Israel's 'Culture': Romney Praises Welfare Dependency, Socialism, and Having the U.S. Fite Israel's Wars.
Mitt Romney has praised Israel's culture and assigned that culture all credit for the differences in the (presumed splendid) economic achievements of Israel as against the miserable conditions of Palestine. How very odd.
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I guess Romney never heard about a vast inpouring of U.S. taxpayer aid over decades, amounting, cumulatively, to a mere $126 BILLION (which I have adjusted from the $114 BILLION, $500 per Israeli per year reported in 2008). Mind you, the typical Israeli family has four children and two adults, for a family of six, times $500 = $3,000 of U.S. taxpayer money per year per Israeli family.
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A slitely lower figure, $115 BILLION, was provided by the Congressional Research Office as of March 12, 2012. That report states that U.S. taxpayer aid to Israel this and ensuing years will be $3.1 BILLION per year.
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In 2003 dollars (the latest approximation I found online), the total aid to Israel is $140 BILLION.
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But a mere $3.1 BILLION per year couldn't possibly have anything to do with Israel's prosperity, of course. After all, the Palestinian Authority got almost 1/6th that in 2010, but almost no money in the preceding 60 years. The Congressional Research Service said in a March 4, 2005 report:

The United States has provided aid directly to the Palestinian Authority (PA) three times; $36 million in FY1994, $20 million in FY2003, and $20 million in FY2005.

U.S. economic aid to the Palestinians has averaged about $85 million per year since 1993; there has been no military aid.

Jewish Voice for Peace figures U.S. aid to Israel as even higher.

More U.S. aid goes to Israel than any other country, even though Israel[']s per capita income is as high as many European countries. In fiscal year 2003 Israel received a foreign military financing grant of $3.1 billion and a $600 million grant for economic security in addition to $11 billion in commercial loan guarantees. This total aid package of nearly $15 billion makes Israel by far the largest single recipient of U.S. aid.

Apologists for the outlandish levels of U.S. aid to Israel pretend that military aid does not have anything to do with Israel's wondrous economic achievements. Oh? Money is fungible. The typical illustration of fungibility is that you get some money and put it into your left pocket, then have to pay for something, and pull money from your right pocket. It doesn't really matter whether you pay for it from your left pocket or right pocket, does it? You might as well put all of your money into one pocket or the other, and pull from that same pocket. Thus is it that it doesn't matter whether aid to Israel is military-only or civilian-only, or a mix of both. "Military" money can be used for civilian purposes, and "civilian" money can be used for military purposes. If you need X-number of dollars for all your governmental needs, it really just doesn't matter from what SOURCE you get that money.
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Hm. A full $85M for Palestine each year, as against a mere $3.1 BILLION — or is it $15 billion? — for Israel per year. It really is hard to understand why Israel would be so much richer and more advanced than Palestine, isn't it? A cumulative difference in U.S. aid of a mere $120 BILLION on the Israeli side could not possibly explain in any measure whatsoever the difference in prosperity between Israel and the Palestinians. Of course not. Unless, of course, you know that Israel has, today, only 7.5 million people, its highest population by far in its entire history, which is much  less than New York City, and Israelis pay NO U.S. taxes. So they CLEAR $3.1 BILLION in U.S. aid each year, which is equivalent to $413 per Israeli, or about $2,500 per Israeli family now, at the highest point of Israel's population. Israel received the same $3 billion when its population was only 5M, and the U.S. dollar was woth more than it is now. Thus the cumulative outlay is important to keep in mind: somewhere between $114B and $120B, for a population that may have averaged, over the 60 years of U.S. aid, at most 4 million, less than half the population of NYC — and New Yorkers always paid U.S. taxes, whereas Israelis NEVER paid U.S. taxes. They have always taken, but never given.
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How can we put Israel's receipt of massive U.S. taxpayer moneys in terms that the typical American voter might understand? Oh, I know: the whole country of Israel is on WELFARE, intergenerational  welfare.
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Aside from U.S. taxpayer largesse, Israel also receives a vast inpouring of foreign aid from private Jewish sources in the United States and, in lesser measure, from elsewhere in the Jewish Diaspora. How much money have donors such as the United Jewish Appeal and Hadassah provided to Israel? It's hard to find recent or cumulative figures, but here is what The Middle East Quarterly reported in September 1995.

Diaspora Jewish aid. American Jews and other nongovernment sources provided $17 billion to Israel in the forty-five years between its founding and 1993. Jews in the diaspora also send aid to Israeli institutions, such as the Jewish Agency, universities, hospitals, and other nonprofit organizations. According to Bank of Israel and Jewish Agency statistics, diaspora Jewry donated $1.4 billion to Israeli nonprofit organizations in 1994, of which American Jews contributed some two-thirds. Diaspora Jews also provide loans to the Israeli government, mostly in the form of Israel Bonds.

So Israel receives $3.1 BILLION per year from U.S. taxpayers and $1.4 BILLION per year from the Jewish Diaspora, 2/3 of it from American Jews. But Mitt Romney credits Israel's CULTURE with Israel's prosperity. Astounding.
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And what, exactly, is Israel's culture that has produced such laudable success? Let's start with the quintessential Israeli institution, the kibbutz, "a community settlement, usually agricultural, organized under collectivist principles." (Dictionary.com) If that's not clear, let's go a step further into Dictionary.com to see what it means by "collectivism": "the political principle of centralized social and economic control, especially of all means of production." If that's still not clear, let me clarify it with a single, clear term that Romney's 'conservative' base might understand: SOCIALISM. Israel is a SOCIALIST society.
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This hasn't escaped everybody's notice. An article at Forbes.com entitled, "Whiplash-Mitt Romney Lavishes Praise On Israel's Socialist, Government Controlled Healthcare System", contains this passage.

Either he’s for the Massachusetts health care program he signed into law that would become the model for the Affordable Care Act ["Obamacare"] or he’s against it. Either he supports and praises the Israeli socialist healthcare system wherein the government controls, mandates, and regulates the nation’s healthcare delivery or he’s against socialized medicine as the very symbol of the devil’s work in the world.

That article contains this interesting phrase: "Speaking today to a small group of Israeli contributors to his campaign". What? Israelis are allowed to contribute to U.S. presidential campaigns? I thought foreigners were FORBIDDEN to contribute to U.S. political campaigns.
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The entire country of Israel is on WELFARE, from U.S. TAXPAYERS. It is intergenerational welfare that has been going on since 1948. But Mitt Romney is perfectly happy with that entire country's being on welfare from U.S. taxpayers, and wouldn't dream of saving us some money by cutting off Israel's welfare queens — which is to say, every single woman (and man) in Israel.
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As for Israel's socialist leanings, Wikipedia states:

The [Labor] party is an observer member of both Socialist International and the Party of European Socialists. ... Until 1977, all Israeli Prime Ministers were affiliated with the Labor movement.

That Wikipedia article discusses the reasons for Labor's recent difficulties:

Analy[z]ing the downfall of the once dominant political party in Israel, Efraim Inbar of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies points to several factors. ... When cosmopolitan and individualist values made inroads into the party, it distanced itself from the collectivist ethos that has been dominant and is still widespread in Israel.

While the Labor Party is not presently dominant, socialism is very much a feature of Israeli society. And Mitt Romney loves it — in Israel.
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Romney also loves Israel making the United States fite its wars, and wants the U.S. to fite Iran for Israel too. He is all in favor of Israel fiting Iran to the last American.
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The Romney International Gaffe Tour continued in Poland this morning, when an aide lost his temper:

Gorka, Romney's traveling press secretary, told reporters, "Kiss my ass, this is a holy site for the Polish people. Show some respect." He told Politico's Jonathan Martin to "shove it."

Really!? It's inappropriate to ask questions of the candidate at a "holy site for the Polish people", but is entirely appropriate to say "Kiss my ass" and "shove it", at that very same "holy site"?!? The Romney organization is filled with morons. Thank goodness.

Hm. "Mormon" and "moron" are separated by one letter.
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If Republicans actually go ahead and nominate this bizarre, non-Christian, blatantly hypocritical cultist who contradicts himself at every turn, it will deserve the electoral catastrophe the people must deal them in November.
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 11:59 PM