Monday, March 27, 2017
Elder of Ziyon
If you scour through the comment section of any pro-Israeli
blog, you’ll invariably run into accusations that those of us writing and doing
anything on behalf of the Jewish state (or lambasting BDS and other anti-Israel
propaganda activities) are paid agents of the Mossad, Netenyahu, AIPAC or the
latest fantasized cabal of super-wealthy Jewish fat-cats.
I’ve always assumed these accusations were just
simple-minded attempts by the BDS brigade to portray their enemies as vast,
powerful and wealthy in order to assuage the egos of those who have seen their
argument smashed and their campaigns defeated time and time again. After all, if this blog were a corporation
filing taxes, those forms would - at best - indicate two- to three-figure
annual losses (with tip-jar donations eaten up by design and production of works
like this, or the pine-appley Polynesian cocktails I prefer to sip while
writing).
But last week’s arrest
of Omar Barghouti for tax evasion flagged the fact that there are some
people in the BDS game (both pro- and anti-) making a decent enough profit off
the gig to earn some attention from Internal Revenue.
Most of the commentary on the scandal has understandably
focused on the rank
hypocrisy of Barghouti himself who travels the globe calling for the
economic ruin of the nation he has and continues to benefit from, whether
through subsidized tuition at an Israeli university or security services
ensuring that the planes he takes from Ben Gurion to various Israel-bashing
gigs don’t blow up in the sky.
While that reaction is warranted, I’m more intrigued by the
sources of money the dear leader of the global BDS “movement” has managed to
squirrel away and the hubris required to assume he could just sock his earnings
into bank accounts on the West Bank or United States and never be called to
account for not declaring what he’s actually earned on his national tax forms.
The only specific number mentioned in news reports is
$700,000 Barghouti deposited in West Bank accounts earned from his business
installing ATMs in Palestinian-controlled territories. At first glance, this number seems pretty high. But upon second glance, that amounts to a
mere $70,000 per year (given that this $700K total represents a decade worth of
earnings). A third glance, however,
requires us to think how much one has to earn annually in order to sock away $70,000
out of that total in a rainy day fund.
Stories did not identify how much Barghouti makes in
speakers fees and book royalties, although they did indicate that this is the
money he’s kept in US banks (i.e., in banks held in the country he seems to
despise only slightly less than he loathes Israel). I have read that the speaker/writer
supposedly donates his fees to “the cause,” which I suppose might be true (even
if so much of everything else Barghouti spouts is a lie). If that’s the case, however, what’s sitting
in those US bank accounts? Chanukah
gelt?
Comparisons with Al Capone (who was finally put away for tax
evasion, rather than his more violent crimes) were rife on the Net. But I don’t recall the US Treasury Department
letting Capone out on bail to travel the world denouncing the US. Apparently, Israeli tax authorities are a bit
more lenient in this regard, providing Omar leave to go abroad and give even
more speeches proving Palestinians like himself live in the equivalent of the Warsaw
Ghetto (before going out to dinner and relaxing in a comfortable hotel).
As I’ve said in the
past, I begrudge no one who has found a way to get someone else to foot the
bills (and even pay honorariums) at events in interesting and exotic
locales. And if Omar has managed to
build a business flogging his book at speaking events, more power to him. But if you want to keep such a scam going,
there are a few business details worth staying on top of. Paying your taxes is one of them.
A narrative is already emerging that the dread Israeli
empire has found yet another way to suppress those stifled still voices of the
BDS movement, turning their Mandelaesque leader into one more martyr to free
speech who, for some reason, never stops talking (and never stops being given
opportunities to be paid to talk).
To which I say “posh.”
But if the BDS “movement” wants to stake its reputation on an ATM
salesman/tax cheat who remains unwilling to give up the privileges of the
Israeli society he is dedicated to destroying, then I wish them a happy third
decade of watching Israel go from strength to strength as their own project
continues to burn.
