A non-profit group provided the State Department with a plan to oust Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and did not lose its taxpayer funding, according to a new Senate investigation.
The report shows how OneVoice, a group that had received State Department funding in order to promote peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, turned their attention to defeating Netanyahu in a March 2015 election after the failure of the peace talks. These moves came at a time when President Obama was widely reported to be rooting for Netanyahu’s defeat.
OneVoice “did not directly use grant funds to influence the 2015 Israeli elections,” but instead “deployed the campaign infrastructure and resources created using grant funds to support an anti-Netanyahu political campaign” after the grant period had concluded, according to the report.
“The State Department ignored warnings signs and funded a politically active group in a politically sensitive environment with inadequate safeguards,” Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, the chairman of Homeland Security and Government Affairs subcommittee on investigations, said in a statement about his subcommittee’s report. “It is completely unacceptable that U.S. taxpayer dollars were used to build a political campaign infrastructure that was deployed — immediately after the grant ended — against the leader of our closest ally in the Middle East.”
Some of those warning signs were very direct. “OneVoice did inform at least two State Department officials of its political plans, and it did so during the grant period,” the report said. “The department took no action in response, although it is unclear whether the officials in receipt of the plans reviewed them.”
The OneVoice plan to defeat Netanyahu was given to the State Department after a senior diplomat said he would “love to take a look at the strategy.” But that official later told Senate investigators that he did not read the email containing the attached plan.
Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., the top Democrat on the investigative panel, faulted the State Department for failing to conduct adequate oversight of the grant funding. “While this report shows no wrongdoing by the administration, and should put to rest such allegations, it certainly highlights deficiencies in the department’s policies that should be addressed in order to best protect taxpayer dollars,” McCaskill said.
