Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton A. Klein released the following statement:
The Obama administration has again improperly criticized and meddled in Israel’s internal sovereign government matters. On May 25, 2016, U.S. State Department Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner inappropriately criticized Israel’s appointment of defense minister Avigdor Lieberman and expansion of Israel’s governing coalition (to include Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitenu party), saying: “We’ve also seen reports from Israel describing [Israel’s new coalition] as the most right-wing coalition in Israel’s history. And we also know that many of its ministers have said they opposed a two-state solution. This raises legitimate questions about the direction it may be headed in – headed in, rather – and what kind of policies it may adopt, but ultimately we’re going to judge this government based on its actions.”
The U.S. State Department spokesman also went on to say that the U.S. will continue to work for a so-called “two-state solution” – a euphemism for the establishment of a terrorist “Palestinian State.” The spokesman omitted to mention the Palestinian Authority (PA)’s relentless promotion of the current wave of terror against innocent Israeli Jews. The PA’s leaders encourage and call stabbing, shooting and ramming cars into innocent Israeli civilians “heroic acts.” Nor has the Obama administration enforced its legal obligations to defund the PA under the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006 (PATA, P.L. 109-446) due to the PA’s coalition with Hamas. Since the mid-1990s, the U.S. government has committed more than $5 billion to the Palestinian Arabs, who are among the world’s largest per capita recipients of international foreign aid. (Source: March 2016 Congressional Research Report: U.S. Foreign Aid to the Palestinians.)
The Obama administration ’s attempts to meddle with Israel’s duly elected democratic government are appalling and hypocritical.
Last year, the Obama administration hypocritically interfered in Israel’s elections, including by meeting with the head of Israel’s left-wing Labor Party to bolster it; refusing to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu; and having President Obama’s top election organizers – responsible for Obama’s successful “ground game” victories in 2008 and 2012 – descend on Israel to run a “V15” campaign operation, against PM Netanyahu and for Israel’s left-wing parties, using millions of dollars of foreign funds in apparent violation of Israel’s campaign finance laws.
We also must ask: Where is the administration’s “concern” for the selection this week of extreme anti-Western radical clerics to head the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Assembly of Experts (the body that selects Iran’s Supreme Leader)? Radical anti-western cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati (who frequently issues statements supporting terrorist organization Hezbollah and condemning the United States) became the Assembly’s chairman; Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahedi-Kermani (who delivered a sermon one week after last year’s Iran nuclear deal saying “We will trample upon America”) became deputy chairman; and Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi (known for arresting and prosecuting reformers and activists) is second deputy chair.