Senate Committee Launches Investigation into Obama Effort to Oust Netanyahu

According to a FOX News report, a powerful U.S. Senate investigatory committee has launched a bipartisan probe into an American nonprofit’s funding of efforts to oust Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the Obama administration’s State Department gave the nonprofit taxpayer-funded grants, a source with knowledge of the panel’s activities told the news agency.

The fact that both Democratic and Republican sides of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations have signed off on the probe could be seen as a rebuke to President Obama, who has had a well-documented adversarial relationship with the Israeli leader.

The development comes as Netanyahu told Israel’s Channel Two television station this week that there were “governments” that wanted to help with the “Just Not Bibi” campaigning — Bibi being the Israeli leader’s nickname.

It also follows a FOX News report on claims the Obama administration has been meddling in the Israeli election on behalf of groups hostile to Netanyahu. A spokesperson for Sen. Rob Portman, Ohio Republican and chairman of the committee, declined comment, and aides to ranking Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, of Missouri, did not immediately return calls.

The Senate subcommittee, which has subpoena power, is the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’ chief investigative body with jurisdiction over all branches of government operations and compliance with laws.

According to a report that appeared on INN, several weeks ago an Israeli court dismissed a petition to investigate the “Victory15” (V15) campaign for inappropriate campaign financing. The V15 is a coordinated campaign with ties to the US State Department and its main objective is defeating Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the polls as his bid for re-election draws near.

Speculation abounds that the V15 group whose campaign slogan is: “Anybody but Bibi” was sent to Israel at the behest of the Obama administration in order that Netanyahu does not serve another term as the nation’s leader. Because of the public animus that Obama has overtly displayed towards Netanyahu over the course of the last six years combined with the president’s anger over Netanyahu’s historic address before congress on March 3rd on the existential dangers that a deal with Iran over their burgeoning nuclear program would represent.

Pundits have proffered similar perspectives on the matter; saying that Obama was not especially offended by the alleged breach of protocol that occurred when House Speaker John Boehner invited the Israeli Prime Minister sans the knowledge of the president, but rather because he felt that Netanyahu was intentionally attempting to undermine his attempts to garner a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear debacle along with the P5+1 nations.

Some say the United States should not be sponsoring groups like OneVoice which was responsible for the questionable funding of such groups as V15 in the first place, according to INN.

NGO Monitor is known for its watchdog mission against foreign funding to non-profits. The organization’s Managing Editor, Naftali Balanson, sees the issue as an interesting one.

The organization primarily tries to focus on organizations that might be exceeding their stated agenda. For an organization that has an overt political mission, NGO Monitor does not take as much of an interest.

OneVoice has said prominently that the organization does not see Israel’s current government as conducive to the organization’s goals, ostensibly implying a leadership change as the outcome to the mostly 2-sided race for Prime Minister.

“We believe that it’s critical that the majority of Israelis who are concerned about the numerous security and socio-economic challenges we face have their voices heard in the next election. We need a prime minister and a government who will be responsive to the people,” the group says.

The question then is not if the State Department directly funded V15, but whether or not they expected OneVoice to use its funds to work on campaigns during the election that would inevitably oppose one party or sponsor another.

NGO Monitor’s profile of OneVoice highlights other incidents, such as where their explicit sponsorship was on an event where speaker Gershon Baskin said, “…if we want to have a center-left government, we need to convince people that there is hope. When people don’t have hope, they vote for people like Netanyahu.”

Balanson said, “If it turns out that US government funds went to V15, whether by intention or by accident, that is a serious matter that requires investigation by the US Congress in order to evaluate how something like that could happen.”

He added that, “More importantly on the American side of things is that One Voice has a pretty clear political agenda. Certainly at this stage I think it would be a mistake to continue to give money to the organization whether I agree with their agenda or not. I don’t think it looks good for the American government to give money to an organization with such a clear political angle.”

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