Obama aims to bolster his Jewish support

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama left Iraq today having found its leaders in general agreement with his plans for withdrawing American combat troops.

Back in the US, Republican candidate John Mr McCain was battling to stay in the spotlight as Mr Obama’s travels drew huge media attention at home and abroad.

Mr McCain, appearing wrong-footed by the Iraq developments, hotly disagreed on troop withdrawals saying any pullout “must be based on conditions on the ground,” not artificial timelines.

After leaving Iraq, Mr Obama travelled to Amman, Jordan and then to Israel.

The Israeli tour loomed as a potential political mine field for Mr Obama, who has failed to secure robust support among citizens and leaders there and Jewish voters in the United States.

Mr Obama has a solid Senate record of supporting Israel.

He has reaffirmed his backing for Israel’s right to defend itself and underscored the need to stop Iran from promoting terrorism or obtaining nuclear weapons.

Like the Bush administration, he opposes negotiations with the Islamic militant group Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.

Still, his openness to talking to Iran, Israel’s bitterest enemy, and his relatively short stint on the US national stage have made many Israelis uncomfortable.

Mr McCain said stiffer sanctions might stop Iran’s threats against Israel.

The Republican candidate said that in any event, the United States would not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons which could be used to destroy Israel.

Asked about Israel’s sabre-rattling against Iran, Mr McCain replied, “I would hope that (an attack) would never happen, I would hope that Israel would not feel that threatened.” He said the US and Europe should impose “significant, very painful sanctions on Iran which I think could modify their behaviour.”

He added, “But I have to look you in the eye and tell you that the United States of America can never allow a second Holocaust.”

Israel is convinced Tehran is building nuclear weapons, despite its denials.

Iran also backs two other Israeli foes, the Islamic Hamas that rules the Gaza Strip and Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrilla group.

Speaking of Iraq, Mr Obama told ABC News that military leaders have “deep concerns” about a timetable that does not take changing conditions into account.

“I don’t think that there are deep concerns about the notion of a pullout per se,” he said in the television interview. “There are deep concerns about, from their perspective, of a timetable that doesn’t take into account what they anticipate might be some sort of change in conditions.”

Mr Obama ended his two-day Iraq trip with a trip to Ramadi today, the former hotbed of the Sunni insurgency. He held talks with tribal leaders who joined the fight against al Qaida and now seek a deeper role in Iraq’s political future.

In what became known as the Awakening Council movement, Sunni tribal sheiks last year began an uprising against insurgents that is credited with uprooting extremist strongholds and helping bring violence across Iraq to the lowest levels in four years. Before the Sunni change of heart, encouraged by payments from the US military, Anbar had been one of the bloodiest battlefields for American forces.

Mr Obama’s Iraq stop forced the five-year-old war back to the top of the presidential campaign agenda.

The trip followed a challenge from Mr McCain, who complained that Mr Obama was wrong to plan for troop withdrawals without having visited Iraq since January 2006.

Mr McCain has visited Iraq eight times since the war began and says Mr Obama’s foreign policy initiatives are naive and that he is untested.