Diversity Macht Frei
December 31, 2017
Remember all those stories about how Jew in France were fleeing antisemitism. Well, it turns out they were actually just trying to dodge taxes.
In recent years, thousands of Jews have immigrated to Israel from France, many of them fleeing anti-Semitism. However, there is evidence to suggest that some of these immigrants may have also been motivated by tax benefits.
“A handful of countries,” Amolis further elucidated in the 2017 Knight-Frank Wealth Report, “including Canada, Malta, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Monaco, and Israel, as well as Australia and New Zealand – enjoyed significant growth in their ultra-wealthy populations during 2016. What these countries share is the ability to attract migrating high-net-worth individuals and to offer a fiscal and political ‘safe haven’ as well as excellent quality of life.”
In the case of Israel, Amolis is referring to a 2008 law that offers new immigrants and returning immigrants to Israel a ten-year exemption from taxes and any reporting requirement on their income abroad. Ostensibly a law to encourage aliyah, or immigration to Israel, critics claim it signaled to would-be tax evaders and criminals that Israel is a good place to launder their money.
“The idea was to encourage aliyah to Israel of wealthy people by turning Israel into a tax haven,” Bar-Ilan University economist Avichai Snir told The Times of Israel in February. “The new law definitely gave a nudge and a wink to people who had dirty money and wanted to launder it.”
It’s been reported that the French government has now set up a department specialising in “French” Jews tax-dodging in Israel. Jews have claimed this has “antisemitic overtones”. The French government denies the report.
In other Israel news, the government announced the setting up of a $72 million dollar fund to interfere in western democracies. The money would be used for lobbying, propaganda initiatives, lawfare, etc. designed to combat the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement abroad.
Israel’s government has approved a plan setting aside $72 million to fighting the campaign to boycott Israel.
The plan would entail the largest monetary investment yet by Israel specifically toward combating the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign. It was announced last week to the cabinet ministers and approved as an executive order after none of them objected, the Ynet news site reported Friday.
It calls for setting up a not-for-profit organization whose board will be made up of government officials and donors from abroad, the report said. The board will oversee the first major “civil-society infrastructure servicing the State of Israel and the pro-Israel community in the fight against the de-legitimization of Israel,” the notice sent to the ministers read.
The $72 million budget will come partly from the Israeli government and partly from Jewish donors and communities abroad, the report said. It did not say when the new organization would become operational or even established formally.
But the initial funding to the tune of $36 million will come from the budget of the ministry that includes Public Security, Strategic Affairs and Information. At least 10 Jewish philanthropists have pledge to at least match that sum, with some promising to give $2 and $3 to any dollar put in by the Israeli government beyond the initial funding, according to the report.
The organization envisaged by its creators would operate on a regular basis to counter pressure applied to artists, performers and commercial enterprises who seek to engage with Israel. But it would shift into high gear at sensitive periods such as fighting waves of terrorist attacks and anti-Israel votes at international forums.
The new organization’s avenues for action would include public campaigns, lobbying, arranging for solidarity visits to Israel by opinion shapers, establishing new and social media presence and interacting with pro-Israel organization worldwide for coordinated action with a focus on Europe.
Is it not scandalous that a foreign country presumes to interfere in our democratic processes in this way? Will the US Congress and British parliament now hold hearings into “Israeli interference in our elections”?
All of this brings to mind Hitler’s remarks about the Zionist movement of his time.
They have no thought of building up a Jewish State in Palestine, so that they might perhaps inhabit it, but they only want a central organisation of their international world cheating, endowed with prerogatives, withdrawn from the seizure of others: a refuge for convicted rascals and a high school for future rogues.