For years I’ve been hearing that religious conservatives believe holy texts and tradition have authority, while liberals and “secularists” make the tradition mean anything they want it to mean.

Looking at the recent “scandal” involving American-Jewish philanthropic dollars going to the assistance of Israel’s non-Jewish citizens, I suspect someone is not getting the message.

The reason this is a discussion at all is a testament to the power of the Internet, which turns anyone with a computer and an e-mail account into an “activist.” So it is with Helen Freedman, former director of Americans For a Safe Israel, who blasted out an e-mail claiming that as much as one-third of the money raised by local Jewish federations for the Israel Emergency Campaign was going to help Israeli Arabs and Druze. Never mind that it’s closer to 3 percent — she wasn’t complaining about the proportions but the concept. She writes, “Did you think that a huge part of your donation would be given to the very Arabs who supported Hezbollah and danced on their rooftops in celebration whenever word came of Jewish soldiers or civilians killed?”

A report followed in New York’s The Jewish Week, which quoted “outraged” critics from the Orthodox Union, National Council of Young Israel, and the Zionist Organization of America. The president of the NCYI, an Orthodox group, says, “It’s not that I want to seem harsh or that this is an anti-Arab statement, but money raised from Jews because of a war against Jews should only be used for Jews.”

An OU spokesman says he thought the intention was to “raise money to help Jews in need,” and that the money “would not go to an Arab village or town to give services.”

Had the OU spokesman really wanted to know where the money was going, he had only to consult a press release about the campaign issued in September. In that release, United Jewish Communities, the umbrella for North American federations, said it was raising money to meet “the short- and long-term humanitarian needs and economic support for all Israelis — Jewish, Arab and Druze — victimized by the attacks.” And here’s the punch line: The press release was announcing that IEC was being endorsed by the three major synagogue organizations, including — the Orthodox Union.

Perhaps it is easy to ignore so unholy a text as a press release. I’m curious how religious conservatives who oppose sending aid to Israeli taxpayers deal with a text like this, from Talmud:

“Give sustenance to the poor of the non-Jews along with the poor of Israel. Visit the sick of the non-Jews along with the sick of Israel. Bury the dead of the non-Jews along with the dead of Israel. [Do all these things] because of the ways of peace.” (Gittin 61a)

Or this one, also from Talmud:

“If one’s friend’s animal is crouching under its burden and needs to be unloaded, and one’s enemy’s animal needs to be loaded, it is a mitzva for one to assist one’s enemy’s animal, in order to subdue one’s evil inclination.” (Bava Metzia 32b)

AFSI is not a religious institution, per se, but I’d imagine that as proud Zionists, they might put some weight behind Israel’s founding document, its Declaration of Independence. How might they explain away the clause saying the new state will “foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants” and that it “will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race, or sex”?

They might respond that Ben-Gurion and the other signers of the declaration didn’t understand that Arabs in the Galilee would one day become a “fifth column” betraying Israel from within. And they’d point to the few Arab Knesset members who have said some reprehensible things about Israel.

But there are 1.2 million Israeli Arabs, Druze, and Bedouin, and despite years of war and Intifada, their loyalty to the state has rarely been an issue. In fact, a commission established to investigate rioting among Israeli Arabs in October 2000 (in retrospect, a fairly isolated incident) said little about anti-Israel attitudes among Arabs and plenty about Israel’s inequitable treatment of its Arab minority.

Of course, that’s just Israel’s opinion. Morton Klein of the ZOA tells The Jewish Week, “In my 13 years of speaking around the country, I regularly hear concerns about Israeli Arabs not being committed to Israel as a Jewish state, and whether this could undermine and endanger Israel from within.”

In other words, whatever you might hear from an actual Israeli, Klein’s American-Jewish friends don’t trust these Israeli Arabs. And if a Jewish car dealer in La Jolla is not qualified to speak on internal Israeli affairs, who is?

Klein and the other critics have forgotten a principle of public relations that the rabbis already understood 2,000 years ago: “[Do all these things] because of the ways of peace.” If you can’t act out of generosity, at least act out of self-interest. When we were told “Zionism is racism,” we countered that Israel is a country of and for all its citizens. It was great p.r. — and it just so happened to be true. What’s the new message: “Zionism isn’t racism, but American support for Israel is another story”?

The rabbis also understood human nature. They knew how hard it is to trust the Other, especially in a neighborhood like the Middle East. But they also know that hatred is a sword that cuts both ways. That’s why we’re told to “subdue one’s evil inclination” and extend ourselves even to those we mistrust.

The texts don’t say this, but there is another reason why Jews should not only tolerate but celebrate our aid to all of Israel’s citizens. Simply this: It is the right thing to do.