The anti-Benjamin Netanyahu V15 political action group declared Wednesday it is “here to stay” and will continue the “long march” toward victory and change.
V15 has drawn international attention for partnering with One Voice, a U.S.-U.K. nonprofit that has received funding from the State Department.
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OneVoice’s offices in Tel Aviv were being used as the campaign headquarters for V15′s anti-Netanyahu effort, as WND was first to report.
It was OneVoice that hired 270 Strategies, a consulting firm whose senior leadership is comprised mostly of former top staffers for President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.
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270 Strategies consulted in V15's get-out-the-vote-organizing drive aimed at defeating Netanyahu in the elections here earlier this week with the goal of replacing his government with a center-left coalition.
Last Sunday, Fox News quoted a source revealing a bipartisan U.S. Senate committee with subpoena powers is investigating the possibility the Obama administration may have aided OneVoice’s efforts to defeat Netanyahu via grants from the State Department.
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On Wednesday, V15 released a Hebrew statement on its Facebook page vowing, “We are here to stay, against the will of many … We are not going anywhere.”
The statement claimed the left-wing parties failed to gain a larger electoral margin due to what the group alleged was Netanyahu’s “unprecedented intimidation, defamation and incitement campaign against entire groups of the Israeli population."
The group claimed Netanyahu's purported machinations targeted "civilian like us, journalists, media organizations, center and left parties, Israel's Arab citizens, and more.”
Continued the V15 statement: “Unfortunately, these methods were able to affect too many people in the country. People are afraid of something different, something new.”
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So what is next for the V15 campaign following Netanyahu's decisive victory?
The group said it would take a few days to “digest and think about our next steps.”
“Soon we will come back with updates on how to proceed,” the statement added.
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State Department scrubbed from anti-Bibi group's website
WND reported earlier this week the State Department was removed from OneVoice’s list of “partners” on the group’s website.
The State Department was listed as a “partner” on OneVoice’s website as late as last month.
OneVoice received a State Department grant for $350,000.
OneVoice development and grants officer Christina Taler told the Washington Free Beacon last month that “no government funding” has gone toward the V15 voter mobilization effort.
However, V15's complete takeover of OneVoice’s Tel Aviv offices may raise some questions, not only about the grant usage but about the State Department’s partnership with OneVoice.
The ties between V15 and OneVoice run deep.
Besides the takeover of OneVoice’s Tel Aviv offices and OneVoice hiring former Obama campaign staffers to consult for V15, Uri Wollman, V15′s spokesman, told WND last month his group is primarily financed by three private donors, including OneVoice founder Daniel Lubetzky.
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