The New York Times reports that Mitt Romney will visit Israel to meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu this summer, marking his fourth trip to the country:
Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, will visit Israel this summer to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other leaders, a senior aide to the prime minister confirmed on Monday evening.
Mr. Romney, who has pledged to “do the opposite” of the Obama administration on matters pertaining to Israel, is also expected to meet with Salam Fayyad, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority; President Shimon Peres of Israel; the American ambassador, Daniel B. Shapiro; and leaders of the opposition Labor Party in Jerusalem. He plans to have at least one public event in a trip that will likely last less than two days.
“He’s a strong friend of Israel and we’ll be happy to meet with him,” said Ron Dermer, Mr. Netanyahu’s senior adviser, who worked with Republicans in the United States before immigrating here. “We value strong bipartisan support for Israel and we’re sure it will only deepen that.”
Prominent Democratic donors have criticized President Obama for avoiding Israel during his first term, despite his trips to other countries in the region. Even Vladimir Putin traveled to the Jewish state this summer, which made Obama’s failure to visit even more obvious.
Members of Romney’s own campaign have been quietly grumbling that the candidate spends very little time focused on foreign policy. The Israel trip will give Romney a chance to broach some of these issues, while also putting the Obama campaign on defense. If there’s one subject Obama wants to talk about less than the economy, it’s his rocky relationship with Netanyahu.
Good. I like it. Going will be met with "it's political pandering," to which we will respond, simply why has Obama never gone? WHY HASN'T HE?
Romney's rhetoric obviosly left him open to this weak attack (weak because no one would interpret Romney's statement to mean that he disapproves of the few instances of support Obama did give). It would not be hard, however, to turn this around on Obama: He should double down and say, yes, the Opposite of Obama: Opposite on feckless Iran Policy; Opposite on Jerusalem Policy; Opposite on 1967 Lines Policy; Opposite on not cutting off funds to Unesco Policy; Opposite on UN High Commissioner policy. He should just go on an on and on with "opposites".
alana, pu-lease. quietly loathing Netanyahu is something for which Obama is to be admired. the policies and cabinet members of the netanyahu government have been neither good nor much admired by the center and left of this country. …and Romney isn't going to gain much at all by sucking up to bibi as the Israeli is already tied to the Republicans. n nall it means is that after Obama's re-election, bibi can expect to pay the price of his interference in our election.
mikefoxtrot, well you say they haven't been admired by the left like that's a *bad* thing??? interference in our election? by taking a couple of hours to schmooze with Mittens? Bibi is not right, he's centrist. He is very popular. Unlike Obama's initial operating conception, the majority of Israeli citizens do not think of the Jewish state as an inconvenient barnacle on the Anointed One's universal acclamation. Obama may be learning some different lessons because any "price" he attempts to exact will be returned with interest. The Jewish state will not be dictated to by a golfer.
I didn't say left, I said center and left……..and netanyahu is not a centrist and hasn't had a centrist government and none but a person viewing from the far right would think so. n n nand Netanyahu has never been popular in this country. he was not at all popular in this town when he was israle's UN guy in the 80's
you are just wrong. He's center in the actual Israel. Israel, the actual Israel, is plenty willing to wait out the Palestinians. Israel the actual Israel is also plenty willing to build houses for Jews in Jerusalem. The actual Israel is also plenty reluctant for major military action against Hamas, Fatah or Hezbollah, let alone Iran and the centrist Bibi tracks his country. He is plenty popular here. That wasn't a paid performance when Congressional representatives from all parties applauded his speech and it wasn't an example of the mind-bending hypnotic prowess of ZOG. And Israeli politics don't revolve 24/7 around the imagined Bibi conspiracy against Obama or foreign policy. Right now the secular-orthodox divide is as or more important. And your problems judging from other posts are with Israel generally and not Bibi specifically.
he's right of center and his cabinet was well to the right…… Lieberman as FM is indefensible. He;s a guy who would have been barred from running for office in Israel 35 years ago.
"and none but a person viewing from the far right would think so. " n nmikefoxtrot, an assertion like yours could only be made by someone who was on the far left, or willfully ignorant, or unfit for his position.
Obama has gone out of his way from the very beginning of his presidency to show both public and private disdain for Israel (and don't kid yourself, it has little to do with a personal dislike of Netanyahu).
Don't kid us, Joel, with a hollow assertion. …..,put something on the table to support it and make sure it shows disdain for Israel and not something different, kidder.
For one try throwing Israel to the dogs and sucking up to Turkey when Turkey declared war on Israel over the Mavi Marmara, and the cowardly attempt to have Israel shelve a report by the UN which vindicated its conduct. For two, try the inane attempts to publicly leak that the Israeli-inspired Stuxnet-Flame effort was an Obama triumph marred by Israeli ineptness; for three his coddling of the UNHRC and the refusal to forthrightly denounce their legal warfare against the Jewish state's right of defense; for four the campaign against Jewish building in long-established Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem and continued support for the State Department narrative that no part of Jerusalem belongs to Israel; for five, aiding & abetting Turkey's severing of contacts between Israel and NATO etc. Fior six; his public shout-out to Andrew Sullivan's anti-Jewish Israel-Firsters neocon Likudnik attack on American Jews who support Israel's right to exist . For seven the support from the White House tor Jewish anit-Zionists like Peter Beinart through public relations adjuncts and funding. For eight the coddling and nurturing of the professional Iran and Arab loving drech of J-Street and the White House support for supplanting American Jewish communal organizations with this Soros and islamic-funded astroturf sock puppet parade of Occupy Palestine radical grifters etc. etc.
when zackly did Turkey declare war on Israel? and why zackly shouldn't people be put out by the badly bungled raid that killed a bunch of people? nhow the heck can anyone thought that treating a futz up as a futz up implies disdain for Israel rather than disdain for a terribly stupid operation? n n nwhen Netanyahu had to have the antidote sent to Jordan after the botched Mossad assassination of Massad, did he do it out of disdain for Israel …. or because people have to clean up after making messes ?
when Turkey sponsors terrorists to kill Israeli servicemen it's an act of war. It wasn't a "bungled raid"–soldiers were sent in without proper self-defense to a legal naval interdiction boarding operation (not a raid) and had the crap beat out of them and were stabbed. And then the assailants were properly fought off and killed. So that part was perfectly unbungled. There was no "mess" to clean-up other than the "mess" of Turkey's provocations. To be fair, Obama did eventually help squelch further planned "flotillas".
it was entirely bungled. there wasn't a reason in hell to drop a few soldiers onto the deck.if those people HAD BEEN terrorists sent to kill Israelis rather than something else there would have been dead Israelis.
mf, there were Israelis who had been stabbed, beaten with iron bars, and badly wounded Israelis whom the terrorists had attempted to throw into the sea. There were terrorists who attempted to wrestle the guns from the IDF. Many of those on board had announced their intent to become martyrs and kill Israelis. This was not some bunch of peaceniks who found themselves under brutal unprovoked attack. n nAre you trying to rewrite history on the assumption that we are ill informed and amnesiac, or are you simply that ill informed yourself?
ahad, everything that you're saying is absolutely tue….. once the few soldiers were stupidly lowered into the ship and attacked, there wasn't a single thing that they coudl or SHOULD have done other than to fight for their lives and kill anyone threatening them. n nthe utter f'up was the decision to stop the boat by dropping a few soldiers in that manner. the Israelis either had sufficient intel to know that many on the boat had the will to fight…or…. they didn't have enough to intel to know whether there were guns on the ship…. n nthere's no blame for the soldiers, but plenty for the fools who designed the form of the interdiction.
They didn't have the intel. They aren't God. Barak thought it would be peaceful until things began to go sideways.
that's the best possible defense for the form of the raid, but I gotta believe that they settled on this and rejected better plans. n nthis one felt just like the sort of a thing designed by committee
there was every reason in heaven, hell, earth and your breakfast bar to carry out the same operation to search for weapons they carried ou without incident on other flotilla ships not taken over by Turkish-government financed thug barbarians. n nexcept these animals told the Israelis to "go back to Auscwhitz" proudly captured on the same videos that captured their sharpening improvised poleaxs, singing songs about avenging Mohammad and killing Jews, threatening a captured and beaten Israeli soldier with knives (photos). n nSo a boarding in hostile circumstances was required but Ehud Barak insisted that the first boarders not deploy loaded rifles but high power water pistols. n nthis didn't work, and captured on IDF video, the Turks began stomping on the boarders, then they captured an Israeli gun and, available on Israeli audio, began shooting at the boarding party, having moved beyond the beat down and tossing over decks stages (also captured on Israeli video) n nBut yes, at this point, yes the soldiers regrouped and shot the anti-semites dead. n nEnd of bungle.
the soldiers were hung out to die by the IDF. dropping a few soldiers was amazingly dumb
You're right. Amazingly dumb that they didn't just sink these boats in the first place, and good riddance to the lot of them, Islamists and Western activist idiots alike.
even sinking one of them might have been preferable to what they did, but disabling the ship and taking it in tow would have been better than either what they did or what you suggest……. and wouldn't have precluded doing either as a back-up plan.
That doesn't excuse the Turks for God's sake or Obama for pretending for long months that Israel had was suspect of violating the international law of blockade.
who's excusing the Turks? n nand please show me what you're referring to about Obama and violating law of blockade?
There is an underlying heme to your machinations foxy old boy
besht2003, I would add his leaking designed to impair Israel's ability to stop an Iranian bomb, his Cairo speech spreading the Arab/Soviet canard that Israel is a European colonialist enterprise alien to the middle east and justified solely because of the Holocaust, thereby saddling the blameless and always tolerant Arabs with the penalty for the European's hatred of Jews (which of course came into sudden and unprecedented existince during the Holocaust and just as suddenly ended), and his coddling Turkey's demands to bar Israel from NATO exercises and from a conference on combatting terrorism. Then there's his appointment of Robbert Malley, Susan Rice and Samantha Power, despite each having a history of anti-Israel fantasy bordering on paranoia. And his repreatedly blaming Israel for the lack of progress in the so-called peace talks, even though each breakdown has been over the PA's refusal to talk, which his own ineptitude has encouraged. There's more, of course, but none of us has all day.
ahadhaamoratsim, imo Obama, operates under institutional restraints and the day-to-day realities of the Middle East as well as the baseline national patriotism of America he can't directly spit on. And the Saudis, and the emirates are pounding on him to contain Iran. And Hamas and Fatah can't work together and Hamas is worried about the Iran-Alawite Shia axis (as is the MB) & etc. n nThe clear road to the fantasy of gaining the love of the world-wide Islamic public on the backs of Israel keeps disappearing into the fog beyond his headlights. So de facto, in between seizures of scapegoating the Jewish state, he exerts self-control and actually finds himself in a working relationship with Israel. n nhowever these thoughts are premised on suggestions that many people disagree with: a) Israel is in a de facto "cold peace" (for the past year or so at least) with both Hamas and Fatah and b) Israel as its factions and leadership elites work through the process, does not want to engage in large scale preemptive military moves outside its borders, not in the PA, not in Gaza, not in Lebanon, and not against Iran, c) Obama has non-hostile relations with Jews who have non-hostile relations with Israel, such as Dennis Ross as well as superfab BFF relationships with anti-Zionists of various ilks.
Quietly and not-so quietly loathing the elected head of state is disdainful, no? Publicly and not publicly dressing down the officials of that state is also disdainful, don't you think? Ambushing the political leaders of that state on the eve of a state visit with a material adverse change in policy is a wee bit disdainful, or would you consider that just good policy? Denying well settled policy and then denying that you made any change also isn't too nice. The problem is, Mikefoxtrot, that all of these examples, and many more, will just seem to you, an Israel hater, as just good policy, so I probably should not have wasted the effort to reply.
No, loathing a man doesn't mean hating the country….or that would mean that Netanyahu hates the US. n nEnough with all the spinheads demanding that the US has to follow the wishes of the Israelis. They owe us, not the other way around and they need us far far more than the reverse. n nNetanyahu has been supporting the Repubs all throughout Obama's term, figuring that Obama would be out after a single term. it turns out that Bibi blew it and that's a too bad for him, not us….and not bad for Israel either, just him.
You conflate antipathy for Bibi, for Israel, and for supporters of Israel, and, Lord help us, the Republicans, which is all glommed together as one big wad of taffy stuck in your craw of nefarious Repub Israel-firsters "demanding that the US has to follow the wishes of the Israelis" (that's "the Israelis" not Bibi)–but Romney doesn't register on the Israeli radar as a significant blip. Anyone using a laptop PC "owes" Israel–Israeli computer labs are integral to the evolving Intel line of multi-core chips.
It's not about owing or not owning. It's about right and wrong. Allowing the only Mid-East democracy to be consumed by the dictatorships of enemies that surround it is tantamount to ignoring Hitler during the War. Read some history dude. Every time evil intent has been ignored, or placated, the entire world pays a heavy price.
History teaches that evil is routinely ignored and that the world is suffering. Israel has to rely on a large measure of self-reliance and be cruel if necessary. Still, her contributions to international and the American economy in technology and medical sciences are routinely ignored. Your computer likely has "Zionism inside".
Gee let us count the ways. Hillary commenting on internal Israeli politics such as women on buses, Obama's stating that the Holocaust was the reason for the creation of Israel, his attempt to appoint virulent Israel hater Chas Freeman to a high position, his use of Samantha Power as an adviser and his having Susan Rice as U.N. ambassador, his refusal to stop by Israel even when he is in the neighborhood and his shameful treating of her democratically elected Prime Minister (who when he was snubbed it was a snub against Israel itself), his support of the Muslim Brotherhood – did I forget Jeremiah Wright.
The trip doesn't mean anything. I know some of the puppies might not like to hear this. But Israel is not stupid enough to place meaningful bets against a sitting President on the latest goat the Republicans are preparing to send into the desert. Meeting Mittens is just a hedge. Who knows he might actually become President, so why insult him? It isn't a maneuver. Whatever conspiracies friends of Israel and enemies of Israel alike are concocting in their noggins between the Israeli political establishment and the Republicans to "put Obama on the defensive" are just fantasies. n nIsrael is a nation and it has state-to-state relations with the United States and engages with the leadership of the United States on an ongoing basis. That is the environment in which it seeks to secure the Jewish state against harm. The Congress as it is. The Executive Office as it is. It may encourage supporters of Israel in Congress when under pressure by theExecutive but it does not try to run dogs in the quadrennial American rabbit race. n nYes yes yes, there are a lot of snakes in the Democratic menagerie but is the premise here that the DJC is the same as J-Street? That Peter Beinart is the alpha and omega of Jewish support of, yes, I know, shudder gasp Obama? Or that Jewish partisans in the Democratic party are not themselves tied into Israel? The whole premise of the Israeli establishment is that Israel receives bi-partisan support, that isn't just words.
Mitt definitely needs Bibi on this trip more than Bibi needs Mitt. But Bibi, hoping rather openly that Mitt wins, will be gracious to him. And Mitt will talk about how when he's president, all the allies of the US will know they have an ally they can count on, one who won't through them under the bus for the sake of "engagement" or some other pipe dream.
No. Please don't assume that Bibi, as difficult as relations are with Obama (Lord knows) wants MIttens to win. He will be gracious of course. He may not even have an opinion as who should win. Israel will work the process of diplomacy before, during, and after the elections, in such a way as not to screw the pooch should Obama be be elected.
I'll never forget Obama's first official photo after he was sworn in. It was a photo of Obama sitting at the desk in the oval office with is feet up on it and the angle of the photo was taken in such a way where you could see the bottom of Obama's shoes with the caption of the photo: "Obama talking on the phone to Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel." Tell me that wasn't intended as symbolism.
was there smears of Bibi on the bottom of Obama's shoe? n nor did you have something else in mind?
In the middle east, showing the bottom of one's shoe is a serious insult.
Mike Foxtrot and others,
First of all, Mike, with all due respect, Netanyahu is for sure a “centrist”. Sorry it is not even close, it is a no brainer. This was covered in Israel for Dummies, Mike. If you do not understand that Netanyahu is a centrist, you need to learn more about Israeli politics, The Likud and BN himself. You know something Mike, Netanyahu did not have to bring Ehud Barak and The Leftist labor party into his coalition. he could have easily formed a government with all “right wing” parties. Yet he did not, because he specifically from the get go, this his second term as PM, wanted to govern with a broad based government which included major left wing parties. The reason for this is not simple, but he was open to a negotiated settlement with Abbas, despite Abbas’ clear refusal to comprmise at all. No self respecting right winger would want to do that. Not only did he invite Labor in, but he gave it’s leader, at the time Ehud Barak the most important portfolio, The Defense Ministry. If that were not enough, Netanyahu continually tried to convince Kadima leader Livni to join the coalition, but she foolishly refused. For those who insisted that Netanyahu’s invitation to Kadima was merely a ruse, since no one believed Livni would accept, they were once again were proved wrong when Livni successor in Kadima, Mofaz, immediately joined THe Netanyahu Gov’t. As it is presently comprised, as was correctly stated earlier, this Israeli Gov’t is amongst the most broad based and centrist since 1948. So, I do not know what the heck you are talking about. Except that those opinions you express are not original and are the garden variety critcisms one can read at any number of Israel Laster blog sites, like my dear friend the terminally brainwashed Colonel Lang.
When Sharon who was a centrist, always was, wanted to evacuate all of the Israelis from Gaza and hand the keys to Abbas with nothing in return, Netanyahu remained in Sharon’s gov’t and let Sharon have his way. Netanyahu signed the agreement at Wye and gave ground in Hebron, one of the most important Jewish Cities. No true right winger in Israel would have done what Netanyahu has done. Mike you can compare and contrast Netanyahu with his rival in Likud one Moshe Feiglin to understand clearly what a real Israeli right winger believes. If Abbas had agreed to negotiate, Netanyahu would have offered him a deal. It would have placed more emphasis on security for Israel than PM Olmert’s Plan or Barak’s, but Mike, the situation in Israel changes fast and what was offered in 1948 or 2000 or 2003 are off the table, they are obsolete for a very good reason. The dynamics have changed. Hizzbullah did not rule Lebanon in 2000. Now with Egypt and the so-called arab spring everything is changed. Honestly without the peace treaty with Egypt, I do not see how Israel can offer the Palestinians anything more than autonomy. Egypt’s flip flop does puty into question the value of any “peace treaty” with the arab nations, as idealistic Israelis tend to be. A fatal flaw.
While we're at it, no true right winger would support the forced evacuation of Jews from homes they built in Ulpana on land purchased from the lawful record owner, where hat eviction was based on a crude forgery presented by Arabs to a military court where the Jewish owners were not allowed a meaningful right to rebut the forged evidence. No right winger would fail to mount a defense against repeated rocket attacks, or allow lawless conditions on the country's roads to endanger Jewish motorists by frequent carjackings and attacks with rocks, firebombs, guns and knives by Arabs out to murder them for being Jews.
foxtrot, face the truth that Obama is a two-faced hypocrite. Before the election he came to Sderot, an Israeli town often the target of Arab Nazi rockets shot from Gaza. In Sderot Obama had himself photographed with the mayor of Sderot at that time, Eli Moyal, standing in front of a stack of used rocket parts collected by the army and police and kept at the local police station. All of it gifts of Arab Nazis in Gaza. In 2008, Obama wanted Jewish votes. After the election Obama couldn't care less for Sderot and the suffering of the people there, even criticizing Israel's conduct of its defensive war against the would-be mass murderers and genocidists who run Gaza. This is not to mention all the backstabs mentioned by others above.
How can Pr. O show-up in Israel after lambasting Jews and Israel for 3 and one half year! Each time after he back-stabs Israel he claims to be the best defender of Israel. We all must be hallucinating or on cool-aid! Some will claim that to be tough on Iran he must show toughness on Israel!!!!
His peeps have made that claim already when he had the bright idea to get Arabs to help contain Iran by forcing Israeli concessions–even though the Gulf emirates were telling American officials that they weren't all that bothered by "Palestine"–please bomb Iran!