White House candidate Barack Obama yesterday lauded the “miracle” of Israel as he met top officials and paid homage to Holocaust victims on the latest leg of his international campaign swing.
The Democratic senator, on a sprint through the Middle East and Europe designed to convince US voters of his presidential mettle, also traveled to the West Bank to consult Palestinian leaders on sluggish peace moves.
Obama opened his day with talks with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who was later set to join him on a helicopter tour of Israel’s cramped topography, a rite of passage for potential US presidents.
The US senator also toured Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial to the 6 million Jews who had perished under the Nazis.
Wearing a white kippa, Obama laid a wreath at the Hall of Remembrance, where ashes recovered from Nazi extermination chambers are interred.
The memorial reminded him of “the core qualities of humanity that the Holocaust raises,” he told reporters. “Man’s great capacity for evil, and capacity to stop it. This is a place of hope.”
Later yesterday, Obama was due in Sderot, a southern Israeli town that has long been in the firing line of rockets and mortars from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Obama, who has promised to work for peace from his first day in office, if elected, later traveled in a motorcade to Ramallah for talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
BACK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: The planned transit by the ‘Baden-Wuerttemberg’ and the ‘Frankfurt am Main’ would be the German Navy’s first passage since 2002 Two German warships are set to pass through the Taiwan Strait in the middle of this month, becoming the first German naval vessels to do so in 22 years, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. Reuters last month reported that the warships, the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the replenishment ship Frankfurt am Main, were awaiting orders from Berlin to sail the Strait, prompting a rebuke to Germany from Beijing. Der Spiegel cited unspecified sources as saying Beijing would not be formally notified of the German ships’ passage to emphasize that Berlin views the trip as normal. The German Federal Ministry of Defense declined to comment. While
‘UPHOLDING PEACE’: Taiwan’s foreign minister thanked the US Congress for using a ‘creative and effective way’ to deter Chinese military aggression toward the nation The US House of Representatives on Monday passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, aimed at deterring Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by threatening to publish information about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials’ “illicit” financial assets if Beijing were to attack. The act would also “restrict financial services for certain immediate family of such officials,” the text of the legislation says. The bill was introduced in January last year by US representatives French Hill and Brad Sherman. After remarks from several members, it passed unanimously. “If China chooses to attack the free people of Taiwan, [the bill] requires the Treasury secretary to publish the illicit
A senior US military official yesterday warned his Chinese counterpart against Beijing’s “dangerous” moves in the South China Sea during the first talks of their kind between the commanders. Washington and Beijing remain at odds on issues from trade to the status of Taiwan and China’s increasingly assertive approach in disputed maritime regions, but they have sought to re-establish regular military-to-military talks in a bid to prevent flashpoint disputes from spinning out of control. Samuel Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, and Wu Yanan (吳亞男), head of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command, talked via videoconference. Paparo “underscored the importance
The US House of Representatives yesterday unanimously passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, which aims to disincentivize Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by cutting Chinese leaders and their family members off from the US financial system if Beijing acts against Taiwan. The bipartisan bill, which would also publish the assets of top Chinese leaders, was cosponsored by Republican US Representative French Hill, Democratic US Representative Brad Sherman and seven others. If the US president determines that a threat against Taiwan exists, the bill would require the US Department of the Treasury to report to Congress on funds held by certain members of the
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