Opinion Editorials, April 2010

Obama Can Stop Funding Illegal Settlements by Pulling the Jewish Agency's US Tax Exemption

By Grant Smith

Obama Can Stop Funding Illegal Settlements:

Pull the Jewish Agency's US Tax Exemption, and the Settlement Problem Goes Away

 
...President Obama should revoke the Jewish Agency's 1948 US tax exemption.  This would immediately shut down all US charities acting as feeder funds and throw into question the deductibility of individual US donor contributions.  This strong message would be timely, but generate some political backlash.  Israel lobbyists inside and outside the federal government exploit elected American politicians' own insatiable thirst for campaign contributions from the tributaries of this massive slush fund-- politicians know they are only welcome to partake if they unconditionally support Israel and its lobby--no matter the cost to their American constituents.
 
But canceling all US tax exemptions for major charitable Jewish Agency feeder funds until Israel takes the necessary steps toward peace wouldn't necessarily be controversial if American donors and concerned citizens are properly educated.  Sordid recent events may even convince grassroots donors to welcome an Obama ban-- donors are often held in pure contempt by elite Israel lobby officialdom anyway.  Their donations have been constantly misused for nonexempt political activities and unlawful attempts to subvert the advice and consent participation in government of their fellow countrymen.  The most toxic donor contempt is perhaps no clearer than in former lobbyist Steven J. Rosen's insistence that AIPAC pay him $20 million from its coffers for what appears to be an illegal attempt to unlawfully influence US policy toward Iran through purloined classified US national defense information.  AIPAC's grassroots donors probably wouldn't have knowingly relinquished their funds to pay AIPAC's legislative director Ester Kurz to mishandle and improperly dispose of classified US trade secrets either --legitimate American charitable organizations simply don't behave this way.
 
Obama must also permanently end all US taxpayer support to the Jewish Agency.  By quietly funding an entity with such a long history of arms smuggling, illicit US lobbying, propagandizing, and illegal settlement expansion, the Jewish Agency and its US lobby have compromised Congress and turned every American taxpayer into an unwitting accomplice....

The Israel Lobby Archive is releasing on the Internet the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's original application for exemption from federal taxes.  The US Treasury Department's special treatment of AIPAC--an organization formed to continue lobbying for the Israeli government after its parent organization was shut down by the Justice Department--raises questions of vast importance for Americans.
 
Israel Lobby Archive Documents:     
 
Articles of Incorporation:  Isaiah L. Kenen, former employee of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, incorporates AIPAC two months after the American Zionist Council is ordered to register as the foreign agent of the quasi governmental Jewish Agency. http://irmep.org/ila/aipac/01021963_AIPAC_Articles_of_Incorporation.pdf
 
AIPAC IRS tax exemption application: 2.5 years after the Department of Justice finally closes its foreign agent case against the American Zionist Council, AIPAC asks for a federal tax exemption:
http://irmep.org/ila/aipac/11271967_AIPAC_Tax_Exempt_Application.pdf
 
IRS Determination Letter to AIPAC:  In 1968 the IRS grants AIPAC tax exempt status retroactive to 1953.  This gives AIPAC a federal tax exemption for lobbying that occurred within the American Zionist Council.   The IRS determination also allows AIPAC to claim it was formed in the early 1950s (before the 1962 DOJ foreign agent registration order) rather than the year it was actually incorporated (in 1963).
http://irmep.org/ila/aipac/01251968_AIPAC_IRS_DETERMINATION.pdf
 
Analysis:  http://original.antiwar.com/smith-grant/2010/04/01/obama-can-stop-funding-illegal-settlements/

Read more by Grant Smith

Israel’s Lobby Imposes Crippling Sanctions on America — Again – March 11th, 2010

Israel Violates Economic Sanctions Against Iran – February 10th, 2010

AIPAC Celebrates 47th Birthday in Court – December 30th, 2009

The Israel Lobby Celebrates Espionage in New York – December 2nd, 2009

Israel’s Illegal Settlements in America – November 27th, 2009