Romney Overseas - Part 1

Romney was in London on July 26, 2012 for his first trip overseas. He spent the day in meetings with current and former British leaders but both the British and American press questioned his comment to "NBC Nightly News" that some of the early Olympic reports had been "disconcerting." In his meeting with the Prime Minister (PM) Romney backtracked on his earlier comments (the security issues and error over the North Korean team flag) saying "It is impossible for absolutely no mistakes to occur. Of course there will be errors from time to time, but those are all overshadowed by the extraordinary demonstrations of courage, character and determination by the athletes." Romney added to the gaffe count by calling Ed Miliband (the Labor Leader) Mr. Leader during a press conference. Speculation on Twitter was centered on whether Romney had forgotten the Labor leader's name - or didn't in fact know it in the first place. He attended the opening ceremony of the Olympics and left the country with the British Daily Mail saying he’s being called “Mitt the Twit”.  

Romney in an interview with the right-wing Israeli daily newspaper Israel Hayom, said that the Arab Spring might never have happened had Bush's "freedom agenda" not been prematurely halted by President Obama. When the Arab Spring began many advocates of Bush's foreign policy made an argument different to that advanced by Romney, asserting that it was Bush's agenda that served as the main impetus for the revolutions and that Obama had turned his back on that policy. (In other words, Obama was against us doing things that would start civil unrest in other countries.) Romney also said "I would treat Israel like the friend and ally it is. We share not only common interests but also common values. I cannot imagine going to the United Nations, as Obama did, and criticizing Israel in front of the world." (Israel Hayom is owned by gambling magnate Sheldon Adelson who is pumping millions into a crusade to defeat Obama.)

On July 28 Romney’s in Israel to meet with his friend the PM (they used to work together in the 1970s); he said in an interview with ABC “We have a moral imperative to deny Iran’s leaders the means to follow through on their malevolent intentions. I recognize the right of Israel to defend itself, at the same time we are as 2 nations, both committed to employing every means we have to keep Iran from pursuing their nuclear folly. And that means every diplomatic course, economic forces as well - the sanctions are beginning to have a greater impact on Iran.” Romney brought up that he gave an address (in Tel Aviv on Iran) 5 years ago and said “It’s taken a long time for some of those steps to be executed, some are still not executed.” When asked what steps he replied “Being on foreign soil I simply don’t want to attack the President or his policies nor make new foreign policy.” It was later said that Romney told David Muir that he wished there were tougher sanctions on Iran earlier.

On July 29 Romney did not visit the West Bank but did raise Palestinian eyebrows by asking only to meet PM Salam Fayyad and not Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (a Romney official said he had time to meet with only one representative of the Palestinian Authority [PA]). Romney requested the meeting in Jerusalem and not in Ramallah, the seat of the PA (an integral part of Obama’s schedule when he visited the Middle East on his 2008 campaign trail). Romney did have a brief meeting with Fayyad, Reuters on the dailymotion.com has a very short (1:05) video in which Romney talks about meeting Fayyad before and the Olympics opening ceremony. Officials in Ramallah said they expected nothing different, seeing Palestinians and Israeli-Palestinian relations as very marginal during this trip, as they think it’s just about courting the Jewish vote. One senior PA figure said “He’s coming to launch his electoral campaign and play for the Jewish vote as it tends to go to the Democrats” and said that the peace process “hardly” features in his priorities for the visit. The following day, after hearing of Romney’s comments to Israel (tomorrow’s blog), various radical Palestinian groups called for boycotting Romney. A senior Fatah official also criticized PM Fayyad for meeting with Romney in Jerusalem (Fayyad was quoted as saying that this was the second time he had met with Romney. He said he had met with him not on a personal basis but in his capacity as prime minister of the PA). The Fatah official also said Romney “apparently does not recognize President Abbas as the elected president of the Palestinians.” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum accused Romney of insulting the feelings of Palestinians and Muslims and “His statements distort and forge history and mislead public opinion.” Barhoum claimed that Romney’s statement gave Israel a green light to Judaize Jerusalem and build more settlements. “Jerusalem is the capital of the Palestinians and Palestine and we will never give it up,” he stressed. Talal Abu Zarifeh, a Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine official, said Romney’s position on Jerusalem “contradicts international laws and resolutions which consider the city part of the territories that were occupied in 1967.” He urged all Arab and Islamic countries to exert pressure on the Americans to stop their “blind bias in favor of Israel.” Jamil Muzher, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said his group believed that there was no real difference between Democrats and Republicans. “The two parties are competing to show which is more loyal to Israel,” he charged. Daoud Shehab, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, said Palestinians and Arabs were mistaken in pinning hopes on any US administration.