President Barack Obama's efforts to oust Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flopped spectacularly, Republican pollster and strategist John McLaughlin says.
"It absolutely backfired," McLaughlin said Monday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
Newsmax TV.
"In the end, Prime Minister Netanyahu was able to get directly to the voters in Israel, speak out on their behalf — whether it was dividing Jerusalem or … giving more land to the Palestinians [and] a group like Hamas that was rocketing them last summer.
"He was able to get that message out, and they voted overwhelmingly in favor of him."
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McLaughlin, a partner at McLaughlin and Associates, which did polling for Israel's Likud party, said he found that most Israeli voters don't like Obama, and they were not pleased with reports that money was being funneled into Israel, via non-profit groups, to discredit Netanyahu as the election neared.
"There was Jeremy Bird, who was the 'Obama for America' political director … setting up an 'Obama for America' in Israel called V15, with the one objective … to defeat Prime Minister Netanyahu," McLaughlin said.
"I spent over 40 days in Israel in the last couple of months, and if you went through Israel, which is a small place, there were signs, digital ads and volunteers working all over Israel for this V15 organization, which was spending millions of dollars, maybe tens of millions of dollars to defeat the prime minister.
"It's one thing to promote democracy, it's another thing to promote the defeat of the leader of the government, which is your ally."