The Jerusalem Post says that Romney is going to have a fundraiser in Israel:
Presumed Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney will host a fundraising event in Jerusalem at $60,000 or more per plate on July 29, The Jerusalem Post learned on Wednesday.
Let’s be clear about recent events: Romney is going right after the Israel issue to get money, and some of his Jewish donors gave to Obama last time round. That Romney fundraiser in the Hamptons last weekend was co-hosted by Ron Perelman, who gave to Obama last time, as we reported already. Well, a second co-host was another former Obama backer who has now funded a group called the Emergency Committee for Israel that wants to bomb Iran (Ali Gharib reports):
According to the Los Angeles Times, one event was co-hosted by Daniel Loeb, a hedge-funder who turned against President Obama and bankrolled a neoconservative pressure group that called last month for the U.S. to attack Iran. The Los Angeles Times reported:
“At Romney’s luncheon with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor at the Creeks, supporters were asked to contribute or raise $25,000 per person for a VIP photo reception. Among the co-hosts were lobbyist Wayne Berman, a former bundler for George W. Bush, as well as financiers Lew Eisenberg and Daniel Loeb.”
Loeb supported Obama’s first run for president, raising $200,000 for him in 2008….
Among the beneficiaries of Loeb’s shifting political allegiances was a right-wing pressure group [headed by Bill Kristol] called the Emergency Committee For Israel (ECI). According to FEC filings, Loeb remains the largest single overall donor to ECI’s PAC.
Typical of this coverage, Loeb has bitched about Obama’s treatment of Wall Street; but I wonder what your agenda is when you name your group the Emergency Committee for Israel? Eisenberg is also active in Jewish causes. Berman is on the board of the Republican Jewish Coalition.
Recall that a year ago, The Hill reported that 67 Wall Street executives who gave to Obama the last time around are moving to Mitt Romney, and it cited five executives by name. I looked those five up and saw that most of them had given to Israel-related causes. Again, the Hill cited economic reasons for the exodus– the execs feel “betrayed” by Obama’s rhetoric about Wall Street. But one of these guys was on the board of AIPAC, another had given oodles to “birthright.”
Again, the critical issue here is that journalists would never allow religious Christian donors to mess around in our political system like this without asking about the effects on policy. I.e., when does this become a front-page story? There are very simple questions to answer: How much pro-Israel money is in play here? Do the money-hungry candidates even distinguish between Jewish and Zionist money? What do the donors say about Israel? And what is Obama doing to meet his erstwhile donors’ concerns? Are State Department prevarications about the Israeli settlement report a sign that Obama is hogtied on this issue? (Yes.)
Note that in Allison’s story of last night, the pro-Israel fundraisers are talking about Obama’s open-mic incident when he dissed Netanyahu to Sarkokzy a year back. A funny ha ha story then. But some folks took it pretty seriously. And by the way, Sarkozy who?
Has anyone done a study on candidate-hosted fundraisers for US presidential elections in foreign countries? I’m certain the amount Romney will raise will be unprecedented, but the act itself, a candidate hosting a fundraiser in a foreign country to win control of the US government, is likely quite close to unprecedented as well.
8.5% of Americans unemployed, another 30 million not even looking for work, 40 million without health insurance and Romney is going to ISRAEL as part of his campaign. WTF ?
Of course, it is illegal to accept contributions from non-citizens. The contributor list at this could provide some interesting insights. Dual loyalties anyone?
Why not?
A modern president, like a modern Ivy League university dean, is more of a fundraiser these days. Then he has all these strings attached to him as he comes into office.
So of course Romney is going to fundraise inside Israel. Romney is a master at fundraising and instead of milking Wall Street hedge fund guys like Dan Loeb and others, why not go to the belly of the beast which they so obsess over, Israel, and fundraise there? It makes perfect sense.
A sidenote:
I actually googled Dan Loeb a few months ago as some news piece in Mondoweiss brought him up. He had a talk about Wall St in front of a Jewish crowd, I think it was even some sort of connection to Birthright(sort of ‘Birthright alumni interested in finance’ and something).
Now, Adelson is sort of the perfect Mr. Bad Guy. He’s almost a charicature of an evil banker/financier with dark motives. Although even Adelson has his flaws for the character. One of which is that he is a very human, flawed character who is very emotional. I like his working class roots, and I think they contribute, even if he is ultimately noxious.
Loeb is the anti-thesis of Adelson. A humble, humerous guy who thinks long and hard about how to make his office a better place for his employees. He’s a dedicated father and an active triathlon athlete who exercises because he wants to live long for his children.
And yet he funds a group that calls for war with Iran.
What this says about human nature, I don’t know, but we should probably be careful of linking someone’s dignified private life with their public activities, just as we should be careful of assuming just because someone is noble(or tries to be) in public life doesn’t mean they are in private(e.g. JFK, John Edwards, even Mother Teresa).
Only $60k per plate for Israelis? They’re getting a discounted Romney!
The London dinner, on the eve of the Olympics, will be $75k per plate:
http://www.leftfootforward.org/2012/07/mitt-romney-london-fundraiser
among the hosts will be Barclays lobbyist Patrick Durkin, Bain Capital’s European managing director Raj Bhattacharyya, plus md’s of various other banking operations with poor records of late! I guess we have plenty of ex-pat Repugs worthy of fleecing too.