I'm pro-Israel, Obama reassures crowd in Boca Raton

Palm Beach Post ^ | May 23rd, 2008 | MICHAEL C. BENDER

[The_Republican]

BOCA RATON — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama stood in the middle of one of the state's largest Jewish communities Thursday and was asked to prove his pro-Israel credentials.

He pointed to the black voters in his Chicago hometown.

"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. ... All his friends are Jews,' " Obama told about 600 people at B'nai Torah Congregation. "That's part of why this kind of conversation is frustrating."

Obama, who lost that 2000 race, tried to assuage concerns from a heavily Jewish pocket of South Florida voters that Republicans are hoping will swing to their candidate, John McCain.

Republicans see an opening with this traditional bloc of Democratic voters in part because Obama lost this area in large numbers to his primary opponent, Hillary Clinton.

Clinton was in suburban Boca Raton on Wednesday. Several of her supporters, including Palm Beach County Commissioner Burt Aaronson and state Rep. Kelly Skidmore, D-Boca Raton, sat in the front row of the B'nai Torah Congregation on Thursday.

They listened as Obama spent much of his 20-minute speech pledging his support to Israel, denouncing terrorism and distancing himself from the meetings former President Jimmy Carter held with Hamas.

Obama then spent an hour taking questions from the crowd. Half of the questions focused on foreign policy.

Things got heated once, when Michael Ackerman of Boca Raton asked Obama to name Jewish friends who were not elected officials and who had influenced his thinking on foreign policy. Several South Florida Jewish politicians, including U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Delray Beach, introduced Obama.

Ackerman, who later said he was a lifelong Democrat who planned to vote for McCain, also asked whether Obama was a friend of Rashid Khalidi, a controversial Palestinian scholar at the University of Chicago.

Ackerman took several minutes setting up the question and was eventually booed and hissed by the crowd when he asked Obama to provide names of people who could prove he was "anti-terrorist."

Obama quieted the crowd and said his and Khalidi's children went to the same school. He said he had spoken with Khalidi but the professor was not on his team of advisers.

"To pluck one person who I know ... and then suggest that somehow shows that I'm not sufficiently pro-Israel, I think that is a very problematic stance to take," Obama said.

Obama's visit was his first public appearance in Palm Beach County in more than a year. He and Clinton agreed not to campaign in Florida after the state's primary was ignored by the Democratic National Committee. The DNC is meeting next week to reconsider that decision.

When he started his speech at 4:30 p.m., about 40 people were locked out by the fire marshal, who declared the synagogue was at capacity. "It's disappointing," said Nel Bloom, who had a ticket to the event. "I just wanted to hear what he had to say."

The event had been scheduled for noon but was delayed when Obama flew from Orlando to Washington for a vote on a spending bill for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama also held evening fund-raisers in Hollywood and Miami Beach.

The Senate approved the bill, which included a $52 billion veterans education benefits package that both McCain and the White House oppose.

Obama criticized McCain in the Senate, saying, "I can't understand why he would line up behind the president in his opposition to this G.I. bill."

McCain shot back in a statement, saying Obama's swipe was "a cheap shot" that "exploited a thoughtful difference of opinion to advance his own ambitions."

Foreign policy issues are expected to take center stage in a potential presidential match-up between Obama and McCain.

Obama has sought to portray a McCain presidency as a third term for President Bush, whose approval ratings are at an all-time low.

McCain has tried to convince voters that Obama would be willing to meet with leaders of Hamas.

On Thursday, the Republican Jewish Coalition ran full-page ads in The Palm Beach Post and other local newspapers, urging Boca Raton voters to question Obama's foreign policy and connections to pro-Palestinian organizations.

Obama responded to the criticisms, saying Iran has more power in the Middle East today because of Bush's foreign policy and deploring the Republican attacks as "rumor mongering." He said he would not meet with leaders of Hamas or Hezbollah unless they agreed to Israel's right to exist.

"We must not negotiate with a terrorist group that is intent on Israel's destruction," Obama said. "We should only sit down with Hamas if they renounce terror, recognize Israel's right to exist and abide by past agreements."

He defended McCain in "guilt by association" attacks the Republican has faced over decade-old remarks from the Rev. John Hagee. Hagee, an evangelical Christian, suggested that Nazis were doing the Lord's work by chasing the Jews from Europe.

"Nobody thinks McCain believes that stuff," said Obama, who called Hagee's remarks "mind-boggling."

Obama urged the crowd not to believe similar mischaracterizations of his record.

Obama, a Christian, compared e-mails suggesting he is a Muslim to e-mails offering "natural enhancements" and lucrative investment opportunities from Nigerian businessmen.

"I'm amazed people are reading this stuff," Obama said.

"The bottom line is this: Nobody can find any statement that I have ever made that is anything less than unequivocally pro-Israel."

[Slapshot68]

So was Arafat when speaking to certain people.

[word_warrior_bob]

Until he’s elected, then he’s pro Palestine.

[mewzilla]

Then why’d ya hire Robert Malley, Barry?

[End Times Sentinel]

Some of his best friends are Hebrews.

[weegee]

"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. ... All his friends are Jews,' " Obama told about 600 people at B'nai Torah Congregation. "That's part of why this kind of conversation is frustrating."

Black people have a problem with Jews? That's what it sounds like in Obama's own words. The Chicago African-American community gave him grief over his associating with Jews.

[EyeGuy]

And we will get the decisive majority of the Jewish vote.

Anything but those exclusionary Christian conservatives.

[seoul62]

The fox hid many faces and speaks with forked tongue. They do not trust him at all./Just Asking - seoul62.......

[johnny7]

McCain has tried to convince voters that Obama would be willing to meet with leaders of Hamas.

Because our commie press refuses to report it...

[onedoug]

Obama is either a liar, an idiot or a marxo/muslim which takes in the other two.
There seems no other possibility.

[roses of sharon]

http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=8&x_nameinnews=88&x_article=1437

Article on BUSTED terrorist supporter, Malley, Hussein's “expert” until he was forced to resign for talking with Hamas.

How many Obama “friends” have now been busted for sympathies and ties with terrorists?

This list is getting huge.

[mainestategop]

Obama, a Christian, compared e-mails suggesting he is a Muslim...

uh, no not quite. He is either an apostate Muslim or he is an atheist. No real Christian would believe the garbage he does or go to a church like Wright's

[weegee]

Bob Kunst, President of Defend Jerusalem, wears a anti-Obama campaign pin before the scheduled arrival of the Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., at a town hall-style meeting in Boca Raton, Fla. Thursday, May 22, 2008. (AP Photo by J. Pat Carter)

Bob Kunst, who does not support Obama, stages a one-person protest before Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama's, D-Ill., scheduled town hall-style meeting at the B (AP Photo by J. Pat Carter)

Bob Kunst, who does not support Obama, stages a one-person protest before Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks to supporters during a rally in Boca Raton, Fla. Thursday, May 22, 2008. (AP Photo by J. Pat Carter)

Karen Albert of Boca Raton, Fla., holds up an anti-Obama sign as she demonstrates in front of B'nai Torah Congregation May 22, 2008, where Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill, is scheduled to speak at a Town Hall meeting in Boca Raton. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

[True Republican Patriot]

B.O. Hussein states in his book that given a conflict between Us and Muslims, he will take the side of the Muslims.Given that news and the knowledge that Muslims consider Hussein one of them and NOT an APOSTATE, one has to question seriously any promises by him that he is a friend of Israel and Judism. The opposite appears to be substantially supported. Beware of Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing!

[ExTexasRedhead]

IMO, Hussein Obama is a radical socialist, anti-Semite, anti-military, anti-American, illiterate liar.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-obamamideast10apr10,0,1780231,full.story

[Elvina]

Love it! “Vote for me because blacks complained that I like Jews!” Only a liberal could view this as a ringing endorsement. "Other minorities are saying I like you better." I haven't heard an argument like that since I was in the girls bathroom in junior high.

Guess it doesn't matter that Obama’s planning to be good buddies with Iran or that Hamas endorsed him. “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. I am the Great and Powerful Wizard of Obama!”

[EyeGuy]

we = he

[weegee]

The Wizard O’bama.

Robert Sheets Byrd never rose to the level of Wizard. He was just a kleegle.

[ExTexasRedhead]

As a Jew myself, I find it interesting that Liberal Jews spent the 60’s marching and supporting blacks and now blacks openly despise Jews.

[AngelesCrestHighway]

Just another “I can be what ever you want me to be speech” from Barry. Can’t wait for his “I need the conservative base speech”....funny thing is, It’ll be better than McCains....