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US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama pledged
staunch support for Israel on a visit to Jerusalem, describing the
Jewish state as a miracle before meeting Palestinian leaders in the
West Bank.
Obama, who is seeking to allay wariness among some US Jewish voters
about his policy towards Israel, said in comments to reporters he
hoped to help bring peace in the Middle East.
"I'm here on this trip to reaffirm the special relationship between
Israel and the United States, my abiding commitment to its
security, and my hope that I can serve as an effective partner,
whether as a...senator or as a president, in bringing about a more
lasting peace in the region," he said.
The Illinois senator, meeting Israeli President Shimon Peres,
described Israel as a miracle that has blossomed since its founding
60 years ago.
Wearing a Jewish skullcap, he later laid a white wreath at the
Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum.
"Let our children come here and know this history so that they can
add their voices to proclaim 'never again'," Obama wrote in the
museum's visitors' book.
The Democratic candidate met Defence Minister Ehud Barak and
opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu and will later hold talks with
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who
could be forced out of office by a corruption probe.
Tight security
Hundreds of helmeted Palestinian security officers with automatic
rifles lined the streets of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, as
Obama drove into the city from Jerusalem for talks with President
Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
His black motorcade passed Israel's towering West Bank barrier and
hilltop Jewish settlements en route, testament to the thorny issues
that have confounded generations of would-be peacemakers.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said he hoped Israel and the
Palestinians would forge a statehood agreement by the time US
President George Bush steps down in January.
If not, Erekat said, Palestinians hoped Bush's successor would stay
the course to pursue peace in a serious, expeditious manner.
Obama, who faces Republican John McCain in the November election,
dismayed Palestinian leaders when he said last month that Jerusalem
should be Israel's "undivided" capital.
Palestinians want Arab East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in 1967,
as the capital of a future state. Obama later said he used "poor
phrasing" when he made the remarks.
Obama arrived in Israel just hours after a Palestinian rammed a
bulldozer into vehicles on a busy Jerusalem street near the hotel
booked for his stay.
The attacker wounded at least 16 people, one seriously, before
being shot dead.
Aides said that at Yad Vashem, Obama met an Israeli police officer
who along with others shot the driver.
It was unclear how the meeting was arranged.
Obama will stop on Wednesday in the Israeli town of Sderot, which
sits near the border with the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and has been
hit by rockets fired by Palestinian militants.
McCain visited Sderot in March and did not go to the West
Bank.
The cross-border rocket attacks, and Israeli military operations in
the Gaza Strip, have largely subsided since an Egyptian-brokered
ceasefire took hold last month.
