Congressman Eric Cantor. Photo: www.theconservativetreehouse.com.

Republican leaders have responded sharply to an announcement by an Obama campaign staffer that the President would visit Israel during his second term in the event that he won.

“President Obama’s promise to visit Israel in his second term comes four years too late, and is emblematic of the lack of close coordination with Israel Candidate Obama led us to expect in 2008,” said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor today in an email circulated by the Romney Campaign. “Our relationship with Israel should be a priority, not a distraction. President Obama has found time to visit dozens of other nations – including some near to Israel in the Middle East – and his treatment of our closest ally in the region has been profoundly disappointing,” he concluded.

Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen also criticized the President while praising Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney, “Next week, Mitt Romney is traveling to Israel for the fourth time. Meanwhile, Barack Obama has yet to visit Israel as President, even as he has found time to visit numerous other countries around the world, including in the Middle East,” she said.

“One should not play political games with U.S. foreign policy, particularly at a moment when the Middle East is a tinderbox,” She added