Barack Obama addressed the AIPAC conference this morning, where the tired presumptive Democratic nominee noted his “eventful night last night.” As the crowd let out a congratulatory cheer, Obama acknowledged his rival of sixteen months, Hillary Clinton, who was slated to speak following Mr. Obama’s speech.

“I want to publicly acknowledge Hillary Clinton for the outstanding race that she has run. She is a true friend of Israel, she is a great senator from New York, she is an extraordinary leader of the Democratic Party, and she has made history alongside me over the last sixteen months. So I’m very proud to have competed against her,” he said before launching into a lengthy speech on Israel and foreign policy.

Fresh of his victory, the candidate has been plagued by innuendoes and rumors, most notably in the form of emails, along the campaign that have painted him as Muslim and anti-Israel. Something the candidate has and will continue to try to knock down. “I know some provocative emails that have been circulating throughout Jewish communities across the country. A few of you may have gotten them. They’re filled with tall tales and dire warnings about a certain candidate for President.  all I want to say is – let me know if you see this guy named Barack Obama, because he sounds pretty scary.



 But if anyone has been confused by these emails, I want you to know that today I’ll be speaking from my heart, and as a true friend of Israel,” he began.

The candidate with a self-described “funny name” maintained that he fundamentally understands the Jewish tradition based on his unique background. “In many ways, I didn’t know where I came from. So I was drawn to the belief that you could sustain a spiritual, emotional and cultural identity. And I deeply understood the Zionist idea – that there is always a homeland at the center of our story,” he explained.

But the candidate’s positions have also raised red flags with some in the Jewish community. Many were angered when he said he would meet with leaders like Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a leader who has threatened Israel on numerous occasions. Obama’s speech was an opportunity for him to “address some willful mischaracterizations of my positions.” Along the way, Obama peppered his speech with phrases like “let me be clear” or “do not be confused” to try to paint himself as objectively in Israel’s corner.

“Contrary to the claims of some, I have no interest in sitting down with our adversaries just for the sake of talking. But as President of the United States, I would be willing to lead tough and principled diplomacy with the appropriate Iranian leader at a time and place of my choosing – if, and only if – it can advance the interests of the United States. That is my position, I want to be absolutely clear,” he said.

McCain, Obama maintained, is on the wrong side of the issue. “Senator McCain offers a false choice: stay the course in Iraq, or cede the region to Iran. I reject this logic because there is a better way. Keeping all of our troops tied down indefinitely in Iraq is not the way to weaken Iran – it is precisely what has strengthened it.”

For his part, Obama was well received by a crowd that has not always been quick to accept him. He got several standing ovations, including a sustained applause when he observed, “We must not allow the relationship between Jews and African Americans to suffer. This is a bond that must be strengthened. Together, we can rededicate ourselves to end prejudice and combat hatred in all of its forms. Together, we can renew our commitment to justice. Together, we can join our voices together, and in doing so make even the mightiest of walls fall down.”

It almost sounded like a concession. Hillary Clinton told a conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington today that support for the state of Israel is one of the proudest planks in the Democratic platform — and that Obama would continue that tradition.

“My support for Israel does not come recently or lightly. I know it is right in my head, in my heart and in my gut. And that is exactly the commitment we need in our next president - a Democratic president,” she said. “I know Senator Obama understands what is at stake here.”

“It has been an honor to contest these primaries with him. It is an honor to call him my friend, and let me be very clear — I know that Senator Obama will be a good friend to Israel,” she said.

Obama, who spoke before Clinton at the conference, has had his support for Israel questioned after several seemingly pro-Palestinian comments, including that no one has suffered more than the Palestinians in the conflict with Israel.

“I know that Senator Obama shares my view, that the next president must be ready to say to the world America’s position is unchanging, our resolve unyielding our stance nonnegotiable. The United States stands with Israel, now and forever,” Clinton continued.

As the crowd applauded, the New York Senator stood, jaw clenched, looking out over the audience. Her face seemed to say even more than her words — hinting that she’s reconciling herself to the fact that Obama will be the Democratic nominee.

Another clue: while she talked about what the next president needs to do to strengthen the Israeli-American relationship, she never once said what she would do in the White House or that she would be that next president.

A reminder that despite a mostly rousing reception at AIPAC, not all Jewish voters were pleased with McCain’s speech:

Statement from Ira N. Forman, Executive Director of the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC):

“John McCain, who has held himself up to be a different type of politician, cannot help himself and keeps returning to the Bush/Rove tactics of fear and smear. Today at the AIPAC Policy Conference, rather than emphasize parts of his positive record, he once again mischaracterized Senator Obama’s positions on Iraq and Iran. Mr. “Bomb Iran” is a candidate who cannot publicly distinguish between Sunni and Shiite terrorist groups, cannot get the troop surge numbers right, cannot distinguish between real progress in Iraq and Potemkin marketplace tours and who wants to double down on the Bush failed policies in Iraq and Iran. Such a so-called foreign policy expert has no business in the fear and smear game.”

done

WASHINGTON, D.C. –Ridiculing the idea of negotiating with Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a “spectacle” that would embolden extremists, McCain jabbed Obama on Iran and Iraq before more than 7,500 members of the highly influential pro-Israel lobbyist group.

“We hear talk of a meeting with the Iranian leadership offered up as if it were some sudden inspiration, a bold new idea that somehow nobody has ever thought of before,” McCain told AIPAC members, adding that Obama is engaging in a “serious misreading of history.”

“It’s hard to see what such a summit with President Ahmadinejad would actually gain, except an earful of anti-Semitic rants, and a worldwide audience for a man who denies one Holocaust and talks before frenzied crowds about starting another,” he noted. “Such a spectacle would harm Iranian moderates and dissidents, as the radicals and hardliners strengthen their position and suddenly acquire the appearance of respectability.”

Instead, McCain called for a stepped international political and economic sanctions regime against the Iranian government and the country’s banks.

“Rather than sitting down unconditionally with the Iranian president or supreme leader in the hope that we can talk sense into them, we must create the real-world pressures that will peacefully but decisively change the path they are on,” McCain said, arguing that the U.S. should lead an coalition of “like-minded” nations in a sanctions effort if the UN Security Council fails to tighten the noose on the Iranians. He also called for a worldwide divestment campaign against Iran.

In touting the Senate bill passed last fall to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization, he mocked Obama opposition to the legislation

“He opposed this resolution because its support for countering Iranian influence in Iraq was, he said, a ‘wrong message not only to the world, but also to the region.’ But here, too, he is mistaken. Holding Iran’s influence in check, and holding a terrorist organization accountable, sends exactly the right message — to Iran, to the region and to the world,” McCain said to a standing ovation.

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