Backstage at Chicago after Obama win

Oprah joyous, Jackson insists US "must fight for Israeli security, peace."

By YAAKOV KATZ
jesse jackson crying 224.88 (photo credit: AP)
jesse jackson crying 224.88
(photo credit: AP)
CHICAGO - Celebrities including Oprah Winfrey and Brad Pitt, politicians such as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee Howard Dean and civil rights activists like Reverend Jesse Jackson were among the VIPs who gathered backstage at the Barack Obama victory rally at the lakeside Grant Park here late Tuesday night. Under an unusually-warm November sky, hundreds of thousands of people had flocked into the downtown Chicago streets, where street vendors sold Obama trinkets and T-shirts to celebrate the election results. Tens of thousands of them lined up along block after block of Michigan Avenue, waiting to gain access to the closed-off and heavily-secured Grant Park along Lake Michigan. Most striking was the diversity of the people who came. There were Muslim women wearing hijab headscarves, Jews with kippot, and, of course, throngs of excited African-Americans. Journalists from some 3,000 media outlets were also on hand. "Yes!" Oprah shouted as she jumped up in the air when asked how she felt about Obama's victory. Dean was calmer, but told The Jerusalem Post delightedly that Obama would bring a new generation of young American leaders into politics. He also dismissed concerns that an Obama presidency would be hostile to Israel. "Foreign policy hasn't changed on Israel since 1948," Dean, a former presidential candidate and Vermont governor, told the Post, moments before Obama, with his wife and two daughters, took to the bullet-proofed stage. "Obama is without a doubt committed to Israeli security." While the atmosphere in the 250,000-strong crowd was akin to a rock concert, Obama - in contrast to the exuberance and optimism he had demonstrated on the campaign trail - took a more subdued line. He ascended the flag-draped stage with his family, and thanked them for their unyielding support. But he then took a more serious tone, citing the two wars in the Middle East, the overheating planet and the profound economic crisis, and warning that the change he had promised might take more than a presidential term to see through. Jackson, who made two White House bids himself, told the Post that Obama as president would restore the American people's lost trust in the presidency, in Congress and in Wall Street. "Barack sees the world through the door and not through a keyhole," said an emotional Jackson. Asked about anti-Israel comments that were recently attributed to him by New York Post columnist Amir Taheri, according to which "decades of putting Israel's interests first" would end and Zionists would lose a great deal of their clout if Obama were elected, Jackson told the Post that they were "inaccurate and wrong." He said that he supported Israel just like Obama. "We must fight for Israeli security and peace," he said. "The consensus is that Israel needs peace and security through a nonviolent resolution on the Palestinian issue."