Obama Sends Political Team To Israel To Defeat Netanyahu (Funded By State Dept.)

Remember when Obama said he wouldn’t meet with Israeli PM Netanyahu because it was too close to the Israeli Election. That was only part of the reason. Apparently this president has a horse in the race. First revealed in its Hebrew edition, Ha’arez is reporting The group V15, which denies that its motto is ‘anyone but Bibi,’ is working with U.S. political strategist Jeremy Bird who worked on the Obama campaign to replace the government in March.

During a stroll along Tel Aviv’s Lilienblum Street, it was difficult to avoid noticing that the ground floor of one office building had been converted into a campaign headquarters, packed with “Victory 2015” signs and young people wearing V15 campaign buttons. Hanging on the wall is a map of greater Tel Aviv, marked into numbered districts, and scrawled on a whiteboard are various slogans in advertising language.

The place looks like a television set for a series about a presidential campaign. I signed up and walked into a motivational lecture with about 30 enthusiastic young Israelis who were learning how to approach potential voters. After a few minutes they realized there was a journalist in the room, and a more organized meeting was arranged in the adjacent offices of the OneVoice Movement.

Yes Voice Movement who counts amongst its sponsors the U.S.State Department and the Anti-Israel New Israel Fund (NIF). Through its funding of other Anti-Israel groups, the NIF is a group dedicated to Israel losing its Jewish character, supporting the Anti-Israel BDS movement, and de-legitimizing the State of Israel. And we know about the history of the U.S. State Department and Israel.

[V15] The group, which began with nothing more than an idea and youthful energy, soon morphed into something far greater, a movement with real offices whose goal is nothing less than an electoral upset. If the momentum continues to gather according to plan, V15 could carry influence in the upcoming election.

With the help of American money and a former campaign adviser to President Barack Obama, V15 is trying to replace Israel’s government. The money and organization comes from V15’s partnership with OneVoice.

And their star comes from the Barack Obama campaign effort:

Their secret campaign weapon is Jeremy Bird, a 36-year-old American political strategist who worked for Obama. Bird has come with a team of four consultants that will try to channel the energies of V15 into an organized methodology. Bird was the field director for South Carolina in Obama’s primary campaign for the 2008 election. Early opinion polls in the state gave Obama and Hillary Clinton equal odds, but in the primary vote Obama beat her two to one. That victory helped Obama to clinch the Democratic nomination, and it resulted in Bird’s promotion to deputy national field director for the 2008 national election. For Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, Bird was national field director. After the election, Bird parlayed his success into 270 Strategies, a political consulting firm that helps election campaigns all over the world to build grassroots strategies.

“It’s not right to do in Israel exactly what we did in the United States, the context is completely different,” admits Bird, who still has some of the Hebrew he learned as a student in Haifa in 1999. But he says the mess in theOneVoice office — many empty cartons from newly purchased equipment — reminds him of Obama headquarters, he says: lots of energy and lot of talent. Israel is an ideal country for a door-knocking campaign because of its relatively small size, Bird says. Israel has very complex politics, a large number of parties and relatively high voter turnout, he says, adding that it’s possible to speak with enough people here to replace the government.

“The goal is not to promote a specific candidate or party, but to put your ego aside for the greater good,” Dweck says. When I asked whether their goal was “Anyone but Bibi,” referring to the nickname of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, they corrected me: “We say ‘replace the government,’ it’s not directed at specific individuals. There have been many years of right-wing governments during which little happened, it’s time to change course and give people hope.”

Jeremy Bird is a valuable part of the Obama team, he was credited with designing the Obama win in the 2008 South Carolina primary which essentially drove the state into the Clinton campaign.He was the Deputy Director of Organizing for America and is now working for Ready for Hillary.

And because V15 is careful not to support a specific party – rather “just not Bibi”, foreign funds pouring into the campaign are not subject to Israel’s campaign finance laws–nice trick?

As Caroline Glick said on her Facebook page:

Obama won’t meet Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו in Washington when he addresses the Joint Houses of Congress in March because of Netanyahu’s visit’s proximity to the Israeli elections. And Obama, of course believes in protocol and propriety which is why he won’t get involved. 

No, he’s not getting involved at all. He’s just sending his 2012 field campaign manager to Israel to run a campaign to defeat Netanyahu. That’s all. No interference whatsoever.