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Obama pledges support for Israel

Delivering his first speech since claiming the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday night, Sen Barack Obama pledged strong support for Israel, calling Iran the greatest threat to peace in the region.

Obama vowed that, if elected, he "will do everything in my power" to prevent the Tehran government from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Addressing a conference in Washington of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerful lobbying group known as AIPAC, the Illinois senator pledged at the same time to lead "tough and principled diplomacy" with Tehran in the effort to head off Iranian acquisition of nuclear arms. He rejected Republican criticism of his willingness to meet with the leaders of adversaries such as Iran.


Obama also used the occasion to strongly criticize his presumptive Republican opponent in the November presidential election, Sen. John McCain, on foreign policy issues. He accused McCain of pursuing Bush administration policies that he said have made the United States and Israel "less secure" while strengthening Tehran's hand in the Middle East. 

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Sen. Barack Obama claimed the Democratic presidential nomination on Tuesday night, prevailing over Sen. Hillary Clinton in a primary campaign that inspired millions of voters to call for change in Washington. A last-minute rush of superdelegates, as well as split results from the final primaries in Montana and South Dakota pushed  Obama over the threshold of 2,118 delegates.

Click here for complete Washington Post analysis.

Obama's first decision will have to be whether he wants Clinton as vice president. | NYT 

Read the text of his speech.

Read the text of her speech. 

Sen. John McCain portrays himself as the candidate of "right change" | CNN

Sen. Hillary Clinton's road to second place | Wall Street Journal 

Sen. Hillary Clinton says she's willing to serve as vice presidential nominee | Buffalo News