July 24, 2008
Obama Meets Israeli and Palestinian Leaders
By JEFF ZELENY
JERUSALEM — Senator Barack Obama opened a day of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Wednesday, sharing breakfast with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak before traveling to the West Bank to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Mr. Obama, who shuttled between morning meetings at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, also visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. Wearing a white yarmulke, he rekindled a flame and paused for a few moments of quiet reflection as he laid a wreath on a tomb that contains ashes from Nazi extermination camps.
“At a time of great peril and promise, 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 from tragedy and remake our world,” Mr. Obama said after visiting the memorial. “Let our children come here, and know this history, so they can add their voices to proclaim “never again”. And may we remember those who perished, not only as victims but also as individuals who hoped and loved and dreamed like us, and who have become symbols of the human spirit.”
The brief ceremony at Yad Vashem was intended to convey symbolic images of Mr. Obama’s commitment to Israel as he listens to leaders on both sides of the Middle East peace process. He did not take questions from reporters on Wednesday morning, but was scheduled to make an afternoon visit to the southern Israeli town of Sderot, near Gaza, where he was expected to hold a press conference. Sderot has been hit by more than 2,000 rockets in the past four years, and is a symbolic destination for visiting politicians, including Senator John McCain, who toured it in March.
“The most important idea for me to reaffirm is the historic and special relationship between the United States and Israel,” Mr. Obama said as he arrived here on the latest leg of a weeklong trip to the Middle East and Europe. “One that cannot be broken. One that I have affirmed throughout my career and one that I will intend to not only continue but actually strengthen in an Obama administration.”
As Mr. Obama headed to his private meetings, including one later with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, his aides were sensitive to any perceptions that the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee was getting ahead of himself. They stressed that he was here to listen, not legislate.
“The United States of America has one president at a time — that president is George W. Bush,” Susan Rice, a senior foreign policy adviser to the campaign, said Wednesday. “Senator Obama will not be engaged in any way, shape or form policy-making.”
Aides to Mr. Obama did not provide an immediate account of his meetings, but Mr. Barak’s office issued a statement saying that the two discussed “all the relevant issues” and the “future challenges facing Israel and the region.”
The list of challenges includes Israeli-Palestinian peace talks as well as Israel’s concern about Iran’s nuclear program.
Mr. Obama received a warm reception from Israeli President Shimon Peres, who said his fondest wish was for a "great president of the United States. That is the greatest promise for us and the rest of the world."
As he strolled with Mr. Peres just before their meeting, Mr. Obama said: “I’m here on this trip to reaffirm the special relationship between Israel and the United States, my abiding commitment to Israel’s security and my hope that I can serve as an effective partner whether as U.S. senator or as president in bringing about a more lasting peace in the region.”
“You are a person who has forgotten more than I will ever know on these issues and so I look forward to a robust discussion, having an opportunity to get your insights and your wisdom,” he told Mr. Peres.
Mr. Obama also met with the opposition leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, who told reporters that Israeli-Palestinian relations and Iran were the main points of his morning conversation. “The senator and I agreed that the primacy of preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power is clear, and this should guide our mutual policies,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a statement.
He added that Mr. Obama told him “he would never seek in any way to compromise Israel’s security, and that this would be sacrosanct in his approach to political negotiations.”
Mr. Obama’s visit to Israel comes after three days in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait, where he met American military commanders and soldiers. On Tuesday, he visited Jordan. The international trip, which is unusual in the middle of a presidential campaign, was drawing considerable attention at home and abroad.
At the King David Hotel, some supporters brought Obama campaign signs bearing the slogan “Change you can believe in,” translated into Hebrew. In the lobby, an “Israel for Obama” sign was hanging from a chair.
As they talked casually, Mr. Netanyahu asked the visiting senator how he was feeling, to which Mr. Obama replied, “I could fall asleep standing up.”
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
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