Obama pledges support for Israel
It’s movie-theater dark inside the cavernous Washington Convention Center, but the house lights have come on repeatedly this morning for standing ovations to Barack Obama’s speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
“I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons,’’ he said, adding, “Everything.’’
Obama offered his great uncle’s role as a member of the 89th Infantry Division that liberated Nazi concentration camp Ohrdruf, part of Buchenwald, in April 1945 as a personal note attesting to tribulations the Jewish people experienced prior to the decision to create the modern day state of Israel.
“We know that the establishment of Israel was just and necessary, rooted in centuries of struggle, and decades of patient work,’’ he said.
Obama said he would sign an order as president to provide $30 billion in aid, but first the Congress must approve the Bush administration’s foreign aid request for 2009.
“Those who threaten Israel threaten us,’’ he said. “I will ensure that Israel can defend itself from any threat, from Gaza to Tehran’’
His other pledges:
—Enhancing U.S.-Israel cooperation on missile defense.
—“I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself in the United Nations and around the world’’
— The U.S. must isolate Hamas unless they renounce terrorism.
—Egypt must stop the smuggling ot weapons into Gaza
—Israel must remain a Jewish state with Jerusalem as its capital
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama’s runner up for the Democratic presidential nomination, will speak to the group later this morning.
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His grandfather helped liberate a concentration camp? Isn’t it supposed to be a great uncle? Or is Obama just spinning another tall tale? He had the wrong camp the first time around.
This is the EXACT quote from the speech, NO reference to any particular family member’s role. This was the only reference to concentration camps.
“Unfortunately, history has a terrible way of repeating itself. President Ahmadinejad has denied the Holocaust. He held a conference in his country claiming it was a myth. We know the Holocaust was as real as the 6 million who died in mass graves at Buchenwald, or the cattle cars to Dachau, whose ashes clouded the skies at Auschwitz. We have seen the pictures. We have walked the halls of the Holocaust museum in Washington and Yad Vashem. Many in this room have heard stories from their parents and their grandparents. We’ve touched the tattoos of loved-ones arms. After 60 years, it’s time to deny the deniers.”
This was found on the AIPAC website, so presumably they got it right, since they were the ones Obama was speaking to.
what candidate for president in his right mind is not going
to pledge full support for Israel….However it will take
a lot more than this statement to wipe away the impression
made with particularly older jewish voters that Obama’s
association with reverend Wright for some 20 years
leaves doubt about his committment to Israel…
ie he looses the state of florida
Oops, the speech that I quoted from was from 2007! Below, the relevant quote from THIS year’s speech to AIPAC. Thanks to Brian Tumulty for setting me straight!
“For much of my childhood, I lived with my grandparents. My grandfather had served in World War II, and so had my great uncle. He was a Kansas boy, who probably never expected to see Europe – let alone the horrors that awaited him there. And for months after he came home from Germany, he remained in a state of shock, alone with the painful memories that wouldn’t leave his head.
You see, my great uncle had been a part of the 89th Infantry Division – the first Americans to reach a Nazi concentration camp. They liberated Ohrdruf, part of Buchenwald, on an April day in 1945. The horrors of that camp go beyond our capacity to imagine. Tens of thousands died of hunger, torture, disease, or plain murder – part of the Nazi killing machine that killed 6 million people.
When the Americans marched in, they discovered huge piles of dead bodies and starving survivors. General Eisenhower ordered Germans from the nearby town to tour the camp, so they could see what was being done in their name. He ordered American troops to tour the camp, so they could see the evil they were fighting against. He invited Congressmen and journalists to bear witness. And he ordered that photographs and films be made. Explaining his actions, Eisenhower said that he wanted to produce, “first-hand evidence of these things, if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to propaganda.”
I saw some of those very images at Yad Vashem, and they never leave you. And those images just hint at the stories that survivors of the Shoah carried with them. Like Eisenhower, each of us bears witness to anyone and everyone who would deny these unspeakable crimes, or ever speak of repeating them. We must mean what we say when we speak the words: “never again.”
It was just a few years after the liberation of the camps that David Ben-Gurion declared the founding of the Jewish State of Israel. We know that the establishment of Israel was just and necessary, rooted in centuries of struggle, and decades of patient work. But 60 years later, we know that we cannot relent, we cannot yield, and as President I will never compromise when it comes to Israel’s security.
Not when there are still voices that deny the Holocaust. Not when there are terrorist groups and political leaders committed to Israel’s destruction. Not when there are maps across the Middle East that don’t even acknowledge Israel’s existence, and government-funded textbooks filled with hatred toward Jews. Not when there are rockets raining down on Sderot, and Israeli children have to take a deep breath and summon uncommon courage every time they board a bus or walk to school.”
STILL HAS A PROBLEM WITH JEWISH VOTERS IN FLA!!!