Israel’s Election and America’s Utterly Classless President

You Mad, Mr. President?
You Mad, Mr. President?

The Jerusalem Post is the bearer of glad tidings. Benjamin Netanyahu has been solidly reelected to his position as Israeli Prime Minister.

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The Israeli elections took a dramatic turn in the early morning hours on Wednesday as official tallies from nearly all precincts indicate that Likud has opened up a significant lead over Zionist Union, a far cry from the virtual dead heat that television exit polls had reported Tuesday evening. With 99 percent of precincts reporting before dawn on Wednesday, the Likud has emerged as the clear, undisputed victor in the elections.

Now when a person loses an election, they should have the grace and dignity to deliver a concession speech and congratulate the winner. There are a million things I could rag Al Gore for. His conduct once the appeals and recount process had run their course in 2000 is not one of them. I thought his 2000 concession speech was a true touch of class. Barack Obama, who lost an election bigtime last night, could learn a thing or two from Gore Jr.

Whoa, wait a cotton-picking minute. Barack Obama wasn’t on the ballot anywhere. He runs things. He doesn’t have to run for anything. Correct, he doesn’t have to. He chose to. He sought revenge against Benjamin Netanyahu for what he perceived as a slight against his position and honor. This slight involved the speech Netanyahu delivered to the US Congress about the threat he felt from Iran’s nuclear program. This came after President Obama asked Speaker Boehner not to invite Netanyahu to speak.

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So, of course, President Obama sent a team of operatives to Israel to interfere in a foreign election and take Netanyahu out of power. The Washington Examiner gives details below.

During Barack Obama’s recent State of the Union speech, he told America he had no more campaigns to run. But it seems that statement flies in the face of reports that an organization known as “One Voice” has brought in what has been called a “five-man Obama team” to defeat Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Included in that five-man team is Jeremy Bird, the national field director for Obama’s 2012 campaign, …..That group, Dr. Lerner added, will run the anti-Netanyahu effort out of offices taking up the ground floor of a Tel Aviv office building. The campaign, known as V-2015, is careful not to support a specific party, but is working to ensure Netanyahu does not win Israel’s March election. Because the effort is not supporting any specific candidate or party, Dr. Lerner said, foreign funds — meaning monies coming from outside Israel — raised by the campaign are not subject to that country’s campaign finance laws.

Barack Obama wanted revenge against Netanyahu so badly that he used a group funded by The US State Department to be the fulcrum of his efforts to oust Netanyahu. This presents at least the appearance that campaigning against certain parties in Israeli elections is now an official US policy under President Obama. A policy that he is willing to spend taxpayer dollars in order to support.

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OneVoice International received two grants from the U.S. State Department over the past year, and lists the agency as a “partner” on its website. Taler said the group is not using this money for its Israeli election-related efforts. “No government funding has gone toward any of the activities we’re doing right now whatsoever,” she said. Taler said the group used the State Department grants to “build public campaign support for the [Israeli-Palestinian] negotiations” spearheaded by Secretary of State [mc_name name=’Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’K000148′ ] last spring.

So how did President Obama react to such an obvious defeat in a key election? With the class and dignity that we’ve come to expect from both him and his administration. David Axelrod slithered forth onto Twitter with the following “analysis.”

Tightness of exits in Israel suggests Bibi’s shameful 11th hour demagoguery may have swayed enough votes to save him. But at what cost? — David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) March 17, 2015

What a shame that gubbermint money went to waste….

What all of this reminds me of is the classless manner in which Parker Griffith behaved when he lost during the 2012 GOP Primary. “Congratulations on winning, now apologize for the things you said!” has to be about one of the most jerk-faced reactions to an electoral drubbing that I’ve ever heard a candidate offer to his victorious opponent. Obama and his lackey David Axelrod are almost that classy. When they actually get around to congratulating Netanyahu on his having handily defeated them, they will successfully ascend to Parker Griffith’s level of class and social grace. We are waiting…

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