There is no fundamental difference between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama on Iran and the Republican would-be contender will unconditionally support anything Israel does, including the expansion of the illegal settlements on Palestinian land.
This revelation was announced by Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator for Republican and Democratic administrations in an article in the Jewish Press.
Miller said that the two candidates differed little on Iran, the pressing Middle East issue of the day, “each emphasizing the urgency of keeping the Islamic Republic from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
“Obama’s aggressive anti-terrorist policies make the traditional GOP ploy of depicting Democrats as weak on defense a nonstarter,” he said.
“There’s not much different substantively on war and peace between Romney and Obama, and Romney cannot find a way in,” Miller said.
“The notion that Romney’s predator drone is bigger than Obama’s predator drone doesn’t fly.”
But Miller said that Romney had an advantage because of his years of closeness to the Jewish state, stretching back to a friendship forged in the mid-1970s with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, when both men were investment advisers in the same office in Boston.
“There is a divide on the issue of how Obama has reacted to Israel,” Miller said, referring to open tensions between Obama and Netanyahu over issues like negotiations with the Palestinians and settlement expansion.
Obama “is cold and detached on many issues, deliberate and analytical, he doesn’t convey the depth of the emotional bond. I suspect Romney has detected that as an opportunity where he is instinctively more of a natural.”
Meanwhile, Jews in the Obama camp have tried to play up their candidate’s closeness to Israel as well.
David Harris, president of the National Jewish Democratic Council, said that Obama’s increase in defense assistance for Israel and what Israelis acknowledge as unprecedented closeness in defense cooperation, “speaks for itself.”
Harris noted the upcoming October joint U.S.-Israel anti-missile exercise, the biggest ever. “I’m confident that while in Israel, Gov. Romney will see first hand the unprecedented security cooperation that Barack Obama has brought to the U.S.-Israel relationship,” he said.
He also noted that Obama visited Israel as a candidate in 2008.
