United States Senate

PERMANENT SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS

Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Rob Portman, Chairman
Claire McCaskill, Ranking Member

Review of U.S. State Department

Grants to OneVoice
STAFF REPORT
PERMANENT SUBCOMMITTEE ON
INVESTIGATIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE

Review of U.S. State Department Grants to OneVoice

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................. 3
BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................. 4
A. State Department Foreign Assistance Grant Programs ................................... 4
B. Subcommittee Investigation ............................................................................... 5
C. State Department Grants in Israel and Palestinian Territories ...................... 7
DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................ 7
I.

OneVoice Israel Fully Complied with the Terms of the State Department
Grants .................................................................................................................. 8
A. The Grantee......................................................................................................... 8
B. OneVoice Grant Proposal and Approval ............................................................ 9
C. OneVoice Activity Conducted During the State Department Grant Period... 11
D. The Role of 270 Strategies ................................................................................ 12

II.

During the Grant Period, OneVoice Crafted a Political Strategy to Defeat the
Netanyahu-Led Coalition ................................................................................. 14

III.

The State Department Failed to Adequately Guard Against the Risk of

OneVoice Using Government-Funded Resources for Political Purposes ........ 16

A. State Department Vetting During the OneVoice Grant Application Process 16

B. State Department Oversight During the Grant Period .................................. 18
C. Lack of State Department Response to OneVoice Political Plans Developed
During the Grant Period................................................................................... 19
IV.

OneVoice Engaged in Political Activity After the Grant Period Using

Resources Funded in Part by the State Department Grant ........................... 21
A. OneVoice Partnership with V15 ....................................................................... 21
B. OneVoice Continued to Use Resources Built Using State Department Funds
........................................................................................................................... 24
C. PeaceWorks Returned Contributions and Created a New Non-Profit Based on
Concerns About 501(c)(3) Funding for Political Activity ................................. 26

CONCLUSION............................................................................................................. 28

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
On December 2, 2014, at the urging of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
the Israeli Knesset voted to schedule new national parliamentary elections for
March 2015. Within weeks, an international organization known as the OneVoice
Movement absorbed and funded an Israeli group named Victory15 or V15 and
launched a multimillion-dollar grassroots campaign in Israel. The campaigns goal
was to elect anybody but Bibi [Netanyahu] by mobilizing center-left voters. 1 The
Israeli and Palestinian arms of OneVoice, OneVoice Israel (OVI), and OneVoice
Palestine (OVP), received more than $300,000 in grants from the U.S. State
Department to support peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine over a 14month grant period ending in November 2014. 2 In February 2015, the
Subcommittee initiated an inquiry concerning the connection, if any, between
OneVoices State Department grant funds and V15s political activity. This report
outlines the findings from that investigation.
The Subcommittee concludes:

OneVoice Israel fully complied with the terms of its State Department grants.
OneVoice designed and executed a grassroots and media campaign to
promote public support for Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations for the
Department, as it said it would. Under the grant, OneVoice expanded its
social media presence, built a larger voter database, and hired an American
political consulting firm to train its activists and executives in grassroots
organizing methods in support of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

The Subcommittee found no evidence that OneVoice spent grant funds to

influence the 2015 Israeli elections. Soon after the grant period ended,
however, OneVoice used the campaign infrastructure and resources built, in
part, with State Department grants funds to support V15. In service of V15,
OneVoice deployed its social media platform, which more than doubled
during the State Department grant period; used its database of voter contact
information, including email addresses, which OVI expanded during the

1 Interview with Michele Dastin van-Rijn, U.S. Dept of State, Cultural Affairs Officer of the U.S.
Embassy in Tel Aviv (Sept. 17, 2015) (hereinafter Dastin van-Rijn Interview); Hilo Glazer, AntiBibi Group V15 Learns that What Works in Chicago Doesn't Work in Israel, HAARETZ (Mar. 21,
2015), http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.648045.
2 See App. 000006 (Letter from PeaceWorks Foundation to the Subcommittee (Mar. 11, 2015)). For
clarity, this report uses the term OneVoice to describe the OneVoice Movement as a whole
including its parent organization, the PeaceWorks Foundation, a U.S. 501(c)(3) not-for-profit based
in New York. We use the terms OVI and OVP to describe actions specific to OneVoices Israeli and
Palestinian affiliates.

grant period; and enlisted its network of trained activists, many of whom
were recruited or trained under the grant, to support and recruit for V15.
This pivot to electoral politics was consistent with a strategic plan developed
by OneVoice leadership and emailed to State Department officials during the
grant period. The State Department diplomat who received the plan told the
Subcommittee that he never reviewed it.

OneVoices use of government-funded resources for political purposes was not

prohibited by the grant agreement because the State Department placed no
limitations on the post-grant use of those resources. Despite OneVoices
previous political activism in the 2013 Israeli election, the Department failed
to take any steps to guard against the risk that OneVoice could engage in
political activities using State-funded grassroots campaign infrastructure
after the grant period.
BACKGROUND
A.

State Department Foreign Assistance Grant Programs

The State Department supplies foreign assistance through, among other

means, direct awards to nongovernmental organizations abroad. Such grants have
become increasingly critical to the State Departments mission in recent years. 3
In 2014, the State Department obligated more than $1.8 billion for approximately
17,000 grants and cooperative agreements worldwide. 4 The bulk of the money
nearly $1.6 billionwas awarded to U.S.-based entities, but the vast majority of
grants programs (some 13,000 of them) are implemented overseas. 5 The average
overseas award for State Department grantees is roughly $15,000. 6
Federal law and State Department guidance prescribe the requirements and
best practices that oversight personnel must follow to safeguard taxpayer dollars
and to help prevent waste, fraud, and abuse related to federal contracts and
grants. 7 During the timeframe of the OneVoice awards at issue in this report, the
State Department grant oversight process was governed by an unconsolidated set of
Improving the Efficiency and Effectiveness of the Department of State: Hearing Before the Subcomm.
on Foreign Relations, Subcomm. on State Dept. and USAID Management, Intl Operations, and
Bilateral Intl Development, 114th Cong. 5 (2015) (statement of Steve A. Linick, Inspector General for
the U.S. Dept of State and the Broadcasting Board of Governors).
4 See Email U.S. Dept of State, Congressional Advisor, Bureau of Legislative Affairs (figures for
fiscal year) (July 1, 2015) (on file with Subcommittee).
5 Id.
6 Id.
7 U.S. Dept of State, AUD-CG-14-31, Office of Inspector General, Audit of the Administration and
Oversight of Contracts and Grants within the Bureau of African Affairs (2014).
3

guidance documents called the Grants Policy Directives. The Grants Policy
Directives addressed monitoring and mitigation of high-risk grants, grant close-out
procedures, and pre-award procedures. On March 15, 2015, following the criticism
detailed below, however, the State Department consolidated the Grants Policy
Directives into a single, more accessible document for its grant officers. 8
Over the past five years, the State Department has been the subject of
numerous internal reviews and at least one external audit of the effectiveness of its
grant oversight. In response to a request from Senator McCaskill, for example, the
Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a detailed audit of States
internal controls of its grant management in July 2014. Based on a study of more
than 61 grants from around the globe, GAO concluded that State has not
consistently implemented the risk analysis and documentation of internal controls
required by grants management policies and guidance, a fact that weakens
assurance that grant funds are used as intended. 9 Specifically, in more than 80%
of the grants reviewed, GAO found that State officials either failed to look for risks
at all or skipped key elements of the risk identification process, such as a review of
the recipients financial systems and internal controls. 10 GAO further reported
that State failed to assess or mitigate the risks of more than half of those grants for
which it identified at least partial risk. 11 GAO concluded that grants officials have
not adhered consistently to States policies about identifying, assessing, and
mitigating risks associated with the grants we reviewed. 12 The State Department
concurred with three specific recommendations concerning risk assessment,
maintenance of required documentation, and status updates regarding grant
controls. 13
B.

Subcommittee Investigation

In February 2015, the Subcommittee initiated an inquiry concerning the

connection, if any, between OneVoices State Department grant funds and V15s
political activity. The Subcommittee sought to determine whether OneVoice
entitiesand by extension their 501(c)(3) parent organization, PeaceWorks
Network Foundation (PeaceWorks)participated in political activity in Israel,
including through V15, using State Department grant funds.

8 Interview with the U.S. Govt Accountability Office (hereinafter GAO Interview) (June 4, 2015),
see also U.S. Dept of State, Office of the Procurement Executive, Federal Assistance Policy Directive
(Mar. 15, 2015).
9 U.S. Govt Accountability Office, GAO-14-635, State Department: Implementation of Grants
Policies Needs Better Oversight 12-13 (2014).
10 Id.
11 Id.
12 Id.
13 Id.

On March 3, 2015, the Subcommittee requested documents concerning any

funding provided by PeaceWorks to V15 between July 1, 2013 and the date of the
subpoena, as well as any communication between PeaceWorks and the U.S.
government concerning V15. 14 On May 22, 2015, the Subcommittee issued requests
to the State Department seeking information on State employees involved in the
award and oversight of grants to OneVoice entities and any files or communications
relating to those grants. 15 The Subcommittee later requested Grants Policy
Directives issued by the State Department Office of the Procurement Executive
effective during 2013. 16
The State Department was unable to produce all documents responsive to the
Subcommittees requests due to its failure to retain complete email records of
Michael Ratney, who served as U.S. Consul General in Jerusalem during the award
and oversight of the OneVoice grants. The Subcommittee discovered this retention
problem because one important email exchange between OneVoice and Mr.
Ratneydescribed in Part III.Cwas produced to the Subcommittee only by
OneVoice. After conducting additional searches, the Department informed the
Subcommittee that it was unable to locate any responsive emails from Mr. Ratneys
inbox or sent mail. 17 Mr. Ratney later elaborated, [A]t times I deleted emails with
attachments I didnt need in order to maintain my inbox under the storage limit. 18
There was an option to archive emails to stay below storage limits, but Mr. Ratney
stated that he did not know [he] was required to archive routine emails. 19
Beginning in April 2015 and continuing through November 2015,
Subcommittee majority and minority staff jointly conducted interviews and
briefings with Josh Nerpel, PeaceWorks Executive Director; Michele Dastin vanRijn, State Department grant officer for the grant to OneVoice Israel; a senior
official in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs for the State Department, and Mr.
Ratney. The Subcommittee also spoke with representatives from the GAO
regarding its audit of State Department grant management. 20

14 Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Subpoena to Ambassador Marc Ginsberg, The

PeaceWorks Network Foundation (Mar. 3, 2015).
15 Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Letter to Secretary John Kerry, U.S. Dept of
State (May 22, 2015).
16 Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Letter to Secretary John Kerry, U.S. Dept of
State (Dec. 11, 2015).
17 Call with U.S. Dept of State, Bureau of Legislative Affairs (Dec. 18, 2015).
18 Call with U.S. Dept of State, Bureau of Legislative Affairs (June 28, 2015).
19 Id.
20 GAO Interview.

C.

State Department Grants in Israel and Palestinian Territories

State Department grants in Israel and the Palestinian Territories fall within
the purview of the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (NEA). The NEA Bureau issued
two grants to OneVoice as part of a program titled Investing in People in The
Middle East and North Africa. 21 The programs stated purpose is [t]o support
programs, projects and activities to include (but are not limited to) cultural,
educational, alumni, information and media efforts in the Middle East and North
Africa by focusing on active promotion of projects which promote mutual
understanding and invest in people. 22
In each of the past five years, the NEA Bureau authorized between $28
million and $36 million in grants and loans in Israel and the Palestinian
Territories. 23 From 2011 through 2014, combined spending in both Israel and the
Palestinian Territories under the Investing in People program ranged from $1.6
million to $3 million annually. 24 Funds spent in Israel under the program reached
their peak in 2013the year the OneVoice awards were initially approved. That
year Investing in People included 16 cooperative agreements in Israel for a wide
range of recipients, for a total of $1.4 million; the average award was $75,000. 25
DISCUSSION
The Subcommittees investigation concludes that OneVoice Israel complied
with the terms of its State Department grants and did not directly use grant funds
to influence the 2015 Israeli elections. But as described in Parts IV and VI of this
report, within days after the grant period ended, OneVoice deployed the campaign
infrastructure and resources created using grant funds to support an antiNetanyahu political campaign called V15. That use of government-funded
resources for political purposes was permitted by the grant because the State
Department failed to adequately guard against the risk that campaign resources
could be repurposed in that manneras described in Parts II and IV.

U.S. Dept of State, Mission Statement of Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs,

http://www.state.gov/p/nea/ (last visited Oct. 20, 2015).
22 Id.
23 USAspending.gov (last visited on June 25, 2015).
24 Investing in People in the Middle East and North Africa spending totals for Israel and the
Palestinian Territory by year: $3,123,645 in 2011; $2,381,711 in 2012; $2,726,592 in 2013; and
1,625,534 in 2014. USAspending.gov (last visited June 25, 2015).
25 Id.
21

I.

OneVoice Israel Fully Complied with the Terms of the State

Department Grants

Over a nine-month period in 2013 through 2014, the State Department

disbursed grant funds to OneVoice Israel and OneVoice Palestine, two arms of the
OneVoice Movement spearheaded by a U.S. nonprofit organization called The
PeaceWorks Network Foundation. The OneVoice Movements stated aim is to
promote grassroots activism among Israelis and Palestinians in support of the twostate solution to the enduring conflict in that region. The purpose of the State
Departments funding was to promote a public-diplomacy campaign in support of
U.S.-led peace negotiations. With the help of an American political consulting firm,
OneVoice used the money to fund advertising, volunteer recruitment, campus
outreach, and the formation of a social media network to promote the two-state
solution.
A.

The Grantee

OneVoice Israel (OVI) and OneVoice Palestine (OVP) are controlled by a U.S.
nonprofit organization called The PeaceWorks Network Foundation. 26 PeaceWorks
is incorporated in New York as a nonprofit corporation and is recognized as a
charitable organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Its
stated aim is to amplify the voices of the silent majority of moderates who wish for
peace and prosperity in Israel and Palestine. 27 The OneVoice Movement is the
flagship initiative of PeaceWorks. The stated aim of OneVoice is to amplify[y] the
voice of mainstream Israelis and Palestinians, empowering them to propel their
elected representatives toward the two-state solution. 28 OneVoices principal
mode of operation has been fostering grassroots activismrecruiting and training
of activists, hosting public events, and lobbying public officialsin Israel and the
Palestinian Territories.
OVI and OVP are separately incorporated as nonprofit entities outside the
United States, and each has a board of directors. During the time period reviewed
by the Subcommittee, PeaceWorks supervised all significant decisions by OVI and
OVP. The OneVoice Movement is PeaceWorks main public-facing initiative and
brand, and since 2003, PeaceWorks has supplied the vast majority of funding for the
OneVoice Movement (including OVI and OVP). 29 PeaceWorks also effectively
controlled OneVoices budget. PeaceWorks chief financial officer conducted monthly
reviews of the OVI and OVP budgets and approved (or disapproved) particular line

26 Interview with PeaceWorks Network Foundation Executive Director Josh Nerpel (Apr. 22, 2015)
(hereinafter Nerpel Interview).
27 See PeaceWorks Network Foundation Form 990 (2013).
28 App. 000477 (PWF00000916).
29 Nerpel Interview.

items. 30 With this financial control came considerable control over programming
and messaging. 31
B.

OneVoice Grant Proposal and Approval

OVI submitted its final grant proposal to the Embassy in Tel Aviv on
September 13, 2013. 32 This final application described the goals and mission of the
grant, but omitted a costly paid media campaign included in earlier versions of the
proposal. 33 The request detailed how OVI would execute a grassroots campaign in
conjunction with Secretary of State John Kerrys effort to sustain negotiations
between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. OneVoice explained it would use the
grant money to launch an expansive media strategy, conduct grassroots
mobilization, and activate its network of elite influencers and trusted public
figures to disseminate the message. 34 While it broadly sketched a messaging and
communications strategy, the OneVoice proposal also focused on mobilizing a group
of activists to spread and amplify its messageand State agreed that mobilization
was key. 35 OneVoice emphasized its plans to expand its social media presence, 36
train young Israelis and Palestinians through its Youth Leadership Program, 37
and use its existing network of OVI youth chapters as a springboard for further
grassroots activity. 38
The State Department approved the OVI proposal and cooperative agreement
in September 2013. 39 The award authorized spending to defray the costs of a
multifaceted campaign by OVI that will engage Israelis and mobilize them to
actively support the resumption of peace negotiations and a two-state solution to
the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. 40 The grant period called for a campaign that
would run from October 15, 2013 to July 15, 2014, regardless of the outcome of the
negotiations that began at the end of July 2013. 41 The campaign was to proceed on
three parallel tracks described by OVI:
(1) A combination of public relations, advertising, and social media;
(2) A cogent, scalable, and highly visible grassroots campaign; and

Id.
See Letter from PeaceWorks Foundation to the Subcommittee (Mar. 11, 2015); Nerpel Interview.
32 App. 000009 (PWF00001241).
33 See App. 000012-000073 (STATE000056).
34 App. 000013 (STATE000057).
35 App. 000014 (STATE000058).
36 App. 000020 (STATE000064).
37 App. 000018 (STATE000062).
38 Id.
39 App. 000312 (STATE000327).
40 App. 000439 (STATE000044).
41 Id.
30
31

(3) Through seeding in of elite influencers and respected voices that

can reinforce the message and momentum produced by the grassroots
and media work. The grant will specifically fund campaign outreach,
training for volunteers, campus organizers, and social media platforms
and efforts to engage elite opinion makers to advocate for a two-state
solution. 42
The total grant amount to OneVoice was $349,276. 43 Because the grants took
the form of cooperative agreements, OVI was required to provide its own funds for
some portions of the program, and the State Department was required to be
substantially involved. State Department funds helped support a variety of OVI
personnel. More than 50% of the U.S. governments financial contribution went to
pay portions of the salaries and benefits of OVI employees and toward payments for
grassroots consultants; State Department funds helped pay the salaries and
benefits for the executive director, four regional coordinators, grassroots canvassing
teams, and data-entry personnel. The four trained regional coordinators served as
field organizers and liaisons, orchestrating the canvassing component of this
campaign. 44
In addition, the State Department provided $40,000 to OneVoice to retain a
U.S. consulting firm called 270 Strategies to help design grassroots operations for
both OVI and OVP. 45 OVI explained in its final proposal that 270 Strategies will
be hired to train OneVoice Israel staff using their best-in-class metrics-based micro
targeting method of grassroots organizing, and tailored to the needs on the ground
as dictated and overseen by our Israeli staff. 46
In tandem with the OVI grant, the State Department also provided funds to
OVIs sister organization, OneVoice Palestine. The funds provided to OVP paid for
personnel and items similar to those listed above for OVI. OVP submitted its final
proposal to the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem on September 2, 2013 and requested
and received$115,776 to pay for personnel, two regional coordinators, and data
entry support.

Id.
Id.
44 App. 000024 (STATE00068).
45 270 Strategies is a political consulting company founded by 2008 and 2012 Obama campaign
veterans Jeremy Bird and Mitch Stewart. Each started out by doing organizing for then-candidate
Obama in a battleground state in the 2008 primaries (South Carolina and Iowa, respectively), then
earned positions in the senior staff of the 2012 campaign. Philip Bump, The Eternal and Irresistible
Appeal of Obama Campaign Experience, WASH. POST, (July 24, 2014),
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/07/24/the-eternal-and-irresistible-appeal-ofobama-campaign-experience/.
46 App. 000061 (STATE00118).
42
43

10

C.

OneVoice Activity Conducted During the State Department

Grant Period

OVIs initial goal was to engage 150,000 to 200,000 Israelis through

signatures and other calls to action. 47 It greatly exceeded those expectations. OVIs
final report to the State Department, on January 30, 2015, reported that it
engaged 345,721 Israelis through online signatures and pledges of support for the
movement. 48 More than 1.3 million Israelis were exposed to OVIs Peace, It Also
Pays Off media campaign across the country. And the top five social media posts
by OVI during the funding period reached over 400,529 individuals. Cumulatively,
the campaign and its message reached about 2.14 million people through billboards,
advertisements, and news coverage. 49 In addition, OVI hosted a series of town
halls and caucus events featuring prominent Israeli politicians, including Yitzhak
Hertzog, leader of the Labor party, and Tzipi Livi, leader of the Hatnuah party. 50
At least one Likud Knesset member also spoke at one OVI event. 51
OVI also focused heavily on expanding its social media capacitysomething
both it and the State Department valued. Social media outreach, for example, was
included as a key metric for success of the campaign in OVIs proposal. 52 And when
State provisionally approved the funding for OVI, Social Media activities
associated with the grassroots campaign were singled out as a requirement of the
grant. 53 For OVI, social media was a way to reach a targeted audience of young
people with the Youth Leadership Program and expand its messaging footprint. 54
By the time the grant ended, 58,985 individuals liked OVIs Facebook page,
representing an increase of 32,334 likes since the grant period began. 55
In September 2014, OneVoice selected a third-party to evaluate its
performance under the grant, as required by the State Department. Dr. Maya
Kahanoff, a lecturer in the Swiss Center Graduate Program for Conflict Research
and Resolution and a research fellow at the Truman Institute for the Advancement
of Peace at Hebrew University, submitted a Final Evaluation Report on OVI
activities under the State Department grant. 56 The report stated that OVI
programs were valuable for the participants, inspiring them to be actively involved

App. 000020 (STATE00064).

App. 000082 (STATE00109).
49 Id.; App. 000082-000083 (STATE00109-110).
50 App. 000106 (STATE000146).
51 Id.; App. 000148 (CDP-2015-2-0000610); App. 000151-000159 (PWF00003281-89).
52 App. 000060 (STATE00104).
53 App. 000163 (PWF00001225).
54 App. 000082 (STATE00109).
55 Id.
56 See App. 000115 (STATE000009).
47
48

11

in promoting peaceful resolution of the conflict, specifically the two-state solution. 57

The report also stated that OVI activities succeeded in strengthening the moderate
campan important goal in itself, considering the increasing burnout and hostility
met by peace activists in Israeli society. 58 The report did not suggest OVI had not
met the full expectations of the State Department.
D.

The Role of 270 Strategies

Before the grant, PeaceWorks leadership expressed concerns about the ability
of OVI personnel to plan a sophisticated grassroots organizing campaign. 59
Executive Director Josh Nerpel expressed his concern[] that there is no one in
either OVI or OVP that necessarily knows how to put together a [grassroots] plan
like this. 60 Mr. Nerpel recommended seeking expert help from 270 Strategies, a
consulting firm that he considered to be the best grassroots organizing firm in the
United States or anywhere else. 61 With the State Departments approval, OVI
hired 270 Strategies as its principal consultant for implementation of the grant. 62
The firm would receive $40,000 in grant funds to advise OneVoice, with the vast
majority of its services devoted to OVI.
The focus of 270 Strategies work for OVI under the grant was twofold:
providing grassroots campaign training and advising OVI on the building of an
activist/voter contact database. Using the 2012 U.S. presidential election as a case
study, 270 Strategies instructed OVI and its activists on the core elements of
grassroots organizing. Well-trained, empowered leaders are the key to success,
the training presentation stated. Central to this training program was learning
how to identify and contact a targeted group of citizens, and then motivate them to
participate in a specific activity: voting, political canvassing, sharing a message via
social media, phone-banking, or other forms of activism. 63 270 Strategies
emphasized the need to focus early on build[ing] capacity to execute these
strategies, 64 starting with building and engaging a list of people. 65
The firm recommended that OneVoice use the snowflake model of
organizing, in which each activist acts as a multiplier by recruiting, training, and
engaging others. 66 270 noted that, with this model, [a]ctivity grows exponentially

App. 000118 (STATE000012).

Id.
59 See App. 000165 (PWF00005348).
60 Id.
61 Nerpel Interview. 270 Strategies had no experience working in Israel.
62 Id.; App. 000023 (STATE000067).
63 See App. 000168 (STATE00156).
64 App. 000173 (STATE000161); App. 000164 (STATE000164) (Core capacity-building).
65 App. 000172 (STATE00160).
66 App. 000184 (STATE00172); App. 000188 (STATE00176).
57
58

12

in the months leading up to GOTV [get-out-the-vote]. 67 Consistent with the

snowflake model, the 270 Strategies training program was designed to be taught by
OVI employees to existing activists and new recruits within their network. In the
first quarterly report, OVI stated that it used the training it received from 270
Strategies to train members of the Youth Leadership Program to further expand
their network of engaged activists, particularly college students. 68
In addition to providing training, 270 Strategies provided detailed advice to
OVI on how to structure and build its grassroots contact database. Mr. Nerpel
stated that 270 Strategies was engaged to do an analysis of the grassroots program
to ensure that it was as effective as it could be, including strategies for collecting
data about supporters. 69 Recognizing that [i]n grassroots organizing, the
centralized tracking of volunteers/members is immensely important, 70 270
Strategies wrote a memorandum to OneVoice that presented different software and
platform recommendations to store and retrieve OVI and OVPs data of potential
volunteers and supporters. The memo noted that building an effective database,
and merging OVIs and OVPs existing data into that database, will give OneVoice
the ability to build volunteer profiles to determine who is more likely to take the
next step up on OneVoices ladder of engagement. 71
Over the course of the grant, relying on 270 Strategies advice, OneVoice
increased its data collection through those townhalls and other fora. According to
OneVoice, these events were used to build voter lists. 72 In an unsuccessful May
2014 grant application seeking supplemental funds for OVP, OneVoice explained
that it uses public events to build voter registration and grow its database of
activists and supporters. 73
The townhalls held during OVI and OVP events were used for this type of
recruitment activity. 74 OVI held seven townhall meetings from November to
December on seven campuses, resulting in the recruitment of 700 students. 75 Mr.
Nerpel confirmed that throughout the grant period, OVI used sign up cards that
had peoples names and contact information at its events, and that this information
was entered into a central database. It is clear that OneVoice successfully built its
contact database during the grant period. 76 Mr. Nerpel stated that it was OVIs

App. 000187 (STATE00175).

App. 000095 (STATE00135); App. 000109 (STATE00149).
69 Nerpel Interview.
70 See App. 000237-000245 (PWF00022215-00021410).
71 App. 000237 (PWF00022215).
72 Nerpel Interview.
73 App. 000254 (PWF00021578); App. 000258 (PWF00021582).
74 See App. 0000093-0000098 (STATE000133-0001638).
75 App. 000094 (STATE000134).
76 See App. 000262 (PWF00022106).
67
68

13

plan that the data collected during the grant was subsequently going to be used for
the overall objectives of OneVoice after the grant period ended. 77
II.

During the Grant Period, OneVoice Crafted a Political Strategy to

Defeat the Netanyahu-Led Coalition

The peace talks initiated by Secretary Kerry ended in late April 2014. 78
Shortly afterwardand half-way through the State Department grant period
OneVoice leadership began preparing for the next Israeli election. The
Subcommittees investigation revealed that, during the grant period, OneVoice
developed a political strategy designed to defeat the incumbent Israeli government.
That strategy relied on grassroots voter outreach and mobilization using campaign
infrastructure built, in part, with State Department funds.
One month after the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations broke down, the CEO of
PeaceWorks, former Ambassador Marc Ginsberg, circulated a roadmap strategy
memo to OneVoice senior leadership. The memo explains that OneVoice has made
substantial progress rebuilding a communications and social media foundation. 79
It also notes that 270 Strategies has become an essential partner by providing an
organizing/advocacy training structure OV has not had in some time. 80 270
Strategies work for OneVoice had paid dividends, the memo states, in the form of a
better trained corps of young activists and a HUGE Jump in [OVI and OVPs]
social media presence. 81 The memo calls for expanding OneVoices partnership
with 270 Strategies to strengthen grassroots organizing capacity, 82 hiring a
politically savvy leader for OVI, and conducting polling to refine OneVoices
messaging. 83 According to the memo, those resources would be deployed to disrupt
the Netanyahu-led coalition by pushing for the defection of center/center-left
political parties. 84 The Definition of Success would be forcing the [Netanyahuled] coalition to collapse and preventing a right wing coalition from winning the

Nerpel Interview.
Jodi Rudoren & Isabel Kershner, Arc of a Failed Deal: How Nine Months of Mideast Talks Ended
in Disarray, N.Y. TIMES (Apr. 29, 2014), http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/29/world/middleeast/arc-ofa-failed-deal-how-nine-months-of-mideast-talks-ended-in-dissarray.html. Notwithstanding those
efforts, negotiations failed and discontinued.
79 App. 000265 (PWF00021301).
80 App. 000271 PWF00021467 (You can see the results already in the social media growth we have
witnessed in both OVP and OVI.).
81 App. 000272 PWF00021468.
82 Id. The memo notes that 270 considers [OneVoice] to be an optimum post Obama era laboratory
to deploy its newest organizational techniques.
83 Id.
84 App. 000273 (PWF00021469).
77
78

14

next election prompted by the coalition collapse. 85 The target timeframe for this
initiative was no later than summer of 2015. 86
OneVoice refined this strategic plan over the course of several months. By
August 2014, OneVoice leadership circulated a revised, finalized AND
APPROVED strategy memo framed around a top strategic objective:
SHIFT SUPPORT WITHIN THE KNESSET AWAY FROM
LIKUD/RIGHT WING COALITION BY ADVOCATING TO
SWING CENTRIST VOTERS [sic] POLICIES AND SUPPORT
POLITICAL CANDIDATES WHO EMBRACE AN EXPEDITED
NEGOTIATION TOWARD A [TWO-STATE SOLUTION] AND
THE END OF SETTLEMENT EXPANSION. 87
In an email to OneVoice board members, Mr. Ginsberg noted OVI had
already paved the way for this effort by [o]verhauling our grassroots strategy. 88
[W]ith the help of 270 Strategies, he explained, we have put in place a new
approach that is best-in-class globally and allows us to identify key constituencies
who are receptive to our message, and rapidly build databases of supporters and
potential supporters. 89 These capacities were built using State Department funds
with no restrictions on how OVIs grant-funded resources could be used after the
grant.
OneVoice leadership recognized as early as August 2014 that [a]n election in
Israel is now scheduled for 2017 but it is clear that this coalition may collapse
earlier. 90 As described by its CEO, OneVoices objective was to use its grassroots-

Id.
Track 3 proposes that OneVoice prepare a charter setting forth terms for a final two-state
solution agreement and possibly [s]ubmit[] the charter to a vote of the Israeli and Palestinian
publics. Unlike Tracks 1 and 2, this proposal did not reappear in future versions of the OneVoice
strategic roadmap plan. App. 000274 (PWF00021470).
87 App. 000277 (PWF00020780) (capitalization in original). According to a letter from PeaceWorks
Foundation counsel, this strategic plan was rejected by the PeaceWorks board on October 24, 2014,
and Mr. Ginsberg transitioned from CEO to a consultant for the organization. Letter from
PeaceWorks Foundation to the Subcommittee (June 28, 2016). However, contemporaneous
communications from Mr. Ginsberg indicated that the plan was merely postponed since the funding
needs are too great right now. He continued, Nevertheless, [the plan] still remains viable and the
fundraising environment will determine its viability. App. 000468 (PWF00028649). The plan
continued to be emailed within PeaceWorks through December 9, 2014. App. 000475
(PWF000030713). OneVoices fundraising environment and budget changed significantly after the
election was called. See App. 000473 (PWF000014309), App. 000459 (PWF000011653).
88 App. 000288 (PWF00020768).
89 Id.
90 App. 000461 (PWF00026653).
85
86

15

organizing resources to become a decisive influence in the next election. 91 To be

clear, OneVoices planned use of its grant-funded resources for political activities
was not explicitly prohibited by the State Departments grant terms. OneVoices
agreement with the Department did not prohibit it from using tools intended for
public diplomacy as political tools after the grant.
III.

The State Department Failed to Adequately Guard Against the Risk

of OneVoice Using Government-Funded Resources for Political
Purposes

The Subcommittee finds that the State Department failed to adequately

guard against the risk that resources built with government grants would be
deployed for political purposes. Despite OneVoices previous political activity in the
2013 Israeli election, the State Department failed to conduct any assessment of the
risk that, were an election called, OneVoice would continue its political activities
using State-funded resources. Nor did OneVoices grant agreements prohibit such
involvement. Moreover, the Department did not assess the risks involved in
providing funds to OneVoice to create a grassroots campaign infrastructure
including voter contact information, trained networks of organizers and activists,
and a social media platformthat might later be converted into political tools.
A.

State Department Vetting During the OneVoice Grant

Application Process

OneVoice was candid with the State Department regarding its past political
involvement. As part of the proposal, for example, OneVoice provided a Brand &
Track Record section detailing the organizations prior campaigns and programs,
including a section entitled Israeli Elections & Coalition Formation. The section
detailed how, less than six months before seeking State Department funds, OVI had
operated a grassroots campaign in the 2013 Israeli parliamentary elections to help
increase[e] the number of center-left seats in the [Israeli] Knessetwhich it
described as one of its Strategic Milestones. 92
OneVoices track record of involvement in Israeli elections did not deter the
State Department from making the grants. 93 In a staff briefing, a senior official in
the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, stated that it would not be right for the past

91 Id. ([OneVoice must be] ready to move voices at that time in a way that can have an impact on
political campaignsOneVoice needs to become not just a social movement but one that compels
political change.).
92 App. 000296 (PWF00025581).
93 Dastin van-Rijn Interview.

16

political experience of a possible grantee to be taken into consideration. 94 At the

same time, however, the senior official stated that influencing foreign elections is a
red line that State grantees cannot cross. The senior official stated that grantees
are aware of this red line because it would be included in the grant contract or
cooperative agreement. 95 But no such provision was included in the OVI or OVP
agreements with the State Department, and neither agreement contemplated
electoral activism by OVI or OVP.
Notwithstanding the comments made by a senior official in the NEA Bureau,
in an interview with Subcommittee staff, Ms. van-Rijn indicated that past political
experience and political activity is, in fact, taken into consideration when vetting
possible grantees. 96 Ms. van-Rijn said that she and her colleagues discussed
whether OVI was too far to the left to execute the grants goals of targeting a
broad base of citizens, but saw no red flags associated with OVIs political
record. 97 Ms. van-Rijn further stated that her concerns had been assuaged because
OneVoice had, in the past, included representatives from all parties, including farright parties, in policy debates. 98 Ms. van-Rijn stated that she did not believe
OneVoice was party-focused. 99 Instead, it appears that States concerns focused
primarily on whether OneVoice actually had the capacity to undertake an ambitious
public diplomacy campaign. 100
Notably, the documents provided by the State Department contain no
evidence that any grant officers conducted any risk assessment associated with OVI
or OVP. The State Department normally keeps a grant file for each grant or
cooperative agreement to document key grant activities, including any risk
assessment, risk mitigation plans, monitoring plans, and close-out procedures. 101
The grant files for OVI and OVP provided by the State Department contain no
94 Briefing with a Senior Official, U.S. Dept of State, Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of
Near Eastern Affairs (June 6, 2015) (hereinafter Senior NEA Official Briefing).
95 Senior NEA Official Briefing.
96 Dastin van-Rijn Interview. Mr. Ratney likewise stated that the State Department would consider
the political associations of a prospective grantee and a make a judgment call concerning whether
it was too political. Interview with Michael Ratney, U.S. Dept of State, U.S. Consul General in
Jerusalem (Nov. 9, 2015) (hereinafter Ratney Interview).
97 A red flag, in the words of van-Rijn, would be a grantee with an antagonistic relationship with the
government. Dastin van-Rijn Interview.
98 Id.
99 Id.
100 One former OneVoice employee who worked at the U.S. State Department at the time of the grant
proposal wrote to Ms. van-Rijn and other State officials: [OneVoice] admit[s] they have relatively
few Israelis and Palestinian followers on the ground . . . I wonder if this particular campaign has as
much to do with raising the profile of OneVoice as affecting the peace process. App. 000297
(STATE00997).
101 See U.S. Dept of State, Office of the Procurement Executive, Grants Policy Directive (GPD) 23,
Rev. 2, Federal Assistance File Folder, Form DC-4012. App. 000302 (STATE-2015-2-0001674).

17

mention of the risks presented by the grants, including the risk that governmentfunded campaign resources could be used for overt political activities. Additionally,
there is no evidence that any risk mitigation plans associated with the political
nature of the grantees previous conductor any other riskswere designed or
implemented.
B.

State Department Oversight During the Grant Period

The State Department monitored OneVoices compliance with its cooperative

agreements during the grant period. OneVoice Palestines award specifications
stated that the [U.S.] Consulate and OVP will consult regularly on the
development and implementation of the program. OVP will develop procedure(s) for
regularly consulting with and providing updates to the Consulate/PD Jerusalem. 102
OneVoice Israels award specifications did not contain a clause directing OVI to
consult regularly on the development and implementation of its program; they
did, however, have requirements that OVI submit regular progress reports
containing significant activities of the period and how the activities reflect progress
toward achieving goals/objectives and any problems/challenges in implementing
the program and a corrective action plan, among other items. 103
Accordingly, there were regular meetings between State officials and grantee
representatives, including some 26 meetings or events recorded by the U.S.
embassy that were held between various officials and OneVoice. 104 In one instance,
State Department officials expressed concern about the messaging or slogans used
by OneVoice. Specifically, OVPs launch event had used unapproved messaging on
banners and other promotional materials, including messages proclaiming
Jerusalem to be the holy capital of Palestine and calling for an end to
settlements. 105 In an email to the Executive Director of OVP on December 3, 2013,
the Cultural Affairs Officer for the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem 106 restated the
ground rules that the Consulate General has substantial involvement in this
project, which includes consulting on and approving youth initiatives and other
OVP activities BEFORE they happen. 107 In response, OVP took steps to ensure
that future messaging was approved by senior OneVoice leadership and the State
Department. In another instance, State officials asked that OVI not include
information on a program outside the activities the State Department funded under
the OVI grant, related to the Knesset, in its regular reports. When OneVoice
started reporting on the Political Watchdog programwhich trained activists on

App. 000316 (STATE000331).

App. 000445 (STATE000050).
104 App. 000320 (STATE000002).
105 App. 000322 (PWF00001593).
106 Id.
107 App. 000323 (PWF00001594).
102
103

18

the Israeli legislative processin its quarterly reports to the State Department,
OVIs Executive Director informed PeaceWorks leadership that State asked not to
be involved in [the Political Watchdog Program], as they cannot take direct steps to
influence the parliament of another country. They only want to hear limited
reporting on this activity. 108
C.

Lack of State Department Response to OneVoice Political

Plans Developed During the Grant Period

All three of the State Department officials that the Subcommittee

interviewed stated they first learned of OneVoices planned political activity when
they read news accounts concerning its partnership with V15. 109 The
Subcommittee asked two State Department officialsa senior official with the NEA
Bureau and former Consul General Ratneywhat the State Department would
have done if, during the grant period, OneVoice had informed State officials that it
was planning to launch an anti-Netanyahu campaign to coincide with the next
election. Consul General Ratney initially responded that it would have been a red
flag and State would have stopped the grant if it had known OneVoice was making
such plans during the grant period. To do otherwise would have been crazy, Mr.
Ratney explained, given the State Departments sensitivities about messaging. 110
The senior official in the NEA Bureau responded that State likely would have ended
the grant and the decision would have gone up the chain, likely to the
Ambassador. 111
The record is clear, however, that OneVoice did inform at least two State
Department officials of its political plans, and it did so during the grant period. The
Department took no action in response, although it is unclear whether the officials
in receipt of the plans reviewed them. In September 2014, three months before the
grant period was scheduled to end but after the final payment of U.S. funds to
OneVoice Israel on August 25, 2014, Mr. Ginsberg exchanged a number of emails
with Consul General Ratney, then the second-highest-ranking American diplomat
in the region. 112 In that exchange, Mr. Ginsberg said he was in the process of
obtaining final PeaceWorks board approval of a major strategy directed at centrist
Israelis after quietly bouncing ideas off a lot of folks, including Martin [Indyk] in
its preparation. 113 Mr. Ginsberg indicated that he did not expect much help from
the USG [United States Government] in its final phase, but offered to share the

App. 000324 (PWF00002756).

Dastin van-Rijn Interview; Senior NEA Official Briefing; Ratney Interview.
110 Ratney Interview.
111 Senior NEA Official Briefing.
112 See App. 000331-000333 (PWF00027568-00027570).
113 Id.
108
109

19

strategy for friendship sake. 114 Mr. Ratney responded that he would love to take
a look at the strategy. 115
The proposal sent to Mr. Ratney, A Strategic Plan to Mobilize Centrist
Israeli & Palestinian, was the culmination of months of work and presented a bold
and definable political option to [l]aunch a major strategic campaign that could
shift a key portion of the Israeli and Palestinian electorates in a direction that
would marginalize the extremists on either side, according to Mr. Ginsbergs
email. 116 The proposal outlined the political goals of OneVoice in the next Israeli
election, which was yet to be scheduled: The [center-left] bloc has not been able to
unify around a common message, a common agenda, or a strong leader. Our aim is
to strengthen the bloc, rather than any one party, [and] in tandem weaken
Netanyahu and his right wing parties. 117 Additionally, the proposal listed seven
Specific Israeli Tactical Objectives. 118 The second objective was clear: Shift
support within the Knesset from a Likud-centric coalition to a center left coalition
through public education and grassroots mobilization initiatives. 119
When presented with Mr. Ginsbergs September 2014 email and Strategic
Plan during an interview, Mr. Ratney told the Subcommittee that he remembered
the email but is quite sure he did not read the attachment, nor did he respond to
Mr. Ginsberg. 120 (The State Department could not locate any record of Mr. Ratneys
email exchange with Mr. Ginsberg on this issue, but email records produced by
OneVoice included no response from Mr. Ratney.) Mr. Ratney also noted that Mr.
Ginsberg had sent the email as the grant period was winding down.
Mr. Ginsberg also sent an executive summary of OneVoices proposed
strategy to Frank Lowenstein, then a senior adviser for Middle East strategy who
would eventually replace Ambassador Indyk as the Special Envoy for IsraeliPalestinian Negotiations on October 14, 2014. The executive summary provided to
Mr. Lowenstein highlighted the three phases mentioned above, including the fact
that 270 Strategies has been quietly working with our Israeli and Palestinian staff
for over a year to lay the groundwork for this new strategy. 121 Unlike the complete
plan, the executive summary did not mention Prime Minister Netanyahu or any
political party by name or outline efforts to defeat the Likud-led government. In

Id.
Id. This email chain was not produced to the Subcommittee by the State Department, despite
being responsive to the Subcommittees document request. The Department later told the
Subcommittee it was unable to find the email chain because it was not retained.
116 App. 000336 (PWF00027573).
117 App. 000338 (PWF00027575).
118 App. 000340 (PWF00027577).
119 Id.
120 Ratney Interview.
121 App. 000353 (CDP-2015-2-0000053).
114
115

20

fact, the summary explicitly stated that We will not directly support individual
candidates or political parties in Israel or Palestine (emphasis in original). 122
IV.

OneVoice Engaged in Political Activity After the Grant Period Using

Resources Funded in Part by the State Department Grant

After Israeli elections were called following the collapse of peace negotiations,
and after the State Department grant period ended, OneVoice shifted its focus to
influencing the electoral outcome by working to defeat incumbent Prime Minister
Netanyahu. Planning for this effort began during the period when OneVoice was
still a State Department grantee. OneVoice did not use State Department funds
directly for political activities, or seek State Department grants in anticipation of
the Israeli elections, but it did use the campaign infrastructure and resources that
it had built, in part, with State Department funds to support a campaign to defeat
Prime Minister Netanyahu in the 2015 elections.
A.

OneVoice Partnership with V15

As explained above, the State Department made its final payment of grant
funds to OVI on August 25, 2014, and the grant period ended on November 30,
2014. 123 In December 2014, the OneVoice Movement began managing a grassroots
campaign targeting Prime Minister Netanyahuconsistent with the strategic plan
prepared and approved by OVI leadership during the State Department grant
period. 124 The campaign described in this section, known as V15, was designed to
weaken the Likud-centered governing coalition and (in the words of OVIs Executive
Director) to take [Netanyahu] down in the 2015 elections. 125 According to the

App. 000354 (CDP-2015-2-0000054).

OVP, however, still had an outstanding payment of nearly $10,000 due from State when elections
were called. After additional review, the consulate ultimately decided not to make the final payment
to OVP on the ground that certain of its activities did not comply with the terms of the grant.
According to the grant officer in an email to OVPs Executive Director, the consulate had no record
that OVP communicated its activities for fourth quarter (e.g., August 1, 2014 to November 1, 2014),
nor were [political department] staff invited to attend any of the activities for monitoring purposes.
App. 000360 (CDP-2015-2-0000745).
124 See App. 000362 (PWF00028801).
125 Ronan Farrow Daily, Interview with Polly Bronstein and Nimrod Dweck, MSNBC (Nov. 7, 2014),
http://www.msnbc.com/shift/watch/netanyahu-opposition-interviewed-post-defeat-414929475753
(We feel that the Prime Minister of Israel is not representing all of Israel; it doesnt even feel that
he is the Prime Minister of all of us and hes made us more confident that we are continuing this
fight of ours to take him down next time.). Far from disassociating itself with these comments,
OneVoice posted this interview on its Facebook page, praising V15s historic GOTV campaign.
OneVoice Movement Facebook Page (Mar. 19, 2015),
https://www.facebook.com/onevoice.movement/?fref=ts.
122
123

21

State Department grant officer for OVI, Ms. van-Rijn, V15s political goal was
simple: Elect anybody but Bibi. 126
On December 2, 2014, three days after the State Department grant period
ended for OVI, the Knesset voted to dissolve the governing coalition and schedule
new elections on March 17, 2015. 127 OneVoice promptly sent John Lyndon, the
Chief Operating Officer of the OneVoice Movement, 128 to Israel on December 15,
2014, to determine how to execute the strategic plan it had crafted over the past
seven months. 129 An immediate challenge was optical: As OVI previously
contemplated, its strategic plan must [b]e unveiled in Israel (not the US) as an
Israeli-centric plan. 130 OneVoice decided that the best option would be to partner
with a home-grown political movement. Mr. Lyndon reported to PeaceWorks
leadership that he had discovered a loosely formed group of activists called V15 or
Victory-2015. 131 V15s mission was to replace the Netanyahu government.
Specifically, Mr. Lyndon wrote that V15s goal was [f]ounding a center-left
government by pressuring center-left block leaders to prevent them from joining a
coalition with the right wing parties headed by Netanyahu and Bennet. 132 V15
considered itself a genuine authentic grassroots initiative designed for the sole
purpose of replacing the current government with a pro-peace center-left
coalition. 133 Less than a week later, OVI and V15 entered into partnership

Dastin Interview; Roy Arad, The Obama Campaign Strategist Who Could Break the Israeli
Elections Wide Open, HAARETZ, (Jan. 26, 2015), http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel-election2015/.premium-1.639158.
127 Times of Israel Staff, Knesset Votes to Dissolve; New Elections Called for March 1, TIMES OF
ISRAEL (Dec. 3, 2014), http://www.timesofisrael.com/new-elections-called-for-march-17-2015/.
128 App. 000373 (PWF00030274).
129 App. 000378 (PWF00015337).
130 See Email from Amb. Ginsberg to Martin Indyk (Oct. 14, 2014) (If the Plan is going to have any
conceivable chance of getting off the ground, it must: Be unveiled in Israel (not the US) as an Israelicentric plan (if otherwise, it just opens us up to needless Israeli criticism)). App. 000467
(PWF00028797). Further, OVIs strategic plan written by Mr. Ginsberg stated: [T]he staff is acutely
aware that it must be seen as an Israeli enterprise: MANAGED AND IMPLEMENTED not from
foreign shores, but as an indigenous operation. App. 000340 (PWF00027577) (emphasis in original).
131 In this email, Lyndon provided only a brief summary, stating he was anxious not to put a lot of
sensitive stuff in email, as instructed. App. 000378 (PWF00015337). Because Lyndon refused to
participate in an interview with this Subcommittee, it is unclear what he deliberately left out of the
email or who instructed him to remain cryptic. Lyndon also identified other potential partners
including Mohammad Darwashe, the Co-Executive Director of the Givat Haviva Institute and the
former Co-Executive Director of the Abraham Fund, which also received State Department grants
totaling more than one million dollars since 2010. See Grants SNEAAB14GR055 &
SLMAQM10GR082.
132 App. 000385 (PWF00002342).
133 App. 000387 (PWF00002344).
126

22

through a formal agreement, under which V15 would become a wholly-owned

project of OVI. 134
Once absorbed by OneVoice, V15 had no further independent organizational
existence. There was no legal entity known as V15 in Israel or the United States. 135
V15 had no separate bank account. 136 For that reason, donors to V15 had three
options: (1) contribute to the PeaceWorks Foundation and earmark that
contribution for the V15 effort; (2) contribute to OneVoice Europe and earmark the
contribution; or (3) contribute directly to OVI. 137 Under the terms of the agreement,
V15 would bring its five-person staff onto the OVI payroll, and the two erstwhile
leaders of V15 would be considered outside consultants to OVI. All employment
decisions for the V15 campaign were approved by OVI management. Polly
Bronstein, who had taken over as Executive Director of OVI in July 2014, would
manage the V15 communications portfolio as well as the political and Israeli
partnerships of the campaign. Mara Lee, OneVoices International Organizing
Director, would oversee V15s grassroots, voter data, and GOTV efforts. The V15
founder-consultants both reported to Ms. Bronstein and Ms. Lee. 138
Despite being an OVI project, V15 would remain a separate brand.
Reflecting the concern that the campaign could not be viewed as controlled from
outside Israel, the draft agreement stated that OneVoice would not hide its
involvement with V15, but as far as the public is concerned V15 is a separate
brand. 139 The V15 brand would be retained to capitalise on the organic,
grassroots and dynamic resonance that [the V15 founders] have quickly created. 140
The terms of this partnership agreement remained nonpublic until late January
2015, when pressure from the Israeli press forced PeaceWorks and OneVoice Israel
to clarify the scope and nature of the V15 partnership to U.S. donors. 141 The Israeli
newspaper Haaretz reported that V15 had a clear political aim: V15 is trying to
replace Israels government. 142
This campaign was consistent with the strategic plan prepared and approved
by OVI leadership during the State Department grant period. While the

Nerpel Interview; App. 000393 (PWF00003961).

Nerpel Interview.
136 Id.
137 Id.
138 App. 000389 (PWF00002280).
139 App. 000397 (PWF00003965).
140 App. 000399 (PWF00009665).
141 OneVoice Israel Partners with V15 to Change Status Quo, PR NEWSWIRE (Jan. 27, 2015),
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/onevoice-israel-partners-with-v15-to-change-status-quo300026229.html.
142 Roy Arad, The Obama Campaign Strategist Who Could Break the Israeli Elections Wide Open,
HAARETZ (Jan. 26, 2015), http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel-election-2015/.premium-1.639158.
134
135

23

Subcommittee has found no evidence that State Department funds were used by
OVI directly to influence the March 2015 elections, the record shows that OVI used
resources built and funded in part by State Department funds during the grant
period to support the launch and operation of V15.
B.

OneVoice Continued to Use Resources Built Using State

Department Funds

OVIs grant period ended on November 30, 2014, two days before the Israeli
elections were called. However, the third-party review of the OVI grant required by
the State Department concluded that, during the grant period, foundations were
laid for continued activity [by OVI] even after the end of the projectmany young
people were recruited for further activity, groups of activists were formed, and
structures were created for future activities of this kind. 143 The Subcommittees
investigation has found that OVI used these foundationsincluding newly trained
activists, voter lists, an expanded social media platform, and strengthened
grassroots expertisefor the V15 campaign after the grant period concluded. As
soon as the elections were called on December 2, OneVoice began deploying the
grassroots organizing apparatus that it built substantially with U.S. taxpayer
dollars.
First, OneVoices existing alumni network provided activists ready to
support and recruit for V15. 144 In a December 22, 2014 email, a 270 Strategies
senior manager who consulted for OneVoice during the grant period explained that
OVI would use the activists we have to put out the campaign and giv[e] people call
to actions around the campaign, one of which will be joining V15 as an activist. 145
In several email exchanges, OneVoice recognized that it had previously invested in
training people in grassroots mobilizationas the State Department grant
required 146and this was the time to activate them. 147 For example, the founder of
OneVoice exhorted senior staff of the organization: We trained a bunch of people.
NOW IS THE TIME TO RECRUIT THEM TO JOIN THE EFFORT! 148 During an
interview with the Subcommittee, Mr. Nerpel stated that he was unaware of any
concerns within OneVoice about using activists trained under the State Department
grant to support the V15 campaign. 149
Second, the V15 campaign used OVIs database of voter contact information,
including email addresses, which OVI expanded during the grant period. As

App. 000125 (STATE00019).

App. 000379 (PWF00015338).
145 App. 000404 (PWF00012311).
146 App. 000074 (PWF00001036).
147 App. 000412 (PWF00015093).
148 Id.
149 Nerpel Interview.
143
144

24

explained above, during the grant period, OVI routinely collected contact
information from Israelis who, for example, attended OneVoice townhalls or made
online support pledges, and compiled this information in a voter contact database.
OVI reported its collection of this information as evidence of the success of the State
Department grant. 150 In an interview with the Subcommittee, Mr. Nerpel stated
that one objective of this information gathering process was not to compile
information that could directly affect the next Israeli election; instead, the objective
was that [the names] were used to support the Israeli government and the
Palestinian government through the Consulate grant to support a two state
solution. Those names were subsequently going to be used for the overall objectives
of OneVoice after the grant period ended. 151 However, when the time came and the
election was called, OVI used the same database to disseminate V15 messages
calling for changing the government and invitations to V15 events. 152
The Subcommittee specifically asked Mr. Nerpel whether the voter database
built during the grant period was in any way separate from the lists used by V15.
Mr. Nerpel answered that his understanding was that there was only one
database within OVI and all of the information is fed into the same database,
including any names that were collected during the State grant period. 153 Indeed,
one State Department employee on OneVoices listserv received V15 emails even
though she never signed up for them. 154 Mr. Nerpel also stated that the database
OVI later used during its cooperation with V15 would have included data collected
from 2002 through today. 155
Third, OVIs social media platform, which more than doubled during the
State Department grant period, was also used to advertise V15s activities. The
growth of OneVoices Facebook page during the State Department grant was one of
its key Metrics of Success. 156 By the end of the grant period, OneVoice boasted the
single biggest pre-existing social media capacity in Israel. 157 OVI later used that
online presence to promote the V15 campaign, as OVI widely shared V15 Facebook
posts on its own page. 158

App. 000420 (STATE000285).

Nerpel Interview.
152 Id.
153 Id.
154 Dastin van-Rijn Interview.
155 Nerpel Interview.
156 App. 000020 (STATE00064).
157 App. 000433 (PWF00012953).
158 OneVoiceIsrael Facebook Page, (Mar. 3, 2015),
https://www.facebook.com/kol.echad/photos/a.124660947558205.17051.114627791894854/965917796
765845/?type=3&theater.
150
151

25

Finally, throughout the grant period and for two months into the V15
campaign, OneVoice held itself out publicly as a partner of the State Department
and the U.S. Embassy-Tel Aviv, including on its website and annual reports to
donors. On its website, OneVoice noted that its partnerships reflect[] the
validation our work on the ground has received from like-minded organizations. 159
OneVoice also cited its relationship with State in donor pitches to raise additional
funds. 160 In an interview with the Subcommittee, however, Mr. Nerpel stated that
[w]hether the reference to the State Department added credibility in the minds of
the donors I dont know. 161 After press accounts surfaced about V15s political
activity and its link to a former State Department grantee, the State Department
ordered OneVoice to delete U.S. government branding and references from its
website and future communications. 162
As mentioned previously, none of the OVI activity described above was
barred by the grant terms set by the State Department. 163 The grant specifications
for OVI and OVP did not impose limitations on activity outside the scope and time
period of the grants. As Ms. van-Rijn explained, for larger grants the State
Department strove to create sustainability for recipient activities beyond the life of
the grant. 164 Nor was OVIs use of resources created or expanded during the grant
period a violation of existing State Department policy or regulations concerning
investments made with grant funding.
C.

PeaceWorks Returned Contributions and Created a New NonProfit Based on Concerns About 501(c)(3) Funding for Political
Activity

From December 31, 2014 to January 29, 2015, PeaceWorks contributed

$995,000 to OVI for the benefit of V15 efforts. As news coverage of V15 increased,
PeaceWorks became concerned about the U.S. tax law implications of OVIs political
work. 165 PeaceWorks was a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, as required by the
State Departments cooperative agreement. 166 But in December 2014, OneVoice
OneVoice Movement: Our Partners,
https://web.archive.org/web/20140914054913/http://www.onevoicemovement.org/partners/ (recorded
Jan. 10, 2014, last visited on Apr. 28, 2016).
160 PeaceWorks had State Department branding on its website, and donor solicitations also
highlighted the partnership with State. App. 000434 (PWF000027895) (Amb. Ginsberg wrote, Can
you help me out? Kerrys staff blessed this as the best communications strategy presented to
them. This is serious stuff now.).
161 Nerpel Interview.
162 See App. 000436-000437 (PWF00000017-18).
163 See App. 000439 (STATE00044).
164 Dastin van-Rijn Interview.
165 See App. 000448 (PWF00009481); Nerpel Interview.
166 Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited
from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or
159

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officials discussed sceptisim that a GOTV effort with this level of messaging
specificity RE: center-left could be funded by a 501 c3. 167 In February 2015,
PeaceWorks created a new non-profit entity to direct political efforts. On February
3, 2015, Peaceworks Action was incorporated in Delaware and declared itself as taxexempt under Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. 168
PeaceWorks then shifted money between itself, its new 501(c)(4) entity, and
OVI. On February 6, 2015, PeaceWorks informed OVI that it was rescinding all
donations since December 2, 2014, which might have supported foreign political
campaign activity. 169 As a result, $995,000 was returned to PeaceWorks. Those
funds (and more) were then replenished by the two PeaceWorks entities. 170 After
the creation of the new 501(c)(4), there were discussions among Mr. Nerpel and 270
Strategies consultants about which entity could properly fund specific activities
such as polling questions and online videos. 171 Based on case-by-case
determinations made primarily by Mr. Nerpel, PeaceWorks Foundation and
PeaceWorks Action each contributed additional money to OVI for the benefit of
V15. 172 The final budget for all of OneVoices projects during the 2015 election
included roughly $3 million in 501(c)(3) funds and more than $4 million in 501(c)(4)
funds for the benefit of OVI and the V15 initiative. 173 To put those amounts in
perspective, the total budget for all parties seeking office in the 2015 Israeli
elections came to approximately $51 million. 174

in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or
public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in
opposition to any candidate for public office violate the prohibition against political campaign
activity. Violating this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the
imposition of certain excise taxes. Certain activities or expenditures may not be prohibited
depending on the facts and circumstances. For example, certain voter education activities (including
presenting public forums and publishing voter education guides) conducted in a non-partisan
manner do not constitute prohibited political campaign activity. In addition, other activities intended
to encourage people to participate in the electoral process, such as voter registration and get-out-thevote drives, would not be prohibited political campaign activity if conducted in a non-partisan
manner. Internal Revenue Serv., The Restriction of Political Campaign Intervention by Section
501(c)(3) Tax-Exempt Organizations (last updated Dec. 15, 2015), http://www.irs.gov/Charities-%26Non-Profits/Charitable-Organizations/The-Restriction-of-Political-Campaign-Intervention-bySection-501(c)(3)-Tax-Exempt-Organizations.
167 App. 000451 (PWF00002335).
168 App. 000004 (Letter from PeaceWorks Foundation to the Subcommittee (Mar. 11, 2015)).
169 App. 000003.
170 App. 000004; App. 000453 (PWF000015693).
171 App. 000454 (PWF000011993).
172 Nerpel Interview.
173 App. 000459 (PWF000011653).
174 Dimi Reider, The Real Reason Nobody Minds that American Money Deeply Influences Israeli
Politics, REUTERS (Feb. 27, 2015), http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2015/02/27/the-real-reasonnobody-minds-that-american-money-deeply-influences-israeli-politics/.

27

CONCLUSION
OneVoice Israels conduct fully complied with the terms of its agreements
with the State Department and governing grant guidelines. The experience under
the OneVoice grants, however, reveals the ease with which recipient organizations
can repurpose certain public-diplomacy resources for political activities.
The State Department failed to foresee and guard against that risk from the
outset. OneVoice was forthright with the Department about its political activity in
2013, and it was also clear that OneVoice would use grant funds to build or enhance
resources that might be applied to political activities. OneVoices 2013 grant
proposal called for using the funds for standard tools of a modern political
campaign, including a voter/activist contact database, a trained grassroots network,
and a large social media presence. Immediately after the grant period ended,
OneVoice deployed those grant-funded resources as part of the V15 campaign to
defeat Prime Minister Netanyahu in 2015. Despite the fact that influencing a
foreign election is across a red line for U.S. grantees, 175 all of this activity was
permissible under Department guidelines and the terms of the grants.

175

Senior NEA Official Briefing.

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