(IsraelNN.com) Virginia Republican Congressman Eric Cantor, whom Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain is considering naming as his vice-presidential running mate, said in a speech last November that Jerusalem is "Ground Zero in the global battle between tyranny and democracy" and is "Israel's lifeblood."

Speaking during a visit to Israel for the "One Jerusalem" event, which protested the Annapolis summit, Cantor said: "Jerusalem is not merely the capital of Israel but the spiritual capital of Jews and Christians everywhere. It's the site of the First and Second Temples, which housed the Holy of Holies, and it's the direction in which we Jews face when we pray. This glorious City of David is bound to the Jewish people by an undeniable 3,000 year historical link."

Jerusalem, Cantor said, "is Israel's lifeblood. No one understands this better than Israel's enemies. That is precisely why they still engage in a systematic campaign to erase the historical link of the Jews to this great city. For if Israel were severed from Jerusalem, the Jewish state would lose its sense of legitimacy and its will to fight; only then could Israel be destroyed."

'Jerusalem is Ground Zero'
"If Israel were severed from Jerusalem, the Jewish state would lose its sense of legitimacy and its will to fight."

"What befalls Jerusalem threatens the security of the United States and its allies worldwide. That's because Jerusalem and Israel are Ground Zero in the global battle between tyranny and democracy, radicalism and moderation, terrorism and freedom."

Speaking in Hebrew, Cantor quoted Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, who said: "If a land has a soul, then Jerusalem is the soul of the Land of Israel."

Rep. Cantor, chief deputy minority whip in the House of Representatives, has reportedly been asked to supply Sen. McCain with personal documents for the vetting process.

Jewish Senator Joe Lieberman ran for vice president with Democratic nominee Al Gore against George W. Bush in 2000 and narrowly lost. The senator, who was Sen. Barack Obama's mentor in the Senate, has since left the Democratic party to become an independent and is backing Sen. McCain for president.