By: Editorial Board

The tragic news of the deaths of Afghan civilians in the course of U.S. and NATO operations in Taliban strongholds brings into sharp focus the current controversy over the role of Israeli NGOs funded by the U.S.-based New Israel Fund.

On Monday, a NATO air strike against suspected insurgents resulted in the deaths of five civilians in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan. The attack was said by U.S. officials to have been based on the mistaken conclusion that those targeted were engaged in planting a roadside explosive device. Monday’s incident followed the deaths on Sunday of 12 Afghan civilians who were killed, according to a U.S. military spokesman, by two stray rockets in Helmand province.

So far there have been no charges of targeting civilians and no calls to convene an international board of inquiry. The contrast with Israel’s experience in addressing terrorist attacks, most recently in Gaza, is telling. And therein lies the tale of a growing phenomenon on the international scene – special interest groups known as non-governmental organizations, or NGOs.

In recent weeks much attention has been paid to a report by the student group Im Tirtzu, which says the New Israel Fund provides the principal financial support for 16 Israeli NGOs that publicly criticize various policies of the Israeli government, particularly those involving the conflict with the Palestinians.

What’s more, says Im Tirtzu, these Israeli NGOs lobby various United Nations agencies and in recent years have become a resource for those elements of the UN that regularly target Israel as an outlaw state. According to Im Tirtzu, the Goldstone Commission, which resulted in the odious Goldstone report and its wholly biased judgment that Israel was guilty of war crimes in the course of Operation Cast Lead, was formed based on the importuning of these NGOs and the “evidence” they provided.

Understandably, several Knesset members were concerned about the foreign funding of these NGOs – they get most of their funding from NIF and other sources outside Israel – and the fact that they may be fronting for anti-Israel interests by encouraging boycotts of Israel and encouraging Israelis to reject the draft.

But efforts to have Knesset hearings were initially put on hold after a number of American Jewish organizations raised free speech issues. (Now those investigative efforts seem to be back on track.)

We would never encourage anything even remotely approaching the suppression of free speech. Indeed, we were in the forefront of those who criticized efforts by the Rabin/Peres government to exclude the Zionist Organization of America and the National Council of Young Israel from various public functions relating to the Oslo Accords solely because those groups were opposed to Israeli policy.

This case, however, is different. The New Israel Fund itself gets substantial funding from the European Union, which, with some exceptions, rarely misses an opportunity to bash Israel. And NIF has distinguished itself for siding with the Palestinians on virtually every issue between them and Israel.

To put the matter into further perspective, about two years ago, when reports surfaced that Saudi Arabia had been providing financial grants to universities that had established Middle East studies programs with an anti-Israel animus, many of the same Jewish organizations trying to scuttle any investigation of the NGOs funded by NIF raised a hue and cry.

In the final analysis, Israel has a right to find out whether there is a fifth column at work within its own borders. This is not an issue of free speech. It is a matter of common sense.

Copyright 2008 www.JewishPress.com

This entry was posted on Monday, March 1st, 2010 and is filed under news.