SDEROT, Israel — From the solemnity of a Holocaust museum to a village battered by Hamas rockets, Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama professed “an unshakable commitment to the security” of Israel on Wednesday, whether the threat comes from terrorists, Iran or elsewhere.
“The way you know where somebody’s going is where have they been. And I’ve been with Israel for many, many years now,” he said.
In his public remarks, Obama sidestepped a question of whether he would condone an Israeli attack to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. But he said he was confident that in several private meetings, he had not left Israeli politicians with the impression that, if elected president, he would be “pressuring them to accept any kinds of concessions that would put their security at stake.”
Obama packed more than a half-dozen meetings, a stop at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, a helicopter tour of the country and a visit to a house hit by Hamas rockets into his only full day in Israel during his trip to the Middle East and Europe.
He also rode past an Israeli checkpoint into Ramallah on the West Bank, where he assured Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of his support for a two-state resolution of the region’s long animosities. Later, entering a session with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Obama said his talks with Abbas indicated “there’s a strong sense of progress being made” toward peace. Olmert nodded and said, “Indeed.”
Obama’s focus was reassuring Israelis — and by extension millions of Jewish voters in the United States — of his commitment to the survival of the Jewish state. He leads his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, among Jewish voters.
If his campaign aides were looking for memorable images, they got them, from Obama donning a skullcap at the Holocaust memorial, to President Shimon Peres saying, “God bless you” outside his official residence, to a stop at a house in Sderot where he saw the destruction caused by Hamas rockets.
