Presidential candidate visits with Israeli and Palestinian leaders

By Matthew B. Zeidman

JERUSALEM (Hollywood Today) 7/24/08 – Playing against conservative images of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama as weak on terrorism and foreign policy, the Illinois senator, himself, visited with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Wednesday, promising the gathered media he recognized and would act against the threat of an Iran armed with nuclear weapons and work toward Israeli security.

“A nuclear Iran would be a game-changing situation not just in the Middle East, but around the world,” Obama told reporters in the Israeli town of Sderot. “A nuclear Iran would pose a grave threat, and the world must prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”

Obama also responded to criticism of his previously stated willingness to meet with Iranian leaders, stating that both positive and negative incentives—or “carrots and sticks”—were needed when dealing with the prominently anti-Western nation and that rejection of such efforts by Iranian diplomats would embolden other nations to support sanctions.

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain has often criticized Obama’s plan for Iranian peace talks, emphasizing he would not meet with Iranian leaders, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, under any circumstances, so as not to lend legitimacy to an administration openly hostile toward Israel and its allies. The United States has not had a diplomatic presence in Iran since 1979, when a group of nationalist students stormed the U.S. embassy and took hostages, most of whom were not released for 444 days.