With elections to be held in just one day, Israel\’s PrimeMinister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is in the fight of his political life.
That\’s fair enough. Israel is a democracy in which itscitizens – Jew, Arab, anyone at all – are able to castvotes for whomever they like.
And I \’m sure you recall that President Barack Obama whoopposed Mr. Netanyahu\’s speech before a joint session ofcongress and would not meet with him, on the grounds that it was tooclose to the Israel election, and his policy was not to interfere.
Well, what if that same Barack Obama was indirectly funding theeffort to remove Netanyahu from office?
Excerpted fromSteven Edwards\’ article at foxnews.com:
Apowerful U.S. Senate investigatory committee has launched abipartisan probe into an American nonprofit\’s funding of efforts tooust Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the Obamaadministration\’s State Department gave the nonprofit taxpayer-fundedgrants, a source with knowledge of the panel\’s activities toldFoxNews.com.
Thefact that both Democratic and Republican sides of the SenatePermanent Subcommittee on Investigations have signed off on the probecould be seen as a rebuke to President Obama, who has had awell-documented adversarial relationship with the Israeli leader.
Italso follows a FoxNews.com report on claims the Obamaadministration has been meddling in the Israeli election on behalf ofgroups hostile to Netanyahu.
TheSenate subcommittee, which has subpoena power, is the HomelandSecurity and Governmental Affairs\’ chief investigative body withjurisdiction over all branches of government operations andcompliance with laws.
Accordingto the source, the probe is looking into “funding” byOneVoice Movement – a Washington-based group that has received$350,000 in recent State Department grants, and until last Novemberwas headed by a veteran diplomat from the Clinton administrations.
Asubsidiary of OneVoice is the Israel-based Victory 15 campaign,itself guided by top operatives of Obama\’s White House runs, whichseeks to “replace the government” of Israel.
Let\’s review: Prime Minister Netanyahu came to the US tospeak about the dangers of cutting a “deal” with Iran – themost prolific supporter of terrorism in the world and a countryspecifically committed to Israel\’s destruction. Despite theobvious importance – a threat to Israel\’s survival – he was veryclearly and very publicly rebuffed by President Obama and 50 – 60 ofhis fellow Democrats, who boycotted the speech.
But Mr. Obama, whose premise for rebuffing Netanyahu was thatallowing him to speak before congress would affect Israel\’s elections(as if Netanyahu, not Obama, timed the negotiations to when Israel\’selections were being held), then had no problem with his own campaignpeople traveling to Israel to remove Netanyahu from office – and nowstands accused of having our government fund an organizationcommitted to do so as well.
(FYI: in Israel\’s system, losing the vote on election daydoes not necessarily mean being unseated – Israel has a number ofpolitical parties and the Prime Minister is selected based on who canput together a governing coalition)
The bottom line here is that if Benjamin Netanyahu manages to stayin office, it will be in spite of President Obama\’s efforts toremove him. And if he should lose, it will, in part, bethe result of President Obama\’s efforts to do so.
Does that look like Obama has any problem interfering in Israel\’spolitics?
How can anyone trust a word this man says? And if BenjaminNetanyahu should withstand Barack Obama\’s hit job and win any way,how can anyone believe their relationship – already ugly – will notbe even worse?
Make a deal with an enemy, screw over an ally. The hallmarkof the Obama era.
