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Just weeks before the COVID pandemic put a halt to global travel, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) and his wife traveled to Israel on an all-expenses paid basis along with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and his wife. Although Johnson and Jordan filed ethics reports indicating that a small nonprofit would cover all costs, it is still unclear how it was funded.
The week of 2020, which follows the unveiling of then-President Donald Trump’s controversial peace plan for the Middle East, captures the strangeness of the alliance between Christian Zionist politicians in the United States and far-right Israelis, a politically convenient partnership that is founded on the literal end of the world.
According to documents filed with the House Ethics Committee, the total cost of the excursion, which Johnson later said he thought was “the fulfillment of Bible prophecy,” was about $18,000 for the Johnsons and more than $16,000 for the Jordans. It includes $450-a-night stays at the five-star King David hotel in Jerusalem, selected for “its location and availability,” according to the nonprofit The Trip.
The elusive nonprofit, called 12Tribe Films Foundation, paid for all of the vacations, according to sworn statements the organization provided to members of Congress. But the vacation doesn’t appear on that year’s 12Tribe tax. In fact, the nonprofit organization stated that it did not incur any expenses in 2020 and did not make invoices for “entertainment expenses of federal, state or local public officials. “
The detailed itinerary, presented to the ethics committee, was led almost exclusively by 12Tribe leader Avi Abelow, a right-wing Israeli social media activist who lives in a West Bank settlement. The trip, as reported in the past via Haaretz and Mother Jones, was heavily aimed at Zionism. And while members of Congress met with far-right Jewish politicians and academics, they did not meet with any Palestinian leaders.
“In the U. S. , you hear how Palestinians and other Arab peoples are oppressed in those spaces and live horrible lives. None of this is true,” Johnson said on his second stop in Israel. “We didn’t see any of that. “
Although the timing is clear, the question of who paid and how they paid is less clear.
12Tribe’s tax returns show the organization spent a total of $119,994 in 2020. Expenses were then broken down into $52,399 in grants and $67,595 in other expenses. These other prices were allocated almost entirely to “Information Technology” ($23,030), “Contracted Services” ($21,768), and “Project Costs” ($21,000). (The organization’s stated project is the “production of educational videos. “)
According to the tax form, the $52,399 grant was paid to a single foreign entity in the Middle East and North Africa region, which 12Tribe said was intended to provide “financial assistance. “The document does not disclose the date of the grant or the recipient’s call, but states that the cash was transferred to an entity identified as a charity, either through a foreign government or through the Internal Revenue Service.
The 12Tribe Film Foundation registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) charity in June 2019, less than a year before the trip. And the organization reported $357 in donations for 2019, according to its 2020 report. In 2020, the organization raised about $134,000, then $118,000 and $164,000 over the next two years, according to information from ProPublica. Its tax return for 2021 is publicly available, but the organization said it won a $41,359 grant in 2022, also for an unidentified organization in the MENA region.
Phil Hackney, a nonprofit legal expert and assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, told The Daily Beast that if 12Tribe had paid for the trip, it would have appeared on his tax return.
“I was hoping that line would be filled in relation to those two members of Congress in the scenario that we’re looking at here,” Hackney said.
The Daily Beast reached out to the nonprofit and its officials, Abelow, but did not hear back. Spokespeople for Johnson and Jordan had no comment.
The 2020 stop was the first Jordan-sponsored stop in Israel, but it was Johnson’s timing. Its previous stop, in August 2017, was funded through the American Foundation for Education in Israel. The organization is a sister organization to the tough AIPAC lobby, and has invested millions of dollars to advise congressional leaders in the Holy Land for more than a decade. Online revelations about House ethics, dating back to 2017, show that the AIEF sponsored a total of 439 s for congressional officials and their staff, for both Democrats and Republicans. The AIEF also covered the scales through two of Johnson’s more level-headed staffers, one in 2022 and the other in September.
Interestingly, however, 12Tribe has sponsored other congressional trips, most notably Johnson and Jordan’s pilgrimage to Israel in 2020.
It’s unclear exactly how members of Congress linked up with this low-key group. 12Tribe basically produces a small podcast and YouTube videos (mostly on Abelow’s non-public channel). But 12Tribe hasn’t released a video in six years.
Screenshot from 12Tribes Films Foundation video showing Reps. Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Jim Jordan (R-OH) in Israel.
However, Johnson and Jordan seem to be percentages of the spirit of Abelow’s devoted zeal for Israel. Upon their return to the United States, both members of Congress appeared on the Abelow podcast to talk about the religious significance of the historic sites surrounding Jerusalem.
Abelow, described as a “quintessential Zionist” in this month’s Mother Jones report, is a member of Israel’s far right, and Johnson’s deal with him made Israeli headlines after the Louisiana fundamentalist was promoted to the rank of speaker of the House of Representatives. last month.
Johnson and Abelow belong to fundamentalist sects that have a messianic vision of Israel’s future, where a “restored” Israel is needed to bring about the coming of the messiah. Of course, this percentage view leads to markedly different results for the two religions. In the Christian edition – the End of the Age – all non-believers, including Jews, either convert or are condemned to hell.
At the center of this vision is the recovery of what Jews call the Temple Mount, a site in Jerusalem that is also home to the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, the third-holiest Muslim site in the world. For centuries, Jews have been prohibited from praying there, a government policy that an Israeli court upheld last year, ruling that the site is “one of the most explosive places. ” in the Middle East, if not in the entire world.
Next, as Mother Jones reported, he is a restorer of the Temple Mount. He had already made headlines when he led another stop to Congress, in 2017, and involved the wife of Rep. Scott Tipton (R-CO) in a discussion about retaking the Temple Mount. He took Johnson and Jordan to the Temple Mount, along with right-wing rabbi and former Israeli parliamentarian Yehuda Glick, who was arrested for allegedly harassing police upon his return later that day.
On the Abelow podcast, about a week after the trip, Johnson said he “didn’t feel a lot of tension” on the Temple Mount. Johnson also said that, from his attitude as a constitutional scholar, the ban on prayer is “a shocking thing to see” and “very sad. “
“I hope that one day this can change,” he said.
This fantastic and probably contradictory confidence – since Israel aims to literally wipe Jews off the face of the Earth – is at the heart of the fervent Zionism of devout American fundamentalists. This trust also influences the decisions of evangelical elected officials: Iran’s military policy, for example, or the war on terror. When it comes to Israel, fundamentalist Christianity has been considered tougher than any tension organization and has given rise to what has been widely observed as a cynical political alliance between pro-Israel far-right factions. and Christian radicals in the United States.
Among those extremely cheerful cadres is Johnson, a Christian nationalist whose ties to far-right fundamentalist teams are well documented. But he also reached out to senior foreign officials from Donald Trump’s presidency, in the Christian Zionism of Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and before that as the ethical driving force behind the calamitous policy of the George W administration. in the Middle East. Bush.
Trump himself marveled at the irony. At a 2020 crusade rally, Trump said his questionable resolution to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was aimed at appeasing his Christian supporters.
“It’s for evangelicals,” Trump said. You know, it’s surprising: Evangelicals are more enthusiastic about this than Jews.
Christian Zionism, which sees Israel as a means to an end – adding the end of Judaism – has also fostered and fueled anti-Semitism. The founder of the giant Christian Zionist organization Christians United for Israel, televangelist John Hagee, is accused of anti-Semitism. A sermon, in which Hagee declared that “God sent Hitler to help the Jews succeed in the Promised Land,” forced Senator John McCain (R-AZ) to denounce Hagee’s help during his 2008 presidential bid. Duer apologized and said he didn’t help Hitler or the Holocaust. )
Last month, Hagee spoke at the March for Israel in Washington, D. C. , with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N. Y. ), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N. J. ) and Speaker Johnson.
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