Florida Fixation Warps Emphasis on Israel
Thus, talk inevitably turns toward Israel, an issue which Republicans believe can be used to raise doubts about Obama in the eyes of those who supported him in 2008. Consequently, the debate in Florida, and in turn nationwide, regarding Israel has become distorted, at once more strident, more narrow, and more banal.
The Romney campaign has repeatedly attacked Obama for having “thrown Israel under the bus.” In a recent overture to Jewish voters, his campaign released an ad asking, “Who shares your values?”, chastising Obama for having never visited Israel as president and refusing to recognise Jerusalem as its capital. On that theme, William Kristol’s Emergency Committee for Israel made an ad buy in Florida which promised Jewish voters, “Next year, President Romney in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel.”
And with the race in Florida a dead heat at present, the rhetoric on both sides of the political divide in unlikely to advance the dialogue on Israel or the Palestinian question as November nears. Neither camp, for example, wishes to discuss the future of the settlement enterprise, even as the Israeli government prepares for a possible showdown with the residents of Migron. And, though 90% of American Jews see the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a major problem for Israel and 53% broadly speaking support the creation of a Palestinian state, pursuit of and discussions over the two-state solution have gone cold.
