Presidential debate or an itinerary from Birthright Israel? Let Florida decide

I'm not the slightest bit interested in these presidential debates but Deborah Maccoby just sent this link to a Forward blog to the Just Peace UK list and the line I lifted for my headline made me laugh:

This late in the campaign, everything is about swing states – and the foreign policy debate was largely about Florida, where moderate Jews could well decide who gets the state’s 29 electoral votes.

On those grounds, on the basis of issues important to Florida Jews, President Obama won this debate, but in a bizarre, looking-glass sort of way in which the candidates seemingly exchanged personalities. Mitt Romney sounded like Obama: reasonable, measured, and knowledgeable about foreign policy. Barack Obama sounded like Romney: making strong rhetorical points with little attention to detail.

On Israel, for example, it was Obama who struck first, citing his support of the Iron Dome defense system, and using the phrase “stand with Israel” numerous times. Romney, meanwhile, sounded like a Democrat: arguing for peace talks with the Palestinians, and a measured approach to Iran.

So too on the emotional issues likely to resonate with the bubbes and zaydes of Palm Beach County. Could anyone have predicted that President Obama would invoke the holocaust in his discussion of the State of Israel? And yet that’s what he did, noting that on his trip to Israel, he visited Yad Vashem (the holocaust memorial, he explained to the non-Jewish voters who happened to be watching the debate too), whereas Romney went to fundraisers.

But that’s not all – this debate was often a lesson in Israeli geography. Obama visited Sderot. Romney visited Hertzliya. What’s next: Obama prefers Sima’s meorav Yerushalmi, but Romney likes Sami’s. At times it was hard to tell whether this was a presidential debate or an itinerary from Birthright Israel.

 Here we go.

Need help viewing?  Try here.

Murdoch plays Israel card for Romney

I just found this by accident in the Brisbane Times.  In among a few Murdoch (on twitter, Murdock/@rupertmurdoch) was:

Nightmare for Israel if Obama wins.Biden outright lied about personal relations with Bibi. Susan Rice for State real nightmare.
— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) October 13, 2012

I don't know if this helps or hurts Israel or Obama or what. I just thought I'd mention it.

Romney on the Jews and their money-making culture

I know everyone has heard about Mitt Romney's speech in Israel just the other day but here's Jon Stewart's take on the thing as reported in The Raw Story:

On his show Tuesday night, Daily Show host Jon Stewart mocked Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s latest series of gaffes.

While Romney was in Israel, the Republican candidate remarked at a fundraising event that the Israelis were more economically successful than the Palestinians because of their culture.

“Romney appears to be saying that the Palestinians are purely the architects of their own poverty, or, if you prefer to look at the converse, that Jews are culturally some money-making motherfuckers,” Stewart joked.

Romney also said Israel was prosperous thanks to the “hand of providence.”

“Again, Romney appears to be saying while Palestinian despair has its roots in their culture, God is also holding them down,” Stewart noted. “Or, if you prefer to look at the converse, Israel’s economic progress is evidence of the hand of providence — going to assume that all the horrible shit that happened to the Jews prior to that was the hand of providence’s middle finger.”

Watch video, via Mediaite, below:

I don't know how the video clip will come out but if you can't see it here go to The Raw Story site.