Photo by Amos Ben Gershom/Israeli Government Press Office via Getty Images.
Photo by Amos Ben Gershom/Israeli Government Press Office via Getty Images.President Obama and Mitt Romney are both jostling to upstage each other prior to Romney’s trip to Israel. Obama is set to authorize an additional $70 million in military assistance to Israel today. Haaretz reports that “U.S. Jewish leaders and a long list of Democratic and Republican congress members and senators have been invited to the signing ceremony of the act, which will take place in the White House.”
But the Romney campaign knows how to squash that news.
From the Associated Press‘s Romney jabs Obama on US policy toward Israel day before Republican visits Jerusalem:
The Republican’s campaign says Romney is happy steps are being taken to enhance security cooperation with Israel. But that the bill “does nothing” to address whether Obama recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
But is it Romney’s position that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, which would recognize Israel’s illegal annexation of the city? That is what he’s indicating–but Romney was criticized by Rick Santorum during the primaries for refusing to explicitly say that Jerusalem was Israel’s capital. You can bet that Sheldon Adelson, who helped create the group One Jerusalem to advocate for Israeli control over all of Jerusalem, has been pressuring Romney to echo Santorum.
Ahh, the sycophantolympics. Romney’s leading in shamelessness, but Obama has the edge in pandering.
somebody radically shined up my draft.
thank you ;)
A good politician is someone who can be bought. A better politician is someone who can be bought cheaply. The best politician is someone who pays you.
I think I can hear Netanyahoo laughing with glee from here.
the one jerusalem group is just relentless. they have been pounding away for over a decade on this goal (as a coordinated group) and if the US caves to this radical illegality what it will signal in terms of the region and our FP is something i don’t even want to consider.
A capital is the city in which a country stores its institutions of government. Since Israel’s institutions of government are almost all in Jerusalem (the ministry of defense is in Tel Aviv), and in addition roughly 100% of the citizens call Jerusalem the capital – whether they’re in favor of dividing it or not – it’s hard to see what case can be made that it isn’t. Perhaps, one might say, it OUGHTN’T be, but in the meantime it clearly is.