Sheldon Adelson, seated, right, shakes Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat’s hand before Mitt Romney’s speech tonight in Jerusalem
I couldn’t get into the Romney speech, but I saw Sheldon Adelson coming in with his wife, Miriam, and got this snapshot. Good times. More later.
By the way, as I keep reminding readers, Adelson is pro-choice. Not that Mitt or Adelson cares. They got bigger fish to fry.
Note the buddy handshake between Adelson and Barkat.
I almost feel sorry for Nir Barkat. His eyes must hurt. All the other Europeans/USianinans/white people -1 have sunglasses…
Maybe the Europeans should not be there with their blue eyes in all that sunshine…
https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/images/2012/07/Romney.jpg
https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/images/2012/07/Adelson-1.jpg
Romney can’t seriously think that this visit to Israel will get him very many Jewish votes. At this point, probably 90-95% of US voters have made up their minds already. Suppose the ratio is the same for Jewish voters (2-3% of all voters), so the undecided Jewish vote is 5-10% of 2-3% = 0.1%-0.3% of all voters. Then Romney is hoping to gather part of this tiny vote by visiting Israel.
But what is the #1 issue among American Jews? Jobs and the economy. (Same answer that their Gentile neighbors give). Just 1% of American Jews list foreign policy as their #1 issue.
So Romney’s real goal is raise even more money from Sheldon Adelson, who must be one of the richest Jews in the world. Candidates backed by Adelson almost always lose, and I hope Adelson’s unlucky streak continues!
I see in the photos that Romney is wearing a yarmulka. Maybe Romney will promise to convert to Judaism….
This from the Haaretz article on the subject:
…”… Romney’s staff picked the 150 guests carefully. Religious American immigrants dominated the crowd; secular Jews and native-born Israelis were few and far between. Those present included Jewish-American millionaires, settler leaders like the former chairman of the Yesha Council of settlements Israel Harel, and former Netanyahu aides such as Dore Gold, Naftali Bennett, Ayelet Shaked and Yoaz Hendel.
The best places at the center of the first row were given, as expected, to Sheldon and Miriam Adelson. The casino magnate and owners of the Yisrael Hayom newspaper is considered one of the strongest supporters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The $100 million that Adelson pledged to donate to Romney in order to get Obama out of the White House is the oil in the wheels of Romney’s election campaign…”
100 million. My. Note that all this is happening in a foreign country.
…and 100 million buys some pretty solid guarantees. From Romney’s speech:
“…”…”We cannot stand silent as those who seek to undermine Israel voice their criticisms. And we certainly should not join in that criticism. Diplomatic distance in public between our nations emboldens Israel’s adversaries.” …”
Parse that. The US will not criticize Israel. Ever. We will attack those who dare to criticize Israel.
All of you guys a kinda getting fixated on the Jewish vote here.
This show on Romney’s part is about the evangelicals not the Jews.