Senator Romney in Israel

Sen. Mitt Romney will not be meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to the Middle East this week. The freshman Utah Senator is attending the “HELP Hearing: Implementing the 21st Century Cures Act.” Netanyahu’s office said that the prime minister is vacationing in the north during Passover, which ends at nightfall on Saturday. Romney and Netanyahu did, however, speak on the phone. The Utah Senator and Israeli Prime Minister have been friends dating back to 1976 when they worked in Boston together. Netanyahu was not fond of President Barack Obama and openly backed Romney for president in 2012. At that time Candidate-Romney traveled to Israel to meet with the prime minister. During that campaign Romney said his first foreign trip as president would be to Israel. photo: timesofisrael.com