Jewish issues have http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=3642 onto the national stage as the Democratic presidential race intensifies, with the candidates competing over the constituency in their effort to nail down the nomination.
Four primaries on Tuesday, particularly those in the large states of Texas and Ohio, could help push Barack Obama decisively ahead of Hillary http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=3089, over whom he now holds a slim lead in the delegate race after winning 11 straight contests. But Clinton is doing well in polls in Ohio and could take Texas as well, reenergizing her campaign as the primaries near their end.
Ahead of Tuesday’s votes, the media and campaigns have focused significant attention on issues such as controversial Obama supporters and candidates’ ties to Israel, until now largely the province of the Jewish community alone.
Most notably, last week’s nationally broadcast MSNBC debate featured a question to Obama on a recent endorsement from Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, described by the moderator as having put down Judaism. In response, Obama denounced Farrakhan at the same time that he stressed that Israel’s “security is sacrosanct.” Clinton then pushed Obama to “http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2999, which Obama did. The Clinton campaign has tried to take advantage of the incident, with advisers sending out e-mails to Jewish voters highlighting Clinton’s stance at the debate and her pledge to keep the United Nation’s upcoming Durban conference on racism from becoming anti-Semitic.
Obama, meanwhile, blasted Hamas on Sunday for its rocket attacks against Israel, as retaliation led to dozens of Palestinian deaths. “The violence in Gaza is the result of Hamas’s decision to launch rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and Israel has a right to defend itself,” he was quoted as saying. “I remain very concerned about the fate of civilians and urge Israel to do all it can to avoid civilian deaths and to keep its focus on Hamas, which bears responsibility for these events.”
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