Why the Mitt-Bibi bromance won't affect world affairs

Mitt Romney and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu are pals, says The New York Times. But don't expect them to forge a Mideast peace accord anytime soon

Dana Liebelson

The New York Times recently published an article on a "quirk of history" — the warm friendship that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formed when they worked together at Boston Consulting Group in the 1970s. The "Mitt and Bibi" story has made quite a few waves: Some are even likening the friendship to the famed chumminess between Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.

It's easy to understand the story's appeal. History is made up of personalities, and nothing can get a historian hopping like the idea of two political figures sharing an unlikely 36-year-long friendship. And "Mitt and Bibi" is as pithy a phrase as Keeping up with the Kardashians — but underpinned by a much more authentic love story.

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Dana Liebelson is a reporter for Mother Jones. A graduate of George Washington University, she has worked for a variety of advocacy organizations in the District, including the Project on Government Oversight, International Center for Journalists, Rethink Media, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and Change.org. She speaks Mandarin and German and plays violin in the D.C.-based Indie rock band Bellflur.