Obama defends support for Israel

Senator Barack Obama defended his support for the state of Israel today. On the last leg of his tour to the Middle East, Obama said he had always been a friend of Israel.

In response to a question, Obama denied that he had changed his statement about Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. "Jerusalem will be the capital of Israel," he said, but suggested that the city should not simply be sliced in half but felt that was a "final status" issue for the parties. "It's not the job of the United States to dictate the form in which that will take, but rather to support the efforts that are being made right now to resolve these very difficult issues," Obama said.

"On vote after vote, I have demonstrated my support of the state of Israel," Obama said. "The way you know where somebody is going is where they've been, and I've been with Israel for many, many years now," he said.

Obama did say it was in Israel's own interest to reach a lasting peace with the Palestinian people.

Obama met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at Abbas's West Bank government headquarters earlier in the day and was scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert later.

The Illinois senator previously traveled to Afghanistan and Iraq with Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Democratic Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island.

He has been treated almost like a visiting head of state, according to some observers, and much to the chagrin of the McCain campaign.

"If it's difficult to see much difference between Barack Obama's first trip abroad since capturing the Democratic nomination and a genuine state visit by a sitting president, well, that's sort of the point of the whole exercise," writes Time magazine's Karen Tumulty.

"Not everyone has treated Obama like a commander in chief," writes Tumulty, "but some did him one better: after Obama joined King Abdullah II for dinner at the palace in Amman, the Jordanian leader hopped into his Mercedes and drove Obama to the airport himself."