israel's capital, candy, and he said that he would very much like to move the united states' embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem. as you know, since the 1967 war when israel captured east jerusalem, which was then under jordanian control, no u.s. president has ever recognized east jerusalem, including the old city of jerusalem, as being part of israel under israeli sovereignty. and the u.s. has always kept its embassy in tel aviv as opposed to jerusalem. so i asked him how he felt about that. i asked him specifically, do you think that jerusalem is israel's capital? and he said absolutely he does. i said, do you think that the united states should move its embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem? he said that would be the goal, but he said if he were elected president, he would consult with the israeli government. and if the israeli government said yes, we would like to see that u.s. embassy in jerusalem, he suggested to me that he would go ahead and do it even though no u.s. president over these many years since 1967 going back to lbj or nixon or jimmy carter, ronald reagan, any of the presidents, both presidents bush or bill clinton or barack obama, for that matter, they've always kept the embassy in tel aviv. so he said he would consult with the israeli government -- >> hey, wolf? >> reporter: he said he would move it. >> wolf? >> reporter: yeah? >> you've done this many times, i know, mitt romney speaking at the podium. we've got to let you go. we'll talk to you after the speech. >> -- israel's achievements are a wonder of the modern world. these achievements are a tribute to the resilience of the israeli people. you've managed against all odds, time and again, throughout your history to persevere, to rise up, and to emerge stronger. the historian paul johnson writing on the 50th anniversary of the creation of the jewish state said that over the course of israel's life, 100 completely new independent states had come into existence. quote, israel is the only one whose creation can fairly be called a miracle, he wrote. it's a deeply moving experience to be in jerusalem, the capital of israel. 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 we provoke the same hatreds in the same enemies of civilization. it is my firm conviction that the security of israel is in the vital national security interest of the united states. ours is not an alliance based only on shared interests. but also an enduring shared values. in those shared values, one of the strongest voices is that of your prime minister, my friend, benjamin netanyahu. i met with him earlier this morning. and i look forward to my family joining with his this evening as they close the fast of this day. it's remarkable to consider how much adversity over so great a span of time is recalled by just one day on the calendar. this is the day of remembrance and mourning. but like other such occasions, it also calls forth clarity and resolve. at this time we also remember the 11 israeli athletes and coaches who were massacred at the munich olympics 40 years ago. and ten years ago this week, nine israeli and american students were murdered in a terrorist attack at hebrew university. tragedies like these are not reserved to the past. they're a constant reminder of the reality of hate and the will with which that hate is executed upon the innocent. a man said this about the night. we remember, he said, and now have the responsibility to make sure that never again will our independence be destroyed and never again will the jew become homeless or defenseless. this, he added, is the crux of the problems facing us in the future. so it is today as israel faces enemies who deny past crimes against the jewish people and seek to commit new ones. when iran's leaders deny the holocaust or speak of wiping this nation off the map. only the naive or worse would dismiss it as an excess of rhetoric. make no mistake, the ayatollahs in tehran are testing our moral defenses. they want to know who will object and who will look the other way. my message to the people of israel and the leaders of iran is one and the same. we will not look away. nor will my country ever look away from our passion and commitment to israel. as prime minister put it in haunting words, if the enemy of the jewish people says he seeks to destroy us, believe him. we've seen the horrors of history. we will not stand by. we will not watch them play out again. it would be foolish not to take iran's leaders at their word. they are, after all, the product of a radical theocracy. over the years iran has amassed a brutal and bloody record. it has seized embassies, targeted diplomats, and killed its own people. it supports the ruthless assad regime in syria. they provide the weapons that have killed american soldiers in afghanistan and iraq. it has plotted to assassinate diplomats on american soil. it is iran that is the leading state sponsor of terrorism and the most destabilizing nation in the world. we have a solemn duty and a moral imperative to deny iran's leaders the means to follow through on their milev malevolent intentions. we need to prevent a nuclear-armed iran, and that includes iranian dissidents. don't erase from your memory the scenes from three years ago when that regime brought to death its own people as they rose up. the threat we face does not come from the iranian people but from the regime that oppresses them. five years ago at the conference, i stated my view that iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons capability presents an intolerable threat to israel to america and to the world. that threat has only become worse. now the regime claims that its peaceable purposes are belied by years of deception. now as then the conduct of iran's leaders gives us no reason to trust them with nuclear materiel. but today the regime in iran is five years closer to developing nuclear weapons capability. preventing that outcome must be our highest national security priority. i want to pause on that point. it's sometimes said that those who were most committed to stop the iranian regime from securing nuclear weapons are provocative and providing war. the opposite is true. we are the true peacemakers. history teaches with force and clarity that when the world's most despotic regimes secure the most destructive weapons, peace often gives way to oppression, to violence or to devastating war. we must not delude ourselves into thinking that containment is an option. we must lead the effort to prevent iran from building and possessing nuclear weapons capability. we should employ any and all measures to dissuade the iranian regime from its nuclear course. and it is our fervent hope that diplomatic and economic measures will do so. in the final analysis, of course, no option should be excluded. we recognize israel's right to defend itself and that it is right for america to stand with you. these are some of the principles i outlined five years ago at the conference. what was timely then has become urgent today. let me turn from iran to other nations in the middle east. where we've seen rising tumult and chaos. to the north, syria is on the brink of a civil war. the dictator in damascus, no friend to israel, no friend to america, slaughters his own people as he desperately clings to power. your other neighbor to the north, lebanon, is under the growing and dangerous influence of hezbollah. after a year of upheaval and unrest, egypt now has an islamist president, chosen in a democratic election. hopefully this new government understands that one true measure of democracy is how those elected by the majority respect the rights of those in the minority. the international community must use its considerable influence to ensure that the new government honors the peace agreement with israel that was signed by the government of anwar sa ddat. as you know only too well, since hamas took control of the gaza strip, thousands of rockets have rained on israeli homes and cities. i've walked on the streets and honor the resolve of its people. and now new attacks have been launched from the sinai peninsula. with hezbollah rockets aimed at israel from the north and hamas rockets aimed from the south, with much of the middle east in tumult, with iran bent on nuclear arms, america's vocal and demonstrated commitment to the defense of israel is even more critical. whenever the security of israel is most in doubt, america's commitment to israel must be most secure. when the decision was before him in 1948, president harry truman decided without hesitation that the united states would be the first country to recognize the state of israel. from that moment of this, we've been the most natural of allies. but our alliance runs deeper than the designs of strategy or the weighing of interests. the story of how america, a nation still so new to the world by the standards of this ancient region, rose up to become the dear friend of the people of israel as among the finest and most hopeful in our nation's history. different as our paths have been, we see the same qualities in one another. israel and america are in many respects reflections of one another. we both believe in democracy, in the right of every people to select their leaders, and choose their nation's course. we both believe in the rule of law. knowing that in its absence, willful men may incline to oppress the weak. we both believe that our rights are universal. granted not by government but by our creator. we both believe in free enterprise because it is the only economic system that has lifted people from poverty, created a large and enduring middle class and that has inaugurated incomparable achievements in human flourishing. someone who spent most of his life in business, i'm particularly impressed with israel's cutting-edge technologies and thriving economy. we recognize yours as the start-up nation. and the evidence is all around us. you have embraced economic liberty. you export technology, not tyranny or terrorism. and today your innovators and entrepreneurs have made the desert bloom and have made for a better world. the citizens of our countries are fortunate to share in economic freedom and in the creativity of our respective entrepreneurs. what you have built here with your hands is a tribute to your people and a model for others throughout the world. finally, we both believe in the freedom of expression because we are confident in our ideas and in the ability of our men and women to think for themselves. we don't fear open debate. you want to hear some very sharp criticisms of israel and its policies, you don't have to cross any borders. all you have to do is walk down the street, step into a cafe. there you'll hear people reasoning, arguing or speaking their mind, or just pick up an israeli newspaper. you'll find some of the toughest criticism of israel you'll read anywhere. your nation, like ours, is stronger for this energetic exchange of ideas and opinions. that's the way it is in a free society. there are many millions of people in the middle east who would cherish the opportunity to do the same thing. these decent men and women desire nothing more than to live in peace and freedom and to have the opportunity to not only choose their government but to criticize it openly without fear of repression or repercussion. i believe that those who oppose these fundamental rights are on the wrong side of history. but history's march can be ponderously and painfully slow. we have a duty to shape history by being unapologetic ambassadors for the values we share. the united states and israel have shown that we can build strong economies and strong militaries. but we must also build strong arguments that advance our values and promote peace. we must work together to change hearts and awaken minds through the power of freedom, free enterprise and human rights. i believe that the enduring alliance between the state of israel and the united states of america is more than a strategic alliance. it's a force for good in the world. america's support of israel should make every american proud. we should not allow the inevitable complexities of modern geopolitics to obscure fundamental touchstones. no country or organization or individual should ever doubt this basic truth, a free and strong america will always stand with a free and strong israel. and standing by israel does not mean with military and intelligence cooperation alone. we cannot stand silent as those who seek to undermine israel voice their criticisms. and we certainly should not join in that criticism. diplomatic distance in our public between our nations emboldens israel's adversaries. by history and by conviction, our two countries are bound together. no individual, no nation, no world organization will pry us apart. as long as we stay together and stand together, there is no threat we cannot overcome and very little that we cannot achieve. i love this country. i love america. i love the friendship and passion we have for the values which we share. thank you for your support today. may god bless my country of america, and may he bless and protect the nation of israel. thank you so much. >> that, of course, is the certain republican nominee for president, mitt romney, on a three-country tour of europe. or of overseas. this, of course, in israel, his backdrop today, the tower of david, the old city walls. very impressive and a very forceful speech. i want to bring back in, if we have him, our jim acosta. jim, when they set out to write this speech and reach an audience there and very much try to reach an audience here, what were they trying to get across? >> reporter: well, i think they were trying to get across, candy, a contrast with president obama, perhaps not in policy but in tone. i mean, you could not pick a more dramatic backdrop to deliver the message that mitt romney delivered to this crowd here. you know, he did not mention the president during this speech. he stuck to his promise, not criticized the president on foreign soil, but he did lay out some differences between himself and the president. he said that jerusalem should be the capital of israel. that is something that i think that is some news coming from mitt romney today. and that muscular speech that he gave or portions of his speech that he gave on iran. i think will also be remembered by the crowd here and by jewish-americans back home who are obviously very concerned about that country's nuclear program. i will tell you, though, that all of this is sort of, you know, thrust into the middle of the campaign, and no surprise there. the obama campaign is already putting out e-mails to reporters noting when and where president obama has authorized funding for military aid to israel, authorized funding for missile defense program for israel and on and on. so both of these campaigns, while they're not directly going after each other while mitt romney is here, they are certainly doing it implicitly as much as they can, candy. >> yeah, it's not too subtle. i also want to bring in our wolf blitzer who's in our bureau there in jerusalem. wolf, i know you spoke to mitt romney at length for an interview we're going to see tomorrow, but let me first start with and pick up with what jim just said about no direct criticism of president obama, but i thought there was the line about it's not enough just to have security cooperation. the president, as we know, signed a new security cooperation pact with israel this week. and he said it's because we cannot stand silent when enemies of israel go after israel, et cetera. it seemed to me that that was intended directly for president obama. >> reporter: it certainly was, candy. because that was pretty blunt, if you will. he didn't mejs the president by name. the argument that the president has been making and his supporters have been making is that the u.s./israeli military-to-military relationship, intelligence-to-intelligence community relationship, is better than it's ever been. and on that point, romney seemed to acknowledge that, that the military and intelligence cooperation between washington and jerusalem is very, very strong. it's where romney then went on to say, but that's not enough. you have to stand with israel even when israel is being criticized at international forums, whether at the united nations or elsewhere. and the president of the united states can't criticize israel's government openly publicly to a certain degree. i think he was referring to some of that awkward, shall we say, back-and-forth between the president and prime minister netanyahu when prime minister netanyahu was at the white house. they had that rather unpleasant exchange in the oval office. the president had delivered a speech a couple days earlier at the state department saying that any two-state solution, israel and palestine, the negotiations should begin based on the pre-1967 alliance with mutually agreed land swaps. that was certainly something that romney has criticized, and many in israel have criticized. they insist that the pre-'67 alliance even with mutually agreed swaps would not necessarily leave israel in a strong defensible position inspect in the interview with me today, romney affirmed that. he did come out in favor of a two-state solution, israel and palestine. but the nuances, some of the subtleties were very different in how that would be achieved. what president obama has publicly said and what romney has publicly said. i think the most sensitive point, though, is romney opened up his speech here that we just heard saying that jerusalem is israel's capital. and as you know, and our viewers know, candy, since 1967 when israel captured all of jerusalem, west jerusalem had been under israel's control, but east jerusalem including the old city, all of that came under israel's control. no u.s. government, no u.s. president has fully recognized jerusalem as israel's capital, nor has it moved the embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem. listen to this exchange that i had with mitt romney in the interview we conducted earlier in the day over at the king david hotel in jerusalem. you consider jerusalem where we're sitting, the king david hotel here in jerusalem, do you consider jerusalem to be the capital of israel? >> yes, of course. a nation has a capacity to choose its own capital city, and jerusalem is israel's capital. >> reporter: if you become president of the united states, would you move the u.s. embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem? >> i think it's long been the policy of our country to ultimately have our embassy in the nation's capital, jerusalem. the decision to actually make the move is one, if i were president, i would want to take in consultation with the leadership of the government which exists at that time. so i would follow the same policy we have in the past. our embassy would be in the capital. but that said, the timing of that is something i'd want to work out with the government. >> reporter: with the government of israel? >> with the government of israel. >> reporter: every israeli government has asked every u.s. government to recognize jerusalem as the capital and to move the embassy. >> that would make it easy, but i'd still want to have that communications with the government leaders. >> reporter: you would consult with the israeli government. and if they said please move the embassy, you would do that? >> i'm not going to make foreign policy for my nation particularly while i'm on foreign soil. my understanding is the policy of our nation has been a desire to move our embassy ultimately to the capital. th