The latest news is so striking that I am going to quote the first two paragraphs of the article from the Washington Examiner:
The State Department paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayers grants to an Israeli group that used the money to build a campaign to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in last year’s Israeli parliamentary elections, a congressional investigation concluded Tuesday.
Some $350,000 was sent to OneVoice, ostensibly to support the group’s efforts to back Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement negotiations. But OneVoice used the money to build a voter database, train activists and hire a political consulting firm with ties to President Obama’s campaign — all of which set the stage for an anti-Netanyahu campaign, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said in a bipartisan staff report.
This is staggering. Notice this is not a Republican report, but a bipartisan report. Even the Democrats are calling out Obama for misuse of government funds to try to win an election to oust the leader of an ally.
It's worth noting that the size of the money spent is enormous in the context of Israel. The USA has roughly 50 times the number of people as Israel does, so this is the equivalent of an expenditure of roughly $18 million dollars in a US election.
It is completely improper for the US government to meddle in the elections of any foreign country, especially an ally like Israel. Imagine the reaction if we were to learn that the Israeli government gave $18 million to a group to try to elect Romney in 2012. There would have been hell to pay.
I haven't gone back to research if these expenditures were illegal. It truly doesn't matter. They show that the State Department and president Obama have shockingly bad judgment. Obama mixed in the Brexit vote and the other side won. Many said that the reaction among the Brits against this foreign interference may have put the Brexit position over the top. In Britain, at least, it was public interference and no cash was involved. In Israel it was much, much worse.
I truly cannot wait for Obama to be gone.
The State Department paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayers grants to an Israeli group that used the money to build a campaign to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in last year’s Israeli parliamentary elections, a congressional investigation concluded Tuesday.
Some $350,000 was sent to OneVoice, ostensibly to support the group’s efforts to back Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement negotiations. But OneVoice used the money to build a voter database, train activists and hire a political consulting firm with ties to President Obama’s campaign — all of which set the stage for an anti-Netanyahu campaign, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said in a bipartisan staff report.
This is staggering. Notice this is not a Republican report, but a bipartisan report. Even the Democrats are calling out Obama for misuse of government funds to try to win an election to oust the leader of an ally.
It's worth noting that the size of the money spent is enormous in the context of Israel. The USA has roughly 50 times the number of people as Israel does, so this is the equivalent of an expenditure of roughly $18 million dollars in a US election.
It is completely improper for the US government to meddle in the elections of any foreign country, especially an ally like Israel. Imagine the reaction if we were to learn that the Israeli government gave $18 million to a group to try to elect Romney in 2012. There would have been hell to pay.
I haven't gone back to research if these expenditures were illegal. It truly doesn't matter. They show that the State Department and president Obama have shockingly bad judgment. Obama mixed in the Brexit vote and the other side won. Many said that the reaction among the Brits against this foreign interference may have put the Brexit position over the top. In Britain, at least, it was public interference and no cash was involved. In Israel it was much, much worse.
I truly cannot wait for Obama to be gone.
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