Randy131 wrote:
You fail to tell all the truth. Obama had strings to that tax payer money, and he sent his own personal campaign staff over to direct how that money was to be spent, and Obama's personal campaign staff made sure that tax payer money was spent according to what Obama had designated it for, so don't blame the Israelis who were being used by Obama and his pesronal campaign staff, sent with the tax payer money to direct it's spending to try to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
You are doing several thing wrong.. You imply that what went on in the Israeli elections is the same that the Russian did to ours.. Not so..
From a USA today article..
www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/02/12/israel-election-us-consultants-donors/23237871/There is no legal ban on foreign campaign consultants.
The Republican consultants and money supporting right-wing causes provide a boost to Netanyahu's Likud Party, while the Democrats back the more liberal Labor Party and the Zionist Camp, a center-left coalition that includes Labor.
In a statement to USA TODAY, Likud confirmed that Republican political strategists Vincent Harris and John McLaughlin have "advisory roles to complement" the party's professional team to "ensure the public is aware of the party's accomplishments and plans for the future."
Harris has worked for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, he denied claims by supporters of Netanyahu's rival for prime minister, Labor Party head Isaac Herzog, that he is a GOP emissary charged with keeping the hawkish Israeli leader in office.
Uri Wollman, V15's spokesman, told USA TODAY that its funding comes from four philanthropists, including two based in the USA: S. Daniel Abraham, founder of Slim Fast Foods and a major Democratic Party donor, and Daniel Lubetzky, founder of OneVoice, which has received grants from the U.S. and European governments.
Two grants totaling $350,000 came from the State Department, according to department and other documents. Last month, Cruz and Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., sent Secretary of State John Kerry a letter demanding details on who approved U.S. government funds for OneVoice, how they are being spent and whether OneVoice's work with V15 violates its status as a tax-exempt organization.
"Has President Obama launched a political campaign against Prime Minister Netanyahu and his representatives?" Cruz asked.
In response, OneVoice said the State Department provided funding to bolster Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and didn't assist V15. The State Department said the funding ended in November 2014.
Likud receives non-financial backing from Yisrael Hayom, a pro-Netanyahu newspaper funded by American billionaire Sheldon Adelson, a leading Republican donor. More Israelis read Yisrael Hayom than any other newspaper.
"We don't know how much money Adelson invests in Yisrael Hayom, but we do know it's losing a lot of money," said Menachem Hofnung, a Hebrew University political scientist. "The Likud doesn't even try to pretend the paper is unbiased in its favor."
Running a daily newspaper of that size costs millions of dollars a year.
Shmuel Sandler, a political scientist at Bar Ilan University, said the fact that the vast majority of overseas funding appears to emanate from Jewish donors "is part of the whole Zionist philosophy that the Jewish people are one and that Israel is the home of all Jews." Funding coming from foreign governments "would be very problematic," said Sandler, an expert on Israeli elections and Israeli-U.S. relations
Rabinowitz, the Washington strategist who had worked for Clinton, said the Republican and Democratic consultants working for V15 and Likud do so "because it's a business, and they're flattered to be wanted in an influential country like Israel."
"Nobody in Washington is dispatching these guys to work for their favorite candidates, as much as a lot of folks in Washington would like one party or the other to win," Rabinowitz said. "Nobody is guiding money or staff. No politician is involved in the Israeli election, except maybe in church or synagogue, where they're praying for the 'good guys' to win."