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Josh Haner/The New York Times Thomas L. Friedman Go to Columnist Page » Related ° Romney Courts Campaign Donors in Israel (July 31, 2012) ° The Caucus: Romney’s Remarks About Palestinians Draw Criticism(July 30, 2012) Related in Opinion ° Op-Ed Columnist: Gadding of a Gawky Gowk (August 1, 2012) ° Editorial: Mr. Romney Stumps in Israel (July 31, 2012) ° Taking Note: If It Works in Israel...(July 31, 2012) ° Op-Ed Contributor: Israel’s Settlers Are Here to Stay (July 26, 2012) ° Times Topics: Middle East | United States Elections | SSS a Connect With Us on Twitter For Op-Ed, follow@nytopinion and to hear from the editorial page editor, Andrew Rosenthal, follow@andyrNYT. Readers’ Comments Readers shared their thoughts on this article. e Read All Comments (418) » The observation is this: Much of what is wrong with the U.S.-Israel relationship today can be found in that Romney trip. In recent years, the Republican Party has decided to make Israel a wedge issue. In order to garner more Jewish (and evangelical) votes and money, the G.O.P. decided to “out-pro-Israel” the Democrats by being even more unquestioning of Israel. This arms race has pulled the Democratic Party to the right on the Middle East and has basically forced the Obama team to shut down the peace process and drop any demands that Israel freeze settlements. This, in turn, has created a culture in Washington where State Department officials, not to mention politicians, are reluctant to even state publicly what is U.S. policy — that settlements are “an obstacle to peace” — for fear of being denounced as anti-Israel. Add on top of that, the increasing role of money in U.S. politics and the importance of single donors who can write megachecks to “super PACs” — and the fact that the main Israel lobby, Aipac, has made itself the feared arbiter of which lawmakers are “pro” and which are “anti-Israel” and, therefore, who should get donations and who should not — and you have a situation in which there are almost no brakes, no red lights, around Israel coming from America anymore. No wonder settlers now boast on op-ed pages that the game Is over, they’ve won, the West Bank will remain with Israel forever — and they don’t care what absorbing all of its Palestinians will mean for Israel’s future as a Jewish democracy. It is into this environment that Romney wandered to add more pandering and to declare how he will be so much nicer to Israel than big, bad Obama. This is a canard. On what matters to Israel’s survival — advanced HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_031706