U.S. Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney criticized the Israeli kibbutz movement at an American fundraiser on Tuesday.Romney was quoted in Ha’aretz saying, “It’s individuals and their entrepreneurship which have driven America. What America is not a collective where we all work in a Kibbutz or we all in some little entity, instead it’s individuals pursuing their dreams and building successful enterprises which employ others and they become inspired as they see what has happened in the place they work and go off and start their own enterprises.”
Romney visited Israel just last week and went to considerable lengths to prove his unwavering support of Israel. Several speeches were particularly incendiary due to his lack of acknowledgement of the effects of the occupation on the Palestinian population.
This latest statement, made at a fundraiser in Chicago, exposes Romney’s craven desire to be elected by saying whatever he thinks any given audience wants to hear. When he is in Israel, looking for Jewish donations, he supports Israel. When he is in Chicago speaking to Americans, he berates the kibbutz movement which was instrumental to the founding of the Israel because it was linked to socialism.
