Extreme Israeli group takes root in US with fundraising bid

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Extreme Israeli group takes root in US with fundraising bid

By URI BLAU of Shomrim and TIA GOLDENBERG of The Associated Press
January 24, 2023

JERUSALEM (AP) — An Israeli group raising funds for Jewish extremists convicted in some of the country’s most notorious hate crimes is collecting tax-exempt donations from Americans, according to findings by The Associated Press and the Israeli investigative platform Shomrim.

The records in the case suggest that Israel’s far right is gaining a new foothold in the United States.

The amount of money raised through a U.S. nonprofit is not known. But the AP and Shomrim have documented the money trail from New Jersey to imprisoned Israeli radicals who include Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin and people convicted in deadly attacks on Palestinians.

This overseas fundraising arrangement has made it easier for the Israeli group, Shlom Asiraich, to collect money from Americans, who can make their contributions through the U.S. nonprofit with a credit card and claim a tax deduction.

-snip-

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/israel-government-only-on-ap-yitzhak-rabin-crime-c4841ab75e6c5679081b4ca48ac446a6

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Their website is deliberately and deceptively benign in its purpose:

https://shlom-asiraich.org/

Today there are dozens of Nationalist Jews in prisons, house arrests, and various restrictions under administrative orders.
Some are married and have families. Some underwent Shin Ben interrogations while being severely abused.
They get taken to prison and there, the story does not end.

The establishment harasses these Jews every day and "takes care" of them through harsh treatment, very different and much stricter than other prisoners.

Some sit in solitary cells without phone calls, being let out only for an hour once a day to the "yard"; in addition to the harassment by the guards under "instructions from above."

We at Shlom Asiraich take care of their canteens every month for basic products,
Assist their wives and children who are left without a breadwinner at home
Organize trips to their court trials to give them emotional support
Organize trips to pray for them at the tombs of tzadikim
Come, join us to help Jews who love G-d and the People of Israel and are now in prison alone.

[Beastly Boy]

2. It is sad to see the American right wingers organizing to support the extremists in Israel, while

no such effort is seen in the US to support Israel's mainstream.

Just a reminder: Netanyahu's Likud does not represent the majority of Israeli voters. The current government is a ragtag coalition of Netanyahu's Likud and fringe right wing Israeli extremists. It is those tiny extremist groups that are the king makers to Netanyahu's government.

If the world's left is serious about opposing the current government in Israel, the best way to do this is to quit their absurd rhetoric describing Israel as a monolithic right wing state. This only builds resentment that empowers the right wing groups. A way out if this vicious circle is to recognize the enormous diversity of Israel's culture and politics, and give it full credit and support.

Netanyahu could barely scrape a two-seat majority coalition in the Knesset. It is not by any means a resounding mandate to govern the country.

[Israeli]

3. Thanks for this post

Kach was behind the assassination of Rabin .

Bibi used them then as he is using them today .

If the world's left is serious about opposing the current government in Israel, the best way to do this is to ....

BDS .

[Beastly Boy]

4. I am not advocating BDS by any means.

As I mentioned, it is counter-productive because it builds resentment among Israel's mainstream and pushes enough of them to the right to insure Bibi's hold on power.

What I am advocating is just the opposite: support instead of boycott, invest instead of disinvest, engage instead of sanction. But not towards the right, as America's right is doing according to the OP, with much success in pushing Israeli politics to the right.

Support, invest, engage. Positive rather than negative. Give the Israeli public enough confidence in the left to move enough of them to the left. Put your effort into making the Labor party dominant again, as they used to be long ago. As I mentioned, it wouldn't take much.

[Israeli]

5. I didnt ask you to

I am .

Gush Shalom has advocated boycotts against the settlements since our conception .

Never against Israel proper .

The Israeli Left have ceased to exist , we are broken depressed and without hope for
a peaceful solution ,

Those that were responsible for Rabins assassination are now in power.

Rabins party Labor (Avoda) were never the Israeli Left , they were mainly Centralists .

Meretz was the Left .

I appreciate your posts but since 1995 when they murdered him after a peace rally they have
just gotten stronger until we are where we are today .

Why did they assasinate him ?

We dont have any political power to fight them anymore they have won .

[Beastly Boy]

6. My response was not to a request but to you mentioning BDS.

BDS is a losing strategy. it demonstrably moves the popular sentiment to the right, and that’s my main concern. I want Bibi to lose political power, and in Israel’s evenly split political Blanche of power, it takes moving right leaning voters to the center left. You can’t accomplish this with BDS. Moving center left voters to far left doesnt change the balance of powers. Pure pragmatism, not ideology. Of course, you have every right to disagree.

I am a fan of incrementalism. It’s an effective, if time consuming, political strategy. Incrementalism is what transformed Begin’s center right Likud into Bibi’s far right Likud. There is no reason to believe this transformation is irreversible.

It’s easy to give up. It’s harder to sacrifice ideological purity for the well being of the country.

[Israeli]

7. You didnt answer my only question to you :

Why did they assasinate him ?

Therein is your answer to everything .

Its not just us that have given up .....so have the Palestinians that looked for
a peaceful solution . They know its over .
The religious extremists on both sides have won .

All that is left to us is to wait for the next war and the way things are going right
now we wont have to wait for long .

Young secular Israelis are leaving the country in droves, including my own daughter
and family, looking for a better life where their children wont be conscripted to a army
of occupation and told what they can and cannot eat and when they can or cannot
travel or drive....... by a murderous racist homophobic gang like Kach .

[Beastly Boy]

8. I took your question to be rhetorical.

Along the lines of something like "Why did they assassinate Meir Kahane?"

In each case, the unidentified "they" has been demonstrated to be religious extremist assassins. It doesn't take an vast conspiracy to trigger a religious nutcase. (As an aside: Rabin was the leader of Avodah, a centrist by your definition, when he was assassinated. While I disagree with your assessment of Avodah, this goes a long way to explain why I am advocating for the return of what you term centrism: it was responsible for the greatest advances in negotiating peace between Israel and the Palestinians).

Ironically, considering how little out political views appear to have in common, I completely agree with your assessment of "therein lies your answer to everything": it is the rise of faith based political radicalism on both sides of the West Bank wall that killed the peace process. Assassination of Rabin is but one episode in this decades-long process. Another election in Israel, or West Bank, or Gaza will not have any positive effect on the peace process any time soon. But neither will a war. Or two. Or five.

Both the military and the political efforts to achieve peace have failed. But this is not by any means the end of the story, or the reason to give up. One other path remains, and it has never been tried in earnest. An economic solution. And this solution will require something completely opposite of BDS. Palestinians and Israelis both have common interests as consumers. In fact, those interests are indistinguishable between the two nations. I have a great deal of faith in those common interests to gradually bring the two parties to meaningful cooperation despite all the political forces that tear them apart. Since this will require a great deal of activism outside of the government framework, I see a huge role for peace activists in bringing this kind of economic cooperation together. First, on the humanitarian and private enterprise grounds, but gradually involving business and, inconspicuously, even government interests. Once this cooperation proves beneficial to both sides, it can grow from two economies cooperating for mutual benefit to two states cooperating for mutual benefit. At the risk of sounding too simplistic... bingo! A two-state solution!

I admit, it takes a bit of faith to assume that self-interest can prevail over religious dogma. But we can't forget that both the Israeli and Palestinian societies are secular to a large degree while expressing their respective faiths in a moderate manner. Fanaticism is an exception, not a rule. And we are seeing, particularly in the Abraham Accords, that economic cooperation between religious rivals is a real thing.

[Israeli]

9. Wish you all the best in your believes

....sorry but I dont believe in them anymore .

[Beastly Boy]

10. Thank you, and I am sorry too.

I hope the future will restore your faith.