Neil Kadisha is an interesting guy. He made a fortune in aerospace and telecommunications and is on the Forbes 400 richest Amerians list. He does real estate in the southwest. Said to be worth nearly $1 billion. He was a producer of the movie, The Accidental Husband, and is a giant in the LA charity world. And he's on the board of the Jewish Federation, of the Joint (the Joint Distribution Committee), and of Phoenix House.
Well, Kadisha is also listed on what appears to be a donor sheet submitted to the government by the Central Fund of Israel, the nonprofit run out of a fabric store on 6th Avenue that is funneling money to West Bank settlers' militias for "urgent security needs."
Whatever its humanitarian efforts in Israel, Central Fund of Israel is also doing highly dubious work: getting money to groups that train settlers to fight in towns amid civilians. The fact that Kadisha is associated with CFI shows once again how deeply enmeshed in mainstream American Jewish organizational life the settlement program is. This is why no presidential candidate ever comes out hard against the settlements, and why there is apartheid in Palestine.
Here are three other names from CFI's list, again demonstrating that opposition to the two-state solution is hardly a fringe position in Jewish life.
1. Jonathan Babkow
Senior Managing Partner, Bear Stearns
Member of an important list of donors to the Jewish National Fund, which gives tons to Israel. Wonder where JNF is on the settlements? Seems like they want to redeem the whole "land of Israel."
2. Newton Becker, CPA and big philanthropist in LA
The donation to the CFI was made through the Newton D. and Rochelle F. Becker Foundation and favors an aggressive policy of advocating for Israel in the US to counter the movement of Israel critics. The Forward:
According
to its tax filings, since 1999, the foundation's largest donations â by
far â have been to The Middle East Media Research Institute. Known by
its acronym, Memri, the institute is an Israeli-owned Arabic
translation group that has blossomed in past years and been accused in
some circles of harboring an anti-Arab bias. Donations for 1999, 2000,
2001 and 2002 totaled about $550,000….
Becker also supports a grass-roots
organization active on campuses, called StandWithUs [aimed at countering critics of Israel on campus].
3. Marc Bodner, President, International Strategy, IDT Telecom. Looks like a young guy and a big deal in the telecom world. According to other government filings collected by Guidestar.org, in 2004 the IDT Charitable Foundation gave $145,250 to the Central Fund of Israel, and Bodner was the contact name. In 2006 IDT gave $216,325. Big money.
–Phil Weiss and Adam Horowitz
