Obama courts Jewish backing in Florida

[notfullofit]

By Mike Dorning | Tribune correspondent
9:32 PM CDT, May 22, 2008

BOCA RATON, Fla. - Barack Obama went to a synagogue in South Florida Thursday to pledge unwavering support for Israel's security as he sought to assuage Jewish concerns about his foreign policy views and strengthen his support within a crucial Democratic constituency in this swing political state.

The Illinois senator, the leading Democratic presidential contender, provided assurances of traditional positions on relations with Israel, promising an "unshakable commitment" to its security, praising the bond between the U.S. and Israel and declaring he would not negotiate with Hamas and Hezbollah, groups the U.S. considers to be terrorist organizations.

Obama parried concerns about his relationships with pro-Palestinian supporters and his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., warning his audience "to be careful about guilt by association."

But he also offered his barrier-breaking candidacy—and, implicitly, Jewish support for it—as a vessel to repair the sometimes-stressed bond between the Jewish community and African-Americans that was critical to the civil rights movement of the 1960s. That was an alliance that retains an emotional tug to many as a testament to selfless commitment to principles of social justice among American Jews.

"That sense of a common kinship of a people who have been uprooted, who have been on the outside, that strikes me as the very essence of what we have been fighting for," Obama said.

"I want to make sure that I am one of the vehicles by which we can rebuild those bonds," he continued, noting that he had spoken out on several occasions against anti-Semitism in the black community.

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