Feeling Sderot’s Pain

Obama inspects the remains of Kassam rocket during his visit Wednesday to Sderot. With him is Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, center. getty images

Obama inspects the remains of Kassam rocket during his visit Wednesday to Sderot. With him is Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, center. getty images

by Joshua Mitnick and James D. Besser

Sderot, Israel — In a visit intended to create emotional connections to a terror-weary Israel — and ease concerns among some pro-Israel voters here that he may break with current U.S. policy in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — Sen. Barack Obama visited the besieged town of Sderot on Wednesday.

Standing against the backdrop of dozens of rusted Kassam rocket hulks and flanked by three cabinet ministers and the national police chief, Obama justified Israel’s retaliation for the terror attacks and said, “If somebody was sending a rocket into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything to stop that,” and said he expects Israel to “do the same.”

While in Sderot, near the border with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, he met with a family whose house was destroyed by a rocket and with the town’s mayor.

Obama also reiterated his concern about Iran, a persistent theme of his whirlwind swing through Israel, during his Sderot visit. Its acquisition of nuclear weapons would be a “game-changing situation, not only in the Middle East but around the world,” Obama said, adding that he supports “tough diplomacy” and “big carrots and big sticks” in dealing with Tehran, whose president has vowed to obliterate Israel.

On a Mideast swing meant to burnish his foreign policy credentials, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee displayed what several analysts said was a cautious, sure-footed approach to the politically explosive Israel-Palestinian conflict.

“He’s been extraordinarily careful with his words,” said Johns Hopkins political scientist Robert Freedman. “For the Israelis, he had to be very reassuring, and so far I think he’s succeeded.

On his arrival in Jerusalem, Obama said, “I want input and insight from Israel’s leaders about how they see the current situation and I will share some of my ideas. The most important idea for me to reaffirm is the historic and special relationship between the United States and Israel. One that cannot be broken.”

In Ramallah, he promised Palestinian leaders to move quickly to reinvigorate U.S. diplomacy in the region.

On Wednesday morning, Obama also met with President Shimon Peres, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu told reporters that the Democratic candidate said he “would never seek in any way to compromise Israel’s security, and that this would be sacrosanct in his approach to political negotiations,” according to wire service reports.

Later, Obama was scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who was expected to emphasize Israel’s concerns about Iran’s continuing nuclear weapons program.

This week pro-Israel leaders were scrutinizing every line Obama uttered for hints of a possible shift in U.S. policy, but the real political impact of his Mideast trip may center on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“It’s been a fantastic trip for him,” said Robert Freedman, the Johns Hopkins political scientist. “He talks about pulling out of Iraq — and the Iraqis say the same thing. He says we need more troops in Afghanistan — and [Republican rival] John McCain agrees. Tuesday’s bulldozer attack in Jerusalem [which injured 24 and mirrored a previous attack three weeks ago] gave him a dramatic opportunity to reaffirm his commitment to Israel’s security.”

But with Republicans aggressively seeking Jewish votes by portraying Obama as weak on Israel, some of his comments quickly ignited partisan sniping.

In Amman, Obama said terrorism like Tuesday’s copycat bulldozer attack “breeds a sense of insecurity in Israel” and demonstrates “why terrorism is so counterproductive, as well as being immoral, because it makes, I believe, the Israelis want to dig in and simply think about their own security regardless of what’s going on beyond their borders. I think the same would be true of any people when these kinds of things happen and innocent people are injured.”

That smacks of “moral equivalence,” according to the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC). In a statement, the group said “Senator Obama in Jordan today said that terrorism makes ‘Israelis want to dig in and simply think about their own security regardless of what’s going on beyond their borders.’ What he fails to recognize is that the safety and security of its citizenry is the primary obligation of a country’s leadership. In essence, Senator Obama is asking Israelis and the American Jewish community to put terrorism in context.”

That, the Republican group said, amounts to the “rhetoric of moral equivalence by implying that measures taken by Israel to protect its citizens are on par with the Palestinians’ frustration at border checkpoints.”

But Ira Forman, director of the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC), cried foul, charging the GOP group with taking a single line out of context.

“After reading Senator Barack Obama’s statement and then the Republican Jewish Coalition’s ‘interpretation’ of that statement I am totally baffled,” he said, suggesting the GOP group’s interpretation was more conjuring than analysis. The RJC, Forman said, distorted “what appears, to everybody else, to be a pro-Israel statement.”

Anti-Defamation League National Director Abraham Foxman said he saw no hints of moral equivalence in Obama’s statement. “I read the transcript and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it.”

Kean University political scientist Gilbert Kahn said that for the most part, Obama played it safe as he tiptoed through the minefields of Middle East politics. He said the Democrat could benefit from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s apparent agreement with his call for a quick withdrawal of U.S. troops from that country and from the McCain campaign’s “flailing” response.

On the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Kahn said Obama’s comments “were an accurate assessment of the lay of the land that shouldn’t ruffle any feathers.”

Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum and a strong critic of recent Israeli peace moves, gave Obama high marks for effectively using the trip to advance his electoral goals — but said it conceals a “complete lack of understanding of the issues.”

His comments on the trip reflect a “tension between his ‘netroots’ political base and his desire to win the pro-Israel vote,” Pipes said. “What I see is a carefully crafted message that sits between those two perspectives. It’s a cautious approach that’s electorally driven.”

Israel correspondent Joshua Mitnick reported from Sderot; James D. Besser is Washington correspondent.

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