Monday, December 28, 2015
Elder of Ziyon
...[T]ax-deductible donations from the United States are helping build Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. This, despite the fact that every US president since Lyndon Johnson -- Republican and Democrat alike -- has opposed settlement expansion.As I have shown, some of the money from America that J Street and J Street U opposes goes towards ambulances, medical facilities, and rehabilitation centers as well as schools. I have spoken to victims of terror attacks in Judea and Samaria who have turned around and created innovative and creative ways to help other victims - music therapy, animal therapy, physical rehabilitation - and they specifically built them in the territories so people wouldn't have to make the trip to Jerusalem to get the help they needed. Of course, emergency medical services must be located as close as possible to where people live in order to save the most lives.
We know that settlements are immensely damaging to peace efforts, and ultimately endanger the prospects of a two-state solution, which is so vital for Israel’s future as a secure, democratic homeland for the Jewish people.
Yet Blau has uncovered that at least $220 million in US donations have flowed to the settlements in the past five years.
Where does this money come from?
For the past year, that's what my fellow J Street U students been trying to find out. Make a gift now to help support our work in the Jewish community.
For months, we've been meeting with American Jewish federation officials across the country, asking that -- at a minimum -- they make their funding policies and practices in Israel fully transparent. We need to understand where and why our donations are being spent -- and if any of it is going to projects across the Green Line. That way, we as donors will be better able to make informed decisions and ensure that our money is being used to support, and not undermine, Israel’s democratic and Jewish future.
J Street U’s efforts are leading many in our community to consider these vital questions. We can’t let up now -- we have to remain persistent and insistent.
J-Street opposes all of these worthy services. They want US Jews to divest from helping out Jews whom J-Street finds distasteful.
It is one thing for J-Street to choose to support Meretz or B'Tselem or Breaking the Silence. But they are insisting that some Jews do not deserve medical and social services because of where they choose to live.
In the disgusting logic of of J-Street and J-Street U, there are two classes of Jews - those who are "righteous" in insisting that parts of historic Israel become Judenfrei and the others that John Mearsheimer calls the "New Afrikaners." Some Jews deserve support and others, if they should be in a car accident or terror attack, deserve to die rather than receive life-saving medical aid that might be paid for by some American Jews.
I agree that the disbursement of funds from Jewish Federations be transparent - and American Jews should insist that these federations do not distinguish between Jew and Jew. They should not support the J-Street lie that some Jewish lives are more valuable than others.
I believe that Jews who choose to live in their historic homeland, despite the dangers involved in doing so, are heroes and deserve our support. But whatever your feelings about the settlements, the Jews who live there deserve to live and receive life-saving services as well as social support just like any others. Demanding that these services be defunded goes way beyond political activism - it is bigotry and it is contemptible.
Call your local Federation today and tell them that you certainly hope that they do not buy the argument that some Jews don't deserve our support. Actively trying to divide the Jewish community is not acceptable behavior.
