Romney said considering second Israel visit in two years

The presumptive Republican nominee for president, Mitt Romney, is understood to be seriously considering a trip to Israel in the near future. This would be his second visit to the Jewish state in less than two years.

Romney has already said publicly he would make Israel his first destination if elected president. President Barack Obama visited Israel as a candidate in 2008, but has not been back as president.

Romney last visited Israel in January of 2001, before he had formally declared his candidacy, and was hosted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Jerusalem residence. He also visited Afghanistan, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan on that trip.

Netanyahu issued a statement after their meeting saying the two men discussed security issues, including the threat posed by Iran. Romney has been highly critical of Obama’s handling of the Iranian nuclear drive. Notably, in a March 5 article in the Washington Post, Romney described Obama as America’s “most feckless president since (Jimmy) Carter,” warned that with Obama in the White House Iran was on course to acquiring nuclear weapons, and vowed that, if elected, he would take “every measure necessary” to “check the evil regime of the ayatollahs.”

Republican lawmakers are encouraging Romney to visit Israel ahead of the US presidential elections, saying that such a trip would push more American Jewish voters into his camp, and have a wider positive impact on his campaign.

An American Jewish Committee survey last month showed Obama with 61 percent of the Jewish vote, far lower than the 78 percent he scored among Jews in exit polls in 2008. The same poll put Romney at 28 percent among Jewish voters, an improvement over the 22 percent garnered by the previous GOP nominee, John McCain, in 2008.

Republicans told the Congressional newspaper The Hill that a trip to Israel would emphasize the fact that Obama has yet to visit Israel during his term of office, and thus give Romney an edge in the upcoming US elections. Media reports indicate Romney may take the advice and visit.

Advisers believe that a trip to Israel by Romney would also advance US-Israeli relations. “It would be a good visit for him,” National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions told conservative site Newsmax.

Rumors about Romney’s possible trip to Israel began spreading a few weeks ago, but have become more credible in the past week.

A Jewish Republican activist told the Israeli news site Globes: “Everyone is talking about a possible visit by Romney to Israel in a few months,” although he could not confirm nor deny the rumor. “It would be a genius move by Romney,” he said.

Romney has been friends with Netanyahu since both men worked at together at the Boston Consulting Group in the mid-1970s.

Romney has promised that Israel would be his first foreign trip as president. In December 2011 he told the Republican Jewish Coalition’s Presidential Candidates Forum: “I will travel to Israel on my first foreign trip. I will reaffirm as a vital national interest Israel’s existence as a Jewish state. I want the world to know that the bonds between Israel and the United States are unshakable.”

Obama visited Israel in 2008 while he was a presidential candidate but has not been back since. During his presidency he has visited some 30 other countries.