It is clear what the Palestinians can expect from a Mitt Romney White House if the Republican challenger beats Obama this November - they can expect absolutely nothing. Romney's visit to Israel has made it plain to everyone that if he becomes president, his refusal to admit the existence of the Palestinians as anything other than a persistent annoyance for his valued Israeli allies, will be total. The gaffe-prone Romney, who made a laughing stock of himself in London when he shot his mouth off about the British inability to organize the Olympics, demonstrated a total lack of sympathy with the plight of the Palestinians. He refused to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, declared Jerusalem to be the Israeli capital and cited the disparity in per capita income between Palestinians and Israelis as proof that the Palestinians were incapable of running an effective state. The per capita income figures he gave ($21,000 a year for Israelis and $10,000 for Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and Gaza) were as it happens, completely wrong. World Bank statistics put the Israeli income per head at nearer $28,000 while Palestinians, corralled in their own country, barely earn $2,000 a year. Romney also chose to ignore the fact that the baleful economic effect of the Israeli occupation is the reason the Palestinians are having to scrape a living. Illegal settlements occupy prime land and suck up precious water resources. In the name of security, the Israeli occupiers have dislocated normal economic life for Palestinians. They have left them to survive on the scraps that fall from their own highly-protected and US-supported economy. That is the reality which Romney chose to overlook, or more likely, simply does not know. He follows in the fine George W. Bush tradition of never letting the facts, however plain, get in the way of good old ignorant prejudice. In terms of Middle East policy, the contrast with Obama could not be greater. Romney could never have delivered Obama's “New beginning" speech in Cairo in June 2009, which gave so much hope to his Arab audience, not least to Palestinian listeners. Three years on however, Obama has failed to make good on his promises for change. America's charismatic and worldly-wise president has achieved nothing for the Palestinians. It has been a crushing disappointment to discover the Cairo speech was just that - all words, and nothing more. However, if Romney makes it to the Oval Office, the Arab world will know precisely what to expect of him: slavish support for Israel and its illegal settlements, a blank check for its government and armed forces and contempt for any realistic revival of the Oslo peace process. Compared with the quick-thinking and supple Obama, Romney will be a rigid and inflexible president when it comes to Middle Eastern foreign policy. But this might actually mean that change will occur, if the pressure on him becomes too great. We should not forget that the stiffest sticks break most easily.
