How Tax-Exempt and Public Money Fuel a Culture of Confrontation and Terror in Israel
by Edwin Black

This explosive volume pulls the cover off the robust use of US tax-exempt, tax-subsidized, and public monies to foment agitation, systematically destabilize the Israel Defense Forces, and finance terrorists in Israel. In a far-flung investigation in the United States plus Israel and the West Bank, human-rights investigative reporter Edwin Black documents that it is actually highly-politicized human rights organizations and NGOs themselves—all American taxpayer supported—which are financing the flames that make peace in Israel difficult if not impossible.

Black spotlights key charitable organizations such as the Ford Foundation, George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, the New Israel Fund, and many others, as well as American taxpayers as a group. Instead of promoting peace and reconciliation between Arabs and Israelis, a variety of taxpayer-subsidized organizations have funded a culture where peace does not pay, but warfare and confrontation do. Ironically, several Jewish organizations, scooping up millions in tax-subsidized donations, stand at the forefront of the problem. At the same time, the author details at great length the laudable and helpful activities of such groups as the New Israel Fund; he chronicles a heartbreaking conflict between stated intent and true impact on the ground. In addition to documenting questionable 501(c)(3) activity, Black documents the direct relationship between taxpayer assistance to the Palestinian Authority and individuals engaged in terrorism against civilians.

A JOLT. Most people should and will be appalled to read the revelations in Financing the Flames. It is a jolt! Edwin Black has once again show that the West in general and the US in particular remain as complicit in supporting human-rights violations around the world today as they were during the worst excesses of the totalitarian regimes in the 1920s and ’30s, whether through the use of its military or its money.
– Rick Halperin, director, SMU Human Rights Education Program
 
RIGOROUS INVESTIGATION. Edwin Black takes us behind the scenes at the New Israel Fund, where an ostensibly progressive and humanitarian mission conceals on-the-ground activities that undermine Israel’s very existence. Once again, his rigorous investigation demonstrates that following the money tells us far more about what’s really going on than listening to soothing mission statements. As he proved in his series Funding Hate, which brought the mighty Ford Foundation to its knees, he’s one of the few journalists able and willing to hold the world’s largest foundations and nonprofits accountable for their carefully concealed activities.
– William Schambra, director, Hudson Institute’s Bradley Center for Philanthropy
 
EXTRAORDINARY JOB. Edwin Black, in Financing the Flames, does an extraordinary job of delineating the difference between the need to have dissenting views in a democratic society and when views have the negative consequences of undermining valued institutions in society. Black is able to recognize the many positive things that the New Israel Fund does for Israel while calling into question the impact on the Israeli military of other things they do. His examples of how certain anti-IDF activities are camera-driven and how certain protestors may be encouraged by financial incentives are particularly troubling and require further exploration and discussion … Black has made a significant contribution to the ongoing conversation on the role of NGOs in Israel and with respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
– Abraham Foxman, national director, ADL
 

For more about this book: https://financingtheflames.com/

288 pages