NYC dinner raises 18 mil for Israeli military

[donsu]

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1173879238837&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull

The Friends of the Israel Defense Forces raised a record $18 million at its annual gala dinner held last week in New York City.

-snip-

Leading the contributions this year was Israeli-American media mogul Haim Saban who pledged $3.2m. Guests at the event included Executive Vice President of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Malcolm Hoenlein, AIPAC President Howard Friedman, President and CEO of Israel Bonds Yehoshua Matza, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel, renowned Israeli performer Dudu Fisher, and American businessman Donald Trump who contributed $250,000. Israel's Consul General in New York Arye Mekel as well as Israel's defense attache to the US Major General Dan Harel were among representatives of the Israeli government at the affair.

As in the past eight years, the dinner chairman was Benny Shabtai, president of Raymond Weil, and the master of ceremony was author and nationally syndicated radio host Monica Crawly.
-----------------

add the 18 mil to the amount of money the US govt. gives the Israeli military and you get . . .?

[leveymg]

1. About $3.02 billion

This was the equivalent of a PTA bake sale compared to what the US taxpayer hands over each year.

[Fridays Child]

2. How many children die from hunger, every day? This is obscene.

It's sickening enough to know that our tax dollars are killing people but to actually give money away for that purpose? :puke:

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[Hardrada]

6. True. 100% agreement here.

I think the American people are waking up to this injustice out of a long media-induced slumber. It used to be an automatic thing to cheer Israel. Not so anymore.

[nashville_brook]

12. whoa! -- it's tax deductible to support a foreign military and NOT a presidential candidate?!

[Behind the Aegis]

15. And you know this how?

[WiseButAngrySara]

19. You don't? Common knowledge. ....n/t

[Behind the Aegis]

21. Apparently, not.

Seems others here didn't know. Now, I am curious how true the assertion is.

[Lurking Dem]

28. This is why it is tax deductible:

The FIDF initiates and helps support social, educational, cultural and recreational programs and facilities for the young men and women soldiers of Israel who defend the Jewish homeland. The FIDF also provides support for widows and orphans of fallen soldiers.

[Name removed]

40. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Behind the Aegis]

48. Laughable.

The second link, which is also the third link, which is the basis for the fourth link, doesn't substantiate anything because their "proof" goes to dead links. Is it possible that it actually said that? Sure. It is also from September 25, 2002.

As for the first link:

About NIF

Founded in 1979, the New Israel Fund advances civil rights and social justice for all Israelis, and believes the only secure Israel is a just Israel. An international partnership of Israelis, Americans, Canadians and Europeans, NIF pioneered the funding of Israel's social change organizations and advocacy groups, and is widely credited with transforming the social justice and human rights communities in Israel. Since 1979, NIF has granted more than $200 million to 800 national and community-based Israeli organizations.

With grants and technical assistance to hundreds of nonprofits, NIF is in the vanguard of fighting for social change in Israel. NIF grantees work in three core areas:

• Civil and Human Rights : Flagship NIF grantees such as B'Tselem and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel have won court battles on issues ranging from the prohibition of torture in civilian interrogations to changes in the route of the separation fence to respect humanitarian concerns. Other grantees work on issues ranging from evenhanded urban planning and land sales to women's and minority rights.
  
• Social and Economic Justice: As a nation with many disadvantaged minority groups, from citizen Arabs to Ethiopians to Mizrachim, Israel has a special responsibility to observe its founders' vision and values of "freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel." Racism, injustice and extremism defile Jewish values and threaten Israel's long-term security. NIF grantees organize communities, advocate for equitable government policies and empower disadvantaged Israelis to help their communities and themselves.
  
• Religious Pluralism and Tolerance : NIF has long been a principal supporter of a pluralistic and tolerant Israeli culture that includes diverse approaches to Judaism and Jewish identity. NIF grantees are in the forefront of the struggle for civil marriage and other life-cycle events, recognition of non-Orthodox conversions and the equal and unbiased allocation of government resources.

the New Israel Fund

Dunno about you, but sounds like a worthy cause to me and it also doesn't back up the assertion that it is an example of tax-free deductions supplementing the IDF!

[Tom Joad]

30. Informative article on US aid to Israel

THE STRATEGIC FUNCTIONS OF U.S. AID TO ISRAEL
http://www.wrmea.com/html/us_aid_to_israel.htm

By Stephen Zunes

Dr. Zunes is an assistant professor in the Department of Politics at the University of San Francisco

THE STRATEGIC FUNCTIONS OF U.S. AID TO ISRAEL

By Stephen Zunes

Dr. Zunes is an assistant professor in the Department of Politics at the University of San Francisco

Since 1992, the U.S. has offered Israel an additional $2 billion annually in loan guarantees. Congressional researchers have disclosed that between 1974 and 1989, $16.4 billion in U.S. military loans were converted to grants and that this was the understanding from the beginning. Indeed, all past U.S. loans to Israel have eventually been forgiven by Congress, which has undoubtedly helped Israel's often-touted claim that they have never defaulted on a U.S. government loan. U.S. policy since 1984 has been that economic assistance to Israel must equal or exceed Israel's annual debt repayment to the United States. Unlike other countries, which receive aid in quarterly installments, aid to Israel since 1982 has been given in a lump sum at the beginning of the fiscal year, leaving the U.S. government to borrow from future revenues. Israel even lends some of this money back through U.S. treasury bills and collects the additional interest.

In addition, there is the more than $1.5 billion in private U.S. funds that go to Israel annually in the form of $1 billion in private tax-deductible donations and $500 million in Israeli bonds. The ability of Americans to make what amounts to tax-deductible contributions to a foreign government, made possible through a number of Jewish charities, does not exist with any other country. Nor do these figures include short- and long-term commercial loans from U.S. banks, which have been as high as $1 billion annually in recent years.

Total U.S. aid to Israel is approximately one-third of the American foreign-aid budget, even though Israel comprises just .001 percent of the world's population and already has one of the world's higher per capita incomes. Indeed, Israel's GNP is higher than the combined GNP of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza. With a per capita income of about $14,000, Israel ranks as the sixteenth wealthiest country in the world; Israelis enjoy a higher per capita income than oil-rich Saudi Arabia and are only slightly less well-off than most Western European countries.

[Behind the Aegis]

37. That's crap!

So, now, donating to Jewish charities is supporting the Israeli government? Does this mean my donations to the situation in Darfur (also tax-deductible) are supporting Sudan?!

WRMEA? Puh-leaze!

[Tom Joad]

44. Stehpen Zunes? Check him out.

http://www.stephenzunes.org/

He describes himself as a zionist.

He is a regular contributer Common Dreams website and Tikkun magazine.

[Behind the Aegis]

46. I know who he is.

I wasn't commenting on him, but that site. Some of his stuff, while biased, is interesting.

[WiseButAngrySara]

42. Thanks for this article. ....n/t

[LiberalFighter]

5. Why not just cease funding Israel and let them just do their bake sales?

[bbgrunt]

7. this is obscene.

[shance]

8. The Donald gave $250,000?

Unbelievable.

[shance]

9. What if there were a black tie fundraiser to fund the Hamas?

I wonder how that would go over.

[nashville_brook]

13. would it be legal? wouldn't people be jailed?

[Crunchy Frog]

10. Private citizens get to raise money for foreign militaries?

I didn't realize that. I think I'll hold a fundraiser for the Venezuelan military.

[Tom Joad]

14. Only ONE military. Only Israel. Don't even think of helping Canada

or France. Not gonna help you with the IRS.

[shance]

50. How did this come to be?

n/t

[originalpckelly]

11. Excuse me?

WTF is an American fucking raising money for a foreign government?

That's the craziest BS I've ever heard of in my entire life.

[rockymountaindem]

16. It used to happen all the time

Back in the day, US citizens used to send all kinds of money to the IRA. On a slightly more legal side, people used to raise contributions for armed groups like the socialist and communist militias fighting in the Spanish Civil War, and there was support for the Finnish army in 1940 from the Finnish expatriate communities in the US as well as garden-variety anticommunist organizations. Things like the German-American Bund, though closely monitored by the government, were totally legal prior to WWII.

During the war citizens relief communities set up funds for resistance groups and refugee support for a lot of occupied countries in Europe and Asia. This kind of thing is nothing new, but I don't know if any of the old stuff was tax deductable. My guess is that it probably was during WWII.

[LeftishBrit]

29. Yes, I certainly remember the issues of Noraid and the IRA

In fact, it's not very long ago.

I am not happy about fundraisers involving military or quasi-military groups in other countries, because of the potential for all kinds of misuse, and because governments should be funding their own fighting forces adequately in the first place, and not relying on overseas 'charity'. But I'm sure it's not just Israel (and indeed I believe that there have been American groups contributing to Hamas, though I don't know on what level). I sometimes feel that, just as the American Right indulges in exceptionalism in terms of demonizing certain Arab countries, and often supporting Israel blindly, some people here show the mirror-image phenomenon of demonizing Israel and its supporters. Neither is a fair attitude.

[rockymountaindem]

35. I agree with what you said

about there being a "mirror-image" around here. Sometimes it seems all one has to do in order to discredit oneself as a leftist is to say one good thing about Israel.

[loudsue]

36. Most of the DUers who you think are "demonizing Israel" are only

demonizing their extreme right wing government. The PEOPLE of Israel are getting the same kinds of leaders we're getting here in the USA...a bunch of war-mongering, blood-thirsty right wingers.

It's just another question of liberal vs. conservative in a government that we happen to be supporting with our taxpayer dollars, just like the bush crowd have used our taxpayer dollars to spread their agenda.

Nobody here thinks that there isn't a threat of terrorist acts against Israelis, just like we don't deny the threat of terrorist attacks in the U.S. We just don't think the way Israel is handling THEIR problem is any better than the way the bush cabal handles OUR problem. In fact, both governments (ours & theirs) are really making their own problems worse with their right wing war-loving government policies.

:kick:

[LeftishBrit]

45. I mostly agree with you..

Believe me, I am NO fan of the current and recent Israeli Governments. I just think that some posts here imply that Israel has far more power in the world and in America than it actually does. I think that Olmert is dancing to Bush's fiddle rather than the other way round.

[donsu]

62. true, neo cons run Israel too

nt

[treestar]

43. Exactly, the Muslim charities even just raising money

probably subjects them to unwarranted surveillance and charges of "terrorism."

People can contribute to the Israeli military if they want to; it's a free country, but it shouldn't be tax deductible; that's obscene. Or if it is, my contributions to the Lithuanian military should be, too!

[damntexdem]

17. Aid to terrorists. They should be put on a watch list.

That or stop persecuting supporters of Palestinian groups.

[Bluerthanblue]

23. that would be the only fair solution-

all one has to do to be locked away in this america is to be of 'Arab' decent- and to have had contact with a group that has been connected to what * considers part of his "'access' of evil."

We won't ever know how many people are imprisoned on bogus evidence, because they aren't considered huMan- "all men are created equal, endowed by their creator with inalienable rights"-

predjudice comes in many disguises- but in the end truth wins. Always.

peace,
blu

[WiseButAngrySara]

18. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel??? Oh no.

All of my illusions about this man have now been dashed.

[Crunchy Frog]

24. Mine were dashed more than four years ago

when he wrote an editorial strongly pushing for the invasion of Iraq.:(

[WiseButAngrySara]

25. I didn't know that. Truth is better than illusion, but he was

a hero of mine about 20 years ago. I heard him speak at my University, and it was powerful. How could he support the invasion of Iraq? Makes no sense to me, and should disqualify him as a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, IMO. That war has never been justified.

[LeftishBrit]

27. I was very disappointed at that...

but to be fair to him, he has been very tireless in calling attention to the horrors of Darfur, which so many have been ignoring.

[Behind the Aegis]

20. Lots of deception.

"add the 18 mil to the amount of money the US govt. gives the Israeli military and you get . . .?"

The $18 million doesn't go to the IDF. Basically, this group and its Israeli counterpart are similar to the USO.

[Cascadian]

22. America's bias towards Israel is a cause of our "terrorist" problem.

A lot of may not agree with this but I honestly do not think many Arabs woke up one morning and decided to hate America and Americans. If you look at Arabs attitudes 50 or 60 years ago compared to now about what they think of America, it was vastly different. What will it be like 10 years from now? Are we going to have millions of Arab terrorists hitting our shores and attacking on a daily basis?

As for Israel, I have no problem that it exists. It should exist. However, I have a problem with the way America handles Israel as if it were a 51st state. We can no longer be considered a fair broker in that region. Things like this dinner just reinforces the belief that we are too pro-Israeli.



John

[WiseButAngrySara]

26. Good post, but you answered your own question. And

it is not mere belief that we are too pro-Israeli; it is a fact.

[Jacobin]

33. No. Its because 'they hate our freedoms'

Didn't you get the memo?

:-)

[LSK]

34. that and the constant interfering in their affairs because of oil

[Jacobin]

31. In fairness, the IRA used to do fundraisers in NYC too

:evilgrin:

[shance]

52. Really? This is news to me.

When were they?

[Jacobin]

60. google is your friend

http://www.redorbit.com/news/international/298083/us_imposes_fundraising_ban_on_sinn_feins_adams/index.html

U.S. imposes fundraising ban on Sinn Fein's Adams

BELFAST (Reuters) - Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams canceled a planned visit to the United States this week after the U.S. government denied him permission on Monday to raise funds for his party.

Adams had been due to fly to New York on Tuesday to attend a fundraising dinner to mark Sinn Fein's 100th anniversary but U.S. authorities withheld an exemption on his visa which would have allowed him to raise cash.

The U.S. government's decision was intended to put pressure on Adams to support a reformed policing service in Northern Ireland, with Sinn Fein endorsement seen as key to political progress in the British-ruled province, political sources in Washington said.

Sinn Fein, political ally of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) guerrilla group, has so far refused to make supportive statements about the province's Protestant-dominated police force, which it maintains has been overly harsh in its treatment of minority Roman Catholic communities.

Apparently, the IRA's lobby is not as effective as AIPAC's

[Morgana LaFey]

53. How in God's name is that in any way equivalent?

IRA was never a GOVERNMENT.

[Jacobin]

58. Interesting

In the same way the palestinians have no government?

Occupied and occupiers.

[Name removed]

32. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Lurking Dem]

38. Arrested for WHAT?

Giving money to orphans and widows? Paying private money to fund USO style programs to IDF should be illegal?

wtf?

[Behind the Aegis]

39. Arrested for what?

They weren't doing anything illegal? "Round'em up!"

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

41. If they raised millions for the Iranian military...

would that also be legal?

Would people be so supportive of it?

[Behind the Aegis]

47. They money wasn't raised for the IDF, despite the title of the OP.

It wasn't raised to supplement the actual IDF.

In 1942 David Ben-Gurion established the Committee for the Welfare of Soldiers, whose first order of business was rounding up donations of blankets for the young Jewish men and women of the Yishuv's fledging Jewish Brigade.

Now named the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel's Soldiers (AWIS), this independent, non-profit organization has come a long way and has made major contributions to the State of Israel.

Neither the government, the Israel Defense Forces, nor any other body subsidizes the Association.

The Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) is the American partner of the AWIS. FIDF helps support social, educational and recreational programs and facilities for the young men and women soldiers of Israel who defend the Jewish homeland. We also provide these services to the widows and children of soldiers who have fallen in defense of Israel . FIDF is a tax-deductible organization by US law.

Today's support includes; building, maintaining and operating 17 modern and sophisticated facilities; establishing and renovating hundreds of clubrooms and fitness rooms on IDF bases; and the constant caring for each and every IDF soldier.

All this has been achieved thanks only to the assiduous endeavors of the FIDF, its friends and dedicated supporters.

The Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF)

[Bluerthanblue]

49. in truth- the Jerusulum Post used the wording you are saying is wrong- and

this is a quote from the article-

This year the association honored the soldiers who fought in Lebanon and Gaza last summer, delivering the message to the soldiers that "You will never stand alone." During the event the group also presented its 2006 achievements which included raising $46m. for Israeli soldiers.

peace,
blu

[Behind the Aegis]

51. I know where the misleading title came from, and I wasn't implying it was the OP.

The $46 was for the soldiers in the same way the $18 is "for" the IDF. The foundation doesn't supplement the soldiers, pay for military equipment, nor is it part of the IDF or the Israeli government.

[Bluerthanblue]

61. sorry- It seemed that way to me- you might want to look at what

you posted again, and see if that might be the impression you are sending out. Albiet unintentionally.

peace,
blu

[BeHereNow]

54. We need some books at the high school I work at, think they'd consider giving us some of that money?

Didn't think so.
BHN

[Lurking Dem]

55. No but you can host a private fundraiser

for your cause just like they did.

[BeHereNow]

56. Somehow, I doubt the returns would be the same.

People in this country don't much care to fund education.
The powers that be know the machine of war is much more profitable
and much more probable in an uneducated country.
BHN

[Lurking Dem]

57. Fuck the USO too then.

Fuck widows. Fuck orphans.

And which is it? "The People" or "The Powers That Be"? If I give my money to Save Darfur is it because I don't care about education? How many of these people also gave to educational causes? Do you even know?

This wasn't going to fund a "war machine". It wasn't buying weapons. It wasn't paying soldiers salaries.

This is a bunch of hysterics over nothing.

Bitch about the $50 million that Clinton and Obama raised between them. That would buy a few books and it's not going to help any orphans.

[mmonk]

59. You think they'll let me hold a fundraiser for disabled kids?

Wonder if I could fetch that.