White House wants Romney to explain Israel remarks
Source: Agence France-Presse (via Raw Story)
WASHINGTON The White House called Monday on Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney to explain recent remarks including his apparent endorsement of Jerusalem as Israels capital, a position that counters US policy.
Romney, in the midst of a three-nation tour, gave a speech Sunday in Jerusalem where he hailed the city as the capital of Israel, in apparent support of a position held by the Jewish state but never accepted by the global community.
The comment was swiftly rejected by Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat as unacceptable and harmful to American interests in our region.
But after Romney made fresh controversial statements Monday to donors in Jerusalem including suggesting Israeli culture helped explain the countrys economic success a position Erakat denounced as racist President Barack Obamas office urged Romney to clarify his comments.
Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/30/white-house-wants-romney-to-explain-israel-remarks/
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,754 posts)He is such an idiot.
xocet
(3,873 posts)n/t
Richard D
(8,806 posts). . . but the hamster is dead.
Lint Head
(15,064 posts)Igel
(35,383 posts)Probably not much for moving the capital, either.
sakabatou
(42,189 posts)Renew Deal
(81,889 posts)Because he is a panderer and if he spoke to the Palestinians he would say something different. I doubt he really knows what he believes (or cares to know).
mia
(8,363 posts)He's way beyond hubris. Romney dismissed US policy.
Will he call for another apology from the White House?
Igel
(35,383 posts)This is distressing.
Does every presidential candidate have to restate his support for US policy as set by the president?
Did Obama, when he was running, just parrot *'s Iraq and Guantanamo policy? Did * parrot Clinton's policy, or even just his foreign policy (that is, if * had anything to say about foreign policy)? Did Clinton parrot Bush I's? I know that Reagan didn't parrot Carter's (and at the time thought that this, wrt the USSR, was a good thing).
How convincing would a speech be: "I disagree with my opponent's policy and support them openly. But when I'm in charge, I'll change them, not that I disagree with them. Above all, I can't say what my policies would be except that I agree with the current President."
It's one thing to think our guy's right. It's entirely another to assume that the laws are just written for our sake. Disagree with *, public service; disagree with Obama, borderline traitor, the hubris of ... that man?
It used to be the ideal that politics stopped at the country's borders. It was unsound to criticize the current president abroad. I think, but I can't cite the instance, that Obama violated or came very close to violating this ideal. It was a point of pride. Romney's "Jerusalem" bit doesn't rise to this level. I dislike this kind of asymmetry in values and standards.
starroute
(12,977 posts)The Israeli/Palestinian situation is incredibly delicate. The status of Jerusalem is the most delicate issue of all -- one that has carefully been held in a Heisenbergian situation of total ambiguity.
Romney is completely oblivious to all matters of subtlety, diplomacy, and ambiguity. And his heavy-handed endorsement of extremist positions would not only make any solution of the Middle East's most ticklish problem impossible if he were elected president but casts fresh obstacles in the way of negotiations even if he isn't.
starroute
(12,977 posts)Romney has repeatedly glossed over his lack of any foreign policy agenda by saying he can't disagree with the president. But somehow he feels perfectly free to broadcast it on the dog-whistle frequency.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/in-israel-romney-refuses-to-criticize-obama
During a CBS interview while on a trip to Israel, Mitt Romney refused multiple opportunities to criticize President Obamas foreign policy in the region, evoking the phrase politics ends at the waters edge.
While Im on foreign soil, I just dont feel that I should be speaking about differences with regards to myself and President Obama on foreign policy, he said in the interview that aired Sunday on Face The Nation. Are there differences between us? Of course.
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)And actively working to undermind current policy without holding office.
See the difference?
hell, if Romney were to have even couched his statement - "if elected, I'll recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital" , rather than "jerusalem is Israel's capital" - it would have been acceptable. Make him look daft just the same, but it'd be in within bounds.
chknltl
(10,558 posts)chollybocker
(3,687 posts)of loafer-in-mouth disease.
Messrs Plouffe and Axelrod must be shrugging, "We may as well be on vacation this summer."
Oldtimeralso
(1,939 posts)I thought it was crainum in rectumitis!
Jessy169
(602 posts)I think that with the article published by Der Spiegal today -- 'Romney Has Already Disqualified Himself' -- and now the White House calling him out in public to explain his comments, Romney must be feeling some pressure. By now, he's got to have figured out that his statement on Jerusalem being the capital of Israel has put him in an embarrassing corner on the world stage. It isn't just Americans eyeballing Romney closely now -- it is the whole world. What -- a -- moron. Can't wait to see how Romney responds.
stanchaz
(50 posts)"The hand of providence" leading Israel?
Come on now Mitt, I thought we would be past
that "god is on our side" crap by now.
And then... to blame Palestinian poverty and
the lousy Palestinian GDP on "cultural" differences.
Hey, what do you EXPECT?... after years
of Israeli blockades, Israeli occupations, and Israeli apartheid?
To paraphrase one of marvelous Mitt's infamous quotes:
Palestinians are people too, my friend!
The old proverb says that where there is no vision,
the people shall perish.
Vulture capitalist Mitt Romney has no vision,
no understanding, and no compassion.
Jessy169
(602 posts)You are so right. And another point: Our deeply racist Republican citizens are always ranting about the poor blacks, the crime rate, the poverty, the welfare. But what they don't have the brains or the spiritual capacity to consider is the few hundred years of slavery, sadistic treatment and destruction of self-worth that those blacks have endured. It would be similar to beating an innocent man senseless, then ridiculing him for not being able to stand up and walk away. Cruelty runs deep in the Republican Party, that's my take.
Grassy Knoll
(10,118 posts)as a young boy to show his superiority, poor children couldn't afford
the golden back brace required. Foot in mouth is an acquired taste.
DallasNE
(7,404 posts)Not sure this is the best way to go about it though because he really stepped in it in Israel. The complete lack of gravitas Romney has shown has caught me by surprise. What a complete disaster Romney has turned out to be.
thelordofhell
(4,569 posts)"I was whoring for the Jewish money donations!!"
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)I'm surprised Romney didn't claim Obama wants to wipe Israel off the map.
You know that's the way his advisers think.
longship
(40,416 posts)They are substantially for Obama.
Face it! Rmoney was playing to the Likud party in Israel, and a dog whistle to the US fundies, who absolutely love Israeli Jews because if WW III starts there, it means Jeebus comes back and the world gets saved -- metaphorically only because billions have to die to save the true believers. But some sacrifices have to be made so I can be saved.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)The campaign said it got what it wanted. A video of their guy walking up to the wailing wall and touching it and closing his eyes.
Think of it as stock Republican footage.
(At least Romney didn't tell the Israelis the Holy of Holies is located in Salt Lake City.)
PatrynXX
(5,668 posts)Mitt Romney has tried to start a war with London, Palestine .. then stuck over in Poland.. Wonder who else he offended...
BlueMTexpat
(15,374 posts)doesn't give a whit about anything but making provocative and warlike statements.
Bolton probably not only cleared but cheered everything Mitt has said.
TomCADem
(17,390 posts)Netenyahu played Romney brilliantly. With billionaire GOP SuperPac Sheldon Adelson on hand, all Netenyahu had to do is start making his case for a preemptive strike on Iran, and Romney being the weenie that he is took the bait and said whatever seemed politically convenient at the moment. If Neocons took a moment to think about it, they should be outraged that Romney essentially signed away our sovereignty by promising to back an Israeli offensive without any type of conditions. Romney gave Bebi a blank check that will be paid with U.S. tax dollars and the lives of U.S. servicemen.
RedStateLiberal
(1,374 posts)dimbear
(6,271 posts)Kalidurga
(14,177 posts)He has turned out to be only slightly more sane than Bachmann. It was neck n neck for a while until she went all McCarthist on people just because they are Muslims.
tawadi
(2,110 posts)The Oval Office is waiting.
Kablooie
(18,645 posts)Once he has a skilled puppeteer making him dance, he will do much better.
AllyCat
(16,248 posts)He's an IDIOT.