July 24, 2008	Thursday	Rajab 20, 1429

SDEROT (Israel), July 23: Barack Obama called Israel a “miracle” as he courted Jewish voters back home on Wednesday and left Palestinians with the impression he would plunge into peacemaking if he makes it to the White House.

On the latest stage of his presidential-style tour through the Middle East and Europe, the Democratic candidate met top Palestinian and Israeli leaders, as he tried to convince Americans he is ready for the world stage.

US polls showed Obama is yet to solidify the normally solidly Democratic bloc of American Jewish voters, and he took pains to portray himself as a staunch friend of Israel, just over three months before the US election. .

Battling fatigue, the Illinois Senator held a volley of talks with Israeli leaders, toured the country’s cramped topography by helicopter, and paid homage to Holocaust victims at the Yad Vesham memorial.

Obama paid his respects to President Shimon Peres, and his role in Israel’s history, before meeting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

“You have been deeply involved in this miracle that has blossomed and we are extraordinarily grateful not just as Americans but as world citizens for your outstanding service to your country,” Obama told Peres.

An hour with Palestinians

During a day spent mostly with Israeli officials, Obama drove to the occupied West Bank and held just about an hour of talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.

“Obama told President Abbas if he wins the election in the United States he will be a full and positive partner in the peace process and will not lose a single moment in pursuing it,” Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said.

“He supports a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and said from the first moment of his presidency he will be a very important partner in the peace process.”

Obama angered Palestinians last month by saying an undivided Jerusalem must remain Israel’s “capital”, while the Palestinians want the occupied eastern sector of the city as the capital of their promised future state.

Obama made no statement after the talks.

On Tuesday, he said peace hopes were dimmed because Palestinian politics was divided between Abbas’s secular Fatah party and the Islamists of Hamas, and turmoil was wracking Israel’s fragile government.

“It is a very difficult process. There is a lot of history that exists between those two people(s). That history is not going to vanish overnight,” he said in Jordan.

“So I think it’s unrealistic to expect that a US president alone can suddenly snap his fingers and bring about peace in this region.”

Many Palestinians welcome the change that Obama might represent after eight years with little to show from the administration of George W. Bush, but they think it’s unlikely he will bring about an end to the decades-old conflict.

“Change is good. Maybe Obama understands the Palestinian issue, but the question is whether he will do anything about it,” said a resident of occupied East Jerusalem, Munir Kort.

After visiting the West Bank, Obama journeyed to the southern Israeli town of Sderot, a few miles from the Gaza border, which has been a long time target of Hamas rockets and mortars.

Earlier, the Democratic senator toured Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem to the Jews who perished under the Nazis.

Wearing a white kippa, Obama laid a wreath at the Hall of Remembrance, where ashes recovered from Nazi extermination chambers are interred.

Despite the round of presidential-style meetings, Obama’s team insisted he would not attempt to interfere in current US policy on the Middle East in his meetings.

“The United States of America has one president at a time, that president is George W. Bush, so he will not be engaged in any shape or form in negotiations or policymaking or the like,” said Obama foreign policy aide Susan Rice.—AFP