Mitt Romney’s Jerusalem speech

July 30, 2012 by NEO 2 Comments

Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, 2008 US presidential candidate. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is from Anne’s Opinions, an Israeli blog. It is about the fairest treatment of his speech I have seen with the added benefit of being from the Israeli viewpoint. I happened to see the speech and I have to say that I was very impressed, both with the speech and with Romney’s composure. This carries a hattip to Dan Miller in Panama.

Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney arrived in Israel yesterday for some pre-election diplomatic talks and fund-raising for his election campaign, and his wonderful speech to the Jerusalem Foundation has delighted one side of the political spectrum while enraging the other.

You can read the full text of his speech here. He hit all the right notes with regards to Israeli sovereignty, Jewish history, the significance of Jerusalem and its status as Israel’s capital. He also stressed the importance of close ties between the US and Israel.

While listening to the speech I was struck by Romney’s language, and couldn’t help comparing it with Obama’s unfortunate Cairo speech in 2009.

I was pleased to find myself in good company, since Daniel Pipes analyses Romney’s Remarkable Speech and makes the same comparison to Obama’s speech: (h/t Dad).

Mitt Romney, the all-but-official Republican presidential nominee, delivered a stem-winder of a speech to the Jerusalem Foundation yesterday, packing emotional support with frank policy statements. The contrast with Obama could hardly be more dramatic. Indeed, one could go through the speech and note the many refutations of Obama. For example, the opening comment that “To step foot into Israel is to step foot into a nation that began with an ancient promise made in this land” directly contrasts with Obama’s crabbed statement in Cairo about “the aspiration for a Jewish homeland [being] rooted in a tragic history.”

Also, in contrast to the nonsensical Obama administration stance on Jerusalem being Israel’s capital — sneaking into change captions that mistakenly identified it as that and going through verbal gymnastics to avoid calling it that — Romney came out and plainly called Jerusalem “the capital of Israel.”

Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney arrived in Israel yesterday for some pre-election diplomatic talks and fund-raising for his election campaign, and his wonderful speech to the Jerusalem Foundation has delighted one side of the political spectrum while enraging the other.

You can read the full text of his speech here. He hit all the right notes with regards to Israeli sovereignty, Jewish history, the significance of Jerusalem and its status as Israel’s capital. He also stressed the importance of close ties between the US and Israel.

While listening to the speech I was struck by Romney’s language, and couldn’t help comparing it with Obama’s unfortunate Cairo speech in 2009.

I was pleased to find myself in good company, since Daniel Pipes analyses Romney’s Remarkable Speech and makes the same comparison to Obama’s speech: (h/t Dad).

“Mitt Romney, the all-but-official Republican presidential nominee, delivered a stem-winder of a speech to the Jerusalem Foundation yesterday, packing emotional support with frank policy statements. The contrast with Obama could hardly be more dramatic. Indeed, one could go through the speech and note the many refutations of Obama. For example, the opening comment that “To step foot into Israel is to step foot into a nation that began with an ancient promise made in this land” directly contrasts with Obama’s crabbed statement in Cairo about “the aspiration for a Jewish homeland [being] rooted in a tragic history.”

Also, in contrast to the nonsensical Obama administration stance on Jerusalem being Israel’s capital — sneaking into change captions that mistakenly identified it as that and going through verbal gymnastics to avoid calling it that — Romney came out and plainly called Jerusalem “the capital of Israel.”