Category: Articles

As financial aid continues to be funneled to the Palestinians, we know the money fails to reach the one place it is sorely needed and that is for the welfare of the “Palestinians”.

An article in Gatestone Institute written by Khaled Abu Toameh clearly discusses this blemish.

While their leader Mahmoud Abbas speaks before parliaments and assemblies of many countries, his own people in Syria and the Gaza Strip are being killed due to senseless fighting and dying because of a lack of food and medicine. Hospitals are running short of fuel needed to keep operating.

How is it that Mahmoud Abbas spent $50 million on a new “presidential plane”? A leader should take responsibility for the needs of his people first. Enough said.

“When the refugee card began to wear thin, the Palestinian terrorist appeared on the scene flourishing not the arguable claims of displaced refugees but of a ghoulish nationalism that could only be sated on the corpse of Israel.”

This quote is from a New York Times article dated January 24, 1976 written by former Prime Minister Golda Meir. Sadly, her words still ring true and illustrate how between then and now – nothing has changed.

AFSI is proud to have its name cited favorably in media sources.

Lori Lowenthal Marcus, when asked about groups that supported her during her seven year effort to get a 501C3 tax exempt status for her pro-Israel organization, Z Street, from the Obama government, gave credit to AFSI for standing by her. She did it in an interview with Phyllis Chesler and also in a radio interview. We thank Lori for acknowledging AFSI, and remind our readers that AFSI always stands up for what is right, regardless of politically correct or mainstream views. Time, inevitably, proves us correct.

Gentlemen,

We applaud your decision to legalize Havat Gilad and other such communities. We also join you in the condemnation of yet another brutal terrorist murder, that of Rabbi Itamar Ben Gal.

HOWEVER another tragedy is about to occur – this time at the hands of the Israeli government. I am referring to the planned demolition of 16 homes in Netiv Avot. You know the details of the dispute so there is no need for me to repeat them. This puts a scar of shame on the face of Israel. We either embrace all our brethren in the Jewish homeland, or we have made a mockery of Israel’s purpose. The Supreme Court decision is biased, ignorant, unwarranted, and cruel. It must be overruled.
PLEASE do everything in your power to avert the severe decree.

Helen Freedman

AFSI has reported on the recent, and much overdue, legalization of Havat Gilad. This area of Judea and Samaria was established in 2002 in memory of Gilad Zar, son of Moshe Zar and security coordinator of the Shomron Regional Council, who was shot and killed in 2001.

It took the death of a Jew, Rabbi Raziel Shevach, z”l, in order for the Israeli government to finally legalize Havat Gilad on February 4, 2018. Why didn’t Israel exercise its sovereignty on legalizing Havat Gilad years ago?

Now Netiv Avot is now facing destruction. Will it, God forbid, take the death of another Jew in order for the Israeli government to stop the destruction of Jewish property?

Read Helen Freedman’s letter below as she expresses AFSI’s views on this subject

Fourteen Jewish, educational, and civil rights organizations urged the U.S. Senate to reform the Higher Education Act to prevent misuse of federal funds by publicly supported, university-based Middle East studies programs. In a letter to Chairman Lamar Alexander and Ranking Member Patty Murray of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, the coalition charged that “federal funds under Title VI of the [Higher Education Opportunity Act or HEOA] are being misused to promote biased, one-sided, and anti-Israel programming in our nation’s Middle East studies centers.

The Israel Academia Monitor reports that on January 24, 2018 several Jewish educational groups wrote a letter to the U.S Senate Committee of Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions in support of amendments to Title VI of the Higher Education Opportunities Act. The groups concern is that federal funds “are being misused to promote biased, one-sided, and anti-Israel programming in our nation’s Middle East studies centers.” Read more HERE

Obama’s disdain for Israel was on constant display during his presidency, but the seven year IRS campaign against Z Street, as described by Lori Lowenthal Marcus in her op-ed, so glaringly illustrates the anti-Israel Obama policy positions as to be painful.

Contriving excuses such as that Z Street had to be denied its 501C3 because it might be “funding terror” and “supporting Jewish activity over the Green line”, was clearly discriminatory and prejudiced. This policy of getting “special scrutiny” also affected other organizations applying for tax exempt status who were asked by the IRS to “explain their religious beliefs about the Land of Israel.” The fact that organizations actually involved in giving donations indirectly to Hamas, a designated terror group, were granted 501C3s, underscored the bias of the Obama administration.

It is hoped that now, under the Trump administration, when Z Street vs IRS has been settled, that the organization can start again and re-enlist those who were drawn to it. We were among that group and look forward to being part of it again.

Helen Freedman

The IRS has finally been challenged.

An article in the Wall Street Journal by Lori Lowenthal Marcus discusses the first IRS viewpoint discrimination case to be filed, Z Street v. IRS, which has been settled, with disturbing revelations about how the Internal Revenue Service treated pro-Israel organizations applying for tax-exempt status.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

Arutz Sheva reports that an Arab terrorist stabbed to death 29 year-old Itamar Ben-Gal in the Israeli city of Ariel in Samaria, Monday afternoon. He was a resident of the community of Har Bracha in Samaria. Ben-Gal, a father of four, was an educator who worked with 8th graders at the Bnei Akiva Yeshiva in Givat Shmuel, and also taught at the Har Bracha Yeshiva.

The stabbing attack occurred at a popular hitchhiking spot near Jerusalem Boulevard in Ariel just before 2:30 pm.

AFSI expresses its condolences to the Ben-Gal family. They should know no more sorrow.

Please see the AFSI Action Alert further below and call your Senator TODAY to demand he/she stop stalling on the Taylor Force Act.

Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) reports that the Israeli Cabinet unanimously voted Sunday to legalize the Havat Gilad outpost on Sunday, thereby creating a new settlement in central Samaria.

Politicians and Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan called to authorize Havat Gilad (Gilad Farm) in the aftermath of the January 9 terrorist attack, in which outpost resident and father of six Rabbi Raziel Shevach was shot dead by Palestinians as he drove near his home.