In a perfect world, no country would need a\nmilitary. Countries and people would live in peace; the kingdom of heaven, as\npromised by almost every religion, at last realized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As ideal as that wish might be for the first\neditorial of a new secular year, it remains true that countries need\nmilitaries. Places like Canada, which have not been forced to wage war on home\nturf in 205 years, nevertheless maintain a military, with our soldiers serving\nvarious roles around the globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Israel, on the other hand, the military is\nthe one thing standing between the country\u2019s citizens and oblivion. Like the\nmilitaries of every country, the Israel Defence Forces protects the country\u2019s\nborders and citizens from external and internal threats. More controversially,\nas a result of Israel\u2019s complicated history, the IDF also controls parts of the\nWest Bank under a military rule that is the cause of much international\ncriticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of this criticism comes from Canada,\nincluding from a Palestinian-Canadian, Ismail Zayid, who has been complaining\nfor years to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) over his assertions that the\nJewish National Fund of Canada has been in contravention of Canadian tax law\nfor providing material support to the IDF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, it\u2019s more than assertions, actually. In\nstories splashed across Canadian media last weekend, there is plenty of\nevidence that JNF Canada was, until 2016, openly fundraising for projects that\nsupport infrastructure projects on Israeli army, air and naval bases. These\ninclude a \u201cnew planned IDF Training Base City in the Negev,\u201d \u201chelping the\ndevelopment of the Bat Galim training base complex area\u201d and new mess hall-type\nfacilities at two air bases. Funds raised at Edmonton\u2019s Negev Dinner in 2014\nwere explicitly and openly allocated to developing parts of the largest\nmilitary training facility in Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In October 2017, according to the CBC, Zayid\nfiled another complaint to CRA \u201cin concert with an Ottawa professor, a\nVancouver rabbi and a retired nurse.\u201d The complaint is that JNF was ignoring\nrules that forbid Canadian charities from issuing tax receipts for\ncontributions that go toward foreign militaries. CRA would not confirm details\nof the investigation to the CBC and JNF said only that they are engaged in\nconfidential negotiations with CRA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is nothing stopping any Canadian from\nsending a cheque to Israel\u2019s Ministry of Defence, news reports noted, but rules\nforbid doing so via a charity that provides tax receipts for it. This is\nadmirable policy. Even if some Canadians would be perfectly happy seeing our\ntax policy support the IDF, would we be as pleased to see tax receipts issued\nfor funds directed to the militaries of other countries with whom we don\u2019t have\nas good a relationship?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whatever one thinks about the morality of the\nIDF or its presence in the West Bank, the JNF appears to have made a naive or\nfoolish mistake \u2013 not once but apparently about a dozen times. The head of JNF\nCanada said they stopped funding IDF projects after CRA alerted them to the\nissue in 2016. But how could an organization of this calibre have done so for\nso long, especially when it knew there were a series of complaints being lodged\nregularly around this very topic?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since 1948, countless Jewish Canadians have\nsupported Israel, including its military, in myriad ways. For four generations,\nyoung Jewish Canadians have enlisted, even in times of war, to serve in the\nIDF. Canadians of all ages have volunteered in the various roles the IDF offers\nto overseas friends of Israel. Most Jewish Canadians recognize the\nlife-and-death necessity of a strong Israel, supported by a strong IDF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Jewish National Fund is the reason Israel\nis the only country on the planet that ended the 20th century with more trees\nthan when the century started. Beyond reforestation, the number of\nextraordinary initiatives JNF carries out all over Israel makes it an integral\npart of the Zionist project. Israel is Israel, in large part, thanks to JNF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because of JNF\u2019s critical importance, Canadian\nsupporters must be confident that our support is going to an organization that\nis transparent and scrupulously adhering to relevant regulations. To ensure\nthat the irreplaceable work the JNF does in Israel does not waver, JNF Canada\nmust ensure that Canadians trust the decisions and leadership of the national\norganization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a perfect world, no country would need a military. Countries and people would live in peace; the kingdom of heaven, as promised by almost every religion, at last realized. As ideal as that wish might be for the first editorial of a new secular year, it remains true that countries need militaries. Places like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3654,5695,59,60,3170],"class_list":["post-31322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-ji","tag-canada-revenue-agency","tag-cra","tag-jewish-national-fund","tag-jnf","tag-taxes"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31322\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}