Uriel Heilman has a JTA report on Tuesday night's $1,000-a-plate fundraiser for the Israeli military at New York's Waldorf Astoria hotel. The event featured video messages from Gilad Shalit and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
One of the stars of Tuesday night’s dinner -- which raised $26 million for the IDF -- was a combat soldier named Doron who operates one of the Iron Dome anti-missile batteries and appeared alongside Gantz in the satellite broadcast. When the evening’s emcee, radio host and Fox News contributor Monica Crowley, asked Doron how many missiles he personally had intercepted, the crowd laughed as if she were talking about football game stats. Doron’s answer: four.
The crowd cheered.
"Aren't these guys the best!" Crowley gushed.
“Buy war bonds”
i do believe this is an American invention.
except with you people, it’s “Buy war crime bonds.”
Well, if America invented it, it must be the right thing to do!
Exactly. And I’d like to stop paying for USA’s wars, too. (Values voters take note: I approve birth control and occasional abortion, but not capital punishment (except for torturers) and aggressive war (war-of-choice).
“(except for torturers)”
Have you noticed any time there is an exception…legislators/police/prosecutors/concerned citizens…will torture the definition to fit as many of the opposition as they can?
“Buy war bonds”
i do believe this is an American invention.
True.
Guess we DO have somethin in common. We Americans solicite Americans to buy U.S. war bonds and Israelis solicite – Americans to buy Israeli war bonds.
I guess you do have to beg and ask for welfare when you’re poor and can’t sustain life on your own.
Why not make Aliya and live here in the U.S.? It’s a nice place and we don’t need handouts from other countries to survive. We make it here on our own.
Never Again.
A light unto the nations.
Risen from the ashes in military might
Displacing neighbors
transferring a people
moving into their homes
for decades
rinse, spin (or mow the the lawn)
repeat
with the arrogance of Manifest Destiny
self-righteous thieves wielding power
from Hollywood to Wall Street
sacrifices unto their g-d, the IDF, the State, their power, their military might
Never again *
*Offer only applies to white people
I’d like to offer you a cigar.
Well done.
I wonder for how many more years it will be socially acceptable for the Israeli army to raise money at a hub of the rich and famous of New York.
Seafoid, probably as long as Wall Street/ NYC continues to fund and benefit from War/ Occupation and the rebuilding (contractors, Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater/ Xe) of some (money can’t rebuild destroyed families and lives, archaeological losses) of that which our tax dollars destroy.
The West is going to dump Israel. Like they dumped South Africa.
Israel is only 5.5 million Jews. If it was 60 million it would be different.
Realpolitik is cruel.
SEAFOID- “The West is going to dump Israel. Like they dumped South Africa.”
Dumped South Africa? Why wasn’t I Informed? All this time I have been under the impression that the white South African elites who ruled the country alongside the transnational corporations with a subservient a white government, continued to do so with a subservient black government. I thought that fundamentally nothing changed except the outward face of exploitation. Was I wrong?
Ask poor white South Africans, Keith. Or the new black plutocracy.
When the dust settles in Israel there will be many Jewish losers even if the guys at the top retain their assets.
“The West is going to dump Israel.”
What?
The South Africa root system is like comparing a potted African Violet system to a Truffle or Aspen root system.
“I wonder for how many more years it will be socially acceptable for the Israeli army to raise money at a hub of the rich and famous of New York.” As long, I suspect, as the IDF successfully continues to kill people, occupy someone else’s territory, and help its nation contravene international law. Easy answer.
And I believe these donations are tax free because they go to Israel. Amazing how the lobby gets around restrictions that other groups can not. Donating to a military and country that is undermining US national security and that donation is tax exempt.
The donations can be used for tax deductions because the Friends of the IDF is registered as a 501(c)(3) not for profit organization – link to charitynavigator.org.
Nice….
We’re in the wrong business Adam ;.)
But for me to donate to the Gaza Oral History Project, I can’t use Visa, etc…I have to find Nicaragua or West Indies based payment systems.
All because I’d like elderly Palestinians to record their stories for posterity.
RE: “One of the stars of Tuesday night’s dinner — which raised $26 million for the IDF — was a combat soldier named Doron who operates one of the Iron Dome anti-missile batteries” ~ Heilman
MY COMMENT: I suspect it’s all just part of a well orchestrated international sales campaign. Perhaps Fargo, ND and Keene, NH will get a Homeland Security grants to purchase their very own Iron Dome anti-missile batteries.
SEE: Rafael hopes Iron Dome success will up int’l sales, by Yaakov Katz, Jerusalem Post, 3/12/12
ENTIRE ARTICLE – link to jpost.com
AND SEE: Local police stockpile high-tech, combat-ready gear, By Andrew Becker, Center for Investigative Reporting, 12/21/11
ENTIRE ARTICLE – link to americaswarwithin.org
AND SEE: “Police ‘Tank’ Purchase Riles New Hampshire Town”, by Radley Balko, HuffPo, 2/16/12
SOURCE – link to huffingtonpost.com
ot was really interesting to spend some time at last years Move over Aipac conference and this years Occupy Aipac conference listening to and talking with Rabbi Yisrael Dovid Weiss with Jews against Zionism and a few other of the Rabbis protesting the Aipac conference about their deep religious beliefs and Zionism. These fellas take some of the most abuse from the Aipac attendees. They are remarkable and seem to really live their religious beliefs
link to aljazeera.com
I bet that half of those donors are humans enough to stop donating once they hear about the true facts on the ground in Israel/Palestine.
Jewish Voice for Peace should take on “Friends of the IDF” as an institutional target across the U.S. (in addition to their TIAA-CREF divestment campaign)- what conscientious liberal American would want to give money to the institution that brutally enforces the Occupation and the siege of Gaza?