Romney plans official trip to Israel

(Correction: Because of a reporting error, a story about Governor Mitt Romney's upcoming trip to Israel in yesterday's City & Region section incorrectly stated that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee contributes directly to political campaigns. It is restricted under law from making political donations. Political figures have received donations from members of AIPAC's 50-person board of directors.)

Governor Mitt Romney, a potential presidential candidate who lacks foreign policy experience, has scheduled his first international trip as governor for next month, when he will travel to Israel as a guest of the most powerful pro-Israel lobby in the United States.

Romney's trip has been arranged by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which wields strong influence in Washington, advocating for Israel's interests and its security. Part of the committee's advocacy includes offering free trips to Israel to members of Congress, policy makers, and civic and political leaders from around the country.

Romney's travel to the Middle East could help fill a major gap in his thin resume on international issues and offer him an introduction to a group that can provide strong financial support for a presidential campaign. The itinerary for the trip, which Romney's aides describe as a trade mission, has not been developed, according to his spokesman. But the American Israel Committee trips typically include meeting with top Israeli government officials, political leaders from across the spectrum, and representatives of Palestinian groups.

The governor is expected to publicly signal this fall whether he will seek the presidency in 2008.

''Mitt Romney will be the latest in a long line of elected officials, particularly governors, who want to burnish their foreign policy credentials," said Steven Grossman, a leading Massachusetts Democrat and former chairman of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. ''I have no doubt if he runs, he will use the fact that he took the trip as a calling card to the American Jewish community."

But the sort of trip the committee is offering Romney, who has in the past scorned trade missions as ''boondoggles," has also come under criticism from some members of Congress and government watchdog groups, who say they are concerned about the special interests' ability to wield such power in American policy making.

''The general concern for all these trips is the ability to buy access and influence," said Mary Boyle, press secretary for Common Cause in its national office in Washington. ''They are trying to get the inside edge that you and I would not get."

A Romney aide said the governor's office has asked the state Ethics Commission's guidance on whether he can accept the offer by the American Israel Committee to pay for the trip, which is scheduled for Sept. 24-29. Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney's director of communications, said the cost is unclear. Usually a weeklong trip with the committee costs more than $5,000 for one person, according to a review of the committee's financed congressional junkets. Romney plans to bring his wife, Ann, on the trip.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, acting through its educational foundation, ranks third among special interest groups providing private travel to members of Congress and their wives, spending $678,000 from 2000-2005, according to PoliticalMoneyLine, a group that tracks campaign donations and lobbying in Washington. The American Israel Committee is sending 14 Democratic House members next week and 17 Republican members the following week to Israel. A spokesman rejected the notion that the committee is seeking special favors.

''These trips allow participants to meet with a wide variety of people whose views span the political spectrum, both among the Israelis and the Palestinians, academics, journalists, business leaders, and experts in homeland security," said Josh Bloch, the committee's spokesman.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which has 70,000 members and spends tens of millions of dollars each year donating to and lobbying members of Congress, courts both Republicans and Democrats.

But conservative Republican leaders and Bible Belt Christian groups have in recent years made strong overtures to the American Jewish community and to Israel. House majority leader Tom DeLay of Texas, a Republican who has made several trips to Israel and was the first recipient of the American Israel Committee's annual Friend of Israel Award in 2003, has become a strong advocate in Washington for the Jewish state. The committee did not pay for his trips, according to his filings with the House of Representatives.

Romney recently abandoned his previous support for legalized abortion and vetoed a sweeping bill to promote embryonic stem cell research. He has also made well-publicized moves to promote a ''foolproof" death penalty and a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

Fehrnstrom said Romney's trip will focus on helping Massachusetts businesses. The invitation was officially extended by the American Israel Education Foundation, a nonprofit affiliate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Fehrnstrom said the trip is not unusual. Governor William F. Weld, who harbored national ambitions, set the record with 11 international trips. Fehrnstrom said Romney, who shunned taking official oversea junkets until now, will also study Israel's expertise in battling terrorism.

Ted Cutler -- a leading Jewish philanthropist in the Boston area who has built his fortune on a travel business, GWV Vacations of Needham -- helped to arrange the trip. Cutler has been a larger donor to Romney, including giving $25,000 to help pay for his first inauguration. Cutler could not be reached for comment.

Only last year, Romney expressed little interest in making a trip to Israel to promote business ties. In an interview with The Jewish Advocate, he was asked whether he would consider leading a trade mission to Israel, but the governor took a dim view of such trips because ''some have looked an awful lot like boondoggles, with not a lot about actually getting business done."

Still, in the same interview, Romney added, ''I'm going to look at that carefully this year to determine whether a trade mission to Israel -- or to another site -- could actually bring business or economic opportunity to us."

Raphael Lewis of the Globe staff contributed to this report.