According to a New York Times expose, Republican front-runner Mitt Romney and Prime Minister are old friends dating to before their political careers.

“The two young men had woefully little in common: one was a wealthy Mormon from Michigan, the other a middle-class Jew from Israel,” reported the NYT.

“But in 1976, the lives of Mitt Romney and Benjamin Netanyahu intersected, briefly but indelibly, in the 16th-floor offices of the Boston Consulting Group, where both had been recruited as corporate advisers.

“At the most formative time of their careers, they sized each other up during the firm’s weekly brainstorming sessions, absorbing the same profoundly analytical view of the world.

“That shared experience decades ago led to a warm friendship, little known to outsiders, that is now rich with political intrigue.”

The NYT quoted Romney as saying, “We can almost speak in shorthand. We share common experiences and have a perspective and underpinning which is similar.”

The piece also makes a passing reference to Netanyahu’s marriage to a Romney friend, Fleur Cates, who had worked at his firm, Bain. Cates was Netanyahu’s second wife, who converted to Judaism for their marriage.