Will NY's Liberalism Hinder Charitable Donations to Israel?

The Democratic Socialists of America are accelerating their demands that the U.S. cease its support for Israel by backing a New York bill that, if passed, will prohibit the state's residents from deciding where to donate their charitable dollars.

Introduced by Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani and State Sen. Jabari Brisport, the legislation, whose full title is "Not on Our Dime!: Ending New York Funding of Israeli Settler Violence Act," aims to strip the tax-exempt status of organizations that donate to pro-Israel charities, with groups like the Central Fund of Israel (CFI), a charitable clearinghouse that in 2021 provided over 500 Israel-based charities with more than $50 million in donations, falling within the legislation’s crosshairs.

Included in the bill is language that would end "Unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity" by banning not-for-profit corporations from "aiding and abetting activity by the Israeli armed forces, the government of Israel, or citizens thereof, that is illegal pursuant to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).” The legislation goes on to list a litany of lengthy regulations targeting Israel-friendly charities.

Notwithstanding the fact that the ICC's jurisdiction is unrecognized by the US, "Not on Our Dime" also provides the attorney general with the "power to dissolve" and inflict millions of dollars in penalties on non-profit organizations deemed in "violation of this bill."

Granting public officials like New York AG Letitia James, whose capacity for exercising political neutrality has been debunked in recent months, with the authority to shut down groups that fail to fall under her progressive purview underscores just one of many deceptions revealed in the bill.

Those championing the measure indicate that since its introduction in 2023, the bill's "scope" was expanded to contain guardrails against any donations directed to the Israeli military.

Perhaps most shocking, the website created to tout the legislation makes no reference to the October massacre of Israelis by Palestinian terrorists and instead references that alterations were made to the legislation in 2024 to "reflect the additional fundraising for war crimes in both the West Bank and Gaza that occurred since Israel's assault on Gaza began in October 2023."

Relaunching "Not on Our Dime" to coincide with Israel's battle against Iran-backed terror proxies suggests a new paradigm that illustrates the rising political influence of state-level progressives, whose prosecution of Israel is intensifying through a push of policies designed to delegitimize the Jewish state.

To their credit, most Democrat assemblymembers have come out against the bill. The probability that the legislation will reach the floor also remains slim.

Still, "Not on Our Dime" has garnered notable exposure from high-profile lawmakers. For her part, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) is capitalizing on the political climate by straddling varying sides in the foreign policy space.

With the latest polls showing fellow Squad member and Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., potentially losing his June 25 primary against George Latimer, a moderate Westchester County Executive, AOC has devoted more time positioning herself as a centrist within the progressive orbit.

Earlier this month, the lawmaker hosted a webinar titled "Antisemitism and the fight for Democracy." While discussing the spike in Jew-hatred alongside several leaders representing the liberal Jewish establishment, AOC claimed that "antisemitism is an assault on our values as Americans and especially as progressives."

It bears mentioning that not only are such expressions of concern dubious, at best, and serve to placate the progressive Jewish community, AOC's use of her platform to highlight a surge in antisemitism ignores the role that she and her leftist comrades have played in fomenting the very behavior that she now claims to condemn.

As a vocal proponent of "Not on Our Dime," the congresswoman was a featured speaker at a May press conference where, according to Politico, she was joined by several progressive policymakers while heaping praise on legislation that seeks to dissolve the tax exemption for hundreds of prominent pro-Israel charities.

In a nod to AOC's national clout, in the days following said efforts to raise the public profile of "Not on our Dime," hundreds of anti-Israel protestors descended onto the state capital and lobbied elected officials on the merits of the bill.

Moreover, since its revival last spring, several state lawmrakers who were once reluctant to cosponsor the measure have since signed on as supporters. State Sen. Julia Salazar, whose admiration for the terrorist group Hamas following its slaughter in Israel has done little to blunt her political rise, is now a cosponsor of "Not on Our Dime."

Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher has also thrown her support behind the legislation despite the Democratic Socialist representing Williamsburg, Brooklyn, home to one of the largest Hasidic populations in America.

With a slate of progressive New Yorkers locked in tight primary races across the state, Democrats remain key in determining the extent to which party currents will shift to the left come November.

And while most liberal officeholders in Albany are on record as opposing “Not on Our Dime," there exists different degrees of uncertainty as to how long Democrats can sustain in staving off an activist and increasingly antisemitic faction that continues to gain a state-level footprint.

The cadre of Democrats bolstering Mamdani and Brisport's bill are more ideologically inclined than many of their colleagues. With that said, the youthful leftists running for office may soon replace more seasoned legislators, whose liberal leanings still prevent the powers in Albany from marinating in a dangerous progressive dogma.

While principled voices in the state legislature may keep "Not on our Dime" shelved in the short term, electoral trends in the area underscore a slow but steady chipping at the pragmatism that has historically defined New York liberal circles.