Wednesday, July 7, 2010

NY Times: Tax-Exempt Status Only for Groups That Agree with the Administration


John Podhoretz
Contentions/Commentary
06 July '10

In an astonishing (and absurdly long) front-page story today, three New York Times reporters breathlessly offer an account of the fact that West Bank settlements and settlers are supported by nonprofit American organizations despite the fact that the Obama administration, and administrations before it, oppose them (or most of them):

As the American government seeks to end the four-decade Jewish settlement enterprise and foster a Palestinian state in the West Bank, the American Treasury helps sustain the settlements through tax breaks on donations to support them.

A New York Times examination of public records in the United States and Israel identified at least 40 American groups that have collected more than $200 million in tax-deductible gifts for Jewish settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem over the last decade. The money goes mostly to schools, synagogues, recreation centers and the like, legitimate expenditures under the tax law. But it has also paid for more legally questionable commodities: housing as well as guard dogs, bulletproof vests, rifle scopes and vehicles to secure outposts deep in occupied areas.


There are three astounding aspects to these paragraphs, and to the story as a whole.

First is the open and explicit suggestion that tax-deductible dollars should only support policies with which the sitting administration agrees or wishes to foster. Taken to its logical conclusion, that would mean pro-choice organizations should not have a tax exemption during an explicitly pro-life administration, like George W. Bush’s, for example — or that an organization opposing the Iraq war or the government’s approach in terrorist interrogation should be stripped of its tax exemption.

(Read full post)

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