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(WJD) The IRS may have unfairly targeted Jewish and pro-Israel groups because of their support for the Jewish state, the Jewish Press revealed on Saturday.
In a scandal just emerging in the U.S. media, the IRS apologized for subjecting Tea Party and other conservative organizations to unjustified inquiries that could have damaged the viability of these groups.
Now, it appears that groups concerned with domestic issues were not the only targets. The Jewish Press writes that the right-wing pro-Israel group Z Street was targeted due to the IRS' believe that "the organization was 'connected to Israel,'" and "the organization’s activities contradict the Administration’s public policies."
The IRS went so far as to claim
that because Israel is a country “where terrorism happens,” the service was justified in taking additional time to determine whether Z STREET was involved with funding terrorism.
It is unknown whether the IRS had any evidence to support such suspicions.
Z Street sued the IRS in 2010, claiming "viewpoint discrimination and a violation of its constitutionally protected right of free speech." The case has only now reached the point of a public hearing, having been stonewalled by the IRS for three years.
There are also indications that the IRS also targeted a Jewish group that did not deal with Israel-related issues. The Press describes the unnamed group as "purely religious" and "not focused on Israel."
The IRS required that Jewish organization to state “whether [it] supports the existence of the land of Israel,” and also demanded the organization “[d]escribe [its] religious belief system toward the land of Israel.”
Should these reports prove accurate, they would represent an extremely disturbing development, indicating not only politically motivated corruption but also religious and racial prejudice on the part of an extremely powerful government agency.
