While tonight’s Republican debate in Florida featured contentious exchanges over health care, immigration, Freddie Mac, and other topics, there was at least one subject that did not elicit barbs and harsh words—Israel. The question posed to the candidates was by a self-identified Republican Palestinian-American, and he asked: “How would a Republican administration help bring peace to Palestine and Israel when most candidates barely recognize the existence of Palestine or its people?”

Mitt Romney gave a strong answer by coming down hard on the Palestinian leadership that’s failed its people. “Well, the reason that there’s not peace between the Palestinians and Israel is because there is—in the leadership of the Palestinian people are Hamas and others who think like Hamas, who have as their intent the elimination of Israel. And whether it’s in school books that teach how to kill Jews, or whether it’s in the political discourse that is spoken either from Fatah or from Hamas, there is a belief that the Jewish people do not have a right to have a Jewish state,” Romney responded.