The Intercept: US nonprofit organization funds an Israeli military unit

According to The Intercept report, an American nonprofit organization continued to provide financial support to the Israeli army unite which is been accused of human rights abuses in Palestine and to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

This is a non-profit charitable organization in the United States known as the Friends of Nahal Haredi.

The organization, which has transferred millions of US dollars into an Israeli battalion in recent years, is led by a man named Stephen Rosedale, who also used to donate to AIPAC, America’s most powerful pro-Israel lobby.

Rosedale is the founder and chairman of a company that operates more than 100 long-term care centers, medical rehabilitation and other health care facilities in 7 states.

Rosedale, a registered member of the Republican Party, donated a total of $33,500 to the US-Israel Public Affairs Committee and its political action committees for this session, including $25,000 to AIPAC’s Grand Political Action Committee and about $10,000 to AIPAC’s regular Political Action Committee as well.

Rosedale also backs AIPAC’s rivals to oust Democratic House Rep. Jamal Bowman of New York and Cory Bush of Missouri.

Founded in 1999, the Netzah Yehuda Brigade is a unit that allows only male religious Jews to enlist in the Israeli army.

Its formation was the result of joint cooperation between the army, the Ministry of Defense and the Association of Rabbis.

President Joe Biden’s administration has been considering imposing sanctions on the Netzah Yehuda Brigade under the Leahy Laws, which aim to prevent the state from funding, supplying, or training security forces credibly accused of human rights abuses.

US State Department staff sent a report to their secretary, Antony Blinken, earlier this year, recommending sanctions against the battalion in order to deny it access to US aid.

After he indicated his intention to follow up on the recommendations, the State Department eventually backed down and bowed to pressure from Israeli officials, the Intercept confirms.

The allegations led to the inclusion of the battalion, officially known as Nahal Haredi, in a short list of IDF units that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had planned to impose sanctions on last month.

The move would have cut off the battalion’s supply of weapons and other US military aid.

But the battalion has another reliable source of international support, the Nahal Haredi Friends Organization.

Rosedale’s support for AIPAC’s Political Action Committee is the biggest campaign contribution so far this year, and more than double the rest he has made since January.

Last March, he donated a thousand dollars to the campaign of George Latimer, the chief executive of Westchester, New York, whom AIPAC recruited last year to challenge Bowman.

Rosedale also provided $50,000 to the large political action committees, known as the Super Pack, and another $6,000 to the regular political action committee of the same pro-Israel lobby group.

According to the Intercept, AIPAC had planned to spend $100 million this session to oust members of a team critical of US military aid to Israel.

The team is an unofficial name given to 4 female deputies elected in 2018 to represent different regions of the US Congress for the Democratic Party, namely Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York State, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Presley of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.