Mr. Obama, too, came here as a presidential candidate, in July 2008 before his speech in Berlin. He met with Mr. Netanyahu — then the leader of the opposition — as well as Israel’s prime minister, defense minister, Mr. Fayyad and Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority. He visited Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial and museum, and Sderot, the Israeli town near the border of the Gaza Strip that is the frequent target of missile attacks.

This will be Mr. Romney’s fourth visit to Israel. He first came with his family on a Mormon Church trip, according to a campaign official, then served as a keynote speaker at the Herzliya Conference on security in 2007. In January 2011, he spent three days here during a swing that also included Afghanistan and Jordan.

Presidential candidates rarely leave the United States during the heat of the campaign; Mr. Romney, who was chief executive of the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City in 2002, also plans to attend the Olympic opening ceremonies in London, and it is yet unclear whether Israel will be tacked onto that trip or be scheduled separately.

While the visit could distract from the Republicans’ main line of attack against Mr. Obama, the economy, it is an opportunity for Mr. Romney, who as a former governor has little foreign policy experience, to play the statesman.