Update:

According to Fox News the Senate has opened an investigation to probe whether “the Obama administration has been meddling in the Israeli election on behalf of groups hostile to Netanyahu.”

An unnamed source revealed to Fox New the bipartisan investigation is looking into a State Department grant to the OneVoice Movement, a Washington based NGO that currently subsidizes V15 (Victory 2015).

Haaretz:

A subsidiary of OneVoice is the Israeli-based V15, which is claimed by Fox News to be guided by administration officials. V15 is advocating a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and is thus committed to removing Netanyahu. No direct link between Obama and such a campaign has been established, and the State Department announced that funding for the group stopped in November, before the elections were called. However, OneVoice did link up with V15 in January. Jeremy Bird, Obama’s previous campaign director, arrived in Israel to help direct V15, which was trying to reach a million households in an effort to remove Netanyahu. OneVoice is prohibited from directly targeting Netanyahu, but its Israeli partner V15 can carry out the campaign.

The Permanent Subcommittee of Investigations, under the purview of U.S. Senate Committee of Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, has jurisdiction over all branches of government operations and is the senate’s chief investigative body.

The probe comes one day after Netanyahu made the accusation on his Facebook page “Left wing and media elements here and abroad have banded together to bring Tzipi and Bouji to power illegitimately”

Original post:

Talk about wishful thinking, talk about projection — we’re having so much fun watching this V15 video from March 2 in which PM Benjamin Netanyahu has to pack up his bomb cartoon and leave the official residence with his wife Sara we decided to feature it twice today. A friend thinks the screenshot below (from 0:45 in the video as the actors are on the precipice of taking one step out the door) is an impersonator but I think it’s some fancy photoshopping.

V15 is an Israeli campaign to end Netanyahu’s reign. It has a former Obama campaign exec as a lead consultant. Netanyahu has complained about an international campaign to force him out.

One claim:

A closer look at [Jeremy] Bird’s consulting firm as well as its working relationship with the Israeli groups finds he is just one of scores of former senior Obama election campaign staffers now working on the anti-Netanyahu effort.

Bird was Obama’s national field director in 2012, and told the NYT thru a spokesperson: