(JNS.org) The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), already the subject of an ongoing national scandal due to its targeting of conservative groups, may have also targeted at least five pro-Israel organizations in the auditing process, an investigation by the Washington Free Beacon revealed. According to the Wall Street Journal, Z Street, a pro-Israel group in Pennsylvania, was told by the IRS in 2010 that its tax approval application was taking a long time because auditors were required to inspect more thoroughly any groups “connected with Israel… to determine whether the organization’s activities contradict the administration’s public policies.”

The Washington Free Beacon investigation noted a New York Times cover story in July 2010 that quoted Daniel Kurtzer—a senior Obama Middle East adviser—as saying charities donating to Jews living beyond the 1949 armistice lines (commonly known as the “Green Line”) “drove us crazy.” HaYovel, one of the five pro-Israel groups reportedly targeted by the IRS, was the first group mentioned in the New York Times story. “They really kind of focused on us,” HaYovel’s founder, Tommy Waller, told the Washington Free Beacon regarding the New York Times story. “Then six months later we had an [IRS] audit.”