Report: U.S. presidents have a history of influencing Israeli elections
Friday, January 30, 2009 E-Mail this story Free Headline Alerts
TEL AVIV — Any U.S. moves to prevent the election or formation of a right-wing government in Israel would not be precedent-shattering, a report said.
The report by the Institute for National Security Studies, regarded as the leading strategic center in Israel, suggested that the administration of President Barack Obama could decide to interfere in Israel's elections, scheduled for Feb. 10.
The report, titled "Obama, Mitchell, Israel, and What Lies Ahead," said U.S. intervention could mark an option to ensure that any next Israeli government agree to a new policy that would include a "flexible" American approach toward the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip.
"A delicate American attempt to affect the composition of the next government is a possibility that cannot be ruled out," the report, authored by researcher Roni Bart, said.
INSS, the successor to the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, has close ties to the U.S. diplomatic and security community, including advisers to the Obama administration. Bart, a reserve army colonel, has specialized in Israeli-U.S. relations.
"Diplomatic courtesy, especially between two nations as close to one another as Israel and the United States, demands that America wait until the democratic process in Israel is fully completed," the report said. "However, if the figure forming the government has the option of choosing between a relatively hawkish composition and a relatively dovish one, the administration could conceivably leak something about its initiatives in order to hint that a hawkish government might have a problem with Israel's ally."
Israeli political sources said the United States has interfered in several elections in the Jewish state. The sources said the most blatant examples of Israeli interference was in 1992 when then-President George Bush invited and appeared to endorse Labor Party candidate Yitzhak Rabin.
In 1999, President Bill Clinton did the same to Labor Party candidate Ehud Barak. Both Barak and Rabin beat their Likud Party rivals — Binyamin Netanyahu and Yitzhak Shamir.
Netanyahu's Likud has been leading the polls in the last weeks of Israel's election campaign. Netanyahu has called for the ousting of the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip and a suspension of U.S. efforts to establish a Palestinian state.
In contrast, the report said, Obama was expected to show flexibility toward the Hamas regime as part of an effort to rebuild the Gaza Strip, damaged from the 22-day Israel-Hamas war that ended on Jan. 18. The report said Obama would also demand that Israel quickly adopt Arab diplomatic initiatives as well as further restrict activity in the West Bank.
"None of these will be to the liking of any Israeli government, not even a Kadima-headed center-left government that includes at least one right-wing party," the report said. "Therefore, we may expect cloudy to stormy weather — depending on the outcome of the Israeli elections — in the relations between Israel and the United States."