http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/04/AR2008060401361_pf...

The Associated Press
Wednesday, June 4, 2008; 12:36 PM

Obama vows staunch support for Israel
By CHARLES BABINGTON and BARRY SCHWEID

WASHINGTON -- The war in Iraq has made Iran stronger and the United
States and Israel less secure, Democratic presidential candidate
Barack Obama said Wednesday in a speech to Jewish political activists.

Only hours after securing his party's nomination, Obama tied his
Republican opponent, John McCain, to the Bush administration's Middle
East policies, which Obama described as disastrous.

Because of the war in Iraq, he said, "Iran, which always posed a
greater threat to Israel than Iraq, is emboldened, and poses the
greatest strategic challenge to the United States and Israel in the
Middle East in a generation."

"Iraq is unstable," Obama said in a long-scheduled speech to the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a major Jewish bipartisan
group. "And al-Qaida has stepped up its recruitment."