New Israel Fund

The far-left New Israel Fund has influence in the halls of power in Israel, says MK Otniel Schneller.

In his latest column for the Jerusalem Post, Daniel Gordis -- a rightly admired Jewish thinker of the conservative ilk -- wades into the war of words between the left-leaning New Israel Fund and the right-leaning campus organization Im Tirzu.

Last week, Im Tirtzu ("If you will it"), a relatively new purportedly-Zionist group, organized a brutal campaign against the New Israel Fund (NIF), an organization committed to democratic change and social justice in Israel, which has - in the last three decades - supported more than 800 cutting-edge civil society organizations.

Co-authored by Jesse Bacon, JVP Board Member and co-editor of theonlydemocracy.org.

Over the last week there has been a significant outcry in Israel and in some Jewish circles in the US about an ugly, anti-Semitic, and sexist ad campaign against the US-based New Israel Fund (NIF), a key funder of Israeli civil society and human rights groups.

With calls for a "second Zionist revolution," the founders of an Israeli student group embroiled in a controversy over the New Israel Fund say that Israel has lost its sense of purpose.

A campaign against the New Israel Fund -- a U.S.-based organization that funds civil society activists in Israel -- has sparked a fierce debate over the limits of free speech, the financing of NGOs, the dictates of loyalty to the state and, ultimately, over the fundamental values of Israel's Zionist democracy.

New Israel Fund and its president Chazan threaten legal action against 'Post' after running advertisement.