Mitt Romney's Racist and Ignorant
Remarks in Israel: Total Capitulation to the Zionist
Rulers of the United States
02 August 2012
By Stuart Littlewood
Is US presidential
hopeful Mitt Romney just a pretty face, then?
He's blind to the "bleedin'
obvious" economic consequence of Israeli military
occupation Stuart Littlewood reviews the the erratic progress
of a stumblebum, US Republican presidential candidate
Mitt Romney, from gaffes in London and Warsaw to a
spectacular display of racism and ignorance during a
visit to Israel where he paid homage to America's
Zionist kingmakers.
"Far better if glamour-boy Romney had stayed home
to irritate the good people of Massachusetts. I
thought we Britons were hard up for political
talent. But, dear God, is this charmless individual
the best presidential material our American friends
can offer a world that cries out for integrity and
courageous leadership?" (Stuart Littlewood)
Mitt Romney is listed among People
magazine's 50 "most beautiful" of 2002. He was up
there with Nicole Kidman, Britney Spears and Julia
Roberts. But how pretty does he look in 2012?
This US presidential hopeful from the Republican wing
of AIPAC, the American-Israel Public Affairs
Committee, came here to England and put his foot in it
by questioning Britain's readiness to host the
Olympics. We were already on the case, thank you Mr
Romney. But please remember that it's largely
America's misbehaviour around the world that puts such
a colossal strain on Olympic security and makes other
nations' teams so nervous.
His remarks drew some sharp responses, and thus began
a series of "mis-steps" that characterized the
presidential candidate's misadventure into the wider
world and culminated in an unforgettable "kiss my ass"
invitation by one of his campaign aides. Mis-steps is
a curiously polite US word that seems to be gaining
currency here. It conjures up the erratic progress of
a stumblebum.
No surprise that while in London he met the Quartet's
Zio-stooge Tony Blair to have his mind further
poisoned and confused.
Romney then went to Israel to annoy the
Palestinians by stating the bleedin' obvious – that
the Israeli economy had outpaced the Palestinians' –
and suggesting that this phenomenon could be explained
by the superior "culture".
He came to a fundraiser attended by the mega-rich
at the King David Hotel Jerusalem with, he said, "a
sense of profound humility". After all, he was
expecting a nice fat cheque for 1 million. Dollars.
Was he aware that this is the same King David Hotel
that was blown up by a Jewish terror gang in 1946 when
it served as the British administration's
headquarters, murdering 91?
That infamous attack had Menachem Begin's fingerprints
all over it and was far worse than any subsequent
bombing in the Arab-Israel conflict – except Israel's
"Cast Lead" blitzkrieg against Gaza in the
winter of 2008/09. Begin of course went on to become
an Israeli prime minister, having all the
qualifications.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz observed that Romney's
speech "sounded as if it could have been written by
Netanyahu's bureau". He said: "As you come here and
you see the GDP per capita, for instance, in Israel
which is about 21,000 dollars, and compare that with
the GDP per capita just across the areas managed by
the Palestinian Authority, which is more like 10,000
dollars per capita, you notice such a dramatically
stark difference in economic vitality."
This brilliant analysis is apparently based on a book
Romney had read called The Wealth and Poverty of
Nations in his search for reasons why two
neighbouring places have such disparate prosperity.
"Culture makes all the difference. Culture makes all
the difference," he said, this being his conclusion.
A few weeks ago a World Bank report said that the
Palestinian economy's modest growth was not
sustainable because it was driven by aid – it was
artificial and therefore not strong enough to support
statehood. Before that, an Israeli government report
had said the Palestinian set-up was not economically
stable enough to support a state. And why would that
be? Because Israel is pulling every dirty trick
imaginable to impoverish and incapacitate the occupied
territories and keep them in subjugation.
Given their freedom like other people, the
Palestinians of course could stand on their own feet
and would not need Western taxpayer support.
Had Romney spent as much time in Palestine as he did
in Israel he could have discovered the truth
first-hand. He'd have seen the bleedin' obvious – that
the reason the Palestinian economy is on it knees has
nothing to do with culture and everything to do with
the illegal and brutal military occupation, and the
fact that donor countries like the US, Britain and the
EU have been propping up and perpetuating the
occupation for decades. How can the Palestinians
prosper when the Israelis won't allow them to export
or import or otherwise do business freely with the
outside world?
As for Palestine's weakening agricultural sector what
has happened to their water? It's been stolen and the
Israelis are filling their swimming pools and washing
their cars with it and channeling it to their own
agricultural crops on confiscated Palestinian land,
while the Palestinian farmers' supply is down to a
trickle.
are Palestinians allowed to develop their own
energy resource – the Gaza offshore gas field? No.
Israel is trying to steal that too.
Romney also ignores the endless checkpoints and
other restrictions that block freedom of movement and
commerce within the occupied territories. It's bleedin'
obvious the Palestinians can't grow their economy
until they shake off Israel's shackles. The dimmest
American politician, surely, can figure that out.
But it suits the West's corrupted political class to
let the evil continue.
Romney scheduled a very brief meeting with the
Palestinian Authority's unelected prime minister,
Salam Fayyad, and laced it with a second insult by not
traveling to Ramallah. Did he pop over to Gaza and
shoot the breeze with Ismail Haniyeh and Mahmoud al-Zahar?
Nah, such a reality-check would have been too much for
a sheltered Republican softie.
Instead he donned the obligatory kippah for
the Zionist cameras and hasbara scribes and
prayed at the Western Wall. He met Binyamin Netanyahu,
Israel's belligerent prime minister. One of Romney's
senior policy adviser promised support for a
unilateral military strike by Israel, which has some
400 nuclear warheads, against Iran which has none,
notwithstanding that the Israeli regime is considered
by more and more people to be clinically mad.
And, to underline his ignorance, he declared Jerusalem
to be the capital of Israel. Well, Israel would
certainly like Jerusalem to be its capital and for
everyone in the world to acknowledge it, but few do
for very good reason.
"All I can say is that this man needs a lot of
education," said Saeb Erekat, top Palestinian
Authority negotiator. "He doesn't know the region, he
doesn't know Israelis, he doesn't know Palestinians,
and to talk about the Palestinians as an inferior
culture is really a racist statement," At last, here's
something Erekat says that we can agree with.
Romney's visit to Poland on the final leg of his
visit to the real world was hardly a public affairs
triumph either, according to the BBC. As Mark Mardell
reported, "even his press team finds it difficult to
respond to the most basic inquiries about what their
candidate has said". And Romney's press secretary
spectacularly lost his rag with reporters and refused
to answer questions after their visit to Warsaw's Tomb
of the Unknown Soldier. "Shove it" and "kiss my ass",
he told reporters.
Far better if glamour-boy Romney had stayed home to
irritate the good people of Massachusetts. I thought
we Britons were hard up for political talent. But,
dear God, is this charmless individual the best
presidential material our American friends can offer a
world that cries out for integrity and courageous
leadership?
As I was about to file this, an email from JVP (Jewish
Voice for Peace) arrived with the text of an open
letter to Romney, which they hope to deliver at the
end of the week. It says:
To Governor Mitt Romney,
Your statements in Jerusalem regarding the growth of
the Palestinian and Israeli economies were
inaccurate and misleading. Israel's occupation of
Palestinian land makes it impossible for the
Palestinian economy to succeed, not "cultural
differences". Your comments were not a reflection of
the values Jews, Americans, and our allies hold
dear. We call on you to apologize to the Palestinian
people for your willful lack of understanding of the
facts on the ground and the racist assumptions
behind them.
JVP also point out that Romney managed to get his
facts completely wrong in claiming the Israeli GDP is
twice that of the occupied Palestinian territories,
when it is actually about 10 times greater.