Thank you for including Israel’s minister of justice Ayelet Shaked’s explanation of her proposed Government Transparency Law (“NGO Law Protects Israel from Existential Threats,” Ledger, Jan. 15), which would require disclosure by non-government organizations (NGOs) regarding who is funding them. It was an important balance to the vicious attack in the Ledger’s Jan. 15 editorial (“NGO Law Threatens the Democratic Fabric of the Jewish State”).

Despite the innocuous-sounding designation, many NGOs are funded by foreign governments. The United States requires disclosure from lobbyists, foreign diplomats and nearly everyone whose work may impact our security or stability. And there are many forms of registration for NGOs.

We want to, and should, know who is shaping public policy. In the lexicon of any true democracy, “transparency” is defined as a most cherished value. Americans have fought hard for this right to know through Sunshine Laws, Federal Election Commission regulations, and much more.

And Israeli citizens have the right to know who is funding groups that operate within their borders, especially foreign-financed groups working to undermine the government itself, such as “Breaking the Silence,” a group that attacks the Israeli military.

A call for transparency has nothing to do with freedom of speech.These groups will still have the right to speak in public places, on college campuses, and through the media. But

Israeli citizens will have a right to know who is behind the

message. We have a million and a half NGOs operating in the U.S., many of which do important work, including public policy research organizations whose studies have enormous impact. Yet, how can we judge whether their conclusions or methodologies are skewed unless we know whom these organizations represent?

What is most troubling about the editorial is the hyperbolic attack on the current Israeli leadership. “Orwellian?” “Human Rights Abuses?” “Jingoism?” Please.

And this ludicrous argument: “Groups like B’tzelem and Breaking the Silence are staffed and run by Israeli sabra Jews.”  As though that confers a gold seal of approval. Both organizations seek to undermine major structures in Israeli society. The Ku Klux Klan is run by Americans and is undoubtedly anti-American.

Foreign governments don’t need secret agents to destabilize another country. They can simply throw cash into an NGO, give it an altruistic-sounding name (often ending with “Human Rights”) and send in the Trojan horse. Or, as Shaked noted, sometimes the countries writing the checks aren’t even aware that the NGOs are operating  “… for the purpose of weakening Israel’s moral claim and presenting it as a country that is prima facie committing a breach of international law.”

Contrary to the Ledger’s editorial, Shaked’s proposal wouldn’t infringe on NGO activities in Israel. Even Breaking the Silence.

At least Israeli citizens would know who is funding the group whose goal is to undermine the very organization their sons and daughters risk their lives to serve.

June S. Neal, Spokesperson

PRIMER-CT (Promoting Responsibility in Middle East Reporting-CT)

Delray Beach, Fla.

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The Ledger’s editorial board demonstrates naïveté when it excoriates Netanyahu-government decisions that ensure Israel’s survival (“NGO Law Threatens the Democratic Fabric of the Jewish State,” Jan. 15, 2016). What the board perceives as “nationalistic jingoism” is a set of responses designed to meet acts of insidious and naked aggression waged by Israel’s enemies. Israel is surrounded by a sea of lethal, unshakable anti-Jewish hostility which simply does not respond to the niceties of Western-style negotiations.

In 2005, Israel took a giant chance for peace when it removed its army and settlers from Gaza. And, we all know the result of that – a rain of rockets on southern Israel that continues to this day.

Fair-play advocates need to realize that when an entity is beset by vipers, it is better to be a mongoose than a dove.

Wendy Rosenblum

Stamford

…………

Your editorial of Jan. 15 regarding the proposed NGO Transparency Law (“NGO Law Threatens the Democratic Fabric of the Jewish State) I found to be not only distressing but more a polemic than a balanced editorial. As a former Connecticut resident now living in Israel I must protest.

Nowhere in this editorial do you quote a single line from the proposed law, or any legal analysis from respected Israeli jurists, not even any history of how this law has been discussed over the last decade. Youreditorial is clearly biased against Shaked and her “settler-dominated ”following, which, incidentally, includes me. No, I live in Netanya, not in the West Bank, but I voted for that party as did many other “moderate” Israelis.

The law is not punitive as you suggest. The government isn’t calling to “punish” any NGO. We just want them to come clean. Whom do they give their money to, how much, and when? That includes the European Union (EU), which just gave B’etselem 30,000 euros to fight this proposed legislation.  Why would the EU interfere in our legislative process? What do they have to hide?

I for one am sick of what is going on with foreign countries like Holland, Norway, Germany, to name a few, putting euros into the pockets of so-called human rights NGOs whose only purpose is to attack us, and sending volunteer do-gooders from Europe to the West Bank to incite demonstrations, making sure the foreign press is there to cover them, when in fact these bogus demonstrations consist mostly of foreigners with a smattering of Palestinians joining them. Why don’t you write an article about what really goes on there? It is all part of an unceasing media build-up to put us under the microscope to legitimize this growing boycottof the country and its economy.

Come here and see for yourselves what is going on and why we need the truth to come out about these European-funded NGOs. Until or unless that happens, please be more objective and less scathingly judgmental in your writing.

Janice Gaines

Netanya, Israel

former resident of Stamford