Common Sense Political Thought

I get e-mailings from a liberal organization called truthout.org. The one I received today, at 1:32:14 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, had this blurb:

Anger Rises Over US Tax Dollars for Settlements
Mel Frykberg, Inter Press Service: “Anger has arisen in Palestinian areas over reports that millions of tax-exempt dollars from the U.S. are being funneled towards Israel’s illegal settlement building in the Palestinian West Bank – in flagrant violation of international law.”

Well, I followed the link that came with it, to get to this article:

Anger Rises Over US Tax Dollars for Settlements

Saturday 24 July 2010

by: Mel Frykberg | Inter Press Service | Report

Ramallah – Anger has arisen in Palestinian areas over reports that millions of tax-exempt dollars from the U.S. are being funneled towards Israel’s illegal settlement building in the Palestinian West Bank — in flagrant violation of international law.

This is happening under the nose of the U.S. administration despite its claims of support for a two-state solution and criticism of Israel’s continued settlement building.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) based in Ramallah has expressed outrage. “Adhering to international law is a big step towards holding Israel accountable for its actions,” PA spokesman Ghassan Khatib told IPS from the Muqata (government) headquarters in Ramallah.

“Settlements violate international law, and the United States is supposed to be sponsoring a two-state solution, yet it gives deductions for donation to the settlements,” said Saeb Erekat the PA’s chief negotiator.

According to a recent report in The New York Times 40 U.S. groups have raised more than 200 million dollars in tax-deductable donations for Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem during the last ten years. U.S. tax rules prohibit the use of charitable funds for political purposes at home or abroad.

Now, if you just read the headline — which, unfortunately, a lot of people do — you’d think that “US Tax Dollars” are being used to build Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria, because that’s just what the headline says. But the truth that the editors of IPS and truthout attempted to obscure with a (deliberately?) imprecise headline is that individual Americans have made charitable contributions, and some of those charitable contributions have been used to build Israeli settlements.

That’s something entirely different. I also noted that the referenced “recent report in The New York Times” went uncited: no date, no page, and no hyperlink in either the truthout.org copy or the Inter Press Service original, even though both pages supported hyperlinks to other things.

The story continued:

But U.S. tax laws encourage citizens to support non-profit groups whose ideologies might diverge from official government policy as long as their missions are educational, religious or charitable. Religious groups have no obligation to divulge their finances, meaning settlements may be receiving sums that cannot be traced.

Emphasis mine. Settlements may be receiving money which cannot be traced? That’s quite an accusation, but it also means that settlements may not be receiving such funds. For a supposedly unbiased journalism source, that sounds more like innuendo than fact.

Direct donations to foreign charities are illegal but the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allows donations to U.S. non-profit organisations which support charitable projects abroad. This is how many “clearing house companies” based in the U.S. are able to send the money to help finance and support the settlements.

Are able to? Perhaps they would be able to do so, but did they actually do it? The writer certainly tries to imply such, but he didn’t actually state it; could that be because he is working from assumptions rather than proof?

The money has also financed items which might well be illegal under international law, such as guard dogs, bulletproof vests, rifle scopes and vehicles to secure outposts and settlements.

Well, here we have a definitive statement: American charitable donations have financed things “such as guard dogs, bulletproof vests, rifle scopes and vehicles to secure outposts and settlements.” Does the writer have proof? We are offered a definitive statement, but no corroboration.

Still, let’s assume that the statement is accurate. What Mr Frykberg, the author, has listed are defensive items. Has he ever written about the financing from abroad of the Qassam or Grad or Fajr rockets used by the Palestinians in Gaza? A bullet-proof vest is used to try to keep yourself from getting killed by someone who is shooting at you; a Fajr rocket is used only to try to kill someone else.

I have to wonder: just how much are our friends on the left, the ones who have such sentimental attachments to the Palestinian cause — even though the Palestinians stand for things any Westerner ought to find repugnant — influenced by innuendo reporting, by half-truths, by unsupported stories, by writing which is deliberately designed to favor one side in the Arab-Israeli mess?

The Palestinians, who voted for Hamas in their last elections, have a governing authority which would almost wholly suppress the rights of women,¹ and which would make their lands Judenfrei² if given the opportunity, which would suppress freedom of religion in favor of an Islamic state.³ Our friends on the left all favor a peaceful solution, but Hamas specifically rejects that.⁴ Mel Frykberg wrote the IPS original, but he also frequently writes on AntiWar.com, does the anti-war Mr Frykberg realize that the people with whom he sympathizes have specifically said that a peaceful solution is out of the question, and that peace conferences “are only ways of setting the infidels in the land of the Muslims as arbitrators.”⁵

As well-intentioned and peace-loving as our friends on the left are, they have been wholly bamboozled by the Palestinians. In their obvious sympathies for the underdog and those they see as oppressed, they have developed common cause with people who despise them and who would oppress them if they fell under Palestinian control. In their support for the “two-state solution,” they have made common cause with a people who demand that all of Israel must be abolished.⁶

The clear-eyed and the clear-thinking know that majority support for a two-state solution exists only in Israel,⁷ that majority support for a negotiated peace exists only in Israel, and that real support for individual human rights, the kind Westerners take for granted, exists only in Israel in this tormented region. The simple truth is that supporting the Palestinians actually prolongs the fight; people like Mr Frykberg ought to know that. Perhaps in their heads, they do; in their hearts, they still do not.

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1. Hamas recently banned women from smoking in public, banned female lawyers from appearing in court without a hijab, and banned women from visiting salons where men work as hairdressers. [back]
2. Hamas Charter, Article 7. “Moreover, if the links have been distant from each other and if obstacles, placed by those who are the lackeys of Zionism in the way of the fighters obstructed the continuation of the struggle, the Islamic Resistance Movement aspires to the realisation of Allah’s promise, no matter how long that should take. The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said: “The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews.” [back]
3. Hamas Charter, Article 1. Article 6 states that “under the wing of Islam followers of all religions can coexist in security and safety where their lives, possessions and rights are concerned,” but Article 8 holds that the Koran is the constitution for Palestine. [back]
4. Hamas Charter, Article 13. [back]
5. Hamas Charter, Article 13. [back]
6. Hamas Charter, Article 11. “Palestine is an Islamic Waqf The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine has been an Islamic Waqf throughout the generations and until the Day of Resurrection, no one can renounce it or part of it, or abandon it or part of it. No Arab country nor the aggregate of all Arab countries, and no Arab King or President nor all of them in the aggregate, have that right, nor has that right any organization or the aggregate of all organizations, be they Palestinian or Arab, because Palestine is an Islamic Waqf throughout all generations and to the Day of Resurrection.” [back]
7. Some Israelis still cling to the idea of a “Greater Israel,” Eretz Yisrael Ha-Shlema but they are a dwindling minority. [back]