MK Otniel Schneller believes that the New Israel Fund (NIF) scandal is far from over. Information will soon be revealed detailing the organization's influence in the halls of power, he says in an interview with Arutz Sheva's Hebrew news service.
"We're going to see things no less disturbing than what's been revealed until now, in the institutions of power, in the educational system, in ministries, in the Jewish Agency. We'll see proof that parties and Members of Knesset were involved,” Schneller warns.
The purpose of the NIF is to change the State of Israel for its own purposes and in line with its radical left beliefs, Schneller believes. “It does this in a clever way. The group takes the important things it has done - and it has done important things - and uses them as a tool to do other things, things that are very problematic.”
Schneller recently proposed that a parliamentary committee investigate the NIF's behavior, but has dropped the proposal due to objections from several Knesset factions. Even factions whose political platforms are far from that of the NIF objected to the investigation, apparently out of concern that their own funding would be affected by decisions regarding foreign funding of the NIF, he says.
Instead of pursuing a lost cause, Schneller explains, he has decided to look into the NIF using different methods. He plans to reveal his findings only when he has gathered enough information to fully back his claims.
What's at stake is no less than the future of the State of Israel and its founding ideology, Schneller believes. “The question is, are we keeping the old Israel of settling the land, of ingathering the exiles, a Jewish state where the state has intrinsic weight and the individuals serve the state? Or is the individual the most important focus, do the rights and wishes of the individual take precedence over all else?”