Romney: God Likes Jews Better Than Palestinians

Mitt Romney's aides say that his views about Israel's cultural superiority compared to Palestinians have been taken out of context. Thanks to Barak Ravid at Haaretz, here's the context, which is pretty clear:

He...cited the book “The Wealth and Poverty of Nations” and explained what he believed to be author David Landes’ thesis.

“He says if you can learn anything from the economic history of the world, it’s this: culture makes all the difference. Culture makes all the difference. And as I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things,” Romney said, citing an innovative business climate, the Jewish history of thriving in difficult circumstances and “the hand of providence” [emphasis added].

[Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb] Erekat sharply criticized Romney’s remarks, calling them “a racist statement. This man doesn’t realize that the Palestinian economy cannot reach its potential because there is an Israeli occupation.

“It seems to me this man lacks information, knowledge, vision and understanding of this region and its people,” Erekat added. “He also lacks knowledge about the Israelis themselves. I have not heard any Israeli official speak about cultural superiority.”

"It's The Cover-Up That Gets You"

"It's not the crime that gets you," Richard Nixon warned his White House aides 40 years ago this summer, after the Watergate break-in. "It's the cover-up." While he cited the Alger Hiss case as an example, the story of King David, Bathsheba, and her husband, Uriah, would've worked just as well. Most of us are covering something up. Since the morning of July 20 in Aurora, Colorado, we've experienced humanity at its worst and best. David embodies that tension as well. My sermon for the 9th Sunday after Pentecost is here.

Clash Of Civilizations? What Civilization?

Adam Nossiter reports in the New York Times:

Islamists in control of a town in northern Mali stoned a couple to death after accusing them of having children outside of marriage, a local official who was one of several hundred witnesses to the killings said Monday.

The official said the bearded Islamists, armed with Kalashnikov rifles, brought the couple into the center of the town of Aguelhok from about 12 miles away in the countryside. The young man and woman were forced into holes about four feet deep, with their heads protruding, and then stoned to death at about 5 a.m. Sunday, the official said.

“They put them into the holes, and then they started throwing big rocks, until they were dead,” the official said, speaking by satellite phone from the remote desert town near the Algerian border.

“It was horrible,” he said, noting that the woman had moaned and cried out and that her partner had yelled something indistinct during the attack. “It was inhuman. They killed them like they were animals.”

Keep The iPad, Santa. Send Me myDad.

From an inspiring photo sequence shared by my St. John's friend Tom Tierney

Mitt Witted

The GOP's global gaffe-o-rama continues. Discussing the Palestinians, who have been living under military occupation since 1967, Mitt Romney explained that they are culturally retarded.

Children And Their Expensive Toys

When Michele Bachmann was invited on Jimmy Fallon's show late last year, his house band played "Lyin' Ass Bitch" as she walked on stage. He later apologized. During a Sarah Palin segment yesterday, CNN played "Stupid Girls" and later expressed regret for any misunderstanding.

Romney's Father Would Have, Too

Republicans once honored our friend Israel by speaking the whole truth.

Obama's Naivete

David D. Kirkpatrick cuts the president too much slack:

[Barack Obama] could not have guessed that the demand for Arab democracy would instead become one of his presidency’s greatest foreign policy challenges, forcing whoever wins the November election to confront tough trade offs between American values and interests.

The popular uprisings that have swept the region since Mr. Obama’s speech in Cairo have upended an authoritarian order that was largely congenial to the United States. While they may have brought Arab nations closer than ever to fulfilling of the promise of self-determination that has echoed through the speeches of American presidents since Woodrow Wilson at the end of the First World War, they have also imperiled crucial American allies, empowered antagonistic Islamists, and unleashed sectarian animosities that threaten to drag the whole region toward chaos.

Of course he could have guessed, and he would have if he hadn't been naive and inexperienced. His democracy- and freedom-loving predecessors stuck with Arab (and global) authoritarians whenever their policies served U.S. interests. One of the realities of leading the world's greatest democracy is that the American people elect leaders for their sake and not the sake of the people of Egypt, Libya, or Russia. It's not a mistake Richard Nixon would have made.

Romney's Iran Atmospherics

Barak Ravid writes that Mitt Romney flew 5,000 miles to make clear that there aren't three inches of difference between his and Barack Obama's policies on the Israel-Iran crisis:

[A]t no point during his visit did Romney promise that if elected, he would attack Iran's nuclear facilities. The most he would say about military action against Iran recalled Obama's position: "In the final analysis, of course, no option should be excluded. We recognize Israel's right to defend itself, and that it is right for America to stand with you."

Romney's Disconcerting Speech In Israel

After a rough visit to England, when he said that some aspects of its preparations for the Olympics were "disconcerting," Mitt Romney went to Israel and rallied in the special relationship department. Standing with the Old City behind him, dappled with the light of a Jerusalem sunset, Romney said:

I believe that the enduring alliance between the State of Israel and the United States of America is more than a strategic alliance: it is a force for good in the world. America’s support of Israel should make every American proud. We should not allow the inevitable complexities of modern geopolitics to obscure fundamental touchstones. No country or organization or individual should ever doubt this basic truth: A free and strong America will always stand with a free and strong Israel.

All true. And this:

Hopefully, this new government understands that one true measure of democracy is how those elected by the majority respect the rights of those in the minority.

No, that wasn't Romney calling on Israel to respect the rights of Palestinians. He was calling on Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood president to protect his political opponents. Romney didn't actually mention the Palestinians -- not a boilerplate line saying that his administration would support a peace agreement that guaranteed Israel's security or even a passing reference to the two-state solution, which has been explicitly endorsed by Presidents George W. Bush and Obama and was tacit U.S. policy for many years before that.

On the 40th anniversary of the Munich massacre, I see no problem with a paean to U.S.-Israel ties. But Fox News and Romney's other supporters called this a major foreign policy address. Let's hope they're wrong, since ignoring the peace process and an entire people living under military occupation would be dangerously radical and destabilizing in a substantive speech. Let's just call it a play for Jewish votes and go back to watching the exquisitely-run London Olympics.