State Department funded group working to defeat Netanyahu

John has written about how President Obama’s campaign team is working to defeat Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel’s upcoming elections. To make matters worse, the anti-Netanyahu campaign is benefiting from U.S. taxpayer money.

As John noted, the organization “One Voice” wants to help take down Netanyahu’s party in the March 2015 Knesset elections that will ultimately determine the next Israeli Prime Minister. “One Voice” claims to be non-partisan, but it is working with V-15, an Israeli group dedicated to defeating Netanyahu. And “One Voice” itself admits that it is teaming up with V15 because Israel “need[s] a prime minister and a government who will be responsive to the people.”

I think we know the identity of the Prime Minister “One Voice” doesn’t mean. If not, here’s a hint: the son of Mahmoud Abbas reportedly sits on its advisory board.

“One Voice” is sufficiently well-financed to pay a crack team of five American campaign experts that includes Jeremy Bird, the Obama campaign’s national field director. But who is financing “One Voice”? According to Seth Mandel of Commentary, citing Alana Goodman, “One Voice” has been receiving money from John Kerry’s State Department. In fact, says Mandel, it obtained two State Department grants in the past year.

Confronted about this, “One Voice” didn’t deny the allegation. Instead, it claimed that the money it’s using in the campaign didn’t come from the State Department. A spokesperson stated, “No government funding has gone toward any of the activities we’re doing right now whatsoever.”

But money, as Mandel points out, is fungible.

John Kerry, absurdly cast by the Obama spin machine as Israel’s primary defender within the administration, has been attempting to bludgeon Israel into making reckless concessions to the Palestinians that Israelis oppose. First, Mandel reminds us, came his claim on Israeli TV that the alternative to more Israeli concessions was a “third intifada.” This lent respectability to the Palestinian violence that emerged after Kerry’s quixotic talks failed.

Then came the warning that if Kerry’s diplomatic initiative failed, there would be no stopping European retaliatory actions against Israel. This was an invitation for such retaliation.

But Kerry apparently wasn’t content to rely on violent Palestinians and anti-Israel Europeans to coerce Israel into changing its policy. His Department has been funding a group dedicated to unseating Israel’s Prime Minister, with portions of Obama’s political team taking a lead role, plus a share of “One Voice’s” money.

Our tax dollars at work.

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