In light of all the accusations against Trump by Democrats for trying to influence the election, I thought it important to revisit a report from 2016 of the Obama administration trying to oust Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
In all, our government during the Obama administration reportedly spent about $350,000 of taxpayer money to have Netanyahu removed from office.
OneVoice
For a period of just more than a year and ending in November 2014, the Obama administration funded a group called OneVoice “to support peace negotiations” between Israel and Palestine.
When that period had ended, the funds in the grant that were issued were redirected to a group called V15, an openly anti-Netanyahu group.
When Netanyahu was running for re-election, the group ran a campaign slogan of “anyone but Bibi.”
The Senate investigation that took place eventually absolved Obama’s State Department of doing anything wrong, however, it did state that “U.S. taxpayer dollars were used to build a campaign infrastructure that was later deployed against the leader of our closest Mideast ally.”
The report would go on to say, “In service of V15, OneVoice deployed its social media platform, which more than doubled during the State Department grant period; used its database of voter contact information, including email addresses… and enlisted its network of trained activists, many of whom were recruited or trained under the grant, to support and recruit for V15.”
How Did This Happen?
The more important question is probably, “Why did the Senate not charge them?”
The reason the State Department was not found at fault was that the initial funding was sent to OneVoice.
OneVoice then redistributed the funding to the effort to have Netanyahu defeated.
This, however, does not excuse the Obama administration (obviously, this implicates Joe Biden) from not doing its due diligence on the group it awarded a grant of almost $350,000 to, money that came from taxpayer dollars.
In the report, Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) stated, “The State Department ignored warning signs and funded a politically active group in a politically sensitive environment with inadequate safeguards.
“It is completely unacceptable that US taxpayer dollars were used to build a political campaign infrastructure that was deployed — immediately after the grant ended — against the leader of our closest ally in the Middle East.”
Something else that was found in this report and extremely disturbing is that once our Ambassadors assigned to the area found out about the intent of the funding, they did nothing to stop OneVoice from redistributing the funds to what amounts to be election interference solely on the fact U.S. funds were used in this anti-Netanyahu campaign.
This action was at the heart of the discontent between Israel and the United States prior to Trump winning the White House.
At the time, an Israeli official stated, “The White House is driven by three main motives.
“The first is revenge [over the Congress speech].
“The second is frustration: It’s no secret that they were involved in an attempt to bring down the Netanyahu government – something that we have clear knowledge of – and failed.
“The third [motive] is the administration’s attempt to divert attention from the negotiations with Iran to the Palestinian issue.”
This is yet another talking point we need to hit Joe Biden with on the campaign trail.
- Was he aware taxpayer funds during his administration were used in an election interference campaign in Israel?
- Why wasn’t OneVoice vetted better prior to being given almost $350,000 in taxpayer money?
My guess is he will call anyone asking him these questions a liar or just outright refuse to answer them, but there is an official Senate inquiry and report, so there simply is no denying the fact this happened.
Source: Times of Israel
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