Sen. Hillary Clinton, Obama's rival, joined him in taking issue with Bush. Speaking in South Dakota, she said: "President Bush's comparison of any Democrat to Nazi appeasers is offensive and outrageous, especially in the light of his failures in foreign policy. This is the kind of statement that has no place in any presidential address."
For Obama, the stakes in the clash are high. American Jews and Israelis view him with some suspicion, for several reasons. First, Obama has said he would meet with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, who has called Israel "a stinking corpse" and denies its right to exist.
Second, an official of Hamas, the militant Palestinian group, has expressed hope for the Obama candidacy. (Obama has rejected that statement and refers to Hamas as a terrorist group.) In addition, Obama's advisers include Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former White House national security adviser who some Jews believe has an anti-Israel tilt.
