March 22, 2007

Israel Lobby Targets
Tax Honesty Movement

Are Kidd, Becraft, Banister
and Schulz “Extremists”?

As we reported in our previous article, the upcoming Give Me Liberty 2007 conference will examine U.S. Middle East Policy through the prism of the U.S. Constitution. During the conference we will examine the work of professors Mearsheimer (University of Chicago) and Walt (Harvard University) titled, “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” and the book by Jimmy Carter titled, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid.

Substantial documentary evidence presented by Mearsheimer, Walt and Carter supports the argument that the United States has abandoned its own national interest and security to advance the interests of Israel, that neither strategic nor moral arguments can justify  America’s unconditional support for Israel, that the United States has become the de facto enabler of Israel’s unlawful expansion and military occupation of the Palestinian Territories, and that U.S. policy in the Middle East (including giving Israel well over $140 billion in U.S. income tax revenues) has been driven by the activities of the “Israel Lobby.”

Their work documents how the Israeli Lobby unashamedly boasts of its control over U.S. domestic and foreign policy and public opinion, and attacks any person or organization that criticizes or is perceived to be a threat to Israel’s interests.

According to Mearsheimer and Walt, “We use ‘the Lobby’ as a convenient term for the loose coalition of individuals and organizations who actively work to shape U.S. policy in a pro-Israel direction…The core of the Lobby is comprised of American Jews who make a significant effort in their daily lives to bend U.S. foreign policy so that it advances Israel’s interests.”

Referring to them as “extremists”, the Lobby has attacked columnist Devvy Kidd, constitutional attorney Larry Becraft, former IRS Special Agent Joe Banister, WTP Chairman Bob Schulz and others affiliated with the Tax Honesty Movement who have developed a substantial body of documentary evidence that conclusively proves the present federal income tax is an unlawful (Constitutionally prohibited) direct, un-apportioned tax on the labor of American citizens. See “Extremism In America: Tax Protest Movement” on one of the Israeli Lobby’s websites. (Don’t forget to click on UPDATE)

Why would the Israeli Lobby’s Anti-Defamation League take such a keen interest in defending the method by which the U.S. Government collects its internal revenues? 

Why would the Lobby attempt to publicly demonize American citizens who are properly exercising their Right of Free Speech and the Right to Petition the Government for Redress of Grievances, as expressly guaranteed by the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights?

Why would the Lobby concern itself with “extremists” who are peacefully and lawfully defending America’s Constitution and Founding Principles?

According to the Lobby’s website,

 “[T]he Anti-Defamation League was established in 1913 by a lawyer and fearless visionary by the name of Sigmund Livingston…’to stop, by appeals to reason and conscience, and if necessary, by appeals to law, the defamation of the Jewish people. . . to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike. . . put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens.” See http://www.adl.org/ADLHistory/1913_1920.asp

“The particulars may change, but the goal remains the same: to stand up for the core values of America against those who seek to undermine them through word or deed.” See http://www.adl.org/ADLHistory/intro.asp

“ADL fights hatred, extremism and terrorism. Our goal: to make the world a safer place. Over the past few years, we have expanded our expertise and capabilities to confront a more dangerous world. 

“Our three priorities are to: 

·         Gather, analyze and disseminate intelligence on extremism and hate activity

·         Enhance law enforcement’s ability to combat serious threats

·         Provide assistance, support and resources on security to the Jewish community  

“ADL is meeting the CHALLENGE: we have a nationwide fact-finding infrastructure. We take ACTION: bringing law enforcement agencies together, implementing strategies to promote security awareness, systemically monitoring hate sites on the Internet, providing training on extremist ideologies and building bridges between Jewish institutions and law enforcement. In ways large and small, measurable and not, ADL gets RESULTS. We are making this nation a safer place.”  See http://www.adl.org/main_about_adl.asp

The Lobby says its goal is “to stand up for the core values of America.” However, the true core values and guiding principles of America are concisely articulated in its Founding Documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America.

Either the Israeli Lobby is intentionally misrepresenting its purpose and objectives, or its understanding of what constitutes America’s “core values” is immensely different than that of our country’s Founders.  There can be no other rational explanation for why the Lobby would attempt to publicly demonize American patriots such as Kidd, Becraft, Banister, Schulz and others who seek only to hold the Federal Government accountable to the U.S. Constitution and the laws of the United States. 

Unlike the United States, the nation of Israel has no Constitution or Bill of Rights that limits the power of government and guarantees the individual Rights of its People.  Israel’s government is not subject to constitutional limits on its power, nor does it recognize, guarantee or protect the equal rights of every person living under its military authority and control, including those Palestinians residing in the Occupied Territories. 

Israel’s government is dominated by a class of government-corporate-military elites who exercise complete control over the country. This control over the Israeli and Palestinian People would not be possible without the powerful influence of the Israeli Lobby and the billions in annual financial support received from the U.S. government.  This may explain the Lobby’s attack on Kidd, Becraft, Banister, Schulz and others who objectively criticize America’s relationship with Israel.

Our government, unlike Israel’s, rests upon a firm foundation of Constitutional Law designed to secure the individual rights and freedoms of every American.  The lawful authority exercised by our government is limited to that which is delegated and derived from the consent of the People.  In America, the rights and freedoms come not from our servant government, but from God.  Unlike the State of Israel, America has a form of government and system of justice that strictly prohibit the discrimination, maltreatment and oppression of any person or group of people based on their ethnic origin, religion or race. 

In America, unlike Israel, we possess certain rights that cannot be denied except by due process of law.  Those rights include the right to private property and to be secure in our homes and possessions, the right to defend our lives and property against aggression, and the right to live our lives according to the dictates of personal conscience so long as we do no harm, and respect the equal individual rights of our fellow Americans.

Contrary to widely misinformed public opinion, Israel does not recognize the concept of inalienable (God-given) individual rights for every person regardless of ethnic origin, religion or race.  Israel does not share America’s core moral values expressed in our Founding Documents.  Israel does not guarantee religious freedom to its citizens, nor tolerate free religious expression. 

Every year billions of dollars are confiscated from U.S. taxpayers by our Federal Government and sent to Israel in direct violation of the U.S. Constitution.  This theft of the labor of American citizens is made even more egregious by the fact that the bulk of our foreign aid to Israel is used to expand and enforce its unlawful and immoral occupation of the Palestinian Territories, and its subjugation and long-standing oppression of the Palestinian People.  

America’s “core values” reflect our devotion to individual liberty, and the right of every person to live free of arbitrary government coercion and force.  However, we cannot have personal freedom without personal responsibility.  Our decisions and actions have consequences.  Sometimes those consequences extend far beyond what we anticipate, or can even imagine.

America’s blind and unconditional support for Israel over the past 40 years has produced catastrophic consequences for our Country.  The core values of our society and the integrity of our government institutions have been thoroughly corrupted by the influence of a foreign Lobby.  

Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry and countless American patriots over the past 230 years have reaffirmed our nation’s core values, while warning of the consequences of ignorance and apathy among the People.  Modern American patriots such as Kidd, Becraft, Banister and Schulz, like our nation’s Founders, are keenly aware that freedom cannot coexist with ignorance and apathy.  Clearly, the Israeli Lobby perceives our vigilance and love of country to be a threat to its objectives, but why? 

Other than a desire to protect at all costs the tax revenues of the U.S. Government (as goes the U.S. income tax, so goes U.S. aid to Israel), we can think of no reason for the Israel Lobby’s defamation of Kidd, Becraft, Banister, Schulz and the others who have never defamed or threatened in any manner the Jewish people or the state of Israel, who believe in justice and fair treatment of all citizens alike and who have never engaged in discrimination against or ridicule of any sect or body of citizens. 

As the saying goes, it would appear the Israel Lobby has gotten “too big for its britches.”

The Israel Lobby behaves as if it can do no wrong and is untouchable.  In their paper, Mearsheimer and Walt address the Lobby’s extraordinary efforts to bend U.S. policy in a pro-Israel direction. They address the Lobby’s extraordinary influence in the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Executive, its extraordinary manipulation of America’s media and think tanks and its growing efforts on American campuses to perpetuate myths about and prevent criticism of Israel.  

For more insight into the extent of the Lobby’s influence (control) in the U.S. Congress, read the what Paul Findley, the former congressman from Illinois reported in his article “Liberating America From Israel.” Better yet, read his book “They Dare to Speak Out.”   

In addition, read what James Abourezk, the former Senator from South Dakota reported in his article “Support for Israel in Congress is based on fear.” 

One gets another glimpse of the Lobby’s powerful influence over people like Dick Cheney, Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi by reading the article by Gregory Levey titled, “Inside America’s powerful Israel Lobby,” in which Levey writes about his observations at the Lobby’s annual three-day conference in Washington DC last week. 

Who or what can stop the juggernaut – this terrible, irresistible force that is destroying Palestine, threatening the stability of the world order and endangering the American Republic and the Liberty of the American People?

In a Carter Center press release issued on 15 December 2006 entitled "A letter to Jewish citizens of America," Carter wrote,
 

“ [T]he overwhelming bias for Israel comes from among Christians like me who have been taught since childhood to honor and protect God's chosen people from among whom came our own savior, Jesus Christ. An additional factor, especially in the political arena, is the powerful influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which is exercising its legitimate goal of explaining the current policies of Israel's government and arousing maximum support in our country. There are no significant countervailing voices." 

In Carter’s op-ed to the Los Angeles Times on December 8, 2006 he wrote,  

"For the last 30 years, I have witnessed and experienced the severe restraints on any free and balanced discussion of the facts." 

As Findley wrote in Liberating America From Israel,  

“The lobby's intimidation remains pervasive. It seems to reach every government center and even houses of worship and revered institutions of higher learning.”

Herein lies a disturbing explanation for the reprehensible and unconstitutional treatment that American citizens such as Irwin Schiff and Dick Simkanin (and lawyers such as Becraft and Jeff Dickstein) have received in criminal tax trials. The Lobby’s heavy-handed demonizing and intimidation of people for attempting to intelligently question the origin and operation of the federal income tax system may well be going beyond the ADL’s website, reaching into the halls of justice. 

We take issue with Jimmy Carter’s pessimistic assertion that there are no countervailing voices (to counteract the Lobby’s cacophony). Carter is wrong on this. There are countervailing voices that speak in harmony, that are far more powerful and carry far more weight in the day-to-day affairs of the United States than does the Lobby or any other special interest.  

One need only ponder the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to discover these countervailing voices. Listen and you will hear a harmony of the most powerful voices of all mankind, those of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, James Madison, John and Sam Adams, Patrick Henry, Ben Franklin and the rest of the Founding Fathers. In your hearts, you will feel the force of Liberty. 

We are not to be intimidated by the Lobby. We are to be inspired by our Founding Documents and their underlying essential principles. Each generation is on call to defend them against all enemies, foreign and domestic. 

The battle continues next week in Alexandria Virginia at GML 2007.  

Unless the people we have invited to speak at the conference (representatives from the Israel Lobby and the Governments of Israel and the United States, and various scholars), or anyone else can effectively deny the facts in Carter’s book and the Paper by Mearsheimer and Walt, then we, as responsible citizens of America have a duty to defend the General Welfare Clause of the Constitution by petitioning the U.S. Government to suspend all aid to Israel at least until Israel ends is occupation of Arab land unlawfully seized in 1967.

If ending aid to Israel means an end to the Police State policies and programs that have been imposed on the People of America since 9-11, and that have resulted in a loss of Freedom, then that is what must be done. 

Not that anyone would ask for our opinion regarding a lasting solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict, but if they did we would suggest a TWO-STATE, ONE-CONSTITUTION solution, with that Constitution protecting individual Rights, Equal Protection under the Law and Due Process for all. 

It may be that a little “extremism” is just what the doctor ordered.
 

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Update Related Links

Read the White Paper on the Israel Lobby by Professors Mearsheimer and Walt
Note: This document is 1.2 MB.  Please RIGHT-click to download it onto your computer

Articles:
Former U.S. Congressman Paul Findley “Liberating America From Israel.”
.
Former Gov. James Abourezk, “Support for Israel in Congress is based on fear.” 

Gregory Levey titled, “Inside America’s powerful Israel Lobby"

Read our last article:  Mid-East Policy v. the U.S. Constitution: GML 2007 to Debate Divisive Question
 

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