Obama's IRS targeted Jewish groups too

Obama's IRS targeted pro Israel groups too! When are decent fair minded heretofore slavish Obama admirers going to realize he is a common Chicago street thug politician, lying tyrant? He seems likable enough and can be articulate when on a teleprompter, but if ruining the US economy isn't enough, and allowing terrorism to flourish abroad and here, what will it take?      

Richard Baehr

The lies pile up and the president goes silent
The week just ended may have been the worst week experienced by the Obama administration, and there are over 220 to choose from. The congressional testimony by three whistle-blowers on the widening Benghazi scandal drew attention even from the mainstream media outlets, which had chosen to bury the story for months. The president's press secretary, Jay Carney, in a performance worthy of a short career in this capacity, managed to double down on the falsehoods, continuing to avoid admitting even the obvious. For starters, Carney maintained that the talking points distributed to U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice for use in her appearances on the major news networks a few days after the attack in Benghazi on September 11 reflected what was known about the attacks, as opposed to the story the administration wanted to get out there (a spontaneous demonstration in reaction to an anti-Muslim video), and that the changes in the talking points in the days prior to Rice's appearances were merely stylistic, rather than substantive.

It is understandable that with less than two months to go in the presidential campaign, and the president ahead in the polls, and holding favorable ratings on his management of foreign affairs, there was pressure from the political types, who seem to be central to every decision by the administration, to defend the Obama foreign policy narrative even if a totally invented script on Benghazi needed to be written to do this. The narrative that needed defending, in reality, more mythology than substance, argued that al-Qaida had effectively been destroyed with the death of bin Laden, and that our Libyan intervention had been a great success.

Then on Friday, an arguably bigger story blew up on the administration. The Treasury Department's inspector-general for tax administration is expected to level serious charges next week of an attempt by Internal Revenue Service officials to target conservative groups seeking to obtain tax-exempt status under the code. The administration, as is its habit, released the news of the problematic behavior by agents in the Cincinnati office of the IRS on Friday afternoon, assuming the story would get overshadowed by the continuing Benghazi controversy, with which it would have to compete. The release of the news included suggestions that the singling out of the Tea Party and other conservative groups, was the work of lower level employees, in a branch office, and of course was unknown to departmental superiors or other higher up officials (e.g., the White House). These intimations have already proven false. Certain IRS officials were either in the dark about the operation or lied under oath to Congress in 2012 when asked about the program by members of Congress who had been informed about the behavior of the IRS by groups trying to gain the tax exemption. Incredibly, spotting words such as "constitution," "Bill of Rights," and "patriot" in the name or mission of groups, were red flags for the IRS agents. The IRS agents also asked for donor lists, which is both illegal and chilling for potential donors. And the supposedly rogue "way down the totem pole" agents in Cincinnati were anything but; that office is the central processing office for the IRS to consider applications for tax exempt status, so it represents ground zero for this activity.

One can easily make a case that the current law is too lax, and organizations that achieve tax-free status are more interested in political advocacy than in charitable purposes, such as education and communication on issues. If this is one's view, however, then enforcement of the law should presumably be applied consistently, across the board, to organizations and groups that may have crossed the line, regardless of their message. Groups that are really conducting politics and only pretending to have a charitable purpose would be identified from both the Left and the Right. This, of course, is not what happened here. The only groups that were identified by their mission or name, were on the Right, in other words, perceived political opponents of the Obama administration.

There is much evidence that Americans are not well versed in their history, including relatively recent history. Going back fewer than 40 years, the first impeachment article drawn up in the U.S. House of Representatives for President Richard Nixon in 1974 described his abuse of presidential authority by using the IRS to target political opponents. Is the offense of less significance now because the Democratic Party is in power, and it stuck the IRS on Republicans and conservatives? So far, the connection between the banana republic activity of the IRS agents and the White House has not been made. But this controversy is in its first weekend. So far, there has been no testimony under oath by anyone before a congressional committee. And more importantly, the misconduct is so serious that even the administration's most ardent defenders are not spinning that nothing bad happened here. Even Jay Carney admitted this was wrong, and that may be a first for him.

The president, who loves to be in the public view at all times, so long as the audience is friendly (worshipful is preferred), was little seen this week except for an appearance before a carefully selected group of cheering women to promote the increasingly troubled rollout of his health care reform bill, popularly known as Obamacare. That legislation will result in significant financial costs and prove politically embarrassing to the administration if healthy younger people do not enroll in large numbers. There was not a word from the president about Benghazi or the IRS controversy. Instead, Jay Carney was served up as the piñata for a suddenly aggressive White House press corps, which for over four years seemed to see its role as mainly to provide political cover for the administration.

The IRS story will get much bigger this week. The pro-Israel group Z Street, for which I serve as a board member, received a brushback from the IRS when it applied for tax-free status in 2010. The IRS agent who communicated with Z Street indicated that a special division of the IRS had been created to review applications for groups involved with Israel, and in particular was interested in its involvement with terrorism (!) There were also questions about the group's political positions, in particular how consistent they were with those of the administration. Until this weekend, no one had put together the IRS political harassment campaign against pro-Israel groups with the stories that had been circulating of roadblocks and challenges to the Tea Party and conservative groups.

The scrutiny of Z Street was not an isolated event for the IRS. Other Jewish groups, including groups not focused on Israel, were also targeted.

"And at least one purely religious Jewish organization, one not focused on Israel, was the recipient of bizarre and highly inappropriate questions about Israel. Those questions also came from the same non-profit division of the IRS at issue for inappropriately targeting politically conservative groups. The IRS required that Jewish organization to state "whether [it] supports the existence of the land of Israel," and also demanded the organization "describe [its] religious belief system toward the land of Israel."

The mainstream media disregarded Barack Obama's political history in Chicago, his work as a community organizer, his connections with radicals and Israel haters such as Bill Ayers, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Ali Abunimah and Rashid Khalidi, or his attachment to Saul Alinsky's methods and blueprint for political action. The president has so far largely kept his distance from the storm clouds gathering over his administration over Benghazi and the IRS. On Benghazi his fingerprints are clearer, since he personally provided misleading information (you can use a different word) about the attack in several talks and interviews in the two weeks after September 11, in every case blaming the anti-Muslim video maker for stirring up a mob to attack the consulate. He knew that was untrue, but kept saying it anyway. The bigger question will be this: Is it really possible that IRS agents simply chose to deal with conservative groups and Jewish groups in the way they did without any direction from above? And if there was direction from above, from how far up the chain of command was the direction given?

Why Dairy only on Shavuot

http://onlinehebrewschool.blogspot.com/

http://chicagorabbi.blogspot.com/      life cyles Chicago: Bar mitzvah and wedding, 

http://pararabbitraining.blogspot.com/ 

http://converttojudaism.net online conversion to Judaism

http://isynagogue.blogspot.com/   online Jewish education and spirituality

Shavuot intro

http://onlinehebrewschool.blogspot.com/

http://chicagorabbi.blogspot.com/      life cyles Chicago: Bar mitzvah and wedding, 

http://pararabbitraining.blogspot.com/ 

http://converttojudaism.net online conversion to Judaism

http://isynagogue.blogspot.com/   online Jewish education and spirituality

Women of the Wall harassed

Our newest Jew and a half (she's pregnant so got a 2fer!)

www.converttojudaism.net

women of the wall vs Rabbi Ayatollahs

Many early authorities did permit women to wear a tallit, such as Isaac ibn Ghiyyat (b. 1038), Rashi (1040–1105), Rabbeinu Tam (ca 1100–1171), Zerachya ben Yitzhak Halevi of Lunel (ca. 1125–1186), Rambam (1135–1204), Rabbi Eliezer ben Yoel Halevi (ca 1140–ca 1225), Rashba (1235–1310), Aharon Halevi of Barcelona (b. ca 1235?), Rabbi Yisrael Yaaqob Alghazi (1680–1761), Rabbi Yomtob ben Yisrael Alghazi (1726–1802))

So who are their illustrious Rabbi s denying the women to wear it, pray at our holiest sites and defying the courts. Rabbi Ayahtolla?

Jerusalem: Haredim attack Women of the Wall

Thousands of female haredi worshipers heed call of community leaders to hold a mass prayer at site to upstage arrival of Women of the Wall; mass brawl erupts. Reform Movement: Haredi leaders 'desecrated sanctity' of Kotel

Haredi worshippers clashed with police in Jerusalem's Old City early Friday in the wake of the court authorization for the Women of the Wall to pray at the Jewish holy site.

Thousands of female haredi worshipers arrived at the site, heeding the call of community leaders rabbis Ovadia Yosef and Aharon Leib Shteinman who entreated female Ulpan students to hold a mass prayer at the Western Wall on Friday in an attempt to push aside the Women of Wall prayer set for the same time. However, the rabbis stressed there is no need to act provocatively or violently. 

A mass brawl erupted at the site at around 6:30 am, during which garbage, water, coffee and various objects were flung at dozens of Women of the Wall and police forming a human barrier between the female group and the ultra-Orthodox. Three yeshiva students were detained during the clashes. Two police officers were injured lightly.


Women of the Wall (photo: Gil Yohanan)

The protest comes in response to a Jerusalem District Court ruling last month, whereby the Women of the Wall may conduct their pluralistic customs in the holy site.

צילום: אלי מנדלבאום

Video: Eli Mandelbaum

Knesset members Miri Regev (Likud ) and Tamar Zandberg (Meretz ) arrived on the scene. Zandberg described the scenes as "tumultuous and exciting," saying those objecting to the female group's right to pray at the site have shown themselves to be seeking antagonism at any cost.

Video courtesy of jn1.tv 

Deputy Jerusalem Mayor Isaac Pindar (United Torah Judaism) branded Women of the Wall "the women of provocation." Pindar told Ynet the thousands of haredi women who came this morning to hold a mass prayer  nearby were "the true women of the wall."


Police forces at the scene restraining a haredi man (photo: Gil Yohanan)

Reform Movement CEO Rabbi Gilad Kariv, who also arrived at the site, said the leaders of the haredi public "desecrated the sanctity" of the Western Wall by calling on ultra-Orthodox to confront the Women of the Wall.

The Rabbi of the Western Wall Shmuel Rabinovich said "these pictures hurt the eye. The Jewish Torah should unify and I ask the Lord above to give everyone the wisdom to overcome the controversy."


He added a compromise regarding the praying sectors at the site was achieved through a Supreme Court ruling over a decade ago, but "a small group nevertheless decided to start the argument all over."


The riot again brings to the fore the issue of religion’s role – and the authority wielded by religious authorities associated with religious practice – in the modern State of Israel. In addition to being portrayed as the epicenter of Jewish prayer, the Western Wall is simultaneously a holy site and a site used for ceremonies such as soldiers’ swearing-in ceremonies and other national activities.

Until now, the site has been run in the manner of an Orthodox synagogue, with a high partition separating men’s and women’s prayer areas. Women coming to attend a bar mitzvah (a coming-of-age ceremony for boys at age 13) have had to climb up on chairs to peek over the partition in order to be part of the festivities.

Women of the Wall's Catherine Leff, 17, whose father is a Conservative rabbi, said the events actually strengthened the group and encouraged the members to sing and pray even louder. She said that at some point the haredim began to spit at the women until police cleared them from the area. According to Leff, the bus which transported the Women of the Wall out of compound was pelted with huge stones, but no one was injured.


Students enrolled in the Reform Movement's pre-military academy were also on hand to support the Women of the Wall. "We arrived from Tel Aviv to show our support," one of them said. "It is also a lesson in democracy, as there is no law that forbids women from praying in this manner."


During the prayer, a woman approached the yeshiva students and yelled out "Israel's chief rabbi will be a woman." She was immediately removed from the area by police.


Yaakov, a 21-year-old haredi, said, "What these women are doing is disgraceful and against the Torah. We will continue to fight them. A woman draped in a tallit (prayer shawl) is ridiculous. Jews do not act this way. I am willing to get arrested. Some things justify a violent reaction."

   

These extremists don't even speak for historical Judaism.

China and Israel

The "Start-Up Nation" and the Chinese Dream - H.E. Gao Yanping
On May 5, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu embarked on an official visit to China, the first by an Israeli prime minister since 2007. Two-way trade between China and Israel has increased from $50 million in 1992 to $9.91 billion in 2012. Netanyahu's visit is of great significance, and will promote a new high in China-Israel relations.
    The friendship between the Chinese and Jewish nations dates back more than 1,000 years. The Jewish people in then-Chinese capital Kaifeng enjoyed equal rights to the Chinese. From the 1880s onward, thousands of Jews went to northeast China because of rising anti-Semitism in Russia and Eastern Europe. Before and during World War II, when Jewish people were struggling for survival against the Nazi Holocaust, Shanghai became the only city in the world open to Jews.The writer is the People's Republic of China's ambassador to Israel.(Jerusalem Post)
    See also The Geography of Sino-Israeli Relations - Binyamin Tjong-Alvares
As China and Israel complete their 20th year of diplomatic relations, the two nations are poised to explore the abundance of synergies that bind them through deeper and broader interaction and a shared goal of bringing those benefits to the wider world. (Jewish Political Studies Review)