Romney visit, largely well-received by Israel, had stumbles and snafus too

Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign had high hopes for his visit to Israel.

With polls showing the Republican challenger running neck-and-neck against Democratic incumbent President Barack Obama, the Romney campaign hoped to use the trip to showcase the candidate’s concern for Israel and its security to the American Jewish electorate, particularly in Florida, the largest swing state and home to the third-largest Jewish community in the United States.

The 36-hour visit was a success by some measures. Meetings with Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, seemed to show a close personal friendship. His comments on Iran — that the United States “should employ any and all measures to dissuade the Iranian regime from its nuclear course,” and that it recognizes “Israel’s right to defend itself, and that it is right for America to stand with you” — reflected the fears of the Israeli security establishment that the international sanctions on the Islamic Republic may not stop the regime’s drive to nuclear weapons.

In one $50,000-a-plate breakfast, he reportedly raised over $1 million for his campaign coffers.

Why, then, did Romney leave the region with so many people, even supporters, angered by the visit?

In a much-criticized snafu, his campaign canceled a meeting with Labor Party leader MK Shelly Yachimovich. The Romney campaign said the cancellation was due to the belated realization that Yachimovich was no longer head of the opposition, a position she lost when Kadima left the Likud-led governing coalition on July 17.

According to Yachimovich supporters, including MK Isaac Herzog and Labor staffers, the Romney campaign had been notified of Yachimovich’s change in parliamentary status shortly after it happened, but campaign staff insisted on holding the meeting regardless.

“They really insisted,” said one person familiar with the communications between Herzog’s office and the Romney campaign. “It went beyond American politeness. They said they wanted Mr. Romney to meet Shelly.”

Yachimovich had delayed an important family event because the Romney campaign was set on holding the meeting, a staffer said.

By the time the campaign called on Sunday morning to cancel, the meeting was just two hours away. Calls to the campaign asking why the meeting was being canceled were met with a peremptory, “we just found out she isn’t the opposition leader,” a fact both Yachimovich and Herzog say had been conveyed to the campaign over a week earlier.

Coverage of the snub reached every Israeli media outlet, from Haaretz on the left to Israel Hayom on the right, and including influential business journals such as The Marker and popular web portals such as Walla. It left many Israelis, especially on the left, feeling the Republican candidate was playing Israeli politics.

On Monday morning, at the fundraiser breakfast, Romney delivered remarks about Israel’s entrepreneurial business culture that seemed to suggest Israel was more economically successful than Palestinians because it had the advantages of “culture” and “the hand of Providence.” The remarks drew angry condemnation from Palestinian leaders for what they said were racist overtones.

“As I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation,” Romney told the group of some three dozen donors, “I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things. One, I recognize the hand of providence in selecting this place.”

Saeb Erekat, a top Palestinian negotiator and adviser to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, called Romney’s remarks “a racist statement.”

“This man doesn’t realize that the Palestinian economy cannot reach its potential because there is an Israeli occupation,” Erekat said. “It seems to me this man lacks information, knowledge, vision and understanding of this region and its people.… He also lacks knowledge about the Israelis themselves. I have not heard any Israeli official speak about cultural superiority.”

The Obama White House was quick to criticize Romney’s faux pas. According to White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest, people were “scratching their heads a little bit” at the remarks. “One of the challenges of being an actor on the international stage, particularly when you’re traveling to such a sensitive part of the world, is that your comments are very closely scrutinized, for meaning, for nuance, for motivation,” Earnest said in a jab at the Romney campaign’s efforts to showcase the Republican candidate as a global leader with diplomatic savvy.

Earnest also criticized Romney’s assertion during his visit that Jerusalem was the capital of Israel. “It’s the view of this administration,” he said, “that the capital is something that should be determined in final status negotiations between the parties.”

Last week, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney drew criticism from conservatives and some Israeli leaders when he refused to name Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The refusal appears to be a change in President Obama’s declared position in June 2008, during the presidential election campaign, that “Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.”

Finally, even some of Romney’s key supporters in Israel were left feeling snubbed by the visit, after disorganization and poor planning left over 100 invited guests to Romney’s sole public appearance unable to attend.

Mitt Romney spoke in the chic Yemin Moshe neighborhood outside Jerusalem’s Old City walls. While the speech was hailed by Israeli leaders as proof the Romney understood Israel’s profound concerns over Iran, Syria and other issues, the event itself was an organizational flop.

Many criticized the timing of an outdoor event held under the hot Mediterranean sun at the end of a Jewish fast day, while others complained that as many as one third of those invited by the campaign saw their invitations canceled at the last minute due to overbooking.

According to staffers familiar with the organization of the Sunday afternoon event, organizers had invited upwards of 350 people to the 250-person venue. This left the campaign’s Israel staff and supporters on Saturday night frantically calling and emailing notices of cancellation to over 100 invitees.

Many guests, including supporters and reporters for major Israeli dailies, were turned away at the door.

The stumbles in Israel follow on the heels of missteps during Romney’s visit to London last week, when he drew criticism from British Prime Minister David Cameron for remarks chastising the UK’s preparedness for the London Olympics.