Romney's Evil Empire

So Mitt wandered around Britain sticking his foot in his mouth every time he opened it.

But he wasn't a clown in Israel.

He announced that Israel's success was due to " the power of at least culture and a few other things", including "the hand of Providence". While doing so, by the way, he didn't mention Israel's 45-year occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, nor its continuing blockade of Gaza, both of which have had a catastrophic impact on the Palestinian economy but he did severely misstate the per capita GSP of both Israel (he said $21,000, when it's more like $31,000 according to the World Bank) and that in the Palestinian Authority (he said "more like $10,000 per capita" when the World Bank says $1,500). More dangerously, he decided to wade into the minefield and defy the entire history of US-Israel relations and declared Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel.

And most dangerously, he told the Israelis that they could count on the US to help them when they attacked Iran. "In the final analysis, of course no option should be excluded. We recognise Israel's right to defend itself, and it is right for America to stand with you," he said, and "We have a solid duty and a moral imperative to deny Iran's leaders the means to follow through on their malevolent intentions."

Just what we need, right? Another war.

Of course, this is being portrayed as an attempt to woo the Jewish vote. I'm sure that's part of it, but he's most likely really going after another bloc, which is very different: the neo-conservative very religious right-wing Christians who think God can't make Jesus come back if we let Israel go under... I don't know if Mormons believe in that notion (I think probably not, since they have a very different eschatological take on things), but of course that bloc is pretty influential in GOP thinking. It leads them to put Israel's well-being above the US's, but of course you can't ask why we should craft foreign policy to benefit a different country or people call you an anti-Semite...

Still, the important thing is to realize that Romney is even more likely than Obama to pitch us into a war with Iran.