IRS to Jewish group Z Street : ‘Does your organization support the existence of the land of Israel?’ November 27, 2010 http://www.israpundit.com/archives/30846 Ben Smith November 24,2 010 http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1110/IRS_to_Jewish_group_Does_your_organization_support_the_existence_of_the_land_of_Israel.html?showall A Pennsylvania Jewish group that has claimed the Internal Revenue Service is targeting pro-Israel groups introduced in federal court today a letter from an IRS agent to another, unnamed organization that tax experts said was likely outside the usual or appropriate scope of an IRS inquiry. "Does your organization support the existence of the land of Israel?" IRS agent Tracy Dornette wrote the organization, according to this week's court filing, as part of its consideration of the organizations application for tax exempt status. "Describe your organization's religious belief sytem toward the land of Israel." The document emerged in the course of a lawsuit filed in August by Z Street, a hawkish group that casts itself as the Zionist answer to the liberal J Street. Z Street claims that a different IRS agent reviewing its application for tax exempt status said the agency is "carefully scrutinizing organizations that are in any way connected with Israel" and that "a special unit" is determining whether its activities "contradict the Administration's public policies.'" The IRS can deny tax exempt status to groups that work against "established public policy," a precedent established in its denial of a tax exemption to Bob Jones University over racial discrimination, and Z Street is suggesting that the IRS has begun applying some such policy to pro-Israel groups. The State Department has complained of tax exempt contributions to groups that fund weapons and equipment for West Bank settlers, which Z Street co-founder Lori Lowenthal Marcus said Z Street has never come close to doing. "Given that we have fallen within this net, how big is the net?" she asked. The agent's question was contained in correspondence with "a Jewish religious organization" with no stated position on Israel, Z Street says in its court filing. The group's tax adviser, Z Street says, shared the correspondence with Z Street. Z Street does not know the name of the group and may subpoena the tax adviser, who is no longer cooperating with them, for more information, Marcus said. Several experts on non-profit tax law said the questions to the organization were unusual, at best, though they were also skeptical of the claim that the IRS is specifically targeting pro-Israel groups. "The claims go far beyond what should be the IRS's role," said Paul Caron a University of Cincinnati law professor and the author of TaxProf Blog. Ellen Aprill, a law professor at Loyola University in Los Angeles said the second question was "appropriate" in the context of an application seeking a tax exemption on religious grounds. "The first one is not the way I would want any of my agents to do it," she said. Former I.R.S. Commissioner Sheldon Cohen said he was skeptical of Z Street's motives in its high-profile lawsuit, rather than pursuing its concerns in tax court. "They were hardly into the process when they screamed rape – nobody lifted the dress yet," he said, noting that 501(c)3 groups can't advocate for political positions. But he called the specific questions "unusual." "I've never seen that kind of inquiry," he said. And Ofer Lion, a California tax lawyer, said he thought the question was probably the work of a misguided agent. "People who work in the field and have done a lot of these applications have seen these bizarre questions shot back at them more than once," he said. Z Street maintains, however, that the questions are more evidence of a broader policy targeting pro-Israel groups. The organization claims that the agency is "improperly considering the political viewpoint of applicants" and engaging in "clear viewpoint discrimination." The IRS has sought to dismiss Z Street's claim on technical grounds. A spokesman said he couldn't immediately comment on the new filing; in August, a spokesman said he couldn't comment on an ongoing case. My friend and colleague Lori Lowenthal Marcus heads up the wonderful Jewish organization, Z Street. I have blogged on their wonderful work -- scroll here. They are a counter to the judeophobic, anti-Israel organization J Street (the J is for jihad). Obama's affection for the anti-semites at J Street (funded by Soros and Muslims) is well documented. Obama's antisemitism is meticulously researched and sourced in my book: The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America. J Street visits to White House -- source, White House visitor log: Z Street visits to the White House -- zilch, zero, nada, zip. An ugly, creepy environment, eerily reminiscent of pre-war Germany, has begun to emerge under the Obama administration. The IRS agent reviewing Z Street's application for tax exempt status said the agency is "carefully scrutinizing organizations that are in any way connected with Israel" and that "a special unit" is determining whether its activities "contradict the Administration's public policies." Clearly, Obama is an anti-semite. Every communist, subversive, Islamic supremacist group, working actively against America gets tax exempt status (see Soros), but a tiny Jewish group is "contradicting the Obama administration's public policies"? And the Muslim Brotherhood is ...working with the President? "Does your organization support the existence of the land of Israel?" IRS agent Tracy Dornette wrote the organization, according to this week's court filing, as part of its consideration of the organizations application for tax exempt status. "Describe your organization's religious belief sytem toward the land of Israel." The document emerged in the course of a lawsuit filed in August by Z Street, a hawkish group that casts itself as the Zionist answer to the liberal J Street. Z Street claims that a different IRS agent reviewing its application for tax exempt status said the agency is "carefully scrutinizing organizations that are in any way connected with Israel" and that "a special unit" is determining whether its activities "contradict the Administration's public policies.'" Z Street 2010-11-24 17:31:01 The Lawsuit Z STREET: government continues its Constitutional violations 11/22/10 Z STREET today filed in court our Opposition to the government's attempt to have our complaint dismissed. Read about it here. The documents are now posted here. The case has been written about and/or mentioned in various places including Politico (read, if you can stand it, the talkbacks and see the infected maggotry of Jew- and Israel-hatred squirming just below the surface of mainstream American society) and by Drudge, but Ron Radosh's article at Pajamas Media gets to the essence of why this matters so much. Obama's judenrein policy is in full throttle in Jerusalem -- and now he is bringing his Islamic antisemitism to America. His anti-American, anti-Israel policies must be fought. Hamas and terror groups must have their tax-exempt status withdrawn. The Ground Zero mosque Imam Rauf and Daisy Khan filed false tax forms and got tax-exempt status for the "Muslim organization" he founded after claiming as many as 500 of its members prayed daily in a small, one-bedroom Upper West Side apartment also listed as his wife's residence. The Islamization of America must be rolled back. It is up to each one of us. Write a letter to the IRS Enforcement Division. Include the Judge's citations that CAIR and Hamas are one and the same, and request that the IRS revoke CAIR's non-profit status. Internal Revenue Service As you may or may not be aware, CAIR, also known as Counsel of American Islamic Relations, has been declared BY A FEDERAL JUDGE, to be Hamas, and HAMAS is recognized to be terrorist organization. As such, per Title 26, Chapter 1, Subchapter F, Part 1, §501(p), CAIR and all of it’s branch-CAIR organizations through the United States must be suspended as a tax-exempt status, and duly classified as a terrorist organization. See Attachment A for specific tax code. See Attachment C for all chapters of CAIR, which must be suspended as a tax-exempt organization, including all subchapters of CAIR operating in any State in the USA. Please reply with confirmation that you have received this letter, and acknowledgement that the IRS will suspend the nonprofit status of CAIR and all of its subchapters. Thank you, TITLE 26 > Subtitle A > CHAPTER 1 > Subchapter F > PART I § 501 § 501. Exemption from tax on corporations, certain trusts, etc. (p) Suspension of tax-exempt status of terrorist organizations (1) In general The exemption from tax under subsection (a) with respect to any organization described in paragraph (2), and the eligibility of any organization described in paragraph (2) to apply for recognition of exemption under subsection (a), shall be suspended during the period described in paragraph (3). (2) Terrorist organizations An organization is described in this paragraph if such organization is designated or otherwise individually identified— (A) under section 212(a)(3)(B)(vi)(II) or 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act as a terrorist organization or foreign terrorist organization, (B) in or pursuant to an Executive order which is related to terrorism and issued under the authority of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act or section 5 of the United Nations Participation Act of 1945 for the purpose of imposing on such organization an economic or other sanction, or (C) in or pursuant to an Executive order issued under the authority of any Federal law if— (i) the organization is designated or otherwise individually identified in or pursuant to such Executive order as supporting or engaging in terrorist activity (as defined in section 212(a)(3)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act) or supporting terrorism (as defined in section 140(d)(2) of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1988 and 1989); and (ii) such Executive order refers to this subsection Attachment B Federal Judge Agrees: CAIR Tied to Hamas IPT "The evidence has long suggested that CAIR is a criminal organization set up by the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas to further its aims of stealth Jihad in the U.S.," Mr. Yerushalmi said, referring to the fact that CAIR has been named by the federal government as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror financing trial. Recall that the 5th Circuit ruled that Judge Solis must unseal his earlier ruling in the collateral matter arising out of HLF criminal trial in which CAIR, ISNA, and NAIT sought to have Judge Solis rule that the USG’s listing them as UCCs and/or JVs publicly violated their 5th Am rights. But, in so doing, he ruled that he would not strike them from the list, and he apparently proceeded to go through the evidence connecting them to Hamas, IAP, etc. (I say “apparently” because we could only infer this from the 5th Circuit ruling.) Then, Judge Solis put his ruling under seal and the trial brief, but not before, of course, it was public knowledge. A pyrrhic victiry for the Hamas boys and girls, to be sure. Download 2010-10-20 United States v. Holy Land Foundation et al. (5th Circuit) ATTACHMENT – CHAPTERS OF CAIR A few days ago I picked up this story from the JTA, claiming that an appeals court had removed the unindicted co-conspirator designation from CAIR and several other Hamas-linked groups. It turns out that the story was false. The actual ruling is here, and it doesn't bear out the JTA's story, or the story from the Leftist pseudo-news site Politico, upon which the JTA relied. Here is an explanation from Z Street: "Still tainted by terrorism ties," from Z Street, October 25: What the courts did was rule that the government should not have made public a document it attached to a brief in May, 2007, which the government then referred to as a list of unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing case. The case determined that the so called Islamic Charity actually existed almost exclusively to support Hamas, the Arab Palestinian terrorist entity. In fact, thank you so much to CAIR and to ISNA and to NAIT. In the course of trying to get the courts to clear their "good" names, those organizations gave the courts and the government lawyers nearly half a dozen opportunities to point out that the government presented evidence during the trial of the organizations' connections to Hamas. In other words - the fact that there was a violation of the organizations' Fifth Amendment rights because the organizations were publicly named as having close connections to terrorist entities in a document - and the organizations had no opportunity to defend themselves in that document - really didn't amount to a hill of beans because evidence was introduced at trial of those same connections. In fact, the government witness, testifying under oath, referred to CAIR as a Hamas front group.... Pamela Geller has more analysis here.
(Politico Document) you can see it clearly on page 5 of the pdf)
Z STREET: IRS continues Constitutional violations concerning Israel
You can see the full 18-page document filed by Z Street (it's a memorandum in opposition to a motion by the IRS to dismiss the claim for failure to state a cause of action) here.
Z STREET, an organization devoted to pro-Israel public education, today filed in federal court its Opposition to the government’s effort to continue violating the US Constitution by discriminating against the organization because its views on Israel and the Middle East differ from those of this government. On August 25, 2010 Z STREET filed a Complaint in federal court charging the Internal Revenue Service with constitutional violations by subjecting Z STREET’s application for tax exemption to a discriminatory process.
In its response to Z STREET’s Complaint, the government did not deny that it engaged in this First Amendment violation. Instead, the government’s position is that (1) it can violate the Constitution whenever it wants and the only way to stop it is if the government agrees to be stopped, and (2) Z STREET should go to a different court to get something it should already have - tax exempt status - were it not for the constitutional violation the government has inflicted upon it.
“As every American knows, the US government is bound by the Constitution, and it can be hailed into court and ordered to cease unconstitutional action whether it consents or not,” said Lori Lowenthal Marcus, president of Z STREET. “This evasive measure simply compounds the unconstitutional process by which our effort to achieve tax-exempt status has been, and is being, reviewed.”
Marcus added, “we have provided evidence that another applicant for charitable exemption was asked by the IRS, in writing, in connection with its application, whether it supports the existence of Israel, and what that organization’s religious beliefs are about Israel. The other organization is a Jewish one with a religious focus and has nothing to do with Israel at all,” she said. “There is something very serious, and very wrong, in the process the IRS is using to allocate tax exempt determinations, and Z STREET is committed to exposing and righting that wrong.”
Hmmm.
But Hamas Terror Group CAIR Gets IRS Tax-Exempt Status
ENFORCEMENT DIVISION
10th St NW & Pennsylvania Ave NW 20004
(From Attachment A)
U.S. District Judge Jorge A. Solis, cites "ample evidence" that CAIR participated in a "criminal conspiracy" led by the Holy Land Foundation, Hamas's main fundraising arm in the U.S. As a result, the judge refused CAIR's request to strike its name from documents listing it as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case.
See Attachment B for Judge’s Ruling – that ‘’CAIR is Hamas’’
Download 2009-07-01 United States v. Holy Land Foundation et al. (D.N.Tx.)
[...] You see, the courts did NOT decide that CAIR or its fellow-terrorist-travelers are not actually terrorists or not actually terrorist enablers.
Monday, 29 November 2010
The IRS is now asking Jewish organizations if they support the existence of Israel.
IRS continues constitutional violations against pro-Israel groups
November 23, 2010 http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2010/11/irs-continues-constitutional-violations.html
Three months ago, I posted about a lawsuit filed by the pro-Israel organization Z Street, which claimed that the IRS is withholding tax exemptions from pro-Israel organizations whose politics they don't like. On Monday, Z Street issued a press release with an update on the case.
Obama's IRS SS Denies Z Street Tax-Exempt Status Because of Israel Support
November 26, 2010 http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2010/11/obamas-irs-ss-denies-z-street-tax-exempt-status-because-of-israel-supportbut-hamas-terror-group-cair.html
(below is a list of all the CAIR chapters) ......
Contrary to false media reports, Hamas-linked CAIR is still an unindicted co-conspirator (so is ISNA)
October 26, 2010 http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/10/hamas-linked-cair-is-still-an-unindicted-co-conspirator-so-is-isna.html
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