JUST ANOTHER PARTISAN POLITICAL LOBBY:

Mr. Netanyahu's approach scored points with Israelis who agree with his decision to challenge Mr. Obama, but within Israel's security establishment, some officials privately said they are deeply worried about the consequences of Mr. Netanyahu's campaign on U.S.-Israel relations. Public criticism in Israel of Mr. Netanyahu's intervention in Congress has come mainly from former security officials, who say they aren't afraid to speak their minds. [...]

"I've never seen such an effort, almost in broad daylight, to involve ourselves in internal American politics, to work on the ground to try to effect a political outcome," said Ephraim Halevy, who served as director of Israel's spy service, the Mossad, from 1998 to 2002. Added Meir Dagan, who succeeded Mr. Halevy: "Friendly countries are not supposed to do this to each other."

U.S. administration and congressional officials said no other country in the world would be able to pull off a similar campaign, because no other country has Israel's access or deep well of domestic support, led by the powerful pro-Israel lobby group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, known as Aipac.

A former aide to Mr. Netanyahu said he and his ambassador to the U.S., Ron Dermer, who has held similar meetings with lawmakers in Washington, don't see themselves as foreigners intervening in the U.S. political process because of their backgrounds in the U.S. and close contacts in Congress.

"They think it's their home turf," the aide said. Mr. Netanyahu spent years as a youth in the U.S. and then returned later for university. Mr. Dermer was born in the U.S., moved to Israel as an adult and formally renounced his American citizenship in 2005 when he began serving the Israeli government in the U.S.

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