Senior Jerusalem source says administration wanted ‘revenge’ over Congress speech; declares no Palestinian state ‘in our generation’
The White House was
directly involved in an attempt to topple Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu in last week’s general election, during a nadir in
ties between the Israeli leader and US President Barack Obama, a senior
Jerusalem official said Tuesday.
The official, who
spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Times of Israel that “it’s no
secret” that the Obama administration had attempted to influence the outcome of
the election, having been partially motivated by a desire for revenge over
Netanyahu’s polarizing speech before Congress earlier this month, which sought
to undermine the president’s key foreign policy initiative – a nuclear deal
with Iran.
“The White House is
driven by three main motives,” the official said. “The first is revenge [over
the Congress speech]. The second is frustration: It’s no secret that they were
involved in an attempt to bring down the Netanyahu government – something that
we have clear knowledge of – and failed. The third [motive] is the
administration’s attempt to divert attention from the negotiations with Iran to
the Palestinian issue.”
Netanyahu’s latest
term in office has seen an unprecedented, unmasked animus seep into the
relationship between the administration and his government, much of it over
the emerging deal with Iran. On Monday the Wall Street Journal reported that Israel had spied on the
talks, an accusation that Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman attributed to efforts to
undermine ties between Jerusalem and Washington.
A series of
tit-for-tat exchanges between the two allies in recent months culminated with
Obama sternly rebuking Netanyahu last weekend over comments he had made in
the lead-up to the vote. Netanyahu was widely panned for an Election Day
rallying call in which he claimed that Israeli Arab voters were being
bused to polling booths “in droves” by local political groups supported and
funded by a “concerted” international campaign to dislodge him.
One of those groups
was allegedly V15, whose sources of funding are unclear and whose
reputed improprieties are the focus of a Republican-initiated US Senate
probe.
Obama slammed
Netanyahu’s comments as evidence of the “erosion” of Israeli democracy and
vowed to “reevaluate” bilateral ties between the two countries in the wake of
the election, a move that former Israeli ambassador to the United States
Michael Oren called “damaging” to bilateral ties and to Israel’s image.
The White House will
attempt to “punish” Israel at the UN or the Security Council, the Israeli official
said Tuesday, alluding to intimations by US officials to the effect that
Washington could change its policy of vetoing anti-Israel measures and
even pursue a unilateral Palestinian statehood initiative.
“Congress is currently
our only means of preventing a series of harmful initiatives, on both the
Iranian and the Palestinian front,” the official said. “If the US government
will permit the recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN, then Congress
will brandish its knives and defund the UN.” On Sunday, Republic Senator John McCain threatened to
do just that.
Criticism of Netanyahu
in Washington also focused on his apparent repudiation of support for a
two-state solution with the Palestinians ahead of the election. In an evident
effort to appeal to hard-line voters, the prime minister had said that
there would be no Palestinian state during his next term in office after the
election, he attempted to walk back the comments). On Monday, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough toldlobbying
group J Street that Israel’s “50-year occupation must end,” doubling down on
the Obama administration’s criticism of the prime minister.
The Jerusalem official
took Netanyahu’s disavowal of Palestinian statehood further, claiming
that a two state-solution would be out of reach “in our generation,” due to
Palestinian rejections of Israeli proposals and US-led agreements.
“[Obama] continuously
warns of a deteriorating state of chaos in the [Palestinian] territories, when
he knows that the only place that truly manages to maintain stability in the
Middle East right now is [Israel],” the official said. “Netanyahu said there
will no agreement [with the Palestinians] during his term in office.”
A Palestinian state
“won’t even happen in our generation,” the official added.” Everyone knows it.”
“They come and accuse
us of torpedoing negotiations even though they know that Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas himself said no [to a deal], twice — once to
then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton in 2011, and once to Secretary of State
John Kerry last year.”
The official went on
to refer to two “framework documents, designed to jump-start the process” that
were accepted by Israel and rejected by the Palestinians, and accused the
administration of devoting too much energy to the Palestinian issue, to the
detriment of other, more pertinent regional challenges.
“Look at what we did
about settlement construction. We took upon ourselves all the restrictions laid
forth during the Sharon-Bush era, which allowed for building to accommodate
natural population growth, but not for building new settlements,” the official
continued, referring to an arrangement in the last decade between then-prime
minister Ariel Sharon and president George Bush. “But the [current]
administration does not recognize the Sharon-Bush understandings. They’re
working according to a ‘no-brick’ policy and it doesn’t make any sense.”
Avi Lewis contributed to this report.
