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Obama: I'm here to reaffirm special US-Israel relationship

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Megan
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« on: July 23, 2008, 08:44:11 am »

Jul 23, 2008 8:42 | Updated Jul 23, 2008 15:15
Obama: I'm here to reaffirm special US-Israel relationship
By ELIE LESHEM, GIL HOFFMAN AND AP
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Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama pledged Wednesday that as president he would preserve the close ties between the United States and Israel, and Israel's security would be a top priority in his administration.


Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Democratic US Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama had a breakfast of smoked salmon and local cheeses at Jerusalem's King David Hotel on Wednesday.
Photo: Ariel Hermoni\Defense Minister

Slideshow: Obama's Visit "I'm here on this trip to reaffirm the special relationship between Israel and the United States and my abiding commitment to Israel's security and my hope that I can serve as an effective partner, whether as a US senator or as president," Obama said as he met President Shimon Peres at the President's Residence in Jerusalem.

The presidential contender praised Peres's contribution to Israel's development which he termed "a miracle."

"For most of Israel's 60 years, you have been deeply involved in this miracle that has blossomed and we are extremely grateful, not just as Americans but as world citizens, to your outstanding service to your country and the insight that you have shared with us," said Obama, speaking alongside Peres before the meeting.

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Obama bantered with the 84-year-old president about the secret of youthfulness. "I also want to get his recipe for looking as good he does," he said.

Peres gave him an effusive welcome, saying he had read Obama's two books and was "moved" by them. The president handed Obama an English translation of a book he wrote, "The Imaginary Voyage with Theodor Herzl."




US Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama lays a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, Wednesday.
Photo: AP
Peres urged Obama to be a great president for the sake of the battles against terror and world poverty.

Earlier Wednesday, Obama held a breakfast meeting with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the first event in a day packed with meetings and travel across Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Neither man spoke to reporters as they posed for news cameras at the plush downtown King David Hotel before sitting down to a breakfast of smoked salmon and local cheeses.

According to a statement released by the Defense Ministry the two held a "vigorous and intense discussion touching on all the basic issues and future challenges facing Israel and the free world in the region."

After the Barak meeting, Obama met opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu said he was impressed about Obama's understanding of the Iranian threat and said they both agreed that a nuclear Iran was unacceptable.

The opposition leader stressed that they also agreed what was important was the ends of preventing a nuclear Iran rather than the means and that when it comes to stopping Iran there were no politics.

Netanyahu also outlined his plan for economic peace with the Palestinians and Obama told him he agreed that quality of life was connected to security.

Obama said, "I'll never compromise Israel's security. Terrorism is not theoretical, it's right here a block away from this hotel, and it must be fought with full force and strength."

Netanyahu was joined in the meeting by his foreign policy advisers Dore Gold, Uzi Arad, Zalman Shoval and Ron Dermer.

After the morning's meetings, Obama visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.

He laid a wreath, lit a memorial flame, and deemed the place to ultimately be "a place of hope."

"At a time of great peril and torment, war and strife, we are blessed to have such a powerful reminder of man's potential for great evil, but also our capacity to rise up from tragedy and remake our world," he wrote in the visitors' book.

The US presidential hopeful promised to bring his two young daughters to visit the memorial on his next trip to Israel.

In the afternoon, Obama will make the short drive from Jerusalem to Ramallah for talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad.

Abbas plans to tell Obama that if elected US president, he must immediately turn his attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Abbas aides said.

After meeting the PA leaders, Obama will return to Jerusalem to meet Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, fly by helicopter to Sderot - the target of numerous Palestinian rocket attacks - then chopper back to Jerusalem to meet Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Obama arrived in Israel Tuesday night from Jordan and is due to leave for Germany early on Thursday.

On Tuesday, he condemned the bulldozer terror attack in Jerusalem just a few hours before he arrived at the King David Hotel, just up the street from where the attack took place.

In an interview with CBS News conducted shortly before he embarked on his trip to Israel, Obama reiterated Israel's right to defend itself and asserted that an IAF attack on an alleged nuclear facility in Syria in September of 2007 was "appropriate."

Obama, however, would not say whether he thought Israel would eventually launch an attack on Iran if diplomatic efforts failed to stall Teheran's nuclear program.

"Yes," Obama said. "I think that there was sufficient evidence that the [Syrians] were developing a site using a nuclear… blueprint that was similar to the North Korean model."

"Ultimately," he continued, "these are decisions that the Israelis have to make."

"I will not hypothesize on [an Israeli attack in Iran]," he said. "I think Israel has a right to defend itself. But I will not speculate on the difficult judgment that they would have to make in a whole host of possible scenarios."
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Megan
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« Reply #1 on: July 23, 2008, 08:46:19 am »



US Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama stands with director of Yad Vashem, Avner Shalev.
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« Reply #2 on: July 23, 2008, 08:46:57 am »


Sen. Barack Obama stands next to the Eternal Flame at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in J'lem.
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« Reply #3 on: July 23, 2008, 08:47:41 am »


Sen. Obama shakes hands with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
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« Reply #4 on: July 23, 2008, 08:48:27 am »



Sen. Obama with opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.
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« Reply #5 on: July 23, 2008, 08:49:07 am »


Sen. Obama and President Peres.
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« Reply #6 on: July 23, 2008, 08:49:41 am »


The message written by Sen. Obama at Yad Vashem.
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« Reply #7 on: July 23, 2008, 08:50:21 am »


The convoy of Barack Obama makes its way to Ramallah past a section of Israel's security barrier at the Hizme checkpoint outside Jerusalem.
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« Reply #8 on: July 23, 2008, 08:50:50 am »


Welcome sign at Jerusalem's YMCA opposite the King David Hotel where Sen. Obama is staying.
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« Reply #9 on: July 23, 2008, 08:51:26 am »



Sen. Obama shakes hands with Palestinian authority president Mahmoud Abbas, during a meeting in the West bank city of Ramallah.
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