The mainstream media tell us that Mitt Romney’s current visit to Europe and the Middle East has been filled with missteps and gaffes, revealing him to be the “village idiot,” or just a plain “idiot,” as well as a “racist” and an “alien pod.” You could watch the mainstream media from now till Election Day, and never learn that Romney was in the first class to graduate from the combined program of Harvard Law School (with honors) and Harvard Business School (with highest honors).
To hear the media tell it, President Obama is a genius, but neither his SAT scores nor his transcripts have ever been released. Yet Romney, whose academic credentials are even stronger, is the “village idiot.” But this is nothing personal. Every Republican candidate since Reagan has been called an “idiot,” a “dunce,” or the like. To the media, “idiot” does not denote lack of intelligence, but lack of the “correct” opinions – that is, liberal opinions. And that brings us to the subject of Romney’s recent “gaffes.”
Jerusalem is Israel’s capital.
Most nations, including the United States, have their embassies in Tel Aviv, because they recognize the West Bank including East Jerusalem as “occupied territory, status to be determined.” But that situation is unique, not to say bizarre. All nations except Israel are free to choose their own capitals.
No one would think of telling the Kyrgyz, for example, that they had no right to decide that Bishkek is the capital of Kyrgyzstan, because the country used to be part of the Soviet Union, and before that part of the Russian Empire. No one (with the possible exception of Vladimir Putin) would claim that the Kyrgyz “stole the land” from the Russians, and therefore had no right to the land or to choose its capital.
In fact, at the conclusion of Israel’s 1948-1949 War of Independence, Israelis established their capital in West Jerusalem, while East Jerusalem including the Temple Mount remained under the control of Transjordan. That nation annexed these areas, and went so far as to change its name from Transjordan (“across the Jordan”) to Jordan. In the 18 years from 1949 to 1967, no one questioned Jordan’s occupation, or claimed Jordan “stole the land.” Then, after the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel expelled Jordan from the West Bank and now controlled all of Jerusalem.
But according to the Palestinians and their apologists, the Jews “stole the land.” If so, they stole it from the Jordanians, who had taken it by force after the departure of the British, who had taken it by force from the Turks…and so forth back to about 1000 B.C., when King David established his capital in Jerusalem. Yet somehow, all the others “conquered” the land, but only the Jews “stole” it. That word reveals more about the speaker than about what he is speaking about.
In Jerusalem, the Israeli parliament meets, the supreme court sits, and the president and prime minister have their offices. The last time I checked, from 1949 to 2012 is 63 years. Yet in all that time, the U.S. has not seen fit to move its embassy, for fear of irritating the Palestinians and stalling the “peace process.” How’s that working out?
In fact, when Barack Obama was running for president in 2008, he stated, “Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.” When Obama said it, it wasn’t a “gaffe,” and he wasn’t the “village idiot” or even a plain “idiot.” When Obama said it, he wasn’t “pandering.” But somehow, when Romney makes the identical statement, the mainstream media descend upon him in feigned indignation. So much for objectivity. So much for journalistic integrity.
But there may be another reason for the media’s lack of reaction to Obama’s statement and their over-reaction to Romney’s statement: they sense Romney means it.
Perhaps the only way to achieve peace, or anything else worthwhile, is to face reality and tell the truth. That’s exactly what Mitt Romney did, and what the White House is unable to do.
The Palestinians are poor because of their culture.
Romney was asked why Israel is prosperous and free, while the Palestinian territories remain poor and unfree. For example, Israel is the site of so many start-up companies that it has more companies listed on NASDAQ that any nation except the United States and China. The per capita GDP is $31,400 for Israel (including 1.3 million Arab citizens), and $2,900 for the Palestinian territories. Why the difference?
The “correct” leftist answer is that all this is due to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. On the contrary, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip and forcibly removed every Jew in 2005. In the seven years since then, Gaza has become even poorer and less free. From this experiment, a reasonable person would conclude that the Israeli occupation is not the cause of the Palestinians’ problems – in fact, quite the opposite.
But again, Romney did not give the “correct” answer. He referred to the Palestinians’ tradition of lack of freedom, both political and economic, as a cause of their problems. For this, he was called “racist” by Palestinians and their leftist apologists. But in fact, this is the exact opposite of racism. Racism blames differences between peoples on faulty genetics – which can never be changed. On the contrary, Romney blamed the differences on faulty economic and political policies – which can be changed anytime people wish to change them.
So why are some nations prosperous and free, while others are poor and unfree? The leftist answer: oppression by imperialists and capitalists. In North America, Canada is prosperous and free, yet it remains part of the British Commonwealth. America is prosperous and free, and it declared its independence from Britain. Mexico is poor and less free, and it declared its independence from Spain.
And what about the vast economic disparity between East and West Germany, and between North and South Korea? There are no ethnic differences. The only difference is economic and political philosophy – that is, freedom versus central control.
Could it be that there is a lesson here? Could it be that Israel enjoys prosperity because it is free? Could it be that the Palestinian territories, like most of the Arab world, do not enjoy prosperity because they are not free? The correlation is so obvious that only the willfully ignorant do not see it.
Perhaps the way to achieve prosperity and freedom, or anything else worthwhile, is to face reality and tell the truth. That’s exactly what Mitt Romney did, and what the liberal establishment is unable to do.
Perhaps we all could do more to solve America’s and the world’s problems if we were less concerned with being politically correct, and more concerned with telling the truth. Contrary to what the liberal establishment believes, the people of America and the world can handle the truth – if only they are given the opportunity to hear it.
The West has given the Third World, and specifically the Middle East, numerous gifts:
● We gave them Marxism, which weakened their feeble economies.
● We gave them fascism, which exacerbated their authoritarian societies.
● We gave them modern weapons, which made their wars bloodier.
● We gave them foreign aid, which their leaders siphoned into Swiss accounts.
● We gave them ego-gratifying baloney, not what they needed to know.
To counteract these destructive gifts, it is time that we give them the truth. That’s what Mitt Romney did. As expected, their leaders rejected it angrily, and the leftist establishment ridiculed it. But the truth is the truth, and eventually it will triumph.
Dr. Stolinsky writes on political and social issues. Contact: dstol@prodigy.net. You are welcome to publish or post these articles, provided that you cite the author and website.
www.stolinsky.com