“It is a deeply moving experience to be in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel,” said Romney. 

Romney is not Obama on Israel. He doesn’t believe Israel was based on the Holocaust alone. He doesn’t think that Israel’s status as a moral force in the Middle East is in question. He doesn’t think Israel ought to be forced into concessions to terrorists:

 To step foot into Israel is to step foot into a nation that began with an ancient promise made in this land. The Jewish people persisted through one of the most monstrous crimes in human history, and now this nation has come to take its place among the most impressive democracies on earth. Israel’s achievements are a wonder of the modern world.

 These achievements are a tribute to the resilience of the Israeli people.  You have managed, against all odds, time and again throughout your history, to persevere, to rise up, and to emerge stronger.

 He continued:

 Our two nations are separated by more than 5,000 miles. But for an American abroad, you can’t get much closer to the ideals and convictions of my own country than you do in Israel.  We’re part of the great fellowship of democracies.  We speak the same language of freedom and justice, and the right of every person to live in peace.  We serve the same cause and provoke the same hatreds in the same enemies of civilization.

 This is the crux of the special relationship between the United States and Israel. The US doesn’t merely support Israel because Israel’s a strategic ally – though it is. The US supports Israel because of the moral imperative of standing with a country that embraces liberal democracy and Judeo-Christian values, in a sea of ideological darkness that is the Middle East.