The anti-Israel organization IfNotNow became a tax-exempt organization permitted to engage in political activities last week, and it almost immediately erred in its initial donation collections.
The far-left group of Jewish activists formed a 501(c)4 and wants to use its platform to push the 2020 Democratic field to further denounce Israeli treatment of Palestinians. A new fundraising email showed it was off to a rocky start; the young progressives apparently didn't send the right link.
"We made a mistake," the new fundraising email reads. "Organizing a movement is hard, and organizing a moment trying to influence our politicians requires us to abide by a different set of tax laws when it comes to donations."
The email then provides the "correct donation link" to support its efforts to ask Democrats about "Israel's military Occupation," with occupation capitalized for histrionic reasons.
"In order to do this political work, we had to register as an entirely new 501(c)4 organization, and we had a mix up on our back end with regards to the donation link," the email went on.
The detail-oriented angsty teenagers @IfNotNowOrg want you to know that you should totally give them money because you can count on them to have their shit together.
For example: pic.twitter.com/JEFrvg7PLB— Jonathan Greenberg (@JGreenbergSez) July 1, 2019
IfNotNow aims to raise $100,000 in its first fundraising quarter. Politico reported it wants to imitate Black Lives Matter and the American Civil Liberties Union in trying to "bird-dog" 2020 hopefuls on Israel. While a majority of Americans support Israel and believe it is in U.S. interests to count the Jewish state as an ally, a recent poll showed only 26 percent of Democrats view the Israeli government favorably.
The group currently has a photo of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) holding a sign reading "Jews Against the Occupation" pinned on its Twitter profile page. Sanders has called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government "racist."
Among the supporters of IfNotNow is Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.), a Palestinian-American and one of the most stridently anti-Israel voices in Congress. She attended events and pose for pictures with a Palestinian-American businessman after he was exposed for sharing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, and supports the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.