Hoenlein: Obama campaign pro-Israel

US Jewish leader to 'Post': My comments about the problematic talk of "change" were misinterpreted.

By HAVIV RETTIG, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT, TBILISI
hoenlein 248.88 AJ (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
hoenlein 248.88 AJ
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
The political campaign of Barack Obama is pro-Israel, as are the campaigns of all leading candidates in the current US presidential primaries, Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice president of the Conference of Presidents, told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday in response to a press report that he had expressed concern over the Obama campaign. "The Obama campaign is a brilliant campaign," said Hoenlein. "All the candidates are positive about Israel, and pro-Israel people in Chicago who know him well speak highly of Obama." At a press conference in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Hoenlein said that "all the talk about change, but without defining what that change should be, is an opening for all kinds of mischief." These comments sparked a Ha'aretz report that he was "worried" by the Obama campaign. Hoenlein said on Wednesday that "in four decades, I never spoke for or against a particular candidate unless it was over a specific issue." Hoenlein said that his remarks about the need to understand what it meant that people "want change" had been misinterpreted. According to Hoenlein, he had been speaking about all the campaigns, including polling data that showed Clinton voters also placed change at the top of their agenda. Ha'aretz said it stood by its story.