RNC: Obama to Face Skepticism During Mideast Trip

WASHINGTON, July 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following article by Sasha
Issenberg from The Boston Globe was released today by the Republican National
Committee:

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080519/RNCLOGO )

When he arrives in Israel today, Barack Obama will set off on the same type of
dignitary circuit he has planned elsewhere on his foreign trip. But nowhere
are he and his brand of charismatic internationalism likely to receive such a
skeptical welcome.

The difficulty Obama has encountered in trying to win over Israelis, whose
attention to American politics revolves almost entirely around diplomatic and
security policy toward the Middle East, magnifies a broader challenge that the
presumptive Democratic nominee also faces at home.

Despite indicating broad support for many of Obama's individual foreign-policy
positions, polls have demonstrated American voters have far less confidence in
his ability to serve as commander in chief than his Republican rival, John
McCain.

To Israelis, the election's outcome "may be more crucial than any other in
recent memory" given the "existential threat" posed by Iran's leadership, and
the disagreement between Obama and McCain on how to confront it, according to
Michael Oren, a senior fellow at the Shalem Center, a Jerusalem think tank.

"What was the difference between Kerry and Bush, or Gore and Bush? There
weren't many policy differences," said Oren, who authored a report issued
yesterday identifying Iran as one of many areas of considerable distance
between Obama and McCain on issues relating to Israel. "There are major policy
differences on just about everything."...

"There are two things that stick out that are problematic for Obama among
Israeli Jews," Mitchell Barak, a Jerusalem-based pollster. He cited Obama's
willingness to meet with Iranian leaders, and what sounded like a confused
statement to a Jewish group in Washington last month in which Obama said
Jerusalem needed to remain "undivided," before hastily amending that view to
say Jerusalem's status needed to be settled by negotiation. ...

[A] poll he conducted in late May showed McCain leading Obama by 43 percent to
20 percent, with over one-third undecided.

This week's visit will be Obama's first since becoming a presidential
candidate, and much of the itinerary is designed with American Jews, a highly
contested bloc with which Obama has had trouble in some key states, in mind.
...

[U]nlike McCain, Obama has criticized Israel's settlement policy while
remaining mum on whether he would move the US Embassy to Jerusalem, a position
commonly held by American politicians. ...

Obama is likely to get his toughest scrutiny from Israeli officials and media
over his approach to Iran and his apparent about-face on the matter of an
"undivided" Jerusalem. ...

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