International Media Criticize Romney’s Mideast Trip: ‘The Republican Has Done Damage’

GERMANY: In an opinion piece for the centrist Sddeutsche Zeitung, Germany’s biggest daily, Christian Wernicke wrote:

The trip to Israel may help Romney in the short term. In the long term, however, the Republican has done damage: The Middle East needs the United States as mediator. As such, the would-be president has already disqualified himself.

FRANCE: The French newspaper Le Monde noted that Romney broke with a policy upheld by successive U.S. governments for more than 60 years by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel:

(H)e delivered a speech declaring himself “very moved” to find himself Jerusalem, “the capital of Israel.”

This while the U.S. does not officially recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Their embassy, ​​like those of virtually all the countries represented in Israel, is in Tel Aviv.

AUSTRIA: The Vienna-based Kurier newspaper set the stage by mentioning the harsh British reaction to Romney’s visit to London and, in harsh terms, placed his Jerusalem comments in that context:

Now the next occasion of putting his foot in his mouth: on Sunday, the Republican called Jerusalem the “capital of Israel.”

UNITED KINGDOM: In a in opinion column for the Rupert Murdoch-owned Times of London, Hugo Rifkind wrote:

Mr. Romney’s behavior in Israel is… a throwback to a time when U.S. foreign policy considered the bulk of the Middle East to be irredeemably horrible; a great morass of messy “other” with which grown-up engagement was close to impossible. As a response to the patchwork of petty tyranny that the region used to be, this made some sense. Today, it makes none at all.

Perhaps the harshest opinion came here at home, where a New York Times editorial ripped Romney for his counter-productive pandering that does “no favors” for American interests:

Despite what Mr. Romney says, all American presidents have been pro-Israel, including Mr. Obama. But that doesn’t mean subcontracting American policy to Israeli leaders or donors. [… Romney’s] policies would complicate America’s ability to act as a broker in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.