Mitt Romney Campaign Scraps $50,000 Per Plate Jerusalem Fundraiser On A Jewish Fasting Day

[maddezmom]

¬snip¬

The fundraiser, which was supposed to be a "a small meeting, but a big fund-raiser," according to a source quoted in the Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, was set to take place on July 29, amid the Romney campaign's first foreign policy tour.

But July 29 is also Tisha B'Av, a Jewish day of fasting in some traditions of the religion, in which catastrophic events like the destruction of the First and Second Temples and the Holocaust are mourned.

Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for the Romney campaign, pointed to a tweet by Natasha Mosgovaya, a political correspondent for the Israeli daily Ha'aretz, that stated on Thursday morning that the campaign would in fact not be holding the fundraiser. The tweet quoted a Romney official saying the campaign was "aware of the sensitivity of that date." Saul declined to comment on whether the fundraiser had been canceled or would be rescheduled.

Jonny Daniels, a leading Republican political strategist in Israel, told The Huffington Post that the campaign had been aware of the date of the holiday when it scheduled the fundraiser. The campaign thought it could hold the event in a way that would not offend, he said, but was taken by surprise at the ferocity of the public outcry over the timing.

"It wasn't really a gaffe," Daniels said. "They knew what the day was, but they were looking for the correct time and circumstance to do it. Instead it ended up seeming like a big dinner, but that's not really what it is."

more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/12/mitt-romney-jerusalem-fundraiser_n_1668271.html

They'll still fit the fundraiser in but on a different day.

[JaneQPublic]

1. Romney never said the plate would have food on it.

[KurtNYC]

8. +1 $50,000 for an empty plate

[Motown_Johnny]

11. Sounds like his plan for the middle class

[elleng]

2. Why not just omit the caterers???

[DCKit]

3. Can't they do their Palestinian fundraiser that day?

Oh, right. Never mind.

[progressivebydesign]

4. Just when I thought the McCain/Palin campaign was the worst ever... these guys come thru. n/t

[Coexist]

5. rofl

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

6. "It wasn't really a gaffe," Daniels said. "They knew what the day was"

So it was an intentional desire to offend?

[SDjack]

12. It is a gaffe that they think it wasn't a gaffe. They think it's OK for a group

of Mormons to come into Israel and pervert a fasting holiday by holding a dinner, if the purpose of the dinner is not to eat but to collect a large quantity of money and take it to the USA for politics. In a perverted mind, it kinda is logical.

[surrealAmerican]

7. What could be more appropriate for a Romney fundraiser ...

... than a day of mourning and fasting?


In the Jewish calendar this is the only important holiday to fall during summer.

[spanone]

9. the romney's feel they are entitled to the presidency. they are faking the campaign.

it makes no fucking sense.

[CBGLuthier]

10. WTF are US candidates doing going to Israel to raise money?

[tanyev]

13. Lordy, you do not want to be in the same room with him when he does karaoke.

Tone. Deaf.