Mr. Romney goes to Israel; Jewish voters say "Meh"....

Cross posted at Daily Kos

In the last week Mitt Romney has gone on what can be best described as an "around the world train wreck". In one week he has managed to piss off our strongest ally (the British) and then turn around and completely insult and anger the Arab World and any erstwhile ally or friend we have in the region outside of Israel.

All of this has been covered to the nth degree so there is no real need to rehash the information, HOWEVER, it is worth noting that in his shameless pandering to the Evangelical and Right wing voters (Including the hard fringe of the Jewish Right both here in the U.S. and in Israel) he manages to completely get in the way of the alliance that President Obama is building to counter Iranian hegemonistic interests in the region.

How did he do this? With his typical attempt to play both sides of an issue. First, he told the Israelis that he would call:

Jerusalem "the capital of Israel," ignoring their own claims to the city and most world opinion.

but when questioned on this issue he refused to say if he would actually do that. As the Egypt Gazette reported:

In an interview with CNN, Romney refused to be pinned down on whether he would recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital if he beats Obama and wins the White House. 

"A nation has the capacity to choose its own capital city, and Jerusalem is Israel's capital," he said.

"I think it's long been the policy of our country to ultimately have our embassy in the nation's capital, Jerusalem. The decision to actually make the move is one, if I were president, I would want to take in consultation with the leadership of the (Israeli) government which exists at that time. So I would follow the same policy we have in the past (vb1 emphasis)."

In other words... "I plan to do nothing, but, I want gullible American voters and their allies in other nations to think that I might do something AND in the meanwhile I will get any alliances the President Obama might be building and put them in jeopardy". 

Now, hopefully other nations seeing this, as well as the debacle that Romney made out of the British leg of his trip, will hopefully understand that Romney is NOT the President of the United States and does not speak for our nation.

But back to the main point of this diary...

Last week Gallup released yet another poll showing the race in terms of President Obama vs. Mitt Romney with Jewish voters. Following along with most polls of the Jewish American electorate in the words of The Forward:Obama Thumping Romney Among Jews: Poll GOP Candidate Trails 68%-to-25% as He Heads to Israel:

On the eve of presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s visit to Israel, a new Gallup poll reveals that Jewish American voters continue to support his rival, President Barack Obama, by a wide 68%-25% margin.

Now these numbers have been fairly consistent and that has led many Republicans and their ODS (Obama Derangement Syndrome) flacks to crow about how the President is "bleeding" Jewish support. Why do they do this? Well in the 2008 election, President Obama won the Jewish vote approx. 78%-22%. So, when they see the 68% number they immediately try to spin the information in their favor to feed the meme that the President is losing support amongst Jewish voters. 

BUT, hold the phone (as they say)... Is the President REALLY "bleeding" support from Jewish voters? The answer is... "Not so much". Let's look at the Gallup polls prior to the 2008 election at this time in fact... Quite the opposite seems to be happening. According to Gallup in July of 2008 then Senator Obama led John McCain 61%-31% NOW President Obama leads Mitt Romney 68%-25%.

As Mitt Romney tacks harder to the Right he risks losing even MORE Jewish support as Jewish voters tend to be more liberal voters. His continued gaffes including refusal to speak out on the conversion of Holocaust Victims to the LDS Church, or scheduling a dinner on Tisha B' Av, or basically showing himself to be completely unversed in Middle Eastern politics are not "confidence builders' to say the least. Let's also not forget that his domestic agenda (which as far as anyone can see is "Bring back the Bush team" and cut taxes for the super wealthy and not a whole lot else) is hardly inspiring to anyone outside the far-right and the lunatic fringe.

Elie Wiesel to Mitt Romney - Stand up for what is right! Who are really our friends?

This year the Republicans and fellow their fellow ODS (Obama Derangement Syndrome) sufferers are trying to make a huge push for Jewish voters to turn from their traditional role as strong supporters of the Democratic Party to becoming Republican voters (particularly in "swing" states like Florida and Pennsylvania) and donors. In addition to continually ignoring or worse yet, lying about the Presidents record regarding Israel and Jewish people, these hapless Republicans continue to make tactical mistake after tactical mistake regarding our constituency.

The latest is in GOP Front Runner (and party establishment favorite) Mitt Romney. For all of his "lip service" to the Israeli Right, Mr. Romney is proving himself to be far from a friend to the Jewish people. How is this? Well, Mr. Romney is a member of the Mormon (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - LDS) Church. Part of the practices of this church are to conduct posthumous conversions of people to Mormonism in an effort to gain them access to heaven.

So, what is the issue here? Well it seems that the family of the late (and great Nazi Hunter) Simon Wiesenthal is upset that a Mormon official performed a baptism on the parents of Mr. Wiesenthal after they died. To be fair to the Mormon Church in this instance they immediately apologized - HOWEVER, they did not say that they would cease this practice.

In today's Haaretz the great Elie Wiesel calls out Mitt Romney for not addressing this issue:

Republican presidential hopeful and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney should have spoken up against Mormon posthumous baptism of Jews, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Eli Wiesel said in an interview on Wednesday....

.......Speaking to MSNBC's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell's on Wednesday, Wiesel mentioned the name of Republican presidential hopeful and Mormon Mitt Romney in relation to the affair, saying the former governor should have communicated his position on the matter.

"Mitt Romney is a Mormon, and I respect all religions, including the Mormon religion," Wiesel said, asking: "How come he hasn't spoken up after all?"

"It's not, I'm sure he's not involved in that. But nevertheless, the moment he heard about this, he should have spoken up, because he is running for the presidency of the United States, which means it's too serious of an issue for him not to speak up," he added.

The Wiesenthal Center also expressed it's condemnation:

Following news of the posthumous baptism of Wiesenthal's parents, the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center denounced the baptismal rites.

"We are outraged that such insensitive actions continue in the Mormon temples," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean at the center.

Indeed, how would we feel if our parents were posthumously converted to another religion. Would we consider the church that carried out these practices to be friends of the Jewish people? While I appreciate that the LDS church did apologize - rather than apologizing they should simply cease this odious practice. moreover, Mitt Romney as a Presidential candidate and self described devout Mormon needs to address this issue.

But this is not the only case of Republican insensitivity towards the Jewish people and religion. We all know about Ron Paul (who polls between 15-20% of Republican base) and his Neo-Nazi connections. How Republicans and the ODS sufferers think we can ignore that is simply beyond me. But, they do. They keep saying "Don't vote for the Democrats, we will support you" but they simply refuse to address the problem that one in five or six Republican voters supports this bigot. It is like they want us to simply look the other way while a sizable part of their voting base flirts with people that want to actually end the State of Israel and hangs out with people found at hate sites like StormFront or Mondoweiss.

Or how about Rick Santorum (the new, not Mitt). Mr Santorum is a true religious Christian who makes all kinds of noise about supporting the Israeli Right and their quest to annex the West Bank. Nevermind that this act would end the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish AND Democratic State (something Republicans and ODS'ers care very little about particularly the Democracy part), in a typical act of arrogance Mr. Santorum sent a Chanukah card to his Jewish friends with the following quote on it:

"I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."

Ummmm, someone needs to tell Mr. Santorum that having quotes from the NEW TESTAMENT on a holiday card does not express respect for those of us who are Jewish. YET, we are are told to ignore all of this and vote against a man who has gone out of his way to provide friendship for the Jewish people (and Israel) and:

1. Held the first ever Seder in the White House

2. Named a month of the Year - Jewish History Month (May 2011)

3. Has had, not one but TWO Jewish Chiefs of Staff

4. Has been termed an "exceptional" friend of Israel by Israeli leaders across the Political Spectrum from President Shimon Peres (Kadima), to Defense Minister Ehud Barak (Atz'maout) to Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon (Yisrael Betainu).

I would ask individual Jewish voters given this... Which party is it or which candidate is it that seems to have our best interests in mind? I think the choice is pretty obvious.