Politics

Obama’s Top Election Aide Now Working To Defeat Netanyahu

Neil Munro White House Correspondent
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A top appointee in President Barack Obama’s 2012 election campaign is now working to defeat Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the upcoming March election.

Jeremy Bird was the national field director for Obama’s 2012 campaign, and he’s now working for an Israel-based group, dubbed V15, an anti-Netanyahu group that is backed by a U.S. -U.K. group titled “One Voice.”

“We are working with OneVoice,” confirmed Lynda Tran, who co-founded Bird’s campaign firm, 270 Strategies.

Tran declined to discuss the details of Bird’s anti-Netayanhu effort. “The bottom line here is we believe grassroots organizing is powerful, that empowering people to get involved their elections is good for democracy, and we are working with clients who feel the same way,” she told The Daily Caller.

There’s little or no chance that Bird would work against Netanyahu if Obama didn’t want Netanyahu defeated in the March election.

If Bird was working against Obama’s wishes, it would threaten the future of his firm — and of his fellow employees — because Obama has such sway within the Democratic party’s internal economic marketplace for election and polling services.

There’s lots of evidence that Obama wants Netanyahu defeated, in part, because Obama thinks Netanyahu is making it difficult for him to strike a peace deal between Israel and the Jew-hating Islamist dictators and theocrats that surround Israel.

Netanyahu’s Likud Party is more supportive of Jewish independence than Israel’s other main party, which is more willing to take risks for a peace deal with the pro-Arab, anti-Semitic populations that surround the small country. For example, Netanyahu has opposed the Muslim Brotherhood, pushed back against Turkey and opposed Obama’s effort to sign a deal with Iran allowing Iran’s theocracy to have a nuclear weapons program.

Obama has repeatedly snubbed Netanyahu — he has pushed Israel into accepting ceasefires in Gaza that allow anti-Israel Arab groups to rebuild and rearm for their next assault on Jews; and he has tried to ally with Turkey’s increasingly anti-Semitic president. Starting in 2009, Obama also helped the anti-semitic Muslim Brotherhood group win power in nearby Egypt, and only reluctantly accepted the 2013 military coup that installed Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

The brotherhood is an Islamic revivalist group, while Sisi is trying to modernize Islam.

Obama’s aides have slashed at Netanyahu in numerous not-for-attribution interviews. For example, Obama’s aides were sharply critical when Netanyahu recently accepted an invite to speak to a joint House and Senate session just prior to the March election.

In January, a U.S. official reportedly told a pro-Obama Israeli newspaper that Netanyahu’s acceptance of the invitation was an insult to Obama.

“We thought we’ve seen everything,” said a “a senior American official.”

“But Bibi managed to surprise even us. There are things you simply don’t do… He spat in our face publicly and that’s no way to behave. Netanyahu ought to remember that President Obama has a year and a half left to his presidency, and that there will be a price.”

Bird echoed that comment in a Jan. 22 tweet, where he suggested that the GOP — and a wealthy Jewish donor — are trying to help Netanyahu win the March election. “What do you think [GOP mega-donor Sheldon] Adelson promised GOP in exchange for this insane BiBi House visit? Blatant attempt to bolster Israeli PM before elections.”

The One Voice group is working with V15, which is partly funded by Americans who oppose Netanyahu, according to a Jan. 27 press release.

“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,” said the statement from OneVoice Israel’s executive director, Polly Bronstein. “We need a prime minister and a government who will be responsive to the people,” she said.

 “OneVoice Israel and V15 are working with premier grassroots consulting firm 270 Strategies to leverage the most cutting-edge mobilization techniques. V15 only accepts support from Israeli patriots and staunch international friends of Israel with unassailable track records of supporting Israel’s security and prosperity, such as Alon Kastiel, Ori Weiss, Daniel Lubetzky, and Danny Abraham,” said the statement.

Lubetzky is the founder of One Voice, which is managed by former ambassador Marc Ginsburg, and is backed by numerous left-wing advocacy groups and the Department of State.  Its advisors include the Muslim cleric who tried to build a mosque alongside the destroyed Twin Towers in New York, and a chief negotiator for the anti-Semitic, anti-U.S. autocratic Arab government surrounding Jerusalem.

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