The dove of peace from the 1990s has been stuffed and mounted on a wall. They bring it out once a year, on Nov. 4 -- the anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. The Left is not even trying to shape a serious diplomatic agenda, or "peace." They are merely leaning back and moving forward on the fumes of the 2011 social justice protest movement. They keep tugging at the same strings -- the high cost of living and the hatred for settlers. "Funds are being allocated to settlements instead of being invested in underdeveloped cities." If aliens were listening, they would think that this was the only issue. For the next three months, until the March 17 elections, you will be hearing a lot about the settlements. This week, I finally moved into my new house, in a settlement. This after having lived in a trailer since the summer of 1999. It took me 15 years to save up for a house, and I will be paying off the mortgage until 2044. But election-time lies are going to be spilled in mass quantities in the coming weeks and there will be no one there to collect them. Settlers can't prosecute for defamation because the lies being told about them never refer to a specific person but to an amorphous group. In addition, the facts and figures detailing government spending in the settlements are complex. (The cost of reinforced vehicles to take students to and from schools in areas where rocks are regularly thrown are listed under expenditures on education, rather than as a security expense.) There are people who are experts at manipulating data to serve their message, so prepare your noise filtering headphones. "Let's talk about what people really care about. They don't care about discourse or terminology. People are smart, they understand things better when you talk to them about things that they encounter in the daily lives, at the supermarket, at their children's school. They will know how to approach the policy that we present to them differently if we address their daily difficulties. Talking about human rights will not serve us here. We need to break it down to concrete terms." These remarks were made by Yonatan Levi, the head of Project 61 at the Molad Center for the Renewal of Israeli Democracy. (The project aims to achieve a majority of 61 left-wing MKs in the Knesset.) He said them at the annual Conference of the Israeli Left less than a year ago. Anyone who reads Yedioth Ahronoth or watches Channel 2 knows that his technique has been well implemented. When Israelis are told that Israel is bad, they are being lied to. Or at least data from the last six years (since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office) is being manipulated. They won't tell you about the expansion of the Iron Dome missile defense system. They won't tell you about the establishment of a cyberdefense mechanism. They won't tell you about the new highways and interchanges that have been built to link the periphery to the country's center. They won't tell you about foreign currency being brought in for trade, the sealing of the southern border, the cuts in the child allowances that have prompted ultra-Orthodox men to join the workforce, the dramatic increase in employment rates, the steadfast ability to withstand international pressure, the improvement in academic scores in core subjects or the relative decline in terrorism. All in all, the current government is not bad. Certainly not offensive. But the left-wing alliance between Labor Chairman Isaac Herzog and Hatnuah Chairwoman Tzipi Livni is recruiting the best and brightest public relations experts and journalists in an effort to convince the public that the fact that their children haven't starved to death this month is only because they are among the few lucky ones. • • • The New Israel Fund, which gets its funding from European donors, is working to undermine us all. The general consensus among the Center-Right is that the New Israel Fund is trying to blur the Jewish-democratic identity of the State of Israel. A new report composed by the movement Im Tirtzu outlines the ever-growing ties between the New Israel Fund and the Labor Party. According to the authors of the report, the New Israel Fund's latest goal is to influence the Knesset. Those of you who are not familiar with the antics of the New Israel Fund may not be alarmed by this. "So what-" you may say. So there is an extra-parliamentary organization out there helping left-wing Knesset members. Big deal. But this particular organization provides funding to groups like the African Refugee Development Center, Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Breaking the Silence (Israeli soldiers talk about the occupied territories), the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Mossawa Center - The Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens in Israel and Rabbis for Human Rights, among others. The New Israel Fund provided the funding for the mass demonstration staged by African infiltrators a year ago at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv. Since its establishment, the New Israel Fund has given more than $250 million to 850 social change organizations that focus on "issues the fund cares about" -- according to its website. Their caring appears to lean toward the Left. Brian Lurie, the president of the New Israel Fund, has personally groomed at least three politicians. In 2012 Herzog received a 9,685 shekel donation from Lurie when he was vying for the leadership of the Labor Party in the primaries. The donation appears in the reports that Herzog himself handed over to the state comptroller. Lurie also donated to Livni: When she was running for the leadership of Kadima in 2012, she received $1,000. He also donated $1,000 to Labor MK Stav Shaffir for her campaign ahead of the 2012 Labor Party primaries. Lurie is a private individual and he can do as he pleases with his private money, but don't these donations suggest a clear political stance, that translates into the stance the fund has assumed- In any case, there is no evidence of criminal activity so far. No one has violated the law. But all one needs to do is connect the dots and see who is promoting who in which party. It appears that the New Israel Fund is also investing its resources into cultivating its own candidates at the top of the Labor Party list. "There are a lot of questions regarding the architects of the alliance between Livni and Herzog, and whether the New Israel Fund wasn't the dog wagging the tail in this instance," the Im Tirtzu report states. You don't need any human resources executive to connect these dots -- all the information is available to all: The eighth spot on the Labor-Hatnuah list has been reserved for MK Amir Peretz, who also serves on the New Israel Fund board of directors. (It says so right on his Knesset web page.) Labor MK Merav Michaeli entered the Knesset after years in the Israel Women's Network, an organization that receives funding from the New Israel Fund. Zuhair Bahloul, a popular sports anchor who is vying for a seat on the Labor Party list in the upcoming primary, is a member of the fund's public council. Gilad Kariv, also running in the Labor primaries, is the executive director of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, another organization supported by the New Israel Fund. Another candidate, Professor Yossi Yonah, is active in a string of organizations linked to the New Israel Fund. Several of the New Israel Fund members are former Knesset employees (parliamentary assistants to MKs) and several of the New Israel Fund alumni currently serve in the Knesset in similar capacities. There is no problem with relationships between extra-parliamentary organizations and political candidates. Those exist on the Right, as well. But a number of recent reports in various media outlets suggest that the New Israel Fund is actively trying to insert its own people into government -- just look at the success of the New Israel Fund's law fellowship, which has been operating for three decades with the express aim of "cultivating legal leadership to promote human and civil rights and social justice." Dozens of the fellowship's alumni have gone on to serve in the State Prosecutor's Office and the Justice Ministry. Some have them have been appointed judges and as such, proven their commitment to the spirit of the New Israel Fund in their legal work. The daily newspaper Makor Rishon ran an investigative report a few years ago that monitored the activity of these alumni. The fingerprints of the New Israel Fund were very evident in their work, and that alarms me. Now, according to Im Tirtzu, we are headed for some political laundering. The Herzog-Livni hybrid, calling itself the "Zionist camp," is actively supported by a fund that also backs anti-Zionist organizations. Some of the names that come to mind in that category are B'Tselem, which advocates Palestinian human rights; The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, which opposes the demolition of terrorists' homes; and Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity, which opposes the Jewish presence in the east Jerusalem neighborhood. In my opinion, these groups reject Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. In the past, the New Israel Fund has also supported the Coalition of Women for Peace -- a radical left-wing group on the verge of anarchism. In his book Financing the Flame, American journalist Edwin Black points to the New Israel Fund as one of the main sources of funding for campaigns to delegitimize Israel. • • • It appears that the New Israel Fund is being very cautious. They won't repeat the mistake they made after the 1999 elections, when then-President Eliezer Yaari sent out a memo to donors congratulating the New Israel Fund for its role in getting Ehud Barak elected prime minister. "A great thing happened in Israel last night," Yaari wrote in the memo. "It is impossible to look at what has happened and not to see the clear, courageous fingerprints of the New Israel Fund. ... Today is a big day for Israel. We have proven that social change can overthrow a political regime. ... For years, the fund has cultivated and stood behind the same potential that erupted overnight like a volcano. ... We, the New Israel Fund, have the power to be an important force in the creation of a new Israel." One can safely assume that such a memo will not be circulated after the current election, even if Livni and Herzog are elected. But the satisfied palm-rubbing in the halls of the New Israel Fund offices will be the same. The New Israel Fund knows how to enter the Knesset's influential arena without going through a security check. Shatil, the executive arm of the New Israel Fund, stars in many Knesset committees. They provide lobbying assistance to the organizations they fund, introducing them to different policy-changing strategies and producing campaign materials and guides. Shatil's "Activism Guide" features an entire chapter on how to submit queries to the Knesset, or propose topics for discussion by the Knesset. It even includes instructions on how to address an MK in order to maximize effectiveness. Another arm of the New Israel Fund is the Molad Center for the Renewal of Israeli Democracy. In reality, however, it should be called the Center for the Renewal of the Left-wing Government. Molad's objective is to replace the current government. They advise Knesset members, pour gasoline on social media fires and prepare documents for MK Stav Shaffir. In 2013, Molad received a budget of $700,000 from the New Israel Fund. According to NGO Monitor, the fund transferred another $300,000 to Molad in 2014. Molad is the conduit. The hand that rocks the cradle is the New Israel Fund. Thus, money from Europe and the U.S. is channelled through the fund, passes through Molad, and ends up funding Labor Party campaigning. Some two months ago, the Labor Party hired Project 61, of Molad fame, to help wage a campaign against the state budget. Molad and the Labor Party confirmed this collaboration to investigative website Mida. The campaign cost 40,000 shekels (over $10,000) and the party received content, creative and graphics services from the project. According to their website, "Molad maintains independence of thought and does not affiliate with any party, person or political organization. However, Molad does not pretend to be apolitical." I had to read that sentence twice. I couldn't understand what it said. When you read data provided by Molad in the newspapers and accept it as fact, you are ignoring the identity of the people who gathered it. Let me acquaint you with the key players: Molad Director Avner Inbar is also one of the founders of Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity. Managing Director Mikhael Manekin and Academic Director Assaf Sharon are both Breaking the Silence board members. Here is what Manekin said at a J Street conference in 2013: "The main objective of the entire camp should be to remove [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] from power." One of the founders and a senior fellow of Molad, Avraham Burg, has renounced Zionism. The managing board includes attorney Michael Sfard, Professor Alon Harel and Dr. Yael Sternhell. Senior fellows include attorney Talia Sasson and Professor Eva Illouz. These are the people advising MK Stav Shaffir and the "Zionist camp" on how to make Netanyahu look bad. In May, Project 61 published a problematic report on the state's transfer of hundreds of millions of shekels to the settlements. The report accused the state of funding violations of international law, or, in other words, funding a criminal act. The report was accompanied by an amateurish television special, rife with mistakes and oversights, that aired on Channel 10. Even Haaretz reporter Chaim Levinson, who has never been shy about criticizing the settlements, accused Molad of issuing a report based on errors. The New Israel Fund has been working with Shaffir since before she entered politics, when she was a young activist in the 2011 social justice protest movement. Back then, Shaffir's "social movement" received a substantial donation from the fund. (In July 2012, TheMarker reported a large New Israel Fund donation to Shaffir's new movement, and noted that the list of donors appeared in full on the movement's website. The website has since disappeared.) The New Israel Fund also donated tens of thousands of shekels to the 2011 protest movement. The ties between the New Israel Fund and the Knesset will yield positive outcomes in the legislature for the fund, and no crimes have been committed. Everything mentioned above is above the fray, legal and transparent. The link between Molat, the New Israel Fund and the Labor Party is not illegal. But it doesn't smell that great. The Legal Forum for Israel recently inquired with the Council of Europe on whether they would endorse the Palestinian bid for statehood. One of the council members bothered to reply. He said he would support the Palestinian efforts because he had received a letter signed by 700 Israelis -- prominent cultural figures -- asking him to support it. You see? It is not the Europeans who are against us. It is the Israelis. Before tending to the world's diplomatic tsunami against us, we need to fix our own leaky faucet. • • • The Labor Party response: "Every time the Right can't resolve the social gaps, the high cost of living or Israel's precarious diplomatic status they go after the New Israel Fund. More than anything else, it points to the Right's inability to confront questions of true importance, and that is why the public will replace the Right in the upcoming election. "As for Brian Lurie, he is one of the most important leaders of the American Jewish community in generations and an avid Zionist. Any attempt to attack him or the Labor Party through him is idiotic and does not warrant a response." The New Israel Fund's response: "The assertion that the New Israel Fund is running candidates for Knesset is false and defamatory. The New Israel Fund has never backed, nor does it currently back any candidate for Knesset of for any party. Certain individuals operated within the activity of organizations supported by the fund over the years, and they later decided to run for the Knesset in order to promote their worldview. The fund has no bearing on that decision or on the activity of any party. The fund supported the social movement led by Stav Shaffir only before she became an MK, as it has proudly supported countless other social organizations. "In regard to the private donations made by Rabbi Brian Lurie and others, they can be contacted directly. The New Israel Fund has never donated funds to any candidate in any primary vote or any Knesset election, including the current one. "The New Israel Fund played no part in the campaign the Labor Party commissioned from Molad as a source of funding. The fund gives Molad an annual grant for the sole purpose of funding research fellowships focusing on writing position papers and various research of democracy in Israel. "Shatil provides counseling and assistance on a wide variety of topics, including lobbying and legislation on social issues which are the core values of Shatil. This is legitimate activity that is similarly carried out by other extra-parliamentary organizations that promote their values in the Knesset."
