Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign has been forced to scrap a $50,000 per plate fundraiser scheduled to take place during his visit to Yerushalayim because the date coincided with Tisha B’Av, as reported yesterday by Matzav.com.
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 Tisha B’Av, the saddest day of the Jewish year.
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 fast day 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.”
“Don’t worry, they’re not going to not have a fundraiser,” he added. “They’ll find a way around it maybe by having a breaking of the fast meal combined with a Romney fundraiser.”
Romney will be visiting Israel as part of a week-long, multi-nation foreign policy tour that is expected to bring him to London on July 27 for the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics, then to Israel, Germany and Poland.
UPDATE: — A Romney campaign official said that some of the initial reporting in the Jerusalem Post about the fundraiser was not correct, but did not give any specifics.
{Source: HUFFINGTON POST}
{Matzav.com Newscenter}
Check your facts next time and don’t rely on reporting from other news agencies! Why to even believe then with no official publicity from the Romney campaign?!? What a joke….
Yesterday, when the news was that he WAS doing the fundraiser it was reported as $60,000. Today that it was cancelled its only $50K??
not bad. good advertising for the romney campaign & a good show that Israel is his #1 priority
Why is Matzav.com quoting the Huffington Post of all new outlets?!