BOCA RATON — Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama
affirmed his support for Israel, denouncing terrorism, distancing himself from former President Jimmy Carter and deploring Republican criticisms of his foreign policy as "rumor mongering."
"I know how much Israel craves peace," Obama told several hundred members of the B'nai Torah Congregation. "I pledge to make every effort to help Israel achieve that peace."
Obama's comments were made moments ago in a speech at a Boca Raton synagogue located in the heart of a Palm Beach County electorate that voted heavily for his presidential primary opponent, Hillary Clinton.
Obama responded to those criticisms today saying Iran has more power in the Middle East today because of President George W. Bush's foreign policies.
He said he would not meet with leaders of Hamas or Hezbollah unless they agree to Israel's right to exist.
WEST BOCA - U.S. Sen. Barack Obama pledged here today to
fight for Israeli security and said that if elected president he will display "an unshakeable commitment" to "maintaining the bond" between the United States and Israel.
Obama opened a town hall meeting at a synagogue in south Palm Beach County by telling more than 500 Democrats about his appreciation for the "long journey" that led to the creation of Israel.
"Even before I fully understood the history of the Jewish people, the Zionist movement was something I connected to," Obama said in the ballroom of the B'Nai Torah Congregation, west of Boca Raton.
During his remarks, Obama repeatedly drew parallels between civil rights campaigns in the United States with Israelis' struggles for peace in the Middle East.
The town hall meeting at B’Nai Tora Congregation in Boca Raton attracted several hundred people. Aides said beforehand that they expected a rough reception, and Obama foreshadowed that possibility himself, joking that, “I want the toughest questions around” when he began speaking. What he got from the audience, selected by Obama staff and Rep. Robert Wexler (who was married in the synagogue) was fairly moderate. (
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/05/22/obama-courts-jewish-voters-2/)
The first question wasn’t a question at all but a suggestion from an elderly man that he’d get more votes from the Jewish community if he were to change his name to Barry. The audience hooted him down but Obama held his hands out for calm. “One of the things that causes controversy, let’s be honest, is you’ve got a black man named Barack Obama,” the Illinois senator said, before launching into the story of his Kenyan father, who he didn’t know, and his upbringing by his white mother and her family in Kansas. “People shouldn’t worry about the name,” he said.
Obama was asked about these connections by a man whose rambling and lengthy delivery — if not its substance – was roundly booed by the crowd. Obama answered the question in a way – he said that while he knew some of the people that the man rattled off through university and community connections, he didn’t look to them for advice on Israel policy or retain them on the campaign. Challenged to name some prominent Jews he considered close friends, Obama at first demurred, saying he didn’t want to sound biased by saying “some of my best friends are Jewish.” But he did rattle off the names of a few prominent Jewish-Americans.
“Don’t judge me because I’ve got a funny name,” Obama said as he wrapped up the event. “Don’t judge me because I’m African-American. It’s time for us to get past this.”
Obama named Penny Pritzker, his finance chair and "one of my closest friends." Prizker is a Chicago billionaire whose family founded the Hyatt Hotel chain. Obama called the Pritzkers "a fairly prominent Jewish family." (
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/05/22/obama_talks_up_jewish_ties_in.html)
His Illinois co-chair, he added, is James Crown, whose father, Lester Crown, is another Forbes 400 perennial. Obama described the Crown family -- which holds stakes in the Chicago Bulls, Hilton Hotels and Maytag, to name a few -- as "pretty prominent."
Another one of Obama's "dearest friends" and advisers on Israel policy, is Lee Rosenberg, a member of AIPAC's board of directors. One of his political mentors was Abner Mikva, a former congressman from Chicago and federal judge.
Obama continued, "The irony is, when I was in Chicago, one of the raps on me when I first ran for Congress in the African American community was, he's too close to the Jewish community. You can look this up. All his friends are Jews. He's from Hyde Park, He's from the University of Chicago. That's part of why this kind of conversation is frustrating."
Obama said he used to go by “Barry” but then as he got older he thought it was important to acknowledge the other side of his heritage. Obama said that going by his real name caused some people to think he was Muslim. (
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/05/obama-on-the-de.html)
“I think people shouldn’t worry about the name because my understanding is in Hebrew it actually means lightning," he said. "You’ve had a prime minister named Barack in Israel. It should be pretty familiar to this audience."
Obama explained that his Kenyan father was “basically agnostic” and said not believe the rumors that are being spread about the connections to his name.
Obama met a particularly fierce questioner who asked him about his relationship with Rashid Khalidi, a Middle East scholar at Columbia University, and asked for an example of one close Jewish friend who has influenced his thinking.
The voter’s direct and stern questioning of the senator elicited boos from the crowd -– with some attempting to drown out the man’s line of questioning.
Obama listed a few friends and campaign aides who are Jewish -- Penny Pritzker, James Crows and Les Rosenburg -- and responded to the Khalidi connection.
“You mentioned Rashid Khalidi, who’s a professor at Columbia," Obama
said. "I do know him because I taught at the University of Chicago. And he is Palestinian. And I do know him and I have had conversations. He is not one of my advisors; he’s not one of my foreign policy people. His kids went to the Lab school where my kids go as well. He is a respected scholar, although he vehemently disagrees with a lot of Israel’s policy.”
“To pluck out one person who I know and who I’ve had a conversation with who has very different views than 900 of my friends and then to suggest that somehow that shows that maybe I’m not sufficiently pro-Israel, I think, is a very problematic stand to take," he said. "So we gotta be careful about guilt by association.”
Obama said that members of the U.S. Congress have expressed anti-black sentiments but they are still his friends and it doesn't mean that he avoids dealing with them.
“If you get one of these e-mails that says I’m a Muslim -- not true, never been a Muslim -- this is just stuff that is designed to make people suspicious," Obama said. “There is not a single trace of me being anything more than a friend of Israel and a friend of the Jewish people. ... And so I would just ask --because this is part of, I think, the tradition of the Jewish people -- is to judge me by what I say and what I’ve done, don’t judge me because I’ve got a funny name, don’t judge me because I’m African American and, you know, people are concerned about sort of memories of the past. I mean, I was reading the New York Times article today and it was troubling -- because it’s exactly what I am fighting in the African American community when I hear anti-Semitic statements.”
"We've got to be careful about guilt by association," Obama
said during a town-hall meeting Thursday at a synagogue in Boca Raton, Fla. "The tradition of the Jewish people is to judge me by what I say and what I've done."
"The bottom line is this, is that nobody can find any statement that I have ever made that is anything less than unequivocally pro-Israel," said Obama.
Obama addressed concerns over inflammatory comments made by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, by comparing himself to the presumed Republican presidential nominee, John McCain. The Arizona senator severed ties Thursday with a supporter, the Rev. John Hagee, after the disclosure of an audio recording in which the Texas televangelist said that God's will was at work in the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazism.
"I don't attribute those statements to John McCain," Obama said. "Nobody thinks that McCain believes that stuff. And for McCain to then suggest that every single statement that was made by somebody is somehow attributable to me is just wrong. It's just not accurate."
“The
bottom line is this. Nobody can find any statement that I have ever made that is anything less than unequivocally pro-Israel, that says Israel’s security is paramount,” Obama told the crowd at B’Nai Torah Synagogue. “There is not a single trace of me ever being anything more than a friend of Israel and a friend of the Jewish people.”
He asked the audience to move past his name and his skin color, to delete the emails claiming he is a Muslim and to ignore the “rumor-mongering” aimed at raising suspicions about his character or his associations.
"This is part, I think, of the tradition of the Jewish people is to judge me by what I say and what I have done," he said. "Don't judge me because I have a funny name. Don't judge me because I am an African American. People are concerned about memories of the past. ... That is exactly what I am fighting in the African American community when I hear anti-Semitic statements. We are bigger than that.
"If my policies are wrong, then vote against me because my policies are wrong. If I am not honest, if I am not truthful, don't vote for me for that reason," he went on to say. "But don’t vote against me because of who I am, and I know you won't."
Sen. Obama was asked by an Orlando reporter whether Florida's voting blocks put him at a disadvantage: (
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-521obamaoneonone,0,516146.story)
"The people here in Florida when it comes to the fall campaign are going to be focused on bread and butter issues," Sen. Obama said.
Older voters are going to be concerned about who can protect social security. And they're going to have a choice between a candidate who wants to privatize social security and a candidate who wants to not only preserve social security but also wants to make sure that seniors citizens making $50,000 or less don't have to pay taxes on social security
I think voters are going to be interested in whose got a realistic plan to make health care affordable. John McCain wants to perpetuate the same strategy that George Bush has proposed, which leaves people basically exposed to a marketplace that's already failed them.
I want to help lower premiums for people who have health insurance and provide a mechanism for people who don't to get health care.
Those issues will come to dominate this election because we've got such a stark choice between a candidate who wants to perpetuate the policies of the last eight years and a candidates who wants to take new approaches to help people. And that will dominate, and I think we can persuade an awful lot of folks, Democrat and Republican, to move towards the future instead of moving towards the past."
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