Garbanzo Toons

A Lesson in Charity

According to today's Detroit Free Press,

Michigan billionaire industrialist and sports tycoon Bill Davidson and his wife, Karen, are giving $75 million to help build a 14-story hospital tower in Jerusalem.

Their gift is believed to be the second-largest one ever given to a Jewish charity.

Contrast that with this report from Counterterrorism Blog,

Further, although Hezbollah has not utilized charitable front organizations in the U.S. to the extent that its comrade-in-arms Hamas has, there is convincing evidence that a Hezbollah-linked charity, with direct ties to the group’s spiritual leader in Lebanon, is currently operating in Dearborn, Michigan. Founded in 1991, the Al-Mabarrat Charitable Organization-USA Inc. has changed its name repeatedly over the last fifteen years, discarding the names “Cedar Organization, Inc.”, “Cedar Charitable Organization, Inc.” and “Cedar Social Services of America, Inc.” On its website, http://www.mabarrat.org/, which is no longer active, Al-Mabarrat claimed that its purpose “is to promote the cause of…orphans by providing sponsorship that will go toward schooling, health, and general.” While acknowledging that it proffers that support by working in conjunction with the Al-Mabarrat Association in Lebanon (whose logo it shares), the website conveniently omits the fact that Al-Mabarrat-Lebanon is run by Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah.

Fadlallah, labeled Hezbollah’s “chief ‘spiritual leader’” by the Department of Justice, has been designated a Specially Designated Terrorist by the U.S. Treasury Department, thus criminalizing financial transactions with him. The U.S. government has further alleged that “Fadlallah issued the fatwa authorizing” the 1983 Hezbollah bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks that killed 241 Americans. Demonstrating its awareness of Al-Mabarrat-Lebanon’s terrorist agenda, the U.S. government banned Lebanese Finance Minister Fuad Siniora (currently the Lebanese Prime Minister) from entering the United States in 2003 because of a donation he had made to the organization in 2000

And no, not all Islamic charities are a front for money laundering terrorist supporters, but how do we know which ones are which? CAIR doesn't want any of them investigated.

Here is more on Mr. Davidson's gift,

The hospital system has a reputation for treating patients regardless of religious or ethnic background. That's a key reason that Davidson continues to support the institution.

"I have been personally impressed with the quality of care the Hadassah Medical Organization consistently provides to all citizens of Israel and residents of the region, whether they are Jewish, Christian or Muslim," he said.

In the 1920s, the Davidson family helped to purchase the original site for a Hadassah hospital in east Jerusalem, a landmark of bittersweet significance in Israeli history. In 1948, dozens of members of its medical staff were killed in an ambush, and the facility was closed for decades. It reopened as Hadassah's second major facility in Jerusalem in 1975.

So no matter what the circumstances, and how they are attacked, whether verbally, physically, or economically, the Israelis still try to create peace.

Labels: Bill Davidson, charity, islam, Israel

posted by Harry @ 7:24 PM