to thwart this action’s advancement,” and ordered the IRS to respond to the complaint within thirty days."
Wall Street Journal REVIEW & OUTLOOK: Curious IRS Timing. Did the tax agency also target groups that support Israel?
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323975004578503040989151234
It occurred to me that perhaps this is the explanation why the State Department and Administration is so anxious to portray the Settlers of Yitzhar as terrorists, comparing them to Nazi's. This occurred after some slashing of tires following a demolition of one of their homes. This explains blowing up out of proportion "Price Tag" Vandalism. This fabrication blood libel has spurred a witch hunt that targets the settler community. http://shemittahrediscovered.blogspot.com/2014/05/letter-from-eliezer-re-israel-police-in.html The identity of the perpetrators have yet to be identified and staged vandalism by Arabs not Jews has been exposed.
Perhaps the State Dept. understands that if they can prove that the settlers engage in acts of terror, they can justify strangling their communities and shut their funding.
Under US pressure, Netanyahu suspends some settlement plans
10 days after Deputy DM Danon told Times of Israel of a 'silent freeze,' PM reportedly tells settler leaders he's had to partially halt building programsBY RAPHAEL AHREN AND JTA May 30, 2014Ten days after Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon told The Times of Israel that Benjamin Netanyahu had imposed a "silent freeze" on settlement building, the prime minister reportedly confirmed that he has suspended some construction in West Bank settlements, and cited American pressure. Netanyahu told a group of settler leaders that the activity of the planning council of Israel's Civil Administration, the body responsible for authorizing construction in the West Bank, had been partially suspended because the United States demanded it, the news site nrg.co.il reported Friday. Netanyahu, who met Thursday night with mayors from 20 West Bank settlements, said the United States recently demanded that the Civil Administration not only refrain from issuing tenders for construction, but also freeze the activity of its planning committee altogether and not approve new projects that would later require tenders.
One of the visiting mayors told Netanyahu that not allowing the planning council to convene meant a de facto freeze on construction because "without its approval, the smallest actions cannot be completed, even not placing a lamp post above the guard post, much less preparing for the coming school year," nrg reported.
Read more: Under US pressure, Netanyahu suspends some settlement plans | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/under-us-pressure-netanyahu-suspends-some-settlement-plans/#ixzz33MsirCtM
I am glad the State Department understands that the financing of terror is bad and should not receive the benefit of American Tax Exempt Status.
America Finances Terror enabled by taxpayer subsidies of its 501(c)(3) status ,
Award winning Edwin Black in his book Financing the Flames, shows that organizations that do promote and fund terror however are being financed by America.
It seems that organizations who work to strengthen healthy and productive settlement and economy in Judea and Samaria for Jews and by natural extension Arabs as well, feel that their tax exempt status threatened.
It is no surprise that practically every Jewish Organization is afraid to say that Judea and Samaria is an integral part of Israel since they are afraid that this is contrary to American policy and as a result they might lose their tax exempt status.
- Asst. Sec. of State Misleads Congress on Terror Salaries SUNDAY, JUNE 1, 2014
In testimony to Congress, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, Ambassador Anne W. Patterson, defended the Palestinian Authority (PA) practice of paying salaries to terrorists in prison saying "they have to provide for the families." (So monies that go for a humanitarian purpose (funded by US) to pay for families of terrorists as social welfare aid is legit while at the same time the US encourages the State of Israel to demolish homes of productive settlers in a cruel fashion http://shemittahrediscovered.blogspot.com/2014/05/maale-rechavam-pls-watch-again-english.html
leaving them homeless are denied funding? my comments Robin Ticker)
However, Palestinian Media Watch has documented repeatedly that this is not correct. According to PA law and in practice the PA does not give stipends to terrorist prisoners' families but salaries to the terrorist prisoners themselves.
PMW has already reported that the PA Minister of Prisoners vocally rejected the claim that the payments are social welfare aid to the prisoners' families, stressing instead that the prisoners receive salaries "out of esteem."
- Another example: California Taxpayer Money Hijacked for Faculty Terrorist Meetings?
Someone robbed California taxpayers, using their money to allow college faculty to meet and support Palestinian Arab terrorists. Was it SFSU administration or faculty? http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/california-taxpayer-money-hijacked-for-faculty-terrorist-meetings/2014/05/30/
- Here is another example: The New Israel Fund, enabled by taxpayer subsidies of its 501(c)(3) status, has been a pivotal funder of the BDS movement that wages economic war against Israel. Until 2011, the NIF was a lead supporter of the Coalition of Women for Peace, which established a global BDS infrastructure. According to NIF financial records, in 2008 alone, the NIF bestowed $93,457 upon the Coalition of Women for Peace. Over a period of years, NIF financing of this organization reached a strong six-figure sum, which included both direct grants and those where the NIF acted as a go-between for other donors--a technique they called "donor advised funding."The NIF no longer provides money to the Coalition of Women for Peace. Now, the CWP is strong enough to gather its monies from other sources. But detractors say -- the irreparable damage was done. Moreover, the BDS movement today is fortified by a conveyor belt of brutality and oppression accounts--some legitimate, some exaggerated, some invented -- force fed to the world by agitation NGOs, including many financed by the New Israel Fund. NIF's financial records for 2012 indicate that it granted $109,615 to Breaking the Silence, $255,477 to B'Tselem, and $209,161 to Adalah. These three groups are among dozens of NIF grantees that critics accuse as operating on the front lines of anti-Israel information and distorting the facts about international law as it affects Israel. Numerous Knesset members and Israeli military men have gone on record to decry the NIF as a well-financed, foreign, multinational NGO, hell-bent on "destabilizing the Israel Defense Forces" and erasing the Jewish identity from the State of Israel.For example, NIF recipient Adalah's admitted mission is to erase Israel's Jewish identity and get Israelis prosecuted for war crimes in foreign capitals. On its website, Adalah brags of its robust role in the now-retracted Goldstone Report that accused Israel of war crimes in Gaza. B'Tselem provides cameras to agitators involved in orchestrated confrontations with Israeli soldiers, even as it tolerates repeated child endangerment by Palestinian provocateurs in the process. Another NIF recipient, an online publication known as +972, has published a Photoshopped image graphically depicting Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders in their underwear holding their crotches while carrying rifles, as well as a cartoon depicting former Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barack raping and eating the limbs of Barack Obama in outer space.On its website main page, Partners for a Progressive Israel, prominently encourages the boycott of such Israeli products as Ahava and Sodastream. If the Sodastream facility were being run by Mormons from Utah, Polish nuns from Warsaw, or Mennonites from Indiana, it would be up for a Nobel Prize. Moreover, when confronted and called on it, no one can reliably cite the international law Sodastream is allegedly violating with its factory known to treat all equally.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/edwin-black/financing-the-flames-nif-_b_5186281.html
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Robin Ticker
Activist emails sent to my list are L'Ilui Nishmat Yisrael ben David Aryeh ob"m (Izzy - Kaplan) and Howard Chaim Grief great activists and lovers of Eretz Yisroel, Am Yisroel and the Torah. Yehi Zichronum Baruch. May their memories serve as a blessing.
Most of these emails are posted on Shemittahrediscovered.blogspot.com
Personal emails to individuals will not be posted to my blog.
Sincerely,
Robin Ticker
Activist emails sent to my list are L'Ilui Nishmat Yisrael ben David Aryeh ob"m (Izzy - Kaplan) and Howard Chaim Grief great activists and lovers of Eretz Yisroel, Am Yisroel and the Torah. Yehi Zichronum Baruch. May their memories serve as a blessing.
Most of these emails are posted on Shemittahrediscovered.blogspot.com
Personal emails to individuals will not be posted to my blog.
Sincerely,
Robin Ticker
Activist emails sent to my list are L'Ilui Nishmat Yisrael ben David Aryeh ob"m (Izzy - Kaplan) and Howard Chaim Grief great activists and lovers of Eretz Yisroel, Am Yisroel and the Torah. Yehi Zichronum Baruch. May their memories serve as a blessing.
Most of these emails are posted on Shemittahrediscovered.blogspot.com
Personal emails to individuals will not be posted to my blog.
