Mitt Romney is now the laughing stock of East Jerusalem. This morning when I bought minutes for my telephone, a clerk inputted them as he was chatting to a fellow customer. Then he looked at me and said, “I know– you think we are not culturally modified to do multitasking.” Another shopkeeper asked me if I had seen “His Excellency on his tour.”
I must point out another aspect of Romney’s insult. In his speech last Sunday here, he went out of his way to acknowledge the Jewish fast on the holiday of Tisha B’av.
But he said not a word about Ramadan.
This month Ramadan and its daily fasts dominate the public life of Palestinian Jerusalem. The rhythms of Ramadan are all around me: The cannon shot that announces the end of the fast each day; the ritual breaking of the fast, visible in every shop and on all the sidewalks as people cluster to eat or hold out bottles of water to one another; the holiday mood that goes on late into the night, with children staying up half the night making noise outside my hotel window in the Via Dolorosa because they don’t want to sleep through the morning meal… I am particularly struck by the degree to which everyone observes the fast, at least in public, even as the shops prepare the Ramadan pancakes and women fill bags with them. I make it a point not to eat in front of these people out of respect for their piety.
No matter what you think of religion, if you are a humanist, you have to admire Ramadan as the expression of a major civilization that organizes people’s lives in humble and at times beautiful ritual. And even if Romney was speaking to Israelis– well, many Israelis are also Muslims. Obama offers a statement about Ramadan every year.
When I pointed Romney’s omission out to the multitasking clerk today, he said with bitterness, “It was a speech made for an exclusively Jewish audience. If he had mentioned Ramadan, it would have hurt him.”
Obviously there is some truth in that statement. The visit was coordinated by the neoconservative propagandist Dan Senor, who was thankfully called out for his racism by NPR yesterday. Senor surely helped craft Romney’s foolish comments, and Senor could care less about Islamic culture.
Compare Romney’s omission with President Obama’s statement on Ramadan two weeks ago. An excerpt that captures some of my feeling here in Jerusalem, and that ties the holiday into human rights and politics:
For Muslims, Ramadan is a time of fasting, prayer, and reflection; a time of joy and celebration. It’s a time to cherish family, friends, and neighbors, and to help those in need.
This year, Ramadan holds special meaning for those citizens in the Middle East and North Africa who are courageously achieving democracy and self-determination and for those who are still struggling to achieve their universal rights. The United States continues to stand with those who seek the chance to decide their own destiny, to live free from fear and violence, and to practice their faith freely. Here in the United States, Ramadan reminds us that Islam is part of the fabric of our Nation…
Romney doesn’t mention Ramadan; the Klan doesn’t celebrate Juneteenth. Haters gotta hate. Bigots gotta bigot.
Yes, good little article, Phil. Keep on giving us this stuff while you are there.
Most of here on your blog know Mitt’s mouth strings were being pulled by Bibi and Sheldon Adelson. Mitt’s way too wooden for this not to show clearly. Of course Mitt likely never heard of Mondoweiss. He has his selected audience, who heard him here from way over there, while most of America doesn’t even know he’s been campaigning for POTUS in a foreign state.
Back here, wouldn’t it be nice if our big three cable TV news-entertainment shows invited Walt on to discuss the election campaign, and posted up his 10 questions for Mitt on the screen: link to walt.foreignpolicy.com
Obama’s remarks are commendable. But when are they not? His positions are nuanced, but what difference does that make? He’s all avowal but not action. As Bromwich writes this morning:
“Let us recall some of the actions. In response to the onslaught on Gaza in December-January 2008-2009, in which 1,300 Palestinians were killed and 13 Israelis, Obama observed a silence which he has never broken. When, in November 2010, Netanyahu balked at the proposal of a 90-day partial extension of the freeze on West Bank settlement expansion, Obama offered twenty F-35 fighter jets if he would change his mind; Netanyahu refused, and Obama gave him the jets anyway. Only a week ago, the president donated another $70 million, on top of U.S. assistance already given, to build up the Israeli “Iron Dome” defense against rockets. ”
Let us also remember that Obama came into office offering a new policy in the middle east and immediately initiated cyberwar, conspired to murder Iranian scientists, rejected a peace initiative to end the nuclear impasse, and has actively demonized that country in order to stoke the winds of war.
Romney’s rhetoric is offensive and crude, but Obama’s actions do not invite confidence.
@ geofgray,
RE: ” Obama offered twenty F-35 fighter jets if he would change his mind; Netanyahu refused, and Obama gave him the jets anyway.”
Israel has contracted for 20 F-35s, at a cost of nearing $3B so far, with the US to foot the entire bill, which is basically, by itself, equal to Israel’s annual free military aid from US:
link to defenseindustrydaily.com
Are those the F-35s you are talking about? Or has Obama given him 20 additional F-35s? If so, that’s very generous, especially considering Israel never honored Obama’s bribe offer.
This article makes it pretty clear, Obama’s offer to give Israel 20 F-35s for a 90 day settlement freeze was additional to the first 20 discussed in the defense web site I linked to above: link to ehpg.wordpress.com
So, geofgray, what is your source that Obama gave Israel the second batch of 20 F-35s (although Israel never did the 90 day settlement freeze, the condition precedent for getting the second batch of non-defensive, long range attack planes suitable for reaching Iran)?
Obama was actually consulted before the attack on Gaza in late ’08 early ’09.
He gave Israel a green light but asked that the Israeli attack on Gaza be terminated by the time inauguration day came around.
I forget exactly where I read that, but I do recall that the source was a credible journalistic one.
Geofgray has some excellent observations. My own observation is our system of electoral politics is who can make the biggest whore of themselves (and please don’t give me any pc about using the word “whore”; I’m tired of that crap too) to the groups who can get them elected. And, sadly enough, given the dismal outcomes of the current state of our electoral politics, we wish to export this garbage to other nations? You’ve got to be kidding! I don’t know if Mitt Romney really means what he says when he makes the comments he does about Israel, about Jewish culture, and any number of other things. He’s pandering. He may be saying these things while thinking to himself, “what a bunch of assholes, I think Jewish culture is crap, I couldn’t give a damn less about Israel …..” We just don’t know do we? We’re not mind readers. Look, Mr. Obama told us a bunch of crap too that he probably didn’t really mean.
A solution to this terrible situation, I don’t profess to have.
My own observation is our system of electoral politics is who can make the biggest whore of themselves (and please don’t give me any pc about using the word “whore”; I’m tired of that crap too) … — quercus
I can’t believe you would insult whores in this way! It’s a blood libel!
Ramadan Kareem- to all who observe Ramadan. (Did I spell that right?)
The combination of fasting and celebration is strange to a Jew whose fast days are pretty somber all told. (True, the meaning of Yom Kippur is supposed to be forgiveness and if your sins are forgiven you should rejoice, but the emphasis is on repentance and it seems pretty somber.)
I received a thrill when I first recognized the word Ramadan in Arabic script. It is not spelled with a dalet (or dal or da, the equivalent of the Hebrew dalet), but with the equivalent of the Hebrew tzadi with a dot on top making it the equivalent of the “d”, although specialists might give it a special twist of the tongue to turn it into something a bit different than a “d”.
I am sure that the fact that Ramadan is celebrated in different seasons is a noteworthy feature. (I imagine a writer: Ramadan that year was in summer or Ramadan that year was in the winter.) The Muslim calendar has 12 months in it of 29 and a half days or 354 days. Thus every year Ramadan is celebrated 11 days earlier on the solar calendar. Thus it takes approximately 33 years to return to approximately the same spot on the solar calendar. On the Jewish calendar we add a leap month, 7 times in a 19 year cycle, so as to keep our holidays in the rhythm of the seasons. The Palestinian Israeli writer, Sayed Kashua, wrote in Haaretz once that Islam should wait until Ramadan reaches the winter months and then change their calendar to reflect the solar calendar with the type of leap months that Judaism has in its calendar. But religions do not change so easily and I’m sure that Kashua was “joking”.
The similarities between Islam and Judaism (monotheism and fast days) would make cooperation easier, one would think, but it doesn’t work that way. The work towards cooperation is difficult. Meanwhile some are dedicated to the next war and fighting the Zionists and the time and spirit for cooperation apparently is supposed to wait until after the next big bloodletting.
(I am mostly passive- communicating my will for cooperation with body language and glances, hardly enough to change the world.)
Oh yes, and while George Romney was brainwashed, Mitt Romney does not seem to have a brain to wash, although maybe it’s his heart (or courage) that is lacking.
‘Mitt Romney does not seem to have a brain to wash’
Believe he was Bainwashed. Which amounts to the same thing.
“(I am mostly passive- communicating my will for cooperation with body language and glances, hardly enough to change the world.)”
You are so full of crap, yonah. Tell me, how many settlements should Israel evacuate? How much should Israel pay in reparations to the Palestinians?
Okay, sure yonah, go on “passive- communicating” your “will for cooperation” with (ROTFL) “body language and glances”.
Every day is a whole new world to a Zionist, and the past is washed clean, and only an anti-Semite would mention it. And he’s always talking to wide-eyed children. Ziocaine amnesia.
Yonah’s comment archive can be accessed by clicking his name.
Tisha B’Av is not a “holiday”.
“Tisha B’Av is not a ‘holiday’.”
Yes it is.
You’ve just convinced yourself that the word only has the narrow definition you are thinking of. It doesn’t. It also means simply a religious day of observation. Days of celebration and days of mourning are both “holidays.”
Woody -
You know your holidays and your 1960′s post-season pitching rotations. Pretty impressive.
evets,
Thanks. Yes, I’m a seething font of useless knowledge. Imagine how far I’d go in this world if I only had some ambition…
Woody, while I accept all your other contentions, and consider myself lucky to get ‘em, I do have one quibble. I don’t think fonts seethe. At least, I’ve never seen one do so. An occasional ripple, and a splash when the kid goes in for the dip, but seethe? Wouldn’t it alarm hell out of the parents?
Mooser,
Yes, it is unusual, I admit. But try to picture a font actually seething; get it really bubbling away in your mind’s eye. Now imagine it made up of useless knowledge. Now picture that inside your head. That’s what I live with. Please be kind.
Tisha B’Av is not a “holiday”
Actually, it is called a “holiday” (מועד) in Rabbinic tradition, based on Lamentations 1:15. Certain religious practices derive from this designation (see e.g. Tur, Orah hayyim 559).
Ok, I was indeed thinking of the usual meaning of holiday=festival. If we take the literal meaning , “holy day” then of course you’re right.
“If we take the literal meaning , “holy day” then of course you’re right.”
LOL. He’s right no matter what. In English, the word does not just mean “festival.”
Good Friday — a Christian day of mourning — is certainly considered a holy day within Christianity, and it has been a legal holiday in many jurisdictions with Christian majorities, including 12 U.S. states currently.
Are you having fun pretending to complain about Zionists, while enjoying the perks of Zionist supremacy?
I will believe your complaints about Zionism when I see you in New York City Council demanding boycott against Israel.
I will believe your complaints when I see you in the NYU student government demanding a boycott against Israel.
These are two very easy places for you to visit with your friends– if you have any friends willing to accompany you.
But until you are visibly demanding action against Israel, this thing you call BDS, I believe you are just having fun posing as an anti-Zionist.
Act like an anti-Zionist and demand boycott of Israel.
Everybody does what they can, in their own way. It is not up to you to judge other’s efforts. This site is a huge contribution, but it doesn’t mean Phil has to conform to your ideas of what anti-zionism is or should be. You are free to take the actions you demand of others.
There is a lot of hot air spoken about “BDS”, but virtually no visible campaigns for BDS.
Why?
Boycott Israel on Campus , I hate to go back to this again, but if you look at the “about” page, I’m almost certain you will not find a pledge to endorse or lead or facilitate any given actions which are initiated to help the I-P issues. Write about them, yes, report on them, the ideas behind them, yes, the reactions to them, yes, discuss them, yes, but engage in them as a website, no.
Seems to me that if you’ve got material on BDS and Boycotting Israel on Campus you should make sure that Mondoweiss gets it, and is kept up-to-date on the issues and actions.
hear hear!
“Are you having fun pretending to complain about Zionists, while enjoying the perks of Zionist supremacy?”
Nah, as I mentioned, people’s hopes for me tend to collapse when they find out I’m not a Zionist. A Jew who isn’t smart enough to be a Zionist, or pretends to have those kinds of scruples which exclude Zionism can’t be good for anything. Better to be upfront with them, and avoid disappointment and hurt feelings.
Author of “Guns, Germs and Steel” disagrees with the way Romney used his book in Jerusalem.
“That is so different from what my book actually says that I have to doubt whether Mr. Romney read it,” he wrote in The New York Times on Tuesday.”
Romney Hasn’t Done His Homework
link to nytimes.com
The main issue here is that Mitt Romney is harboring extreme Islamophobes within his political camp — like John Bolton. Mitt Romney owns all their hate speech until he emphatically denounces and renounces it — which he hasn’t done. The entire neoconservative movement is drenched in Islamophobia which rivals in virulence Nazi anti-Jewish propaganda, and the Romney organization is dominated and controlled by neoconservatives.
No doubt Mitt Romney would be hypersensitive about crude hate speech directed at his own religion. Certainly Mormonism is highly vulnerable to “close inspection” and vigorous criticism on many issues of doctrine and policy.
I am beginning to wonder if Mormon Zionists harbor even more crazy, delusional and dangerous ideas than Christian Zionists. The mainstream media should be all over this issue well before the election so that American are spared any unpleasant surprises regarding Mitt Romney’s real beliefs and agenda.
I used to assume, without paying much attention to the matter, that Matt Romney was a moderate and sober technocrat of a type that is often associated with Harvard. I no longer believe that, after listening to some of his recent statements. Beneath the polished and well-coiffed facade may lurk a lunatic Glenn Beck or John Hagee.
Both Christian and Mormon Armageddonists represent a grave threat to Americans and the world at large. They are utterly demented.
The most important and fateful development in contemporary global politics is the emerging alliance among Jewish, Christian and Mormon Armageddonists.
“The most important and fateful development in contemporary global politics is the emerging alliance among Jewish, Christian and Mormon Armageddonists.”
It seems like a pretty safe bet that an alliance of Armageddonists is a bad thing.
Here’s a fun thought. Get a rumor started that as soon as Romney is inaugurated, the Mormon Church is going to hold a mass posthumous baptism of all holocaust victims.
Obama offers a statement about Ramadan every year.
Yeah, and then he drops bombs on those who celebrate Ramadan. So, why all the praise for Obama?
Any serious projection on how many votes his racism earns him?
Who says he’s after votes? The voters were in the US. Adelson and the other dollar bill guys were in israel (in body or in spirit.)
@ eGuard, Mitt picked up a quick $1 million in Israel, and while he was there Bibi gave him a letter demanding Pollard’s release: link to algemeiner.com
In the spirit of being as inclusive as I can to everyone I meet, I never fail to tell people that as a humanist, I’m always glad to share in the ritual of “breaking bread.” It means in its most literal sense that I do not wish for you to go hungry, whether in times of abundance or slim pickens.
I am glad to read Philip’s take on this as well. I enjoyed the piece very much.
In the spirit of being as inclusive as I can to everyone I meet, I never fail to tell people that as a humanist, I’m always glad to share in the ritual of “breaking bread.” It means in its most literal sense that I do not wish for you to go hungry, whether in times of abundance or slim pickens.
The other night, a Muslim acquaintance offered to share his Iftar meal with me and I made some sort of joke about not “deserving” it, because I hadn’t fasted. He answered that Ramadan (at least in theory) is the great equaliser, because it is the only time of year that both rich and poor go hungry. He said that this universal message would be defeated if one were to fail to share a meal with someone simply because they had not fasted (whether because they are not Muslim or because they have not observed the fast), and what unites us – observant Muslim, non-observant Muslim and non-Muslim – is so much greater than what divides us. This he said, is the true message of Ramadan, no matter what the self-righteous and the hypocrites will tell you.
Very nice anecdote, Shmuel.
“He said that this universal message would be defeated…”
So, did you end up putting on the nosebag together? Jostling each other at the trough? Don the soup-and-fish? Obey the imperative of the dinner-gong?
I mean to say, did you end up eating together?
So, did you end up putting on the nosebag together?
As I was typing my edifying tale, I asked myself, “Will anybody get past the fluff, to the heart of the matter, to the meat, as it were?” And I replied, “Mooser will. I know it. He won’t let me down.” And here you are.
The answer is yes, we broke bread (rice actually) together. Oh, and it was rather tasty too.
>> No matter what you think of religion, if you are a humanist, you have to admire Ramadan as the expression of a major civilization that organizes people’s lives in humble and at times beautiful ritual.
While I have no doubt that many people have found ways to humbly and beautifully integrate it into their lives, I actually see nothing to admire in an annual, month-long, religiously-mandated, dawn-to-dusk period of fasting that, necessarily, involves pre-dawn and post-dusk gorging.
More admirable, IMO, would be regular daily communal breakfasts and/or dinners during which the people in a community would interact with each other, and share their food, time and experiences with each other, for no other reason – not political, not religious, not economic – than because they wish to do so.
But that’s just me. :-) And I know I’m going to catch an earful (well, actually, an eyeful) for having posted this. ;-)
I think maybe there’s room for both because, although I am not tied to any religious ritual, I think the notions behind them are sometimes admirable.
As far as Yom Kippur goes, casting bread up the water as a symbol of forgiveness (the ducks being “sin eaters?”), I’d much rather prefer actual contrition and a real world attempt to right the wrongs one has committed.
As a former Catholic, a parallel concept was the joke about going to church on Sunday to ask forgiveness for the sins you’ll be committing again on Monday.
Not mentioning Ramadan was a big mistake by Romney. I believe it was unintentional. But a big mistake none the less.
I believe it was unintentional.
of course you do