Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama said this week that America needs to ask Israel to help change the status quo in its conflict with the Palestinians.
Obama’s comments were made before the National Jewish Democratic Council conference in Washington, which heard from all major Democratic contenders during its an April 23-25 conference. Obama was the only speaker to suggest that the onus is on Israel to make peace with its neighbors.
“The United States government and an Obama presidency cannot ask Israel to take risks with respect to its security,” he told the crowd of Democratic activists and campaign contributors. “But it can ask Israel to say that it is still possible for us to allow more than just this status quo of fear, terror, division. That can’t be our long-term aspiration.
“We should want to have that difficult, tough discussion … about how we’re going to arrive at what I think everybody wants, which is two states living side by side in peace and security,” he added.
The audience applauded his words, which came in response to a question on how firm his backing for Israel is in light of the support he has received throughout his career from the Muslim American community.
Obama said that the premise of the query was “false,” as the support he’s received from the Jewish community “has been far more significant than any support I’ve received in the Muslim American community, although I welcome and actively seek support in the Muslim community as well.” He also noted that he spent four years of his childhood in Muslim-dominated Indonesia, where he learned some of the local vocabulary and customs.
“It allows me to say to them things that perhaps other presidents can’t say,” he said, also to applause.
Obama’s speech followed those of Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden, Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton spoke later Tuesday or on Wednesday morning.
Edwards, the first to address the conference, called for active engagement with Iran and Syria. “America can be the light again,” he said.
Edwards blasted the White House for its close relations with Saudi Arabia and said that the country “should deal with the Saudis with a very much arm-length [approach].”
Both Edwards and Dodd called for tightening economic sanctions against Tehran as the primary way to pressure the Islamic Republic to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons, though they also said that no option should be taken off the table. “To suggest that diplomacy is a kind of weakness is frightening to me,” Dodd said.
The Democratic candidates said America must wean itself off of foreign oil, a popular campaign theme that many on the other side of the aisle have also embraced.
Biden told the crowd, to much applause, “We don’t have an axis of evil, we have an axis of oil that’s tying up foreign policy so that we’re in knots.”
Biden also criticized the Bush administration for preventing Israel from exploring options for peace with Syria and “outsourcing” foreign policy to Saudi Arabia, which brokered a deal between Hamas and Fatah to form a Palestinian Authority unity government giving Hamas “legitimacy” for “nothing in Iran.”
Biden demonstrated perhaps the greatest differences from the other candidates in warning that the dissolution of Iraq is a possible consequence of a U.S. withdrawal.
He also urged immediate military action to end genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. “Any country that engages in genocide forfeits their sovereignty,” he said to applause.
Biden said it was not a contradiction to call for military action in Sudan while calling for a draw-down of U.S. troops in Iraq. The problem, he said, was not a robust foreign policy but how it was pursued.
But like the other candidates speeches, most of Biden’s was dedicated to fixing America’s image in the world.
“Job description: Someone to restore America’s place in the world,” Biden said.
Continuing with that theme, Clinton said, “Our reputation is in shreds. People don’t trust us anymore.”
Unlike her colleagues, Clinton said she favored compromise with Bush over Iraq funding. The president is expected to veto congressional bills likely to pass this week that would meet his funding demands but also set timetables for withdrawal.
“We don’t want Democrats being blamed for our troops not being well equipped,” Clinton said, adding that she did not expect real troop withdrawal to begin until Bush was out of office.
In advocating a pullout much sooner, Richardson said that “the obsession with Iraq has caused us as a country to fail to focus on the real threats to America.” He listed those threats as terrorism, nuclear proliferation and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Turning to Israel, Richardson said he would appoint a special envoy to kick-start the process, and told reporters after his speech that former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker would be a likely candidate for the job. Richardson said the appointment of a Republican underscored his commitment to bipartisanship. But Baker is probably among the pro-Israel community’s least-favored candidates for such a mission because of his tense relations with Israeli leaders during the presidency of Bush’s father.
Candidate after candidate, including Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, said that the Bush administration’s foreign policy must be changed.
Indeed, Biden tapped into that concern, earning applause when he complained that Democrats had been “timid” until now on foreign policy.
The tone reflected Democratic Jewish unhappiness with a war in Iraq that appears intractable, and with stasis in the Middle East.