Willard gives the Jewish kibbutz swift kick in the teeth

Apparently feeling his foreign ventures weren't really terrible enough, Mitt the Mouth took a slam on the kibbutz, the collective farming model that was central to the early economic and political life of Israel.

At a fundraiser at Maggiano’s Little Italy in downtown Chicago, Romney told supporters that American individualism is nothing like a collective, a kibbutz or "some little entity."

“It’s individuals and their entrepreneurship which have driven America. What America is not is a collective where we all work in a kibbutz or we all in some little entity,” Romney told his gathered supporters.  

After having praised Israel's culture on his ill-fated visit there and simultaneously angering Palestinians with remarks that prompted their chief negotiator to exclaim, “Oh my god, this man needs a lot of education. What he said about the culture is racism,” Team Romney seems to have realized back home that they missed a country on their Insultathon.

Romney's comments Tuesday were not overlooked in the Jewish press, with one writer at Jewish Daily Press noting that such comments call into question the Republican presumptive nominee's basic understanding of Israel's culture.

 In the quote, Romney contrasts the pursuit of dreams and the building of successful business with the kibbutz, the collective farming model that was central to the early economic and political life of Israel.

It’s hard to separate Israel’s economic culture from the country’s kibbutznik roots, so today’s comment seems to make the culture statement look even more like a gaffe.