US Tax Breaks Help Fund Israeli Settlements

[finnbow]

Within five years, from 2009 to 2013, more than $220 million was sent across the ocean and into schools, synagogues and playgrounds dotting the hills of Judea and Samaria. Millions of tax-subsidized dollars have gone to Jewish settlements in Hebron, helping to sustain a grim reality in the segregated part of the city, where Palestinian movement is sharply restricted and their economic life has been suffocated.

Donations from the United States also were used to support families of Jews convicted in ideologically motivated violence against Palestinians. The spouse of Ami Popper, convicted of murdering seven Palestinians in 1990, received financial help from Honenu, an Israeli nonprofit that drew 20 percent of its income last year from U.S. donations.

The American donors to these groups are entitled to tax breaks on the money they give, and so this flow of funds means U.S. taxpayers are indirectly supporting a policy of settlement expansion opposed by the current administration and every other administration — Democratic and Republican — since Richard Nixon. In 2013, the organizations raised $73 million and doled out $54 million in grants. Initial data from 2014 suggest totals even higher.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...a4d_story.html

Let's all watch Ike spin a positive light on this.

[donquixote99]

Originally Posted by finnbow

Let's all watch Ike spin a positive light on this.

That's not the reaction I expect, actually.

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by finnbow

Let's all watch Ike spin a positive light on this.

I doubt he'll even address it. He'll attack you instead.

[donquixote99]

Originally Posted by Boreas

I doubt he'll even address it. He'll attack you instead.

Almost right.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by donquixote99

Almost right.

Charges of anti-Semitism flung like cheap Mardi Gras beads.

[merrylander]

And Iranian oil money funds Hamas - to effing bad the world can't keep their noses out

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by merrylander

And Iranian oil money funds Hamas - to effing bad the world can't keep their noses out

I don't think you'd like the outcome if Iran were to cut Hamas loose and we were to do the same to Israel.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by merrylander

And Iranian oil money funds Hamas - to effing bad the world can't keep their noses out

So, you're comparing West Bank settlers to Hamas?

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by finnbow

So, you're comparing West Bank settlers to Hamas?

Not on purpose.

[merrylander]

Originally Posted by finnbow

So, you're comparing West Bank settlers to Hamas?

Both Palestine and Israel are man made creations, Palestine did not exist prior to 1920, Hell we could go all the way back to the Diaspora to determine who rightfully owns the land, we as North Americans are really in no position to pass judgement.

I suspect that at the root of much of the criticism of Israel and the Jews is based on their finally saying - Enough! As long as they docilely accepted persecution everything was fine. But when the Warsaw Ghetto rose up against the Nazis it hit the fan. Suddenly we had a generation that would not simply roll over.

And let's face it antisemitism is a long way from dead. That South African Judge who wrote the report unilaterally condemning Israel of war crimes had to withdraw or revise it. (I would go find the link but if I try VBulletin erases what I have typed)

The middle east is a f**king mess and my British cousins and the French can accept a lot of the blame.