(ReclaimingAmerica.net) – A report reveals that President Joe Biden’s State Department has given tens of thousands of US dollars in funding to a nonprofit organization in Israel leading protests against its conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Some $38,000 in funding has been provided by the State Department to the “Movement for Quality Government” in Israel, the bulk of it under the administration of Democrat President Joe Biden, The Washington Free Beacon has disclosed.
At the end of 2022, Benjamin Netanyahu returned to the Prime Minister post in Israel, leading an alliance of conservative and nationalist parties. He had already become the country’s longest-serving leader, and Israel is one of America’s top allies worldwide.
The Israeli Movement for Quality Government (MQG) claims to be “an independent, non-partisan, grassroots, nonprofit organization that has been defending Israeli democracy since 1990.”
The NPO, however, has also become one of the leaders of protests against Netanyahu’s new Cabinet over reforms that could reduce the power of the Israeli Supreme Court.
The same nonprofit had petitioned the court to ban Netanyahu from the Prime Minister’s job because of ongoing investigations against him over political corruption and bribery claims.
“Given the Biden administration’s chilly diplomatic relationship with Netanyahu—which includes repeated criticism of Israeli settlement construction and the decision to launch an unprecedented FBI probe into Israel’s anti-terrorism operations—the US funding to MQG has come under new scrutiny,” The Washington Free Beacon commented.
The US State Department has confirmed that it has funded the Movement for Quality Government.
“The State Department has provided small grants to the Movement for Quality Government, including a grant signed in 2020 during the previous administration and continued under the Biden administration that focused on teaching civic education and supporting good governance,” a State Department official told the news outlet.
“[The MQG is] a respected, independent, non-partisan, grassroots non-governmental organization committed to promoting values of democracy, transparency, good governance, and civic participation,” the official added.
However, Republican US Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana blasted the funding of what he said was a partisan group.
“The State Department should never fund foreign partisan organizations in allied democracies,” Banks declared.
“If the shoe was on the other foot, the Biden administration would accuse Israel of interfering in our elections. Congress should absolutely review the State Department’s potential funding of partisan politics in Israel,” he elaborated.
The US State Department began giving MQG funding in 2020, towards the end of the Trump administration.
“One former senior US official familiar with the matter said the grant was likely approved by career State Department officials and that the small amount of money likely went unnoticed by Trump administration political appointees who could have blocked it,” the report reveals.
During his White House term, then-US President Donald Trump collaborated closely with the then-Cabinet of Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu.
The U.S. State Department provided funds to a group that has been leading protests against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. https://t.co/Q7Hs5jQhk9
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) March 6, 2023
