The Paul Manafort affair: the Israeli connection
Israeli politicians are demanding investigations into which 'senior Israeli official' appears to have close ties to the Kremlin and was apparently involved in an effort by the former American lobbyist Paul Manafort to smear a Ukrainian politician as anti-Semitic.
The investigation of special prosecutor Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 US elections crossed the Atlantic and the Mediterranean in mid-September to land in Israel with a bang.
The plea agreement Mueller reached with Paul Manafort tells of the involvement of a “senior Israeli official” who ostensibly cooperated with Manafort when he worked as a lobbyist for pro-Russian former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. During Ukraine's 2012 parliamentary elections, the Israeli was supposed to publicize an announcement, formulated in coordination with Manafort, tying the opposition's Yulia Tymoshenko, a Fatherland Party candidate, to anti-Semitic elements. The goal was to pressure the US government to moderate its support of Tymoshenko by turning “Obama Jews” — Jews who supported President Barack Obama — against her. Elementary.
The situation is complicated, however, by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, then headed by Avigdor Liberman, having published the announcement using Manafort's wording. Liberman, now defense minister, has denied any and all involvement and has claimed that he does not know Manafort. He says he has never met or spoken with him. Regardless, Liberman is the immediate suspect in light of his connections to top Kremlin officials and his closeness to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Conspiracy theorists see a thread where “Trump Jews” are battling “Obama Jews” through Israelis on both sides of a Ukrainian campaign. On the edges of this campaign, they claim, stands Russian President Vladimir Putin, who four years later would work to benefit presidential candidate Donald Trump against those very same Obama Jews.
