David Ignatius is wrong about what is possible with Mitt Romney vis-a-vis Israel.
The biggest difference between these candidates on the Middle East, when you boil down all the other rhetoric, is probably on Israel. Romney said it pretty clearly: “The world must never see any daylight between our two nations.” Taken at face value, that seems to mean the United States shouldn’t take public positions that are different from Israel’s. That’s a formulation that few Republican foreign policy leaders would agree with. Among those GOP luminaries who very deliberately opened “daylight” were Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, Brent Scowcroft, James Baker and Condoleezza Rice.
Romney can’t seriously mean that on all major issues affecting Israel, he will defer to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? No nation hands over policy choices to another, even to its best friend.
I understand that no one ever got rich taking Mitt Romney at his word, but what else do we have to go on? During the Republican primaries, Mitt Romney told Newt Gingrich that he should pre-clear any rhetoric about the Palestinian question with Israel’s leaders.
“Before I made a statement of that nature, I’d get on the phone to my friend Bibi Netanyahu and say: ‘Would it help if I say this? What would you like me to do?’”
That sounds more extreme than Tony Blair’s relationship to George W. Bush in the lead-up to the war in Iraq. Romney won’t even talk about the Middle East without getting his talking points from his “friend Bibi Netanyahu.” Call it pandering if you want, but it’s poodlesque any way you look at it.
Has he I wonder? I mean he’s spewed stuff about Israel and Palestine since then. Has he called Netanyahoo I wonder?
Mitt’s a pre-clearance guy. He’ll make sure everything goes according to the way his undisclosed partners want it to go. His role is to spin this long term and now secured disconnect of the ruling 1% as just the right thing to get this american engine of free enterprise revving again. And he won’t let nobody tell him otherwise, because his tax cuts are MAGICAL. Just sign right there.
There is the old saying, “A friend doesn’t let a friend drive drunk”. I have been trying to figure out how to use that in relation to Israel.
I heard a truthful statement about policy making in Washington DC. We are very fortunate the second echalon of civil servants are second to none and is a guarantee for continuation in foreign policy.
With Bush people coming back with a President Romney I do fear the worst. Nevertheless, I’m not at all satisfied with the results and foreign policy under the Obama administration. See my earlier diaries and I warned for the impotence before, during and after the Benghazi attacks. How Clinton became a liability for the re-electyion of President Obama. The Syria-Turkey frontier is about to explode!
The potential President :::choking::: takes his marching orders from a foreign leader. Reason enough for right-leaning voters to look elsewhere.
“The world must never see any daylight between our two nations”. Hmmmmm….
“The Nation which indulges towards another…an habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest.
A passionate attachment of one Nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for a favorite Nation, facilitating the illusion of a common interest,…betrays the former into the quarrels and wars of the latter. It leads also to concessions to the favorite Nation of privileges which are denied to others [fomenting envy and hostility]. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted and deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation) facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country”.
Washington’s Farewell Address, not too much in vogue today.
Of course, in Washington’s day, presidents were more plainspoken and direct. And they asumed that Americans did not want their country to be dragged into the “quarrels and wars” of some “favorite” nation. These concerns no longer apply, of course. Especially to America’s Braindead Militarist “conservative” movement.
But one has to wonder what Founder Washington would think of this appalling, craven and obsequious language by foreign policy whiz-kid Willard toward his “friend Bibi Netanyahu”. Actually, it’s not too hard to imagine…
These Washington quotes, along with Romney’s statement, would make a great ad. Nice catch!
Or a provocative debate question, if a moderator so dared.
This photo was taken a few years ago at a party on the Lower East Side. It’s me, Baratunde Thurston, and Al Giordano.
Which one’s you?
Just kidding. But I only knew the answer because I know what both of them look like. This may be the first picture I’ve seen of you ever.
You missed the famous underwear shot. But perhaps I’ve said too much…
Actually a simple Google search reminded me that I have indeed seen a few photos of Booman over the last 6 years or so. Most memorable was when Finn was born. I guess I really am getting old because I honestly couldn’t remember earlier.
No underwear shot though. LOL!
The Dems will never run with this, even though its electoral consequences would be devastating for Romney. “He says he’ll let Israel run American foreign policy. He urges Republicans to call his friend Netanyahu before making a statement about US international strategy.” Point is, this is not about Israel — it’s about Romney’s willingness to let a foreign nation dictate its policies. Hyperbole? Not really if “The world must never see any daylight between our two nations” then it’s the US that has to bow to Israel’s will, since it’s only the US, not Israel, that we can control.
The Dems won’t touch this because they cen’t face the hysterical “anti-semite” charges that will be unleashed. So how do the rest of us get this out there in a big way? There’s the Web, of course, but this needs to get beyond that. We need the non-party organizations like Moveon to step in and use this potent weapon. Any thoughts?