Hillary’s ‘foreign intervention’ hypocrisy
Even more striking was her shock and awe about foreign powers attempting to influence the upcoming US election.JPost Editorial: What is B’Tselem?
As a former member of the Obama administration, she ought to know a thing or two about such a practice. Yes, her pals in the White House and State Department invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in a concerted campaign to prevent the re-election last year of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They did this by funneling “grant” money to a far-Left, pro-Palestinian NGO called OneVoice.
A Senate investigation revealed that the activities and political leanings of OneVoice were well-known. In addition, as the Washington Free Beacon reported in July, a senior State Department official admitted that he had deleted several e-mail exchanges pertaining to the administration’s coordination with OneVoice, whose grants and oversight were done by then-US Consul General in Jerusalem Michael Ratney.
“It is completely unacceptable that US taxpayer dollars were used to build a political campaign infrastructure that was deployed…against the leader of our closest ally in the Middle East,” said Sen. Rob Portman, who chaired the subcommittee that investigated the fiasco.
Not to worry, though. Private money from Hillary’s billionaire friends, such as the virulently anti-Israel George Soros, was also spent on the effort to keep Netanyahu from winning the election. Another organization, established specifically for this purpose, was V-15 (victory 2015).
Founded by an Israeli named Nimrod Dweck, V-15 hired US consulting firm “270 Strategies” – comprised, as World Net Daily reported – mostly of former top staffers for Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. Dweck told WND that it was OneVoice that persuaded him to hire the firm.
The attempt to topple Netanyahu by bolstering the Israeli Left failed abysmally, much to the dismay of Obama and cohort Democrats. But theirs was a blatant example of foreign intervention in the election process of another country.
I guess Hillary thinks that’s ok, as long as it’s her team running the interference.
Nevertheless, B’Tselem showed its true face over the weekend when its executive director Hagai El-Ad appeared before the UN Security Council to call for the UN to take action against Israel’s settlements. This was just the latest example of how B’Tselem and many other organizations have long ago moved from being human rights groups to organizations engaged in blatant political advocacy.Israel’s envoy to call on UN to end funding for B’Tselem
B’Tselem was not just trying to educate Israelis with the hope that they would change their policies from within, but rather the organization was aiding – even initiating – international efforts to pressure Israel to adopt policies rejected by Israelis repeatedly in democratic elections.
“With every breath they take, Palestinians are breathing in occupation,” El-Ad told the special UN Security Council session titled “Illegal Israeli Settlements: Obstacles to Peace and the Two-State Solution.” He claimed that “ever-present” settlers live in a first-world community “that exists only for them.”
Israel, El-Ad added, used the peace process “to buy time” to establish facts on the ground for the settlements.
“The UN Security Council must act and the time is now,” he concluded.
While some of El-Ad’s claims bear validity, he crossed the line that separates the operations of an impartial guardian of human rights from a political advocacy group that openly calls on the international community to take unilateral steps against Israel.
His appeal to the Security Council reflects a position that rejects direct negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis in favor of international intervention to coerce Israel into relinquishing control over the West Bank, even if this means a potential severe deterioration in the country’s security.
Human rights should transcend politics, and Israel, like other democracies, appreciates criticism and gets plenty of it domestically and internationally. But organizations like need to decide what they are. It seems B’Tselem has made up its mind.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations said he intends Wednesday to demand that the global body end its funding for the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem after it called on the UN to act against Israel over its settlement policies.US ‘troubled’ by attacks on Israeli rights group B’Tselem
Danny Danon is set to address the UN Security Council during a special meeting on the Middle East, in which he plans to bring up the UN bodies that are among B’Tselem’s funders, and argue that the funding prevents the group from giving reliably objective reports to the UN.
B’Tselem and its director, Hagai El-Ad, were taken to task by Israeli officials for participating on Friday in a session of the UN Security Council, during which El-Ad criticized Israeli settlement policy.
“In the year 2016, three UN bodies gave money to fund B’Tselem,” Danon said in a statement. “It is no coincidence that exactly that organization was invited to speak before the UN in order to harm Israel.”
His implication seemed to be that the UN bodies involved already taken a clear stand against Israel and its settlements.
A US official on Monday defended Israeli human rights group B’Tselem as the organization came under fierce criticism in Israel, saying Washington valued the information it provided about the situation in the West Bank and that free speech must be protected, Haaretz reported.
B’Tselem was slammed in Israel for its participation Friday in a session of the UN Security Council, in which the NGO’s director criticized Israeli settlement policy.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that the organization had joined the “chorus of mudslinging” against Israel and denounced it as “shoddy and unhinged.” He threatened to advance a law to block national service volunteers from working with the organization, even as the group pointed out that it only had one such volunteer annually, and the position was currently vacant.
Zionist Union MK Itzik Shmuli said the group was helping to advance “the libel and demonization of Israel.” A Labor party activist even lodged a police complaint for alleged treason by the organization.