Retired American Generals Enter Israeli Politics Against Livni

Forward ^ | October 8, 2008 | By Nathan Guttman

[Fennie]

Washington -- A little known hawkish group is offering assistance to embattled Kadima minister Shaul Mofaz in his fight to reverse results of the party's primary election that put Tzipi Livni in line to create a new government coalition.

Stand Up America, a security-minded organization led by former generals of the United States military, has hired the services of the attorney who represented President Bush in the 2000 post-election legal dispute, and has suggested that the attorney travel to Israel and take on the Mofaz case if it ever reaches the Supreme Court.

The offer, while marginal in its potential impact on the Israeli political scene, is yet another example of the ties that Israeli candidates for office have to American donors and interest groups. These relations took center stage recently, when the dealings between outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and an American businessman were revealed in the court proceedings leading up to Olmert's resignation.

The initiative to send an American legal adviser to aid Mofaz came from Thomas McInerney, who is a retired lieutenant general, and from Paul Vallely, a retired major general. Both served as military affairs analysts for the Fox News network and founded Stand Up America three years ago. The organization's stated purpose, according to McInerney, is to "protect America and let people understand the danger of radical Islam and the seriousness of global jihad."

The generals contacted Mofaz's lawyers in Israel and informed them that they had tentatively hired the services of attorney George Terwilliger, who was on Bush's legal team in arguing the legitimacy of the Florida vote in the 2000 elections.