Mitt Romney likes to end his stump speeches with an inspiring anecdote that emphasizes America’s exceptionalism, one that comes from an unlikely source.

The former governor of Massachusetts most recently used this anecdote in his speech Sunday to Republicans in Nashua, N.H. “America is still a nation that values strength, individual responsibility, liberty. That is the nature of this nation,” he said. This fact, he adds, “was brought home to me when the former prime minister of Israel was in Boston.” Mr. Romney explained that he was among a small gathering at which someone asked the Israeli leader about America’s involvement in Iraq. The leader said, “before I answer that I need to put that issue in context.” The Israeli leader went on, according to Mr. Romney, “‘America is unique … in the history of the war the nation that wins takes land from the nation that loses, because land has been the source of value on this planet.'”

Mr. Romney wound down his speech, again citing the Israeli leader, “‘one nation in this last century laid down hundreds of thousands of lives and took no land for itself, America, no land from the Germans, no land from the Japanese.'” Mr. Romney added a rhetorical flourish, saying, “the only land we take is enough land to bury our dead.” He concluded, “This is a land that will fight for freedom for ourselves and liberty-loving people around the world.”

Interestingly, during his remarks, Mr. Romney did not say which former prime minister of Israel he was citing. Perhaps it was Ariel Sharon or maybe the generational and rhetorically similar Benjamin Netanyahu. When I asked Mr. Romney about his speech, his answer surprised me: Shimon Peres.

Mr. Peres, a veteran of Labor Party politics turned Kadima Party member, was sworn in as Israel’s president earlier this month and was an architect of the Oslo peace process and a favorite during the 1990s of the Peace Now crowd. Mr. Romney had met Mr. Peres at the Boston area home of Israel’s then-consul general, Meir Shlomo, in 2004.

Perhaps Mr. Romney quoting Mr. Peres should not be so surprising. Mr. Peres is one of a very small handful of leaders who thinks in grandiose philosophical terms and sometimes world historical terms. He also sees the big picture of the threat that democracies, such as America and Israel, face from tyrannies, such as Iran. During his speech last week accepting Israel’s presidency, a ceremonial position, Mr. Peres spoke of his belief in Israel’s potential to be an inspiring nation. “I believe in enlightening the world, in raising light for both people and nations. We recall that the first sentence in the Genesis was, ‘Let there be light.'”

“He said America will fight for freedom for itself and for its friends. It was very impactful,” Mr. Romney later told this columnist in an interview of his encounter with Mr. Peres. “It is something I mention frequently.”

Mr. Peres is far from Mr. Romney’s only prominent Israeli contact. He met with Ariel Sharon when the former prime minister was healthy and has met with the current prime minister, Ehud Olmert, as well.

It is fitting, though, that the Israeli leader Mr. Romney knows best is a slick free marketer who is two years his junior, Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr. Romney met Mr. Netanyahu when both worked at the Boston Consulting Group, and the latter married a friend of Mr. Romney’s, Fleur Cates. The former Massachusetts governor saw Mr. Netanyahu in Israel in January and spoke to him four weeks ago.

As a longtime observer of Mr. Romney’s, I’ve struggled to find a stylistic match with him. In thinking about Messrs. Romney and Netanyahu, though, their fluid and smooth, even glib, verbal deliveries are quite similar. As Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Mr. Netanyahu became famous in America for his ability to ace interviews with Ted Koppel of ABC’s “Nightline.”

Still, when it comes to talking about America’s place in the world, Mr. Romney turns to the man whom Mr. Netanyahu beat for the prime ministership in 1996, Mr. Peres. That’s because when it comes to America’s unique place in the world, Mr. Peres is right.

Mr. Gitell (gitell.com) is a contributing editor of The New York Sun.