Here’s the JTA brief on Biden’s swing through South Florida:
Joe Biden reassured older Florida Jews that Barack Obama would be strong on Israel.
Biden, the Democratic nominee for vice president, was introduced by a Holocaust survivor at a speech before several hundred at a retirement community, The Associated Press reported.
“I am chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee,” said the longtime U.S. senator from Delaware. “I give you my word as a Biden, I would not have given up that job to be Barack Obama’s vice president if I didn’t in my gut and in my heart and in my head know that Barack Obama is exactly where I am on Israel. And he is.”
Biden also urged his audience to ignore Internet rumors that Obama is secretly a Muslim, calling the rumors “scurrilous.”
“By any objective fact, Israel is less secure today in the world than it was eight years ago,” Biden said. “I promise you … we will make it more secure.”
The Obama campaign has put significant effort into winning over Jewish voters who could prove to be a key voting bloc in the swing state of Florida.
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