Breaking with other potential 2012 GOP candidates, Mitt Romney on Tuesday said Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak should quit and he praised President Obama’s handling of the crisis.

“I think what the United States has to do is make it very clear to the people of Egypt that we stand with the voices of democracy and freedom and we also have to communicate — I think as the administration has,” Romney said ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

America should make clear “that we would like to see a transition to permanent democracy — not just a one time, one vote and then the extremists take over but instead a permanent democracy with the rule of law with support for the allies that have existed in the past,” Romney said.

Such a transition “would be best undertaken if President Mubarak were to step out of the way or lead the transition,” the former Massachusetts governor added.

Romney’s take on the crisis diverges sharply from other potential Republican presidential candidates, including John Bolton, Tim Pawlenty and Mike Huckabee, who have warned that backing the protesters could lead to an Islamist government in Egypt that would threaten Israel and the rest of the region. Pawlenty also has blasted the White House’s handling of the crisis.

Meanwhile, The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office posted this video of his meeting today with Mike Huckabee, who took the occasion of his trip to Israel to reiterate his opposition to the idea that Israel should relinquish occupied territory at all.

The developments in Egypt have “created a very tenuous situation” for the entire world, likely US Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee said in the Knesset on Monday.

Huckabee, on a private visit to Israel – his 13th time in the country – said in the Knesset’s Immigration and Absorption Committee that “the events of the past few days in Egypt have created a very tenuous situation, not just for Egypt, not just for the Middle East, but for the entire world, and the destabilization of that nation has the potential of cascading across the globe.”

Earlier on Monday, Huckabee visited the Knesset together with Voight, who is known for his outspoken pro-Israel stance. The two attended an Immigration, Absorption and Public Diplomacy Committee hearing on Israel and Diaspora responses to anti- Semitism and delegitimization.

“Any threat to Israel is a very real threat to the United States,” Huckabee said in the Knesset. “And one of the reasons I come here is because I want to be an ambassador in my own country, to help explain that our solidarity with Israel is not merely organizational, but it is organic, and that we cannot afford to allow Israel to be threatened.”

He also spoke out against building freezes in Jewish settlements, arguing “the right of the Jewish people to build in their homeland is unquestionable,” and saying that last year’s 10- month freeze was neither logical nor acceptable.

“Israel is a wonderful country that I love and value very highly,” he said.

“Every threat against Israel is also a threat to American values, and to those who love liberty and freedom throughout the world.”

He dismissed the idea of land-for-peace, describing it as illogical.

Danon used the opportunity to attack US President Barack Obama, arguing that Obama’s vision, as presented in his landmark speech in Cairo last year, “was a failure.”

“Obama’s war against the extremists lead to the collapse of the Hariri government in Lebanon, and the policy of freezing building in Judea and Samaria gave the Palestinians an expectation that if they were offered a finger, they can also take the whole hand,” continued Danon.

“Democracy in Arab states created anarchy in Egypt, and Obama must understand that in the Middle East, one must speak the local language.”

(Source: Politico / )