A recent letter from Congress reveals that Biden and his team did everything they could to remove Bibi Netanyahu, thereby continuing the work of his former boss, Barack Obama.
On the international stage, the US, since the 19th Century, has known how to act as a yenta (Yiddish: busybody). Whether changing governments in South America or pursuing business deals in Europe, the US has not been shy about using its influence to shape the world map more in its favor. If one examines US actions, they have generally been used to replace unfavorable governments or pursue better economic or military advantages—a new market for US products or a new air force base for American bombers. With Israel, the US pushed around a billion dollars to get rid of a pro-US prime minister for ideological purposes of what pro-US should look like.
Dwight D. Eisenhower looked like a doting grandfather. Beyond his Midwestern affability was a five-star general with a drive to win. As president, he established a rule that whenever the US sought to gather information about its adversaries, there had to be a degree of plausible deniability. Even the U2 flights over the Soviet Union were billed as civilian flights, though the planes belonged to the Air Force and the pilots were CIA employees. The backstory of a U2 doing weather mapping would have held if the Soviets had not shot one down and made a trial for its pilot, Francis Gary Powers. Plausible deniability is a key part of statecraft so as to keep the president far away from the dirty work often required to advance the interests of the country.
The House Judiciary Committee last week released a devastating letter outlining how the Biden administration directed around a billion dollars towards NGOs to destroy Bibi Netanyahu and his government. The basic arrangement had the executive branch, through the State Department, USAID, or the Department of Defense, providing grants to large organizations, such as the Rockefeller Foundation. Those recipients then passed the money down until it went into the coffers of Israeli or other NGOs that organized protests against the Netanyahu government and its program. The local NGOs had been given a deadline of April 9, 2025, to explain how they used US monies. I had wondered what had happened to those reports. We now have the answer. The Congressional letter shows several flow charts of how our tax money went to destabilize the government of Israel.
The focus of US activities at least since the days of Barack Obama has been several-fold:
*Get rid of Netanyahu and replace him with someone more to the left.
*Get at Bibi via legal troubles, as per anti-Trump, anti-Bolsonaro models.
*Fight the judicial reform effort as being anti-democratic.
The problem with the buffoons in the Obama and Biden administrations is that they never bothered to read the writings of Caroline Glick, who today is a senior advisor to the Israeli prime minister. Glick explained in numerous columns from years back that the Israeli left is dead. After not only failing to produce a peace deal with the Palestinians, they also stood by as Israeli blood flowed in the streets. Israelis rightly concluded that there was never going to be an agreement with the Palestinian Authority (PA), so groups like Labor and Meretz all but disappeared from the Knesset. In contrast, new left-wing groups, such as Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid, focused more on economic and social issues. The folks over at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue from the two previous Democratic administrations still had fantasies about two states and peace between the two peoples. The problem, in their eyes, was Bibi Netanyahu and his band of right-wing lunatic extremists who, for some reason, don’t want Jews to be killed. If they could just get rid of the Likud leader and get a card-carrying lefty in his place, then peace was just around the corner.
There is an old story of a well-known rabbi who went on a trip to Poland with several people. While on their way, they stopped at a hotel for a meal. The proprietor was so excited that this rabbi came to his place that he made sure that everything was tip-top. After the meal, he asked his distinguished guests how they liked the food. The rabbi said that everything was excellent. One of the other fellows stated that the soup lacked salt. After the owner went into the kitchen, the rabbi turned to his friend. “Do you have any idea what your comment has done?” The other fellow thought that the rabbi had overreacted. “Go into the kitchen and tell me what you see.” Sure enough, the fellow went in and saw the owner screaming at an old widow who was the cook for her failure to add enough salt to the soup.
So, what have been the outcomes of the US’s effort to get rid of an ally and change Israeli politics?
*Bibi has been mired in a series of questionable legal cases that gobble up his time.
*The protests against the judicial reform ripped the country apart. Because of the funding, the crowds went from hundreds to tens of thousands. As I wrote previously, elite reserve pilots refused to fly for the dictator Netanyahu. When they finally showed up under threat of grounding, the lower strata ground crews refused to fuel their planes or add bombs.
*Even Hamas said that the fighting over judicial reform was a big aid in their October 7th attack, as the people were divided. Some money went to groups that are associated with terror organizations.
*Israel went through five rounds of elections, during which there was no formal budget and much of the government ground to a halt. When a non-Bibi government finally came to be, it had to include an Islamist party in order to get over 60 Knesset members. Imagine if they had been in the government as planning for the Iran attack took place.
The reason why the Bennett-Lapid government required the Islamists is exactly what Caroline Glick stated well over a decade ago: the left no longer has the majorities it took for granted during decades of rule. The ultraorthodox will not sit with them; ditto for the religious parties. When the dust settles and you remove these groups and the Likud, you simply don’t have 61 seats unless you start adding anti-Zionist Arab parties, which is a political no-no. Obama and Biden never bothered to read the room; if they had, they would have understood that the Israelis are tired of being an experimental lab for peace. They took too many risks for peace and buried too many loved ones for the fantasy that the PA would be a real partner for change. The people gave up on the left’s fantasy of peace and looked to economic growth and physical security from more attacks. Obama and Biden were plowing US money into groups that do not represent the Israeli people. The astroturf crowds showed up for the money, not for the cause. And like in the US, the signs were printed and waiting to be picked up for the Saturday night protests.
It is a disgusting shame that the US government gave money to dubious Israeli organizations to destabilize an allied government. While every country works to advance its interests in other states, none should work to destabilize a friend because it doesn’t like the outcomes of kosher democratic elections. The people have spoken. Jihad Joe should be held responsible for his abuse of American aid money.