Romney's Opposite Day

Last time we visited Willard Mitt Romney's Middle East policy, he'd come up with a persuasively simple program to cover just about any eventuality:

He responded with ridicule when asked what he would do, if elected, to strengthen U.S. relations with the Jewish state.

“I think, by and large, you can just look at the things the president has done and do the opposite,” Romney said, to laughter and applause from members of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, an evangelical Christian political organization.

Now, after his hilariously triumphant tour of the London Olympics, as he takes his first trip to the region as official about-to-be presidential nominee (I think the correct term would be nominandus), let's have a look at how he's doing with that.

The fact that he's there is not exactly the opposite of Obama. As a matter of fact, it's exactly the same. Democratic nominandus Barack Obama visited Israel toward the end of July 2008, just four years ago.

Before dawn Thursday morning, July 23 2008, Obama made an unscheduled visit to Jerusalem's ancient Western Wall, leaving the customary prayer on a slip of paper. On Sunday afternoon, July 29 2012, Romney visited the Western Wall, leaving a personal prayer on a slip of paper. But: Romney's not wearing a kippah!

New York Times.

New York Times.

Obama met separately with President Peres, prime minister Olmert, and later in Ramallah with President Abbas. Romney is to meet with Peres, prime minister Netanyahu, and Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad--couldn't manage to fit Abbas into the schedule. Or the Israeli Labour Party.*

*Nope, with Labor it turns out that Netanyahu just ordered him not to go, so he cancelled.

Obama didn't schedule any fund-raising events in Israel, as far as I can determine. Romney, of course, planned a $50,000-a-plate extravaganza for today, but it turned out to be Tisha b'Av in the Jewish calendar, a day of national mourning and fasting commemorating the destruction of the two Temples and hence not a great time to invite a lot of Jewish people to a party. Never mind, they'll just have it tomorrow.

Obama issued a warning to Iran that

''A nuclear Iran would pose a grave threat and the world must prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.'' He said no options were ''off the table'' in dealing with a nuclear threat from Iran but that the country should be offered ''big carrots'' as well as ''big sticks.''

Romney, of course, feels about carrots the way Justice Scalia feels about broccoli. In the first draft of leaks about what he intended to say about Iran, he was expected to say—repeatedly!—that Israel should feel free to bomb Iran whenever they liked, but was walking it back an hour or so later:

“Governor Romney believes we should employ any and all measures to dissuade the Iranian regime from its nuclear course, and it is his fervent hope that diplomatic and economic measures will do so,” Mr. Senor said in an e-mail statement released by the campaign. “In the final analysis, of course, no option should be excluded. Governor Romney recognizes Israel’s right to defend itself, and that it is right for America to stand with it.”

 Romney himself seems to have felt that statement was a little too specific, so he came back with more:

In an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Mr. Romney said: “I’ll use my own words and that is I respect the right of Israel to defend itself and we stand with Israel.”

There's some opposite behavior for you: Obama never announces that he'll "use his own words" but habitually does use them. With Romney, it's just the opposite!

Update 7/30
I have to make a correction: Romney was wearing a yarmulke, a very discrete little black number; you can hardly make it out in the pictures unless you know it's there.