I heard they have really big penis's, too.

Romney goes to another country and manages to offend someone. This is hardly surprising.

To me the last part about providence seems like the bigger story. Am I wrong or is he directly referencing the idea that Jewish people have a holy right to Jerusalem?

Romney went to Italy and said, you guys are great about lovemaking, wine and making offers we can't refuse.

Then he went to China and said, because of your ancient wisdom, you have learned to eat with wood utensils and make cat meat tasty. Thus government spending per capita can remain low.

Then, he went to the Playboy mansion and said, ladies, your big breast allow you to earn much wealth from horney dudes. You built these honkers.

Then...

Rmoney -- yes

"the hand of providence".... ah, yes! That old blowjob.
"It is God's will that __x__ happened, ergo you are special/chosen/etc."

Yeah, yeah... keep sucking, Rmoney, keep sucking.
*choff-choff-choff!*

And yet, somehow, it seems to be the Palestinians that are getting most upset about Romney dropping some ethnic stereotypes about Jews. There's an irony in that. They're not wrong to be angry, because there were certainly insulting reflections on them by implicit contrast, but there's still a certain irony in it.

Can't we all just unite in thinking that Mitt Romney is an inhuman buffoon?

Israelis, not Jews. This is a dangerous conflation. While Rmoney's statement was certainly ignorant and racist relative to the Palestinians but not likely invoking Shylock.

The thing is, there is truth inside that muddle, and he ought to be able to make that point in a better way -- if only he could make intelligible arguments. What Israel has accomplished -- building a modern state in the middle of nowhere despite unbelievable amounts of extreme hostility -- IS remarkable. It's not just in comparison to the Palestinians, it's in comparison to any Arab state. Egypt, for instance, isn't oppressed or occupied by Israel, is twenty times the size of Israel, and gets about the same amount of aid from us, but is something of an economic basket case -- and they're an Arab success story in comparison. Jordan, Syria, Iraq, even Lebanon have nothing like Israel's modern society to point to. The best-off Arabs in the entire Middle East live in Israel (aside from a handful of oil sheiks in the Gulf States). By any standard, Israel is not only the most successful state but the ONLY SUCCESSFUL state in the entire region, not just economically but culturally and in terms of human rights.

The shame is the eagerness with which they seem hell-bent on throwing all that away over the issue of the settlers -- who ironically never give anything at all back to Israel. The hard-core religious loons who are destroying Israel from within don't serve in the military, don't pay tax, don't participate in Israeli culture, don't do anything, really, except deliberately shit all over the geopolitical situation.

Mitt has no sense of how much money people have or don't have. Both of those numbers are obviously wrong if you have any idea of the living conditions in either area.

Romney’s “international gaffs pale in comparison to Obama’s… Shall we review some of them?

Intentionally preempting Netanyahu’s address to Congress to declare that “the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps” despite the objections of his own senior advisors.

Being overheard at the G-20 summit: Sarkozy- “Netanyahu, I can’t stand him. He’s a liar” Obama- “You are sick of him, but I have to work with him every day.”

Choosing Sept. 17, 2009 — the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland — to tell Poland that he was caving in to Russian demands and abandoning their missile defense agreement to curry favor with Moscow.

Once again being overheard by reporters (talking to Medvedev): Obama- “On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him [Putin] to give me space.. . . This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.”

Referring to those “Polish death camps”.

And of course bowing to every tin pot dictator, returning the bust of Winston Churchill to the British Government and giving the Queen an iPod loaded with his own speeches as a state gift while his wife slaps her on the back.

I’d say Romney is looking very polished in comparison.

@11, you do realize that “the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps” is Netanyahu's position as well, along with every other Israeli PM and every American president, right? The right made a big stink over that, but that's because no one on the right has looked in a history book or a newspaper since Buckley, and he's dead.

Polish death camps was a perfectly reasonable thing to say. The only people who were really upset by that were Polish skinheads -- a group with an agenda remarkably like your own.

And your Churchill bust story? A total fabrication. The bust is right there in the White House today. Here's a picture of David Cameron looking at it there: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/07/2…

Anything else you got? Here's a tip -- Charles Krauthammer is usually full of it.

Is it an insult if it's a positive stereotype? I don't think it will either hurt or help Romney with Jewish votes (most of which vote Democratic anyways).

@9Fnarf,
You have a point. I lived in Israel briefly (just 4-5 weeks), on a moshav 20+ years ago and also visited Egypt a few years ago. The difference is extraordinary. And, one does need to know the history of the area before jumping to conclusions. I can safely say the settlers in the OT do pose a great conundrum for the country and the Palestinians. It remains an intractable situation.

@13. Agree more or less. I don't believe Romney's visit will help or hinder him nor do I believe him to be antisemitic either. But, he could have been more sensitive to the Palestinians' plight.

hahahaha @11 got pwned

@15, Romney's not anti-semitic because he's not anything.

@14, the "Palestinians" called themselves Arabs before Arafat strategically renamed them in the 60s.

@15, the Republicans keep an increasing number of Americans poor, it's a means of control.

@12
Wrong.
Here's the Whitehouse's apology for calling Krauthammer a liar:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/07/3…

@18, oh, so the fact that bust that was sent back was actually loaned artwork and HAD to be returned, and Obama replaced it with another, permanent one, somehow validates your claim (and Krauthammer's) that Obama willfully insulted the British by returning their bust? This is the kind of triviality you're staking your claim on? Not just a triviality but a pack of lies at the heart of it? THIS IS WHY PEOPLE THINK REPUBLICANS ARE IDIOTS AND ASSHOLES.

@14, the Palestinians were there, but they certainly did not have anything remotely resembling a modern state, and the area was, in fact, thinly populated and economically backward, devastated even, by the long slow collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Part of the reason for the catastrophe of the Middle East is the greed and mishandling of the European Powers, particularly Great Britain and France, but a lot of it is also down to the vacuum left behind by the Turks. Bad things happen when states evaporate.

And none of the people of that area, the ruling classes at least, ever showed even the slightest interest in proper state-building, economy-building, or democracy. Except for one: Israel (and to some extent, Lebanon, which is also a viable commercial state in the grip of unreasoning fanaticism).

It is also true that the Palestinians have been mistreated far worse by their Arab neighbors than they have been by the Israelis. The fact that in countries like Jordan they still live in refugee camps after emigrating there fifty or sixty years ago is unconscionable. Compare that to the treatment of refugees in Israel (who have been for the most part welcomed and assimilated).

The broader point about whether Romney understands this better than Obama is unchanged: of course he doesn't. And the suggestion that Obama has in any way "insulted Israel" or failed to support them or in any way threatened their security or existence is laughable. If anything, Obama has been more aggressively pro-Israel than any US President. What Netanyahu means is "I want to bomb Iran, and I want the US to come with me and provide full military support for this fantastic new war". Obama's not buying that. Romney is. Romney is turned on by war, because he thinks it means votes.

@19
All I said was "returning the bust of Winston Churchill to the British Government". If you think "Obama willfully insulted the British by returning their bust" those are your words. Not mine. (Though they sound about right).

You said he did not return it (as did the Whitehouse). Turns out you were wrong (as was the Whitehouse).

Are you suggesting that the British would not have let Obama keep it if he had asked?

And the Polish Death Camp remark was not trivial and it resulted in an embarrassing written apology from Obama.