Donations to help Israel OK, but California, no?

A Bee editorial (Jan. 5), and article (Dan Walters, Jan. 8) correctly describe the effort to circumvent Trump’s screwing of California taxpayers by allowing them to treat their state taxes as charitable contributions, as having a snowball’s chance in hell.

But why? Deductions are allowed for contributions to foreign “charities,” and how do they benefit our society? These deductions were approved due to pressure from the Israel First lobby. Nearly all of these deductions (more than 95 percent) are claimed by those making donations to Israeli “charities.”

Most of these “charitable” donations go to help subsidize illegal “settlements” (a benign word for outright thievery of another people’s land and resources) in illegally occupied Palestinian territory. This is in contravention of international law and long standing US policy.

So, taxpayers, ask yourselves why the Kushner family foundation, along with others, derive tax benefits by making contributions even to what the Israeli government considers to be illegal “outposts” in Illegally occupied Palestinian territory.

This story was originally published January 17, 2018 at 12:50 PM with the headline "Donations to help Israel OK, but California, no?."