Palestinians Angered By Romney's Disparaging Remarks About Their Culture
Plus: Drew's Twitter Argument With Palestinian Activists

As Legal Insurrection notes: Didn't Obama speak more disparagingly of Pennsylvanians?

But so apparently this is a thing.

At a fundraiser in Israel (presumably among Americans), Romney noted a great income disparity between Israelis and Palestinians.

Romney said some economic histories have theorized that "culture makes all the difference."

"And as I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things," Romney said, citing an innovative business climate, the Jewish history of thriving in difficult circumstances and the "hand of providence." He said similar disparity exists between neighboring countries, like Mexico and the United States.

I can't believe someone didn't say this was racist.

Oh, here we go.

"It is a racist statement and this man doesn't realize that the Palestinian economy cannot reach its potential because there is an Israeli occupation," said Saeb Erekat, a senior aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

"It seems to me this man lacks information, knowledge, vision and understanding of this region and its people," Erekat added. "He also lacks knowledge about the Israelis themselves. I have not heard any Israeli official speak about cultural superiority."

Nah but they think it really hard.

Well, look at Romney. He's got a senior aide to the Palestinian president saying nice things about Israel.

Let us now begin taking bets: How long until someone makes the connection to the NAACP speech, states that Romney is deliberately "provoking" "minorities" to win white (or Jewish) votes, and further speculates that the Israel comments are actually also designed to insult black Americans (in as much as they might identify with the Palestinians in their struggle against a Racist Overgroup)?

Bonus: Who is the first left-wing writer to float it?

Also: Drew expressed his belief that the Palestinians shouldn't be at the Olympics because they actually attacked the Olympics and murdered Jewish activists (and the IOC continues to refuse to even have a moment of silence to observe the 40th anniversary of the murders -- it's "too political," it turns out).

Drew got bushwacked, but he fought 'em off. He offers a more detailed argument than Twitter permits at his blog.

Brilliant: I predicted a zig when the left already zagged.

See, they're claiming Romney's statement is also... anti-semitic.

It's true that Israel has logged tremendous achievements, said Abraham Diskin, a political science professor at the Inter-Disciplinary Center outside of Tel Aviv. But "you can understand this remark in several ways," he added. "You can say it's anti-Semitic. 'Jews and money.'

@johnekdahl tipped me to that.

Note: I changed the headline. I was trying to push the "Pennsylvanians" idea, but it wound up just looking like a typo (which it actually wasn't). So, since it's confusing, I changed it.

posted by Ace at 05:46 PM

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