Did Obama try to undermine Bibi in election?

ANT KATZ and VANESSA VALKIN

Beyond that, Jeremy Bird, a key strategist behind President Obama’s presidential campaigns from Chicago in 2012, was consulting for V15.

Republican from Texas, Senator Ted Cruz, (PICTURED RIGHT) who has just announced his bid for the 2016 Presidential campaign, expressed outrage last week over the issue and pointed to mounting indications that the Obama administration could be implicated in efforts to meddle in the Israeli election.

Cruz also pointed to Jeremy Bird’s involvement. “This is manifesting itself right now in President https://www.sajr.co.za/images/default-source/People/single/bibi-obama78444b3d47cf6007affdff0000014754.jpg” class=”sfImageWrapper”>

LEFT: Jeremy Bird, a key strategist behind President Obama’s presidential campaigns

PeaceWorks Action, Inc. is now featured on the OneVoice website as one of OneVoice’s funders, alongside PeaceWorks Foundation, which holds the same tax status as OneVoice itself.

Launched in 2002 by snack bar mogul Daniel Lubetzky, OneVoice says it works towards achieving a two-state solution in the Middle East and believes – in a reflection of Obama’s thinking, but counter to Netanyahu’s – that Israel’s 1967 borders should form a starting point for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Against this backdrop, the State Department awarded OneVoice the $350 000 in grant money in 2013.

After Netanyahu’s win, V15 co-founder Nimrod Dweck said in an interview with Ronan Farrow aired on MSNBC’s “Jose Diaz-Balart” that “not a single cent” of State Department or taxpayer money had gone to their campaign.

“These are false allegations and they have nothing to do with reality,” Dweck said.

American strategists have for decades signed on to work in Israeli political campaigns, with Democrats usually aligned with the Labour Party and Republicans often backing Netanyahu’s Likud. There is no evidence to suggest that Obama or any of his senior aides had anything to do with the move by Bird, who has never worked at the White House, to join the effort to defeat Netanyahu.

Prior to this month’s elections, Prime Minister Netanyahu and his allies in Israel, had unsuccessfully sought a court injunction against V15, arguing it was violating Israeli election law by accepting foreign donations. Likud withdrew the request, citing difficulty in proving the charge.