Presidential candidate to meet with Israeli PM and defence minister while GOP kicks off massive ad campaign at home

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

Mitt Romney will meet with Israeli leaders on the latest leg of his three-nation foreign tour in a move that comes as Republican party strategists are making an aggressive pitch for American Jewish voters.

As Romney seeks to woo top Israeli figures like prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, defence minister Ehud Barak, foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman and president Shimon Peres in a series of personal meetings on Sunday, his party back home is preparing a massive ad campaign targeted at Jewish Americans.

The effort is called "My Buyer's Remorse" and comes from the Republican Jewish Coalition. It will place adverts in key battleground states like Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania and is backed by a war chest of around $6.5m.

One of the main funders of the group is casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, once a fervent backer of Romney's nomination rival Newt Gingrich but who has now swung behind the party's pick.

The campaign is aimed at persuading Jewish voters who backed President Barack Obama in 2008 that they made a mistake, especially when it comes to Obama's policies towards Israel.

In the ads, Jewish voters who backed Obama in the last election will express their regret. The push follows on from many months of ferocious attacks on Obama's Israeli policies and a primary campaign in which Republican hopefuls competed hard with each other to take the most pro-Israel positions.

Last week Romney hit out at Obama on Israel at a speech in Nevada.

The "people of Israel deserve better than what they have received from the leader of the free world," he said.

His campaign also dispatched top surrogate former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani to Florida where he called the idea of Obama being a friend of the country "a joke".

As Romney prepared to fly to Israel on Saturday, an aide on board the plane he was travelling on was photographed briefly holding aloft an Israeli flag in front of journalists. It served as a reminder of the emphasis that the candidate's campaign team have placed on the high-profile visit.

But despite their major push the Republicans will likely have their work cut out for them. Last week a Gallup poll found the president has 68% of the Jewish vote, compared to 25% who back Romney.

That is down from the 2008 election result, when Obama won 78% of the Jewish vote, but it is clear that Jewish voters remain firmly in the Democratic camp.

In order to ensure that remains the case the Obama campaign has also dispatched surrogates, including prominent rabbis, to give supportive speeches in recent days in Florida.

The White House has also shown it is happy to use its bully pulpit to ram home its advantage too.

In an effort timed to upstage Romney before he landed in the Middle East, Obama on Friday signed new legislation aimed at strengthening ties with Israel.

At a high-profile ceremony, flanked by major American Jewish leaders, Obama posed for pictures as he put pen to paper on the US-Israel Enhanced Security Co-operation Act. Obama also announced he was releasing $70m to fund Israel's "Iron Dome" short-range rocket shield which is a favoured cause of America's pro-Israel lobby.

"I have made it a top priority for my administration to deepen co-operation with Israel across a whole spectrum of security issues," Obama said.