ROMNEY PUTS the capital “p” in presumptive nominee, his insatiable ego never satisfied. He thinks everything is about him, so treads where more sober foreign policy experts wouldn’t dare.
As all this was playing out, Eli Lake got an exclusive for the Daily Beast, reporting that Dennis Ross is bowing out of politics and won’t be campaigning for Pres. Obama this election cycle. A former Clinton aide and friend of AIPAC stated the obvious:
“Ambassador Ross was obviously the No. 1 pro-Israel surrogate for the Obama campaign in 2008,” said Josh Block, a former press aide for the Clinton administration and former top spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. “The fact that after three years of working on Mideast policy side-by-side with the president, Ambassador Ross has decided to sit out this campaign, unlike other former top officials now at nonpartisan think tanks, will certainly be understood as a message of its own, intentionally or unintentionally.”
Jeffrey Goldberg was incensed by the Romneys’ visit to the Temple Mount, which came on a day that’s supposed to be reserved for fasting and mourning. More over at the Atlantic, but here’s Goldberg’s punch line that’s in Romney’s face.
It is also, on this particular Tisha b’Av, the location of a very important photo opportunity for an American presidential candidate.
How vulgar is this?
Very.
Mr. Romney also boldly stepped into and over the line on American foreign policy, which he has no business doing, as well as going beyond his role as a candidate, by declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel. Now, I have no doubt he and others on both sides of the political aisle believe this wholeheartedly and that it’s a foregone fact. But it’s self-important amateurism, even dangerous, to Pres. Obama, who’s still got a lot more to concern himself with right now than the November election.
From Haaretz:
In Jerusalem speech, it was Romney’s voice but Netanyahu’s words
The speech itself sounded as if it could have been written by Netanyahu’s bureau. So it’s no surprise that when the two met later for dinner, Netanyahu thanked him for his “support for Israel and Jerusalem.”
In general, Netanyahu embraced Romney as no Israeli prime minister has ever before embraced a candidate running against an incumbent U.S. president: Aside from their working meeting in the morning, Netanyahu also hosted Romney and his wife and sons for dinner at his official residence.
Romney’s entire visit to Israel was born in the Prime Minister’s Office. According to Tablet Magazine, those who cooked up the visit over breakfasts at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem a month ago were Romney’s adviser Dan Senor and Netanyahu’s adviser, Ron Dermer, who himself hails from a Republican family in Miami.
The two clandestinely planned the visit in order to preempt Barak Obama visiting Israel before the Republican candidate. Senor and Dermer decided to give the scoop on the visit to the New York Times.
Of course, Jennifer Rubin was delighted by Romney’s speech and his demeanor.
Those pro-Israel Democrats who vouched for Obama in 2008 are now desperate to concoct criticisms of Romney (see my exchange with Jeffrey Goldberg), even for the moving symbolism of visiting the Kotel (the wall of the Second Temple) on the day mourning its destruction, Tisha A’Bav. (Romney noted: “It was Menachem Begin who said this about the Ninth of the month of Av: ‘We remember that day,’ he said, ‘and now have the responsibility to make sure that never again will our independence be destroyed and never again will the Jew become homeless or defenseless.’ This, Prime Minister Begin added, “ ‘is the crux of the problems facing us in the future.’ ”)
That Romney would visit the site of the Second Temple’s destruction on the commemoration of its destruction, like going to Normandy cemeteries on D-Day, is a sign of great sensitivity. (Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu underlined this point by inviting him to break the fast on the mourning day at Bibi’s home).
No one can be so naive as to not understand this whole spectacle was about squeezing Pres. Obama, while Romney allies continue the ridiculous charge that the President isn’t a supporter of Israel.
The politics of Israel, shown through Mitt Romney’s actions over the weekend, is part of the obscenity that makes the notion of peace impossible, with “equilibrium,” which Steve Clemons asserts is a more accurate goal, getting further off with each presidential election cycle. Romney is not only a hawk, but he’s more dangerous than George W. Bush, who brought Israel Hamas through pushing elections the Palestinians weren’t ready for.
A whole new fresh hell awaits if the language of Mitt Romney on Israel becomes the foundation for foreign policy discussions, following the race into the debates this fall.
Every American President from the 1967 war onward has refused to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and refused to move the American consulate from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. As far as getting Romney a larger share of the Jewish vote, Gallup reported that Obama leads Romney 68% – 25% among Jewish voters and that the July poll represents a Romney drop of four points in one month from June’s Gallup report Obama 64% Romney 29%.
Dennis Ross is sitting out the election campaign? Dennis Ross has an ego problem. His role as a Middle East advisor has diminished and even more importantly Hillary Clinton’s State Department early on froze him out of any role as an advisor on Afghanistan policy.He now is a frequent guest on the cable news chat shows as a critic of the Obama Adminstrations Middle East and Afghanistan policies.
This comment has been deleted because it was off topic.
“Let me be clear,” Obama said, “Israel’s security is sacrosanct. It is non-negotiable. The Palestinians need a state that is contiguous and cohesive and that allows them to prosper. But any agreement with the Palestinian people must preserve Israel’s identity as a Jewish state, with secure, recognized and defensible borders. Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided,” he added, in efforts to secure the Jewish vote.
June 4, 2008 AIPAC
Ouch!
The Obama campaign could try to do a Bill Clinton and argue that there is difference between “is” and “will”…but yes, I think that his 2008 AIPAC speech essentially contradicts attacks on Romney on this issue.
I know so little about the Morman religion, does it believe in the end time mythology?
Yes, it does.
While I don’t think the Mormon Church officially endorses this view, a lot of Mormons also believe that a Mormon will be elected US President in the run-up to the “End Times” as well. I think Joseph Smith made this prophesy when he himself was running for President.
Many Utah Mormons also felt that the SLC Olympics was a way for God to shine a light on Mormonism and was a sign of the end times. So for them, Romney having saved the Olympcis, then he’s running for President and even has a chance, and then seeing Romney in Israel, praying at key religious sights, etc. Too much excitement for words, I’m sure.
Thanks carrieboberry…well then at least you could say he was not pandering.
Once again Romney shows why he has to be controlled by his handlers. Here’s what he said concerning health care costs in Isreal vs the US:
“Do you realize what health care spending is as a percentage of the GDP in Israel? eight percent, You spend eight percent of GDP on health care. You’re a pretty healthy nation. We spend 18% of our GDP on health care. Ten percentage points more. [...] Our gap with Israel is 10 points of GDP. We have to find ways — not just to provide health care to more people, but to find ways to find and manage our health care costs.”
What Romney failed to recognize is that Isreali Healthcare is universal and is entirely funded by the goverment which pays for health care insurance offered by private health care companies through insuirance exchanges.
Once again Romney shows that he is incapable of delivering off the cuff remarks. Time for Romney’s handlers to zip his lips and throw away the key for the remainder of his ‘Mitt the Twit’ European tour.
Absolutely correct, re: healthcare.
They’ve blown this trip, with the only objective being to prove he was presidential. As we’ve seen, to Republicans that means militaristic talk on Iraq, while making things more difficult for Israel by ignoring the Palestinians.
Romney doesn’t begin to understand the nuances of foreign policy, because like his neoconservative advisers, they don’t believe in it.
Top story? What about this:
At the urging of Valerie Jarrett, President Barack Obama canceled the operation to kill Osama bin Laden on three separate occasions before finally approving the May 2, 2011 Navy SEAL mission, according to an explosive new book scheduled for release August 21. The Daily Caller has seen a portion of the chapter in which the stunning revelation appears.
In ”Leading From Behind: The Reluctant President and the Advisors Who Decide for Him,“ Richard Miniter writes that Obama canceled the “kill” mission in January 2011, again in February, and a third time in March. Obama’s close adviser Valerie Jarrett persuaded him to hold off each time, according to the book.
Miniter, a two-time New York Times best-selling author, cites an unnamed source with Joint Special Operations Command who had direct knowledge of the operation and its planning.
I’ll have something about that up later on.
“Top Story” has been the one trending all morning.
Thanks for asking, PWT.
This is what people are worrying about these days? Good grief.
If Obama had wanted to ignore the Osama bin Laden issue, he could have just told the JSOC and Co. to ignore that issue. They could have done something else with those resources, I’m sure, given how many other southern Asian countries we’re at war with. If he decided against going after the guy, there must have been something he didn’t like about those potential operations.
Does it surprise me that someone in that testosterone-flooded agency would have thought him a chicken for having not taken the first “opportunity”? Not a bit. Heck, I’d be shocked if that hadn’t happened.
If Mr. Obama is such a friend, why doesn’t he visit?
Sweet Baby Jesus On A Pogo Stick,
MItt sticks his foot in it again
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/07/30/158679/reports-romney-remarks-at-jerusalem.html
Culture?!?! Hello! Israel’s military, cultural, and financial strangle hold on the Palestinians might also have a little to do with it. The economic, political and social Apartheid Israel imposes on the Palestinians might have something to do with it.
Mitt is W’s ignorance on steroids when it comes to MidEast policy.
Awhile back, Rachel Maddow mentioned in a segment on the Gaza Strip that it was about the same size and had about the same population as Philadelphia. That’s quite an insight, if you think about it for a moment. What would happen if Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware decided to wall off Philadelphia from the outside world, close its airports and it seaport, and not allow its residents to move or work elsewhere? Pretty much what happened in Gaza, I suspect.
People who tell me “culture matters” almost invariably forget that logistics matter, too.