A pair of Republican-controlled congressional committees have launched an investigation into the New Israel Fund, claiming the umbrella body that helps bankroll progressive Israeli organizations may have engaged in illegal electioneering against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith penned a letter to the acting chairman of NIF on Thursday informing the group of the investigation into whether it had violated its tax-exempt status as a US-based charity “by providing millions of dollars in funding to groups that engaged in political campaign activities in the 2019 Israeli elections.”

The allegation is partially based on $356,000 that NIF provided in grants to an Israeli organization called Zazim, which operated a transportation system that helped bring Bedouin voters to polling stations in order to cast votes against Netanyahu in the 2019 election.

The lawmakers don’t explain how they know who the Bedouin voters would have voted for, but it appears to be in line with Netanyahu’s own election-day warning that his continued rule was at stake because left-wing organizations were bussing Arabs to the polls. He later apologized for the comments, which were roundly accused of being racist.

Jordan is a close ally of Netanyahu, and a Democratic congressional aide told The Times of Israel that the investigation is an attempt to “throw a bone” to the Israeli premier ahead of the upcoming election in Israel.

Another claim made in the letter is against the NIF-funded Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), which argued before the Israeli Supreme Court against the appeal of far-right candidate Baruch Marzel who had initially been disqualified from running in the 2015........

© The Times of Israel