Days after complaining that Prime Minister Netanyahu “spat in Obama’s face,” White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough was on television on Sunday saying that US President Obama would not meet with Netanyahu during his planned March visit. The reason, he said, was that the US “ought not get involved in their [Israeli] politics.”
Unless, I guess, the goal is to get involved in the efforts to unseat the current Prime Minister. It seems that in that case, all bets are off. According to the Independent Media Review Analysis, Haaretz reported today in its Hebrew edition that Jeremy Bird, National Field Director for Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign, former Deputy National Director of Organizing for America, and South Carolina Primary Field Director and Ohio General Election Director for Obama’s 2008 campaign, will now be running an anti-Netanyahu campaign out of Tel Aviv. According to the report, the funding for Bird’s position appears to be coming primarily from outside of Israel. Front Page Magazine adds that Bird is taking a break from the Hillary Clinton campaign in order to spend this time in Tel Aviv.
An interesting question for Haaretz might also be why this wasn’t reported in their English edition. Perhaps they recognize the intense hypocrisy going on, and thought it would be better not to publicize it too much.
It’s true of course that Bird is not Obama and Bird is free to do as he wishes. But in light of the close connection he has to the President, and in light of the President’s overreaction to the perceived “breach of protocol” in Netanyahu’s acceptance of Speaker of the House John Boehner’s invitation to address Congress, it is hard to imagine that this was done without Obama’s blessing.
Perhaps most insulting, Bird did not even set up his office in Israel’s capital.
Update: The story is now on Haaretz’s English site as well, reporting that “with the help of American money and a former campaign adviser to President Barack Obama, V15 is trying to replace Israel’s government.”
